Nazis in Fiction - Films and Cartoons

Films and Cartoons

Various propaganda films used the Nazis as a way to encourage patriotism and national pride, as well as a means to recruit soldiers into the Allied forces.

The British cinema were the main people to create such films before the American entry into the war following Pearl Harbor. The British comedian Will Hay created various films that ranged from Nazi spies being smuggled into mainland Britain via the Isle of Skye, to scientists working on gas-bombs.

American cinema at first used the Nazis only to show the stubbornness of the Reich, such as the 1940s film, Casablanca. American propaganda concentrated largely on the Japanese involvement in the war, with the Nazis as a backup.

The Looney Tunes and Walt Disney Studios used the Nazis as a ploy for their comic characters. However, Disney seemed to concentrate more on the German people within the Nazi Regime, as shown in their 1943 film, Der Fuehrers' Face, starring Donald Duck. Warner Brothers produced a series of propaganda cartoons named Private Snafu to train recruits on what not to do if they were in a situation similar to those in the cartoons.

Existing examples of films including fictituous Nazis include:

• The Eagle Has Landed - The rescue of Benito Mussolini in 1943 leads to Oberst (Colonel) Steiner leading a paratrooper division to assassinate Winston Churchill

• The Producers - Features the musical, Springtime for Hitler

• Daffy - The Commando - A famous Daffy Duck propaganda cartoon

• Der Fuehrer's Face - A Donald Duck cartoon that showed civilian life in Nazi Germany

• The Goose Steps Out - A Will Hay film made in 1942

• The Indiana Jones franchise

• Inglourious Basterds

• Captain America

• Hellboy