Your Job in Germany | |
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Directed by | Frank Capra (uncredited) |
Written by | Theodor S. Geisel (uncredited) |
Release date |
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Running time | 12 minutes 49 seconds |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Your Job In Germany is a short film made for the United States War Department in 1945 just before Victory in Europe Day (VE). It was shown to US soldiers about to go on occupation duty in Germany. The film was made by the military film unit commanded by Frank Capra and was written by Theodor Geisel, [1] better known by his pen name Dr. Seuss.
The film was produced by the US Army Signal Corps. It was criticized by one commentator as a "bitter and angry anti-German propaganda film" that characterized the post-war German mind as "diseased". [2]
The film urged against fraternization with the German people, who are portrayed as thoroughly untrustworthy. It reminds its viewers of Germany's history of aggression, under "Fuehrer Number 1" Otto von Bismarck, "Fuehrer Number 2" Kaiser Wilhelm II and "Fuehrer Number 3" Adolf Hitler. It argues that the German youth are especially dangerous because they had spent their entire lives under the Nazi regime.
The policy of non-fraternisation –where US soldiers were forbidden to speak even to small children –was first announced to the soldiers in the film:
The Nazi party may be gone, but Nazi thinking, Nazi training and Nazi trickery remains. The German lust for conquest is not dead. ... You will not argue with them. You will not be friendly. ... There will be no fraternization with any of the German people. [3]
The basic theme that the German people could not be trusted derived from the peace policy that emerged from the Second Quebec Conference. [3]
The movie was first screened to the top US generals, including Dwight D. Eisenhower. George Patton reportedly walked out of the screening he attended, saying "Bullshit!" [3]
Jack Warner, head of Warner Brothers, subsequently secured the rights to the movie and turned it into a short documentary entitled Hitler Lives . It was released commercially on December 29, 1945, and won the 1946 Academy Award (Oscar) for Documentary Short Subject. [2] [4]
Numerous sentences from the film's narration are incorporated verbatim as lyrics in the single "Don't Argue" by Cabaret Voltaire from their album Code . [5]
Theodor Seuss Geisel was an American children's author and cartoonist. He is known for his work writing and illustrating more than 60 books under the pen name Dr. Seuss. His work includes many of the most popular children's books of all time, selling over 600 million copies and being translated into more than 20 languages by the time of his death.
The Cat in the Hat is a 1957 children's book written and illustrated by American author Theodor Geisel, using the pen name Dr. Seuss. The story centers on a tall anthropomorphic cat who wears a red and white-striped top hat and a red bow tie. The Cat shows up at the house of Sally and her brother one rainy day when their mother is away. Despite the repeated objections of the children's fish, the Cat shows the children a few of his tricks in an attempt to entertain them. In the process, he and his companions, Thing One and Thing Two, wreck the house. As the children and the fish become more alarmed, the Cat produces a machine that he uses to clean everything up and disappears just before the children's mother comes home.
Private Snafu is the title character of a series of black-and-white American instructional adult animated shorts, ironic and humorous in tone, that were produced between 1943 and 1945 during World War II. The films were designed to instruct service personnel about security, proper sanitation habits, booby traps and other military subjects, and to improve troop morale. Primarily, they demonstrate the negative consequences of doing things wrong. The main character's name is a play on the military slang acronym SNAFU, "Situation Normal: All Fucked Up".
Education for Death: The Making of the Nazi is an American animated propaganda short film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released on January 15, 1943, by RKO Radio Pictures, shown in theaters with Fighting Frontier. The film is directed by Clyde Geronimi and principally animated by Milt Kahl, Ward Kimball, Frank Thomas, and Bill Tytla. The short is based on the non-fiction book of the same name by American author Gregor Ziemer. The film features the story of Hans, a boy born and raised in Nazi Germany, his indoctrination in the Hitlerjugend, and his eventual march to war.
The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins is a children's book, written and illustrated by Theodor Geisel under the pen name Dr. Seuss and published by Vanguard Press in 1938. Unlike the majority of Geisel's books, it is written in prose rather than rhyming and metered verse. Geisel, who was a collector of hats, got the idea for the story when he was on a commuter train from New York to New England, while sitting behind a businessman wearing a hat. The businessman was so stiff and formal that Geisel idly wondered what would happen if he took the man's hat and threw it out the window, and he artistically, albeit erroneously, concluded that the man would "simply grow a new one".
Horton Hatches the Egg is a children's book written and illustrated by Theodor Geisel under the pen name Dr. Seuss and published in 1940 by Random House. The book tells the story of Horton the Elephant, who is tricked into sitting on a bird's egg while its mother, Mayzie, takes a permanent vacation to Palm Beach. Horton endures a number of hardships but persists, often stating, "I meant what I said, and I said what I meant. An elephant's faithful, one hundred percent!" Ultimately, the egg hatches, revealing an elephant-bird, a creature with a blend of Mayzie's and Horton's features.
And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street is Theodor Seuss Geisel's first children's book published under the name Dr. Seuss. First published by Vanguard Press in 1937, the story follows a boy named Marco, who describes a parade of imaginary people and vehicles traveling along a road, Mulberry Street, in an elaborate fantasy story he dreams up to tell his father at the end of his walk. However, when he arrives home, he decides instead to tell his father what he actually saw—a simple horse and wagon.
On Beyond Zebra! is a 1955 illustrated children's book by Theodor Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss. In this take on the genre of alphabet book, Seuss presents, instead of the twenty-six letters of the conventional English alphabet, twenty additional letters that purportedly follow them.
McElligot's Pool is a children's book written and illustrated by Theodor Geisel under the pen name Dr. Seuss and published by Random House in 1947. In the story, a boy named Marco, who first appeared in Geisel's 1937 book And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, imagines a wide variety of fantastic fish that could be swimming in the pond in which he is fishing. It later became one of the Seuss books featured in the Broadway musical Seussical where its story is used for the song "It's Possible".
In Search of Dr. Seuss is a 1994 American television film chronicling the adventures of a news reporter, Kathy Lane, who enters the world of Dr. Seuss by opening a magical book. Also starring are Matt Frewer, Christopher Lloyd, Andrea Martin, David Paymer, Patrick Stewart, Andraé Crouch, Robin Williams and Eileen Brennan.
I Am Not Going to Get Up Today! is a children's book written by Dr. Seuss and illustrated by James Stevenson. It was published by Random House on October 12, 1987. It is the only Dr. Seuss book not to be illustrated by Seuss himself. The book is told from the perspective of a boy who decides not to get out of bed as his family and neighbors try to convince him to get up. Audio versions have been released, including a cassette tape in 1988 and an audiobook read by the actor Jason Alexander in 2003.
Our Job in Japan was a United States military training film made in 1945, shortly after World War II. It is the companion to the more famous Your Job In Germany. The film was aimed at American troops about to go to Japan to participate in the 1945–1952 Allied occupation, and presents the problem of turning the militarist state into a peaceful democracy. The film focused on the Japanese military officials who had used the traditional religion of Shinto, as well as the educational system, to take over power, control the populace, and wage aggressive war.
During American involvement in World War II (1941–45), propaganda was used to increase support for the war and commitment to an Allied victory. Using a vast array of media, propagandists instigated hatred for the enemy and support for America's allies, urged greater public effort for war production and victory gardens, persuaded people to save some of their material so that more material could be used for the war effort, and sold war bonds.
Code is the eighth studio album by the English electronic band Cabaret Voltaire, released in October 1987 by EMI Records.
Helen Marion Palmer Geisel, known professionally as Helen Palmer, was an American children's writer, editor, and philanthropist. She was also the Founder and Vice President of Beginner Books, and was married to fellow writer Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, from 1927 until her death.
Hitler Lives is a 1945 American short documentary film directed by Don Siegel, who was uncredited. The film won an Oscar at the 18th Academy Awards in 1946 for Documentary Short Subject. The film's copyright was renewed.
A Fish Out of Water is a 1961 American children's book written by Helen Palmer Geisel and illustrated by P. D. Eastman. The book is based on a short story by Palmer's husband Theodor Geisel, "Gustav, the Goldfish", which was published with his own illustrations in Redbook magazine in June 1950.
Design for Death is a 1947 American documentary film that won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. It was based on a shorter U.S. Army training film, Our Job in Japan, that had been produced in 1945–1946 for the soldiers occupying Japan after World War II. Both films dealt with Japanese culture and the origins of the war.
How the Grinch Stole Christmas! is a Christmas children's book by Theodor "Dr. Seuss" Geisel written in rhymed verse with illustrations by the author. It follows the Grinch, a cranky, solitary creature who attempts to thwart the public's Christmas plans by stealing Christmas gifts and decorations from the homes of the nearby town of Whoville on Christmas Eve. Miraculously, the Grinch realizes that Christmas is not all about money and presents.
Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, published over 60 children's books over the course of his long career. Though most were published under his well-known pseudonym, Dr. Seuss, he also authored a certain amount of books as Theo. LeSieg and one as Rosetta Stone.