''Your Job In Germany'' is a

short film A short film is a film with a low running time. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of not more than 40 minutes including all credits". Other film o ...

made for the

United States War Department The United States Department of War, also called the War Department (and occasionally War Office in the early years), was the United States Cabinet department originally responsible for the operation and maintenance of the United States Army, als ...

in 1945 just before

Victory in Europe Day Victory in Europe Day is the day celebrating the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces on Tuesday, 8 May 1945; it marked the official surrender of all German military operations ...

(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 Frank Russell Capra (born Francesco Rosario Capra; May 18, 1897 – September 3, 1991) was an Italian-American film director, producer, and screenwriter who was the creative force behind Frank Capra filmography#Films that won Academy Award ...

and was written by Theodor Geisel, better known by his pen name Dr. Seuss.

Content

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".Robert Niemi, "History in the media: film and television history in the media", p.84 The film urged against

fraternization Fraternization (from Latin ''frater'' meaning "brother") is the act of establishing intimate relations between people or groups. It is generally used to refer to establishing relations that are considered unethical, controversial, problematic, or i ...

with the

German people Germans (, ) are the natives or inhabitants of Germany, or sometimes more broadly any people who are of German descent or native speakers of the German language. The Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany, constitution of Germany, imple ...

, who are portrayed as thoroughly untrustworthy. It reminds its viewers of

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

's history of aggression, under " Fuehrer Number 1"

Otto von Bismarck Otto, Prince of Bismarck, Count of Bismarck-Schönhausen, Duke of Lauenburg (; born ''Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck''; 1 April 1815 – 30 July 1898) was a German statesman and diplomat who oversaw the unification of Germany and served as ...

, "Fuehrer Number 2"

Kaiser Wilhelm II Wilhelm II (Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albert; 27 January 18594 June 1941) was the last German Emperor and King of Prussia from 1888 until his abdication in 1918, which marked the end of the German Empire as well as the Hohenzollern dynasty ...

and "Fuehrer Number 3"

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

. It argues that the German youth are especially dangerous because they had spent their entire lives under the

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

regime. The policy of non-fraternisationwhere US soldiers were forbidden to speak even to small childrenwas first announced to the soldiers in the film: The basic theme that the German people could not be trusted derived from the peace policy that emerged from the Second Quebec Conference. The movie was first screened to the top US generals, including

Dwight D. Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was the 34th president of the United States, serving from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, he was Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionar ...

and

John C. H. Lee John Clifford Hodges Lee (1 August 1887 – 30 August 1958) was a career US Army engineer, who rose to the rank of lieutenant general (United States), lieutenant general and commanded the Communications Zone (ComZ) in the European Theater of Oper ...

. George Patton reportedly walked out of the screening he attended, saying "Bullshit!"

''Hitler Lives?''

Jack Warner, head of

Warner Brothers Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

, subsequently secured the rights to the movie and turned it into a short documentary entitled ''

Hitler Lives ''Hitler Lives'' (also known as ''Hitler Lives?'') is a 1945 American short film, short documentary film directed by Don Siegel, who was uncredited. The film won an Academy Awards, Oscar at the 18th Academy Awards in 1946 for Academy Award for ...

''. It was released commercially on December 29, 1945, and won the 1946 Academy Award (Oscar) for Documentary Short Subject.

In popular culture

Numerous sentences from the film's narration are incorporated

verbatim Verbatim means word for word. It may refer to: * ''Verbatim'' (album), a 1996 album by Bob Ostertag * "Verbatim" (song), a 2015 song by Blackbear * Verbatim (brand), a brand of storage media and flash memory * Verbatim (horse) Verbatim (1965 ...

as lyrics in the single "Don't Argue" by Cabaret Voltaire from their studio album ''

Code In communications and information processing, code is a system of rules to convert information—such as a letter, word, sound, image, or gesture—into another form, sometimes shortened or secret, for communication through a communicati ...

'' (1987).

References

External links

* *
Online version of film
at ''Der Spiegel'' website. {{DEFAULTSORT:Your Job In Germany 1945 films American World War II propaganda shorts United States Department of War Anti-German sentiment in the United States Films with screenplays by Dr. Seuss Germany–United States relations Articles containing video clips American black-and-white films Films directed by Frank Capra American war films 1940s war films American short documentary films 1945 short documentary films 1940s American films

Content

''Hitler Lives?''

In popular culture

See also

References

External links