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Nazi propaganda film about Theresienstadt / Terezin

Film | Digitized | Accession Number: 1989.343.1 | RG Number: RG-60.0080 | Film ID: 140

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    Nazi propaganda film about Theresienstadt / Terezin
    Image

    Overview

    Description
    Excerpts of well-known propaganda film made by the Nazis to show the International Red Cross and others that they were not mistreating Jews in the "ghettos." Documentary footage depicts the life of Jews in the ghetto of Theresienstadt [Terezin] in Czechoslovakia as harmonious and joyful. They wear yellow stars on their civilian clothing but are euphemistically called residents ["Bewohner"] instead of inmates. They look well-dressed and well-fed and keep smiling. No SS guards or other armed Germans are shown.

    Gardening scenes, young woman with watering can, older man raking in background. Women walking past barracks. INT of machine shop with men at work. Woman potter at work. Group of young people crossing square within the camp, entering arched doorway. WS of soccer match and spectators, in same square, surrounded by buildings with arched recesses, 3 floors. Central Library Theresienstadt, two men conversing amid book stacks. Audience at lecture includes Leo Baeck and other prominent elderly Jewish people. Several CUs of individual elderly men. EXT, people seated on benches under trees, low building in background. Women in barracks, panning shot. Women wear stars, seen sewing and knitting.
    Film Title
    Theresienstadt
    Duration
    00:01:45
    Date
    Event:  1944
    Production:  1944
    Locale
    Terezin, Czechoslovakia
    Credit
    Accessed at United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Chronos-Media Filmarchiv
    Contributor
    Director: Kurt Gerron
    Producer: Karel Peceny (Aktualita Prag) for SS-Zentralamt zur Regelung der Judenfrage in Boehmen und Maehren
    Camera Operator: Ivan V. Fric
    Camera Operator: Cenek Zahradnícek
    Supervisor: Hans F. Guenther
    Supervisor: Karl Rahm

    Physical Details

    Language
    Silent
    Genre/Form
    Propaganda.
    B&W / Color
    Black & White
    Image Quality
    Poor
    Time Code
    04:13:20:00 to 04:15:05:00
    Film Format
    • Master
      • Master 140 Film: 35 mm
      Master 140 Video: Betacam SP - NTSC - large
      Master 140 Film: 35 mm
      Master 140 Video: Betacam SP - NTSC - large
      Master 140 Film: 35 mm
      Master 140 Video: Betacam SP - NTSC - large
      Master 140 Film: 35 mm
      Master 140 Video: Betacam SP - NTSC - large
    • Preservation
      • Preservation 140 Video: Betacam SP - NTSC - large
      Preservation 140 Video: Betacam SP - NTSC - large
      Preservation 140 Video: Betacam SP - NTSC - large
      Preservation 140 Video: Betacam SP - NTSC - large

    Rights & Restrictions

    Conditions on Access
    This archival media can only be accessed in a Museum reading room or other on-campus viewing stations.
    Copyright
    Chronos-Media GmbH
    Conditions on Use
    Contact Chronos-Media at info@chronos-media.de for permission to reproduce and use this footage.

    Copyright Holder
    Chronos-Media GmbH

    Keywords & Subjects

    Administrative Notes

    Legal Status
    Permanent Collection
    Film Provenance
    The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum purchased this collection of film documents from Chronos-Media GmbH in Potsdam, Germany in 1989. Film and Video staff ordered videotape transfers in November 1991.
    Note
    Other Credits:
    Script: Kurt Gerron using drafts by Jindrich Weil and Manfred Greiffenhagen
    Music: Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Sholom Secunda, Hans Krása, Jaques Offenbach, Pavel Haas, Max Bruch, Dol Dauber

    See Film and Video Archive files for articles and background on the 1942 and 1944 filming.

    Original film can label reads "Chronos / Dokuments / Akt 1".

    The full title of this film is: Theresienstadt: ein Dokumentarfilm aus dem Juedischen Siedlungsgebiet [Theresienstadt: a documentary film about the Jewish settlement]. The often-used title for this film is: Der Fuehrer schenkt den Juden eine Stadt [The Fuehrer gives the Jews a City].

    Theresienstadt, established in November 1941, was the central ghetto for Jews from the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. From July 1942 on, the ghetto also contained Jews decorated with German army medals as well as 'prominent' Jews and older Jews from several western European countries. It functioned as a transfer camp for deportations to the death camps in Poland and the occupied Soviet Union. After repeated requests by officials of the International Red Cross from October 1943 on, the SS agreed to allow a visit on June 23, 1944. Comprehensive 'beautification' measures took place in preparation for the visit in order to camouflage the ongoing mass murder of European Jewry to the world. Theresienstadt was presented as a 'model Jewish settlement.' Hans Guenther, the head of the regional SS-Zentralamt zur Regelung der Judenfrage [Central Office for the Regulation of the Jewish Question] in Prague, developed the idea to produce a movie depicting the 'excellent' living conditions for Jews in Theresienstadt (most probably in December 1943). The scenes in the film show camp life and feature the inmates in their day-to-day lives. Living conditions in Theresienstadt (and especially the efforts in education and culture organized by the Jewish council) were better on average than those in the Polish and Soviet ghettos. However, the movie crassly exaggerated the quality of life and omitted the harsh reality of overcrowding, hunger, diseases, and death that defined life in Theresienstadt.

    Beside the cinematography, inmates of the ghetto were used in all functions (including the director Kurt Gerron) to produce the film under close supervision by the SS. Immediately after the end of shooting in September 1944, Gerron and other cast members were deported to Auschwitz where they perished. After the final cut on March 28, 1945 the Czech company Aktualita received RM 35,000 from Guenther's office for the production of the movie. The movie was intended to be screened to international audiences like the International Red Cross and the Vatican. Following the first screening in early April 1945 to high-ranking government and SS officials in Prague there were at least three more screenings to international humanitarian emissaries in Theresienstadt itself on April 6 and 16, 1945. Plans for a further distribution to broader audiences in the neutral states never materialized because of the progression of war.

    Since 1945 no complete copy of the entire ninety minute film has been located. There are only fragments available at different archives. The infamous title "Der Fuehrer schenkt den Juden eine Stadt" ["The Fuehrer Donates a City to the Jews"] is not original - it was given by survivors of Theresienstadt in the aftermath.

    The film was shot over 11 days between August 16 to September 11, 1944. Other fragments of the same film are on USHMM tapes 243 (story 269), 201 (story 269), and 2310 (story 2615).
    Copied From
    16mm
    Film Source
    Chronos-Media GmbH
    File Number
    Legacy Database File: 714
    Record last modified:
    2024-02-21 07:55:00
    This page:
    https:​/​/collections.ushmm.org​/search​/catalog​/irn1000385

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