''The Nazi Plan'' is a 1945 documentary film, compiled from extensive footage of captured Nazi propaganda and

newsreel A newsreel is a form of short documentary film, containing news stories and items of topical interest, that was prevalent between the 1910s and the mid 1970s. Typically presented in a cinema, newsreels were a source of current affairs, inform ...

image and sound recordings. It was produced and presented as evidence at the

Nuremberg Trials The Nuremberg trials were held by the Allies against representatives of the defeated Nazi Germany, for plotting and carrying out invasions of other countries, and other crimes, in World War II. Between 1939 and 1945, Nazi Germany invaded m ...

for

Hermann Göring Hermann Wilhelm Göring (or Goering; ; 12 January 1893 – 15 October 1946) was a German politician, military leader and convicted war criminal. He was one of the most powerful figures in the Nazi Party, which ruled Germany from 1933 to 1 ...

and twenty other

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

leaders.

Background

''The Nazi Plan'' was shown as evidence at the International Military Tribunal (IMT) in Nuremberg on December 11, 1945. It was compiled by

Budd Schulberg Budd Schulberg (born Seymour Wilson Schulberg, March 27, 1914 – August 5, 2009) was an American screenwriter, television producer, novelist and sports writer. He was known for his novels '' What Makes Sammy Run?'' and ''The Harder They Fall;'' ...

and other military personnel, under the supervision of Navy Commander

James B. Donovan James Britt Donovan (February 29, 1916 – January 19, 1970) was an American lawyer and United States Navy officer in the Office of Scientific Research and Development and the Office of Strategic Services (OSS, predecessor of the Central Intelli ...

. The compilers took pains to use only German source material, including official newsreels and other German films (1919–45). It was put together for the US Counsel for the Prosecution of Axis Criminality and the US Office of the Chief Counsel for War Crimes." "In the course of this work, Budd Schulberg apprehended

Leni Riefenstahl Helene Bertha Amalie "Leni" Riefenstahl (; 22 August 1902 – 8 September 2003) was a German film director, photographer and actress known for her role in producing Nazi propaganda. A talented swimmer and an artist, Riefenstahl also became in ...

at her country home in Kitzbühl, Austria, as a material witness, and took her to the Nuremberg editing room, so she could help Budd identify Nazi figures in her films and in other German film material his unit had captured. Stuart Schulberg lsotook possession of the photo archive of Heinrich Hoffmann, Hitler’s personal photographer, and became the film unit’s expert on still photo evidence. Most of the stills presented at the trial carry his affidavit of authenticity."

Film content

The film is divided into four parts: # The rise of the

NSDAP The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported t ...

, 1921 to 1933 # Acquiring totalitarian control of Germany, 1933 to 1935 # Preparation for wars of Aggression, 1935 to 1939 #

Wars of Aggression A war of aggression, sometimes also war of conquest, is a military conflict waged without the justification of self-defense, usually for territorial gain and subjugation. Wars without international legality (i.e. not out of self-defense nor sanc ...

, 1939 to 1944

Media

The effect and context of the film, specifically Goering's presence within the

, was discussed in episode 1, entitled "On the Desperate Edge of Now", of the 1995 BBC series ''The Living Dead'' written and directed by

Adam Curtis Adam Curtis (born 26 May 1955) is an English documentary filmmaker. Curtis began his career as a conventional documentary producer for the BBC throughout the 1980s and into the early 1990s. The release of ''Pandora's Box'' (1992) marked the ...

References

External links

* * 1945 films American documentary films Documentary films about World War II Documentary films about the Holocaust Nuremberg trials American black-and-white films 1945 documentary films 1940s English-language films 1940s American films {{WWII-documentary-film-stub