US War Department Orientation Film for US Military Personnel in Occupied Germany

Orientation Film no. 8. U.S. propaganda film telling the history of Germany with various atrocities and depicting Germans as friendly, trustworthy people. This film was used to demonstrate proper conduct to U.S. military personnel in postwar occupied Germany.

Muddy faces of German POWs. CU, Hitler, swastika banners in street, Goebbels concentration camp gates, all "disappear." Ruins, small village. Bismarck's parade band, fighting on horseback across field. Idyllic country scenes, farming, dancing. Kaiser Wilhelm, "Deutschland ueber Alles", German troops marching in 1914 (scratchy), marching along roads, destruction/ruins in Europe, war chaos. More idyllic scenes, "cultural scenes" (orchestra). US Army parading (in retreat). WWII scenes, takeover of Europe. MCU, SS parade by, Czech woman cries into kerchief as they heil. CU, crying Polish woman, bodies in rubble, civilians devastated, crying over coffin, rubble/ruins. 01:06:32 Long sequence: US Army soldiers - wounded, tired, badly injured, burnt, amputated, freezing. Cut to folk dancing, travelogue shots of small town in Germany. Alternating shots of SA, SS parades and Nazi officials with "regular" civilian shots. Streets with swastikas, businesses against CUs various German professionals (postman, toymakers, cooks, clockworkers, clockmakers) - "practically every German was part of the network." Hitler Youth standing at attention, marching under "Nordmar Lager 1935" gate, parading, older teens, too; goosestepping. VAR MCUs Labor battalions marching. 01:11:04 CUs, Germans: old men, children, women - daily life - eating, etc. "Germans are not our friends." Flashbacks of Nazi footage, destroyed Allied cities (Rotterdam), ruins in Russia, refugees, corpses, injured Allied soldiers. Women and men slaveworkers shoveling. HAS, swastika flags. MCU German soldiers, German military industry, corpses. War scenes contrasted with peaceful bucolic settings.

Sampling of the narration accompanying the film: "Just one mistake may cost you your life. Trust none of them." "Some day the German people might be cured of their disease. The super race disease. The world conquest disease. But they must prove that they have been cured beyond the shadow of a doubt before they ever again are allowed to take their place among respectable nations. Until that day. We stand guard."