Nazis in fiction

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During and after the Second World War, Nazism became a key driving force behind Allied propaganda, as well as the development of the superhero during the Golden Age of comics. Ideas regarding what the Third Reich could have possibly implemented, if it had not failed to achieve any of its goals on a permanent basis, have helped to fuel various films, books and comics from 1939 to the present day. In almost all fictional use of Nazis, both during and after the war years, the Nazis are portrayed as a continuation of their actions from the 1930s and 1940s cold-hearted, ruthless and evil. They are often stereotypically portrayed as wearing monocles and black uniforms similar to those of the Schutzstaffel. [1]

Contents

Films, cartoons and TV

Education for Death. The film is in the public domain in the United States.

Various propaganda films used the Nazis as a way to encourage patriotism and national pride, as well as a means to recruit soldiers into the Allied forces.

The British cinema were the main people to create such films before the American entry into the war following Pearl Harbor. The British comedian Will Hay created various films that ranged from Nazi spies being smuggled into mainland Britain via the Isle of Skye, to scientists working on gas-bombs.

American cinema at first used the Nazis only to show the stubbornness of the Reich, such as the 1942 film, Casablanca . American propaganda concentrated largely on the Japanese involvement in the war, with the Nazis as a backup.

The Looney Tunes and Walt Disney Studios used the Nazis as a ploy for their comic characters. However, Disney seemed to concentrate more on the German people within the Nazi Regime, as shown in their 1943 film, Der Fuehrers' Face, starring Donald Duck. Warner Brothers produced a series of propaganda cartoons named Private Snafu to train recruits on what not to do if they were in a situation similar to those in the cartoons.

The Star Trek episode Patterns of Force takes place on a planet where a regime resembling Nazi Germany was recreated due to the interference of a visitor from space.

The first and third films in the Indiana Jones franchise feature Nazis as the primary antagonists to the eponymous adventurer.

Comics

America's Best Comics #7 October 1943 AmericasBestComics0701.jpg
America's Best Comics #7 October 1943

The comic-book industry were able to boost their sales because of their help in the war effort meant that they were spared from paper recycling. Superheroes in particular, like Captain America were pictured as fighting the Nazis, both real and fictional, in large battles. The better remembered version is of Captain America fighting Adolf Hitler himself. In Fawcett Comics the character Captain Marvel fought against the Monster Society of Evil, which included Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, and Hideki Tojo, along with Captain Nazi and Herr Phoul, a stereotypical Nazi officer. Captain Nazi was a superstrong perfect Nazi who was a major enemy of Captain Marvel Jr.. Hitler was shown in the hellish realm of the demon Mephisto in a Thor comic, and in a story where the demon Sattanish resurrects and empowers four historical murderers to form a Lethal Legion, one of them is Heinrich Himmler, who is given the power to belch gas fumes from his mouth.

The British comics tended to portray the Nazis as clumsy and foolish due to the cartoon-style of the comics available at that time, as shown in characters like Desperate Dan and Lord Snooty.

The retro-comic-book company, Big Bang Comics, have recreated a lot of Golden Age comics using Nazi characters for villains, ranging from Nazi spies to saboteurs. The All-Star Squadron of DC Comics was another retro-comic produced in the style of World War II propaganda comics. A tactic also used in the Amalgam Comics run with Super-Soldier.

By the beginning of the Silver Age of Comics in the 1960s, the focus of the Nazi threat turned to the threat of Communism with the rise of the Cold War. In the Flashpoint event Nazis are occupying Brazil.

Books

Books written during wartime were few and far-between, partially from National Service that called up a large number of volunteers and the other from paper rationing. Outside of comics, only a few books were ever written for propaganda purposes. Those that were tended to work along the lines of the comic books. [2]

Yehiel De-Nur published accounts of his experiences at the Auschwitz concentration camp. He anonymously published his erotic The House of Dolls in 1955. The stalag fiction uses sexploitation to describe the German camp brothels in World War II. Yehiel De-Nur described how the Nazis forced women into sex slavery at the Freudenabteilung (Joy Division).

Magazines

After the rise of the books, many men's magazines followed up with the same content. Real Men published a Nazi-themed cover and story in 1959. [3] Real Men followed up in 1960 with a similar cover with the featured story, "Inside the Nazi Death Chambers." [4] "The Underground Army of Red Recruiters... The Call Girl Traitors of Berlin" was the next story to appear in the magazine in 1961. [5] Another similar cover appeared in the same year, [6] again in 1964, [7] and again in 1965. [8] In 1966, the magazine published the article, "How We Broke Up the Fantastic Plot to Smuggle Hitler in Argentina." [9] Real Men published "Charlie Ruff--the Montana Hunter Who Destroyed the Nazi Fortress in Argentina" in 1967. [10]

Man's Epic featured a similar style with their first issue in September 1963. [11] The magazine published a similar cover in April 1964. [12] In August 1972, Man's Epic featured an apparent Neo-Nazi. [13]

List of Man's Epic publications relating to Nazis
TitleDateNotes
Captive Beauties for the Monster Baron [14] June 1964
Love Slaves of France's Harlot Army [15] August 1964
Secret Horrors of the Nazi Torture Cult [16] October 1964Similar article featured in December 1964 issue [17]
Tortured Beauties for the Nazi Blood Cult [18] February 1965
Soft Bodies for Hitler's Torture Master [19] April 1965Continued in June 1965 issue [20]
Nude Beauties for the Devil's Chains [21] August 1965
Chained Nudes for the Monster's Rack [22] October 1965
Trapped in the Fires of Lust [23] February 1966Similar cover in April 1966 [24]
Shackled Nudes of the Monster General [25] May 1966
Scream for my Kisses Before You Die [26] July 1966
Soft Decoys of Death to Smash the Krauts [27] September 1966
The Gestapo's Sin Queen in the Boudoir of Hate [28] November 1966
Doomed Harlots in Hitler's House of Horror [29] January 1967
The Fantastic Lust of the Nazi Sin Spy [30] March 1967
Sin Swindle of the Nazi-Killing Wantons [31] July 1967
Exposé: Odessa—the Nazis' Worldwide Underground Organization [32] May 1968
Hot Lead for the Nazis' Maiden-Butchering Monster [33] March 1969
Mission Impossible: Smash the Nazis' Female Torture Stalag [34] July 1969
Tonight We Hit the Krauts' Hell Plant [35] September 1969
Operation Blood: Get Hitler's Maiden Butchering Sadist [36] January 1970
Amerikaner, Watch Your Maquis Maiden Die Horribly! [37] March 1970
The Terror-Bound Virgins in Hitler's Brothel of Agony [38] April 1971
Soft Flesh for the Nazi Monster's Pit in Hell [39] August 1971
Helpless Beauties of the Nazis' Circus of Agony [40] October 1971
Inside the Nazis' Hell Prison for Girls [41] February 1972
Bring Out the Hostages of Hitler's Death Trap [42] April 1972
Chains of Agony for the Bound Beauties of Norway [43] October 1972
Lt. Maynard's Incredible Kraut-Killing Beauties [44] December 1972

Videogames

"Wolfenstein" emerged in 1981 and focuses on the escape of a POW in a Nazi POW camp. Wolfenstein 3D was released in 1992 for MS-DOS and arguably popularized the franchise, as well as the first-person shooter video game. The game is from the perspective of an American POW, William "B.J." Blazkowicz in WWII as he escapes several floors through opening various doors to find food and ammunition, but also to come across Aryan Nazi guards and violent German Shepherds. The game was considered a financial success, gathered awards, and is remembered as the first shooter game with rudimentary visual effects. [45]

List of fictional Nazis

See also

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References

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  31. "Sin Swindle of the Nazi-Killing Wantons." Man's Epic. July. 1967. Accessed 19 July 2017. http://www.philsp.com/data/images/m/mans_epic_196707.jpg
  32. "Exposé: Odessa--the Nazis' Worldwide Underground Organization." Man's Epic. May. 1968. Accessed 17 July. 2017. http://www.philsp.com/data/images/m/mans_epic_196805.jpg
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