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{{short description|1943 animated short film by Clyde Geronimi}}
{{Infobox_Film |
{{distinguish|Death education}}
⚫
name = Education for Death |
{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2015}}
⚫
image = Education for Death.jpg|
{{Infobox film
⚫
caption = |
⚫
| name = Education for Death: The Making of the Nazi
⚫
distributor = [[RKO Radio Pictures|RKO]] |
⚫
| image = EducationforDeath.jpg
released = [[Image:Flag of the United States.svg|22px|North America]] 15 January [[1943]] |
runtime = 10 minutes|
| alt =
⚫
| caption =
language = [[English language|English]] narration with [[German language|German]] dialogue |
awards = none |
| director = [[Clyde Geronimi]]
imdb_id = 0035836 |
| producer = [[Walt Disney]]
| writer = [[Joe Grant]]
preceded_by = |
| based_on = {{based on|''Education for Death: Sparky The Making of the Nazi''|[[Gregor Ziemer]]}}
followed_by = |
| narrator = [[Art Smith (actor)|Art Smith]]
| music = [[Oliver Wallace]]
| studio = [[Walt Disney Productions]]
⚫
| distributor = [[RKO Radio Pictures]]
| released = {{Film date|1943|01|15}}
| runtime = 10 minutes<!--Theatrical runtime: 10:17--><ref>{{cite web | url=http://bbfc.co.uk/releases/education-death-1970-0 | title=''EDUCATION FOR DEATH'' (A) | work=[[British Board of Film Classification]] | date=February 25, 1943 | access-date=July 16, 2015}}</ref>
| country = United States
| language = {{Plainlist|
* English <small>(narrator)</small>
* German <small>(characters)</small>
}}
}}
}}

'''''Education for Death: The Making of the Nazi''''' is an [[animation|animated]] [[short film]] produced by [[Walt Disney]] and released on [[January 15]], [[1943]] by [[RKO Radio Pictures]]. It was directed by [[Clyde Geronimi]] and principally animated by [[Ward Kimball]]. The short is based on the non-fiction book of the same name (ISBN 0-374-98905-2) by American author [[Gregor Ziemer]]. The cover of that book appears as the short's title card.
'''''Education for Death: The Making of the Nazi''''' is an American animated [[Anti-fascism|anti-Nazi]] [[propaganda]] [[short film]] produced by [[Walt Disney Productions]] and released on January 15, 1943, by [[RKO Radio Pictures]], shown in theaters with ''[[Fighting Frontier]]''. The film is directed by [[Clyde Geronimi]] and principally animated by [[Milt Kahl]], [[Ward Kimball]], [[Frank Thomas (animator)|Frank Thomas]], and [[Bill Tytla]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lenburg |first1=Jeff |title=The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons |date=1999 |publisher=Checkmark Books |isbn=0-8160-3831-7 |page=153}}</ref> The short is based on the [[non-fiction]] book of the same name<ref>Gregor Ziemer (1941). ''Education for Death: The Making of the Nazi''. {{ISBN|0-374-98905-2}}</ref> by American author [[Gregor Ziemer]]. The film features the story of Hans, a boy born and raised in [[Nazi Germany]], his indoctrination in the [[Hitler Youth|Hitlerjugend]], and his eventual march to war.



==Plot==
==Plot==
At the beginning of the film, a [[German people|German]] couple proves to a [[Nazi Germany|Nazi German]] bureaucrat that [[Nuremberg Laws|they are]] of pure [[Aryan race|Aryan]] blood and agree to give their son, whom they name Hans at the judge's approval, as it is not on a list of banned names,<ref>In a subtle touch, all the names on the list are Jewish, except the names heading the list: "Franklin" and "Winston", referring to [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] and [[Winston Churchill]].</ref> into the service of [[Der Fuehrer|the Fuehrer]] [[Adolf Hitler]] and the [[Nazi Party]]. They are given a copy of ''[[Mein Kampf]]'' by the faceless civil servant as a reward for their service to Hitler; their passport contains spaces for 12 more children (a hint that the couple is expected to produce a large family for the [[Fatherland#English usage and Nazi connotations|Fatherland]]).


⚫
This is followed by the only extended comical section of the cartoon, the tone of which is very light compared to the rest of the film. The audience is told that as Hans grows up, he hears a distorted version of ''[[Sleeping Beauty]]'' depicting Hitler as the knightly prince character rescuing an obese [[Valkyrie]] [[National personification|representing]] [[Germany]], from a wicked witch representing [[democracy]]. The narrator sarcastically comments that "the moral of this story seems to be that Hitler got Germany on her feet, climbed onto the saddle, and took her for a ride." Thanks to this kind of distorted children's story, Hans becomes fascinated with Hitler as he and the rest of the younger members of the [[Hitler Youth]] give the [[Hitler salute]] to a portrait of Hitler dressed as a knight.
The film features the story of Little Hans, a German boy born and raised in [[Nazi Germany]], who is educated to become a merciless soldier.


In the following segment, the audience sees Hans sick and bedridden. His mother prays for him, thinking that it will only be a matter of time before the authorities come and take him away to a [[Extermination camp|death camp]]. A [[Nazi]] officer bangs on the door to take Hans away, but his mother says he is sick and needs care. The officer orders her to heal her son quickly and have him ready to leave, implying that if Hans does not get well, he will be [[Aktion T4|euthanized]]. He orders her not to do anything more to him that will cause him to lose heart and be weak, explaining that a soldier must show no emotion, mercy, or feelings whatsoever.
⚫
At the beginning of the film, a German couple prove to a Nazi supreme judge that they are of pure [[Aryan]] blood and agree to give their son, whom they name Hans at the approval of the judge, into the service of [[Adolf Hitler]] and the [[National Socialist German Workers Party|Nazi party]]. They are given a copy of "Germany's bestseller," [[Mein Kampf]] by the judge as a reward for their service to Hitler. There then follows the only extended comical section of the cartoon, the tone of which is very light compared to the rest of the film. The audience is told that as Hans grows, he hears a distorted version of [[Sleeping Beauty]] depicting Hitler as the knight in shining armor rescuing Sleeping Beauty, a huge obese [[Valkyrie]] representing [[Germany]], from a wicked witch, representing [[Democracy]]. Thanks to this kind of distorted children's story, Hans becomes greatly fascinated with Hitler as he and the rest of the younger members of the Hitler Youth give a portrait of Hitler dressed as a knight the [[Nazi salute|Hitler salute]].


In the following segment the audience sees Hans sick and bedridden. His mother prays for him, knowing it will only be a matter of time before the authorities come and take him away to serve Hitler, a Nazi officer bangs on the door to take Hans away, but his mother says he is sick and needs care. The officer orders her to heal her son quickly and have him ready to leave, implying if Hans does not get well, he will be [[Aktion T4|euthanized]]. He orders her not to do anything more to him that will cause him to lose heart and be weak, explaining that a soldier must show no emotion, mercy, or feelings whatsoever. Hans eventually recovers and resumes his "education" in a school classroom, where Hans and the rest of his classmates, after giving portraits of Hitler, [[Hermann Göring|Göring]], and [[Joseph Goebbels|Goebbels]] the Hitler salute, watch as the teacher draws a cartoon on the blackboard of a rabbit being eaten by a fox, prompting Hans to feel sorry for the rabbit. The teacher, furious over the remark, orders Hans to sit in the corner wearing a [[dunce cap]]. As Hans sits in the corner as punishment, he hears the rest of the classmates "correctly" interpret the cartoon as "weakness has no place in a soldier" and "the strong shall rule the weak". This sparks Hans to recant his remark, and agrees that the weak must be destroyed.
Hans eventually recovers and resumes his "education" in a school classroom, where Hans and the rest of his classmates, all in Hitlerjugend uniforms, give the Hitler salute to portraits of Hitler, [[Hermann Göring|Hermann Goering]], and [[Joseph Goebbels]]. They then watch as the teacher draws a cartoon on the blackboard of a rabbit being eaten by a fox, prompting Hans to feel sorry for the rabbit. The teacher, furious over the remark, orders Hans to sit in the corner wearing a [[dunce cap]], calling him "Dummkopf" (German for "stupid" or "feeble-minded") with his classmates laughing at him. As Hans sits in the corner, he hears the rest of the classmates "correctly" interpret the cartoon as "weakness has no place in a soldier" and "the strong shall rule the weak", as the teacher asked what does Hans think about the rabbit now, causing him to recant his remark and agree that the weak must be destroyed, much to the teacher's approval.


Hans then takes part in a [[book-burning]] crusade, burning any books that oppose Hitler, replacing the [[Holy Bible]] with Mein Kampf and the [[crucifix]] with a Nazi sword, and burning a [[Catholic Church]]. Hans then spends the next several years "Marching and heiling, heiling and marching!" until he reaches his teens still "marching and heiling" until he becomes the "Good Nazi" embroiled in hatred towards anyone else who opposes Hitler, "sees nothing but what the party wants him to see, says nothing but what the party wants him to say, and he does no more than the party wants him to do."
Hans then takes part in a [[book-burning]] crusade, burning any books with ideas opposed to Hitler's ([[Albert Einstein]], [[Baruch Spinoza]], and [[Voltaire]]), replacing the [[Bible]] with ''Mein Kampf'' and the [[crucifix]] with a Nazi sword. Hans then spends the next several years "[[Goose step|Marching]] and heiling, heiling and marching!" He reaches his teens (wearing a uniform similar to that of the [[Sturmabteilung]]) still "marching and heiling" until he becomes an adult or "Good Nazi" (now in [[Wehrmacht]] and [[SS]] uniform) embroiled in hatred towards anyone else who opposes Hitler. With "no seed of laughter, hope, tolerance, or mercy" planted in him, he "sees no more than the party wants him to [see], says nothing but what the party wants him to say, and he does nothing except what the party wants him to do."


In the end, Hans and the rest of the soldiers march off to war only to fade into rows of graves. Thus Hans's education is complete. "The education... for death."
In the end, Hans and the rest of the German soldiers march off to war only to fade into rows of identical graves, with nothing on them except a swastika and a helmet perched on top. Thus Hans's education is complete &ndash; "his education... for death".


==Production==
==Production==
⚫
''Education for Death: The Making of the Nazi'' was released when [[Disney]] was under government contract to produce 32 animated shorts from 1941 to 1945. In 1940, Walt Disney spent four times his budget on the feature film ''[[Fantasia (1940 film)|Fantasia]]'' (1940) which suffered from low box office turnout. Nearing [[bankruptcy]] and with half of his employees on [[Disney animators' strike|strike]], Walt Disney was forced to look for a solution to bring money into the studio. The studio's close proximity to the military aircraft manufacturer, [[Lockheed Corporation|Lockheed]], helped foster a U.S. government contract for 32 short propaganda films at $4,500 each. This saved the company from bankruptcy and allowed them to keep their employees on payroll.<ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Raiti | first1 = G. C. | title = The Disappearance of Disney Animated Propaganda: A Globalization Perspective | doi = 10.1177/1746847707074703 | journal = Animation | volume = 2 | issue = 2 | pages = 153–169 | year = 2007 | s2cid = 144807122 | issn = 1746-8477}}</ref>


⚫
The dialogue of the characters is in [[German language|German]], neither subtitled nor directly translated by Art Smith's lone [[English language]] narration. A voice track of Adolf Hitler in full demagogic rant is used in a torchlight rally scene. A sequence follows in which Hans becomes a German soldier along with other Hitler Youth.
⚫
Education for Death: The Making of the Nazi was released when [[Disney]] was under government contract to produce 32 animated shorts from 1941-1945. This was due to the fact that in 1940 Walt Disney spent four times his budget on the feature film ''[[Fantasia (film)|Fantasia]]'' (1940) which produced very little in the box office. Nearing bankruptcy and faced with a strike that left less than half of his employees on the payroll, Walt Disney was forced to look for a solution to upturn the production of the studio. Physical proximity to the military aircraft manufacturer, [[Lockheed]], made it convenient for the U.S. government to offer Disney a contract for 32 short propaganda films at $4,500 each which would create work for his employees and in turn save the studio.<ref> Raiti, Gerad, [[The Disappearance of Disney Animated Propaganda: A Globalization Perspective]], ''Animation'',2007, 2; 153</ref >


==Home media==
⚫
The dialogue of the characters is in German, neither subtitled nor directly translated by Art Smith's lone English language narration. A voice track of Adolf Hitler in full demagogic rant is used in a torchlight rally scene. A sequence follows in which Hans becomes a Nazi soldier along with other Hitler Youth.
The short was released on May 18, 2004, on ''[[Walt Disney Treasures: Wave Three#Walt Disney on the Front Lines|Walt Disney Treasures: Walt Disney on the Front Lines]]''.<ref>{{cite web |title=Walt Disney on the Front Lines DVD Review |url=https://www.dvdizzy.com/onthefrontlines.html |website=DVD Dizzy |access-date=14 February 2021}}</ref>

Intended as anti-[[Nazism|Nazi]] [[propaganda]] during [[World War II]], the film is rarely shown today, but it is featured on the DVD ''Walt Disney Treasures: On the Front Lines'', a compilation of Disney's wartime shorts released on [[May 18]], [[2004]].


==Relationship to the Ziemer book==
==Relationship to the Ziemer book==
⚫
[[Gregor Ziemer]], an American author and educator who lived in Germany from 1928 to 1939, wrote the book ''Education for Death'' after fleeing Germany on the eve of World War II. The book highlights what was going on in the Nazi schooling of the German youth.


⚫
The narrative story focuses around a group of youth that under the guidance of a Nazi storm trooper, Franzen, take a hiking trip into the woods. As night falls, Franzen "lectures the troop on their duty to preserve the purity of the human race, and proposes they symbolize this task with a solemn ritual to 'impress on us all that fire and destruction will be the end of those who do not think as we do'." Franzen then hands out six books: the [[Talmud]], the [[Koran]], the works of [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]], the [[Treaty of Versailles]], a biography of [[Joseph Stalin]], and the [[Bible]]. The books are passed around the circle and each boy spits on the books, hands them back to Franzen who douses them with kerosene and lights them on fire. The troop then sings the "[[Deutschlandlied]]" ("''Deutschland, Deutschland über alles''") and the [[Horst-Wessel-Lied|Horst Wessel anthem]] around the fire.
⚫
Gregor Ziemer, an American author and educator who lived in Germany from 1928-1939, wrote the book Education for Death after fleeing Germany on the eve of World War Two. The book highlights what was going on in the Nazi schooling of the German youth.


⚫
The book inspired two different adaptations; ''Education for Death'' and ''[[Hitler's Children (1943 film)|Hitler's Children]]''. The former took Ziemer's conclusions very seriously, as it showed the education of Hans from an innocent, kind youth into a chained and muzzled Nazi drone. The scene of the storm trooper and the hiking trip is transplanted to a classroom where the teacher instructs the students about nature's laws about the strong fox having the right to kill the weak rabbit. When Hans does not agree with the teacher, he is punished until he falls in line. The scene involving the book burning is part of the ending compilation of Nazi transformation and destruction. It shows a torch-bearing crowd setting fire to a pile of books of [[John Milton]], [[Baruch Spinoza]], [[Albert Einstein]], [[Voltaire]], and [[Thomas Mann]]. It then shows a burning of [[Felix Mendelssohn]]'s [[Wedding March (Mendelssohn)|wedding march]], an allusion to the [[Nuremberg Laws|Nazi race laws]], and the burning of a pile of art.<ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Fishburn | first1 = Matthew | title = Books Are Weapons: Wartime Responses to the Nazi Bookfires of 1933 | jstor=30227405 | journal = Book History | volume = 10 | pages = 223–251 | year = 2007 | issn = 1098-7371 | url = https://muse.jhu.edu/article/222380}}</ref>
⚫
The narrative story focuses around a group of youth that under the guidance of a Nazi storm trooper, Franzen, take a hiking trip into the woods. As night falls, Franzen "lectures the troop on their duty to preserve the purity of the human race, and proposes they symbolize this task with a solemn ritual to 'impress on us all that fire and destruction will be the end of those who do not think as we do.'" Franzen then hands out six books: the [[Talmud]], the [[Koran]], the works of [[Shakespeare]], the [[Treaty of Versailles]], [[The life of Stalin]], and the [[Bible]]. The books are passed around the circle and each boy spits on the books, hands them back to Franzen who doses them with kerosene and lights them on fire. The troop then sings the [[Deutschlandlied]] and the [[Horst Wessel]] anthem around the fire.

⚫
The book inspired two different adaptations; Education for Death and [[Hitler's Children]]. Education for Death took Ziemer's conclusions very seriously as it showed the education of Hans from an innocent, kind youth into a chained and muzzled Nazi drone. The scene of the storm trooper and the hiking trip is transplanted to a classroom where the teacher instructs the students about nature's laws about the strong wolf having the right to kill the weak rabbit. When Hans does not agree with the teacher, he is punished until he falls in line. The scene involving the book burning is part of the ending compilation of Nazi transformation and destruction. It shows a torch-bearing crowd setting fire to a pile of books of: [[Milton]], [[Spinoza]]. [[Einstein]], [[Voltaire]], and [[Mann]]. It then shows a burning of [[Mendelssohn]]'s wedding march, an allusion to the Nazi race laws, and burning of a pile of art. <ref>Fishburn, Matthew, [[Books Are Weapons: Wartime Responses to the Nazi Bookfires of 1933]],, Pennsylvania State University Press</ref>


==See also==
==See also==
*[[Walt Disney's World War II propaganda production]]
* [[Walt Disney's World War II propaganda production]]
*[[American propaganda during World War II]]
* [[American propaganda during World War II]]
*''[[Der Fuehrer's Face]]''
* ''[[Der Fuehrer's Face]]''
* ''[[Don't Be a Sucker]]''
* [[List of World War II short films]]


==Notes==
==References==
⚫
{{reflist}}


⚫
==External links==
⚫
{{reflist|2}}
* Watch [https://www.c-span.org/video/?464005-2/education-death ''Education for Death''] on [[C-SPAN]]
⚫
* {{IMDb title|0035836|Education for Death}}


{{Disney's Short films}}
{{Disney World War II propaganda films}}
{{Clyde Geronimi}}


⚫
{{DEFAULTSORT:Education For Death}}


⚫
==External links==
⚫
*{{imdb title|id=0035836|title=Education for Death}}

*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQqCeEG5hs0 Education for Death Video]
[[Category:1943 films]]
[[Category:1943 films]]
[[Category:American World War II propaganda films]]
[[Category:1940s Disney animated short films]]
[[Category:Disney animated shorts, 1940s]]
[[Category:1940s English-language films]]
[[Category:1940s German-language films]]

[[Category:American animated short films]]
⚫
[[de:Education for Death]]
[[Category:Cultural depictions of Adolf Hitler]]
[[es:Education for Death]]
[[Category:Cultural depictions of Hermann Göring]]
[[fr:Education for Death]]
[[Category:Cultural depictions of Joseph Goebbels]]
[[pt:Education for Death]]
[[Category:American World War II propaganda shorts]]
[[fi:Education for Death]]
[[Category:Articles containing video clips]]
[[Category:Films about Nazi Germany]]
[[Category:Films based on non-fiction books]]
[[Category:Films directed by Clyde Geronimi]]
[[Category:Films produced by Walt Disney]]
[[Category:Films scored by Oliver Wallace]]
[[Category:Disney educational films]]
[[Category:1940s educational films]]
[[Category:Animated films about witchcraft]]
[[Category:English-language documentary films]]
[[Category:English-language short films]]
[[Category:English-language war films]]
[[Category:1943 animated short films]]

Latest revision as of 01:50, 3 December 2024

Not to be confused with Death education.

Education for Death: The Making of the Nazi
Directed byClyde Geronimi
Written byJoe Grant
Based onEducation for Death: Sparky The Making of the Nazi
by Gregor Ziemer
Produced byWalt Disney
Narrated byArt Smith
Music byOliver Wallace
Production
company
Distributed byRKO Radio Pictures
Release date
  • January 15, 1943 (1943-01-15)
Running time
10 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States
Languages
  • English (narrator)
  • German (characters)

Education for Death: The Making of the Nazi is an American animated anti-Nazi propaganda short film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released on January 15, 1943, by RKO Radio Pictures, shown in theaters with Fighting Frontier. The film is directed by Clyde Geronimi and principally animated by Milt Kahl, Ward Kimball, Frank Thomas, and Bill Tytla.[2] The short is based on the non-fiction book of the same name[3] by American author Gregor Ziemer. The film features the story of Hans, a boy born and raised in Nazi Germany, his indoctrination in the Hitlerjugend, and his eventual march to war.

Plot

[edit]

At the beginning of the film, a German couple proves to a Nazi German bureaucrat that they are of pure Aryan blood and agree to give their son, whom they name Hans at the judge's approval, as it is not on a list of banned names,[4] into the service of the Fuehrer Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. They are given a copy of Mein Kampf by the faceless civil servant as a reward for their service to Hitler; their passport contains spaces for 12 more children (a hint that the couple is expected to produce a large family for the Fatherland).

This is followed by the only extended comical section of the cartoon, the tone of which is very light compared to the rest of the film. The audience is told that as Hans grows up, he hears a distorted version of Sleeping Beauty depicting Hitler as the knightly prince character rescuing an obese Valkyrie representing Germany, from a wicked witch representing democracy. The narrator sarcastically comments that "the moral of this story seems to be that Hitler got Germany on her feet, climbed onto the saddle, and took her for a ride." Thanks to this kind of distorted children's story, Hans becomes fascinated with Hitler as he and the rest of the younger members of the Hitler Youth give the Hitler salute to a portrait of Hitler dressed as a knight.

In the following segment, the audience sees Hans sick and bedridden. His mother prays for him, thinking that it will only be a matter of time before the authorities come and take him away to a death camp. A Nazi officer bangs on the door to take Hans away, but his mother says he is sick and needs care. The officer orders her to heal her son quickly and have him ready to leave, implying that if Hans does not get well, he will be euthanized. He orders her not to do anything more to him that will cause him to lose heart and be weak, explaining that a soldier must show no emotion, mercy, or feelings whatsoever.

Hans eventually recovers and resumes his "education" in a school classroom, where Hans and the rest of his classmates, all in Hitlerjugend uniforms, give the Hitler salute to portraits of Hitler, Hermann Goering, and Joseph Goebbels. They then watch as the teacher draws a cartoon on the blackboard of a rabbit being eaten by a fox, prompting Hans to feel sorry for the rabbit. The teacher, furious over the remark, orders Hans to sit in the corner wearing a dunce cap, calling him "Dummkopf" (German for "stupid" or "feeble-minded") with his classmates laughing at him. As Hans sits in the corner, he hears the rest of the classmates "correctly" interpret the cartoon as "weakness has no place in a soldier" and "the strong shall rule the weak", as the teacher asked what does Hans think about the rabbit now, causing him to recant his remark and agree that the weak must be destroyed, much to the teacher's approval.

Hans then takes part in a book-burning crusade, burning any books with ideas opposed to Hitler's (Albert Einstein, Baruch Spinoza, and Voltaire), replacing the Bible with Mein Kampf and the crucifix with a Nazi sword. Hans then spends the next several years "Marching and heiling, heiling and marching!" He reaches his teens (wearing a uniform similar to that of the Sturmabteilung) still "marching and heiling" until he becomes an adult or "Good Nazi" (now in Wehrmacht and SS uniform) embroiled in hatred towards anyone else who opposes Hitler. With "no seed of laughter, hope, tolerance, or mercy" planted in him, he "sees no more than the party wants him to [see], says nothing but what the party wants him to say, and he does nothing except what the party wants him to do."

In the end, Hans and the rest of the German soldiers march off to war only to fade into rows of identical graves, with nothing on them except a swastika and a helmet perched on top. Thus Hans's education is complete – "his education... for death".

Production

[edit]

Education for Death: The Making of the Nazi was released when Disney was under government contract to produce 32 animated shorts from 1941 to 1945. In 1940, Walt Disney spent four times his budget on the feature film Fantasia (1940) which suffered from low box office turnout. Nearing bankruptcy and with half of his employees on strike, Walt Disney was forced to look for a solution to bring money into the studio. The studio's close proximity to the military aircraft manufacturer, Lockheed, helped foster a U.S. government contract for 32 short propaganda films at $4,500 each. This saved the company from bankruptcy and allowed them to keep their employees on payroll.[5]

The dialogue of the characters is in German, neither subtitled nor directly translated by Art Smith's lone English language narration. A voice track of Adolf Hitler in full demagogic rant is used in a torchlight rally scene. A sequence follows in which Hans becomes a German soldier along with other Hitler Youth.

Home media

[edit]

The short was released on May 18, 2004, on Walt Disney Treasures: Walt Disney on the Front Lines.[6]

Relationship to the Ziemer book

[edit]

Gregor Ziemer, an American author and educator who lived in Germany from 1928 to 1939, wrote the book Education for Death after fleeing Germany on the eve of World War II. The book highlights what was going on in the Nazi schooling of the German youth.

The narrative story focuses around a group of youth that under the guidance of a Nazi storm trooper, Franzen, take a hiking trip into the woods. As night falls, Franzen "lectures the troop on their duty to preserve the purity of the human race, and proposes they symbolize this task with a solemn ritual to 'impress on us all that fire and destruction will be the end of those who do not think as we do'." Franzen then hands out six books: the Talmud, the Koran, the works of Shakespeare, the Treaty of Versailles, a biography of Joseph Stalin, and the Bible. The books are passed around the circle and each boy spits on the books, hands them back to Franzen who douses them with kerosene and lights them on fire. The troop then sings the "Deutschlandlied" ("Deutschland, Deutschland über alles") and the Horst Wessel anthem around the fire.

The book inspired two different adaptations; Education for Death and Hitler's Children. The former took Ziemer's conclusions very seriously, as it showed the education of Hans from an innocent, kind youth into a chained and muzzled Nazi drone. The scene of the storm trooper and the hiking trip is transplanted to a classroom where the teacher instructs the students about nature's laws about the strong fox having the right to kill the weak rabbit. When Hans does not agree with the teacher, he is punished until he falls in line. The scene involving the book burning is part of the ending compilation of Nazi transformation and destruction. It shows a torch-bearing crowd setting fire to a pile of books of John Milton, Baruch Spinoza, Albert Einstein, Voltaire, and Thomas Mann. It then shows a burning of Felix Mendelssohn's wedding march, an allusion to the Nazi race laws, and the burning of a pile of art.[7]

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "EDUCATION FOR DEATH (A)". British Board of Film Classification. February 25, 1943. Retrieved July 16, 2015.
  2. ^ Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. p. 153. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7.
  3. ^ Gregor Ziemer (1941). Education for Death: The Making of the Nazi. ISBN 0-374-98905-2
  4. ^ In a subtle touch, all the names on the list are Jewish, except the names heading the list: "Franklin" and "Winston", referring to Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill.
  5. ^ Raiti, G. C. (2007). "The Disappearance of Disney Animated Propaganda: A Globalization Perspective". Animation. 2 (2): 153–169. doi:10.1177/1746847707074703. ISSN 1746-8477. S2CID 144807122.
  6. ^ "Walt Disney on the Front Lines DVD Review". DVD Dizzy. Retrieved February 14, 2021.
  7. ^ Fishburn, Matthew (2007). "Books Are Weapons: Wartime Responses to the Nazi Bookfires of 1933". Book History. 10: 223–251. ISSN 1098-7371. JSTOR 30227405.
[edit]
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