Nazi propaganda film about people with disabilities: closeups

Film | Digitized | Accession Number: 2001.359.1 | RG Number: RG-60.3274 | Film ID: 2502A

Overview

Description: Reel 1 of 8: Line of people with disabilities, with nuns (nurses?) walking up to and past camera. Archway, grass. Dressed in ordinary clothes and aprons; dignified. Some in wheelchairs. One with large head. CU of man with large frontal lobe. 00:01:57 Man runs up to camera, limbs askew. Make him smile, toothless. Blows on little tin horn. CU, turns this way and that. 00:02:46 Happy woman, clapping and laughing. 00:03:08 Young woman in leather armchair outside. Maybe paranoid schizophrenic. Gesturing, dramatic faces. Clearly dealing with fantasy fears. 00:03:49 Doctor with woman, puts her into statue positions. She doesn't move (has long braid). 00:04:20 CU, nurse with young man, moving head. Another, female in wheelchair, hands deformed. Pan down to deformed legs and feet.
Film Title: Dasein ohne Leben [Existence Without Life]
Duration: 00:04:54
Date: Production: 1941?
Locale: Germany
Credit: Accessed at United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Bundesarchiv Filmarchiv

Language: Silent
Genre/Form: Propaganda.
B&W / Color: Black & White
Image Quality: Good
Time Code: 00:00:08:00 to 00:05:02:00
Film Format: Master
Master 2502 Video: Betacam SP - PAL - large
Master 2502 Video: Betacam SP - PAL - large
Master 2502 Video: Betacam SP - PAL - large
Master 2502 Video: Betacam SP - PAL - large
Preservation
Preservation 2502A Video: Betacam SP - NTSC - large
Preservation 2502A Video: Betacam SP - NTSC - large
Preservation 2502A Video: Betacam SP - NTSC - large
Preservation 2502A Video: Betacam SP - NTSC - large

Conditions on Access: You do not require further permission from the Museum to access this archival media.
Conditions on Use: Material(s) in this collection may be protected by copyright and/or related rights. You do not require further permission from the Museum to use this material. The user is solely responsible for making a determination as to if and how the material may be used.

Keyword: DOCTORS MEDICAL CARE MEDICAL PERSONNEL MENTALLY ILL NUNS NURSES PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES PROPAGANDA PROPAGANDA (NAZI) RACIAL SCIENCE WOMEN

Legal Status: Permanent Collection
Film Provenance: The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum purchased this from the Bundesarchiv in Berlin, Germany in January 2001 for possible use in the Museum's special exhibition "Deadly Medicine.".
Note: See Stories 3274 through 3281 on Film ID 2502A for entire film "Dasein ohne Leben."

See Michael Burleigh, "Death & Deliverance," pp.197-200. Says film was probably completed during 1941, "as it was shown, along with the raw material [Hermann] Schweninger had shot, grouped now along rough thematic lines, to a select audience on 10 May 1942." Reports that the film has vanished, but he discovered 8 "of the 23 rolls Schweninger shot for these films, complete with soundtracks,... in 1989-1990... in Potsdam."
Copied From: 35mm; b/w
Film Source: Bundesarchiv (Germany). Filmarchiv
File Number: Legacy Database File: 3218
Source Archive Number: 20555 (BSP 22134) R1
Special Collection: Steven Spielberg Film and Video Archive