Capt. Robert Charles Gale Collection

Film Collection | Accession Number: 2013.22.1

Collection Summary: Captain Robert Charles Gale served with the U.S. 4th Infantry Division from 1942 to 1946. While stationed at Berchtesgaden in spring 1945 he came into possession of five 16mm films which were donated to the Museum by his daughter and son-in-law. Two films, which are of excellent visual quality, show Hitler Youth (HJ) in training at a camp in Groedig, Austria. While most HJ films demonstrate a highly propagandistic and staged perspective, these films have a more intimate feel, containing numerous close-ups with what seem to be authentic physical fitness and trust-building exercises. One rare segment shows a game of Battle Ball, a popular sport among Nazis, which one Museum historian had never before seen depicted on film. Four additional 16mm films (42 minutes) from the Captain Robert Charles Gale Collection were preserved, including Nazi propaganda films showing Hitler Youth visiting Japan, the League of German Girls on a 1938 trip to Austria, and the 1934 eugenics film Erbkrank about "hereditarily diseased" individuals, such as the mentally handicapped and Jews.
Credit: US Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of James and Barbara Gatti

Film Source: Barbara Gatti
James Gatti
Date: Event: after 1939?
Date: Event: after 1939?
Date: Event: Summer or Fall 1938?
Censor: 1941 January 07
Date: Event: Summer or Fall 1938?
Censor: 1941 January 07
Date: Event: June-November 1938
Date: Event: 1937
Production:
: Record last modified: 2022-07-28 22:00:40
This page: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn1000062

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