The Plow That Broke the Plains
(1936)
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Movies
The Only Existing Film Footage of Ann Frank
July 22 1941: the girl next door is getting married. Anne Frank is leaning out of the window of her house in Amsterdam to get a good look at the bride and groom. It is the only time Anne Frank has ever been captured on film. At the time of her wedding, the bride lived on the second floor at Merwedeplein 39. The Frank family lived at number 37, also on the second floor. The Anne Frank House can offer you this film footage thanks to the cooperation of the couple.
The Nieuport XI
Nieuport XI’s were first used in 1915. Their biplane design allowed them to easily outmaneuver their German Fokker Eindecker (“monoplane”) counter parts. Armed with a single 7.7 Lewis machine gun on the top wing element, the system was primed to make aces of her pilots – at least until German aircraft design caught up with this XI series. If the Nieuport XI had any drawback, it was the limited armament and the propensity of the wing assembly to buckle violently in flight, sometimes breaking apart.
The Nazi Occupation of Paris
A 1940 German newsreel depicting the Nazi victory parade down the Champs-Elysées, the awarding of medals under the Arc De Triomphe, and a patronizing salute before the eternal flame that memorializes the fallen soldiers of France.
The Meuse-Argonne Cemetery
A U.S. Government camera crew tours the Meuse-Argonne Cemetery in France, resting place of the American Doughboys who were killed during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive of 1918.
The March of the Waffen SS
Set to the tune, “Deutchland Uber Alles” and a number of other catchy tunes that the jolly boys of the SS sent rocketing up the charts of the top forty, this is official Nazi footage of the SS on the march in full regalia. Aside from plentiful displays of black wool and feldgrau stahelms, you will also see Heinrich, Adolf and all his pals staring from the fifty-yard line.
The M2 Half Track
Color footage of the American Army M2 Half Track filmed at Cantigny Park, Illinois at the First Infantry Division Museum.
The M 26 Pershing Tank
Contemporary footage of a vintage 1945 M 26 Pershing tank as it backs out from it’s garage at the Royal Army Museum, Brussels.
The Life of Katherine Mansfield
Short biographical documentary of Katherine Mansfield by the Gonzo Girl Filmmakers.
The League of German Girls
(Bund Deutscher Mädel)
his great five-volume series, by Guido Knopp, examines the naivete of German youths in the 1930’s and 1940’s. This is the only documentary I have seen that focuses on the way the Nazis used children to conduct their war.In this second volume of the series, we are given a glimpse into how the Nazis were able to simultaneously discount women as mere baby factories and employ their youth and energy to the benefit of the Reich. The League of German Girls was formed to ensure that young ladies understood, and performed, their duties as bearers of Aryan heirs. Later, these young women were also enlisted to assist directly in the fighting of the war.
The Last Summer of the War
A segment from a the British documentary, “War Without End”:
Summer 1918. The last German offensive failed to break the Allies. Unrest bordering on revolution at home spread demoralization to the German army. The central Powers’s alliance was crumbling with Turkey exhausted, Bulgaria beaten, and Austro-Hungary trying to work its own armistice with the Allies.
The Last Days of Heinrich Himmler
HEINRICH HIMMLER, 1900-1945), German Nazi leader, who was head of the dreaded SS (Schutzstaffel, also called the Blackshirts). Although pedantic, dogmatic and dull, Himmler emerged under Hitler as a respected player in the Nazi power game. His strength lay in a combination of unusual shrewdness, burning ambition, and servile loyalty to Hitler.