Sieg im Westen

Sieg im Westen

1941 film by the Oberkommando des Heeres
Directed by Svend Noldan
Produced by Fritz Hippler
Starring Erwin Rommel
Adolf Hitler
Music by Herbert Windt
Release dates
  • 1941 (1941)
Running time
 114 minutes
Country Nazi Germany
Language German

Sieg im Westen (Victory in the West) is a 1941 Nazi propaganda film.[1]

It was produced by the Oberkommando des Heeres, the German Army High Command, rather than the Propaganda Ministry of Joseph Goebbels.[2] Goebbels indeed sabotaged its release in minor ways, delaying its premiere and telling propagandists not to promote it.[2]

The prologue consists of the Nazi version of European history and the origins of World War II, and the rest deals with the Battle of France, a Blitzkrieg in the Low Countries and France (10 May – 22 June 1940). The movie was made largely from newsreel footage recut into a documentary.[3] The programme provided states that it is to show the audacity of the German offensive and the superiority of German arms, required because they will not be permitted to live in peace.[4] It did not give Hitler or the Nazi party a central role, thus ensuring its disfavor with Goebbels.[5]

The Nazi journal "Der deutsche Film" called Sieg im Westen "the greatest of all German newsreels."[6] Unlike many other German propaganda films, Sieg im Westen does not belittle the enemy, instead admitting that the French soldiers fought gallantly.[7]

The war is presented "from above"; the battles are depicted as smooth forward advances on the map, with results from reports at the front.[8] The "encirclement" of Germany is depicted by showing prisoners of war from far-off countries.[9]

On 14 August 1940, more than a dozen German Generals who had (three weeks ago) been appointed Field Marshal after the successful Westfeldzug[10] were in Berlin to be presented with their ceremonoial batons. While in Berlin, they were shown 'Sieg im Westen'.[11]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "New York Times: Sieg Im Westen (1940)". NY Times. Retrieved 2010-10-31.
  2. 1 2 Robert Edwin Hertzstein, The War That Hitler Won p281 ISBN 0-399-11845-4
  3. ↑ Erwin Leiser (1975), Nazi Cinema p57 ISBN 0-02-570230-0
  4. ↑ Erwin Leiser, Nazi Cinema p57-8 ISBN 0-02-570230-0
  5. ↑ Robert Edwin Hertzstein (1978), The War That Hitler Won p282 ISBN 0-399-11845-4
  6. ↑ Hoffman 220
  7. ↑ Hoffman 222
  8. ↑ Erwin Leiser, Nazi Cinema p59 ISBN 0-02-570230-0
  9. ↑ Erwin Leiser, Nazi Cinema p58 ISBN 0-02-570230-0
  10. ↑ Walther von Brauchitsch, Wilhelm Keitel, Gerd von Rundstedt, Fedor von Bock, Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb, Wilhelm List, Günther von Kluge, Erwin von Witzleben, Walter von Reichenau; Albert Kesselring, Erhard Milch, Hugo Sperrle.
  11. ↑ An american journalist watched it, too, and made that public. Charles Messenger (1991/ reprint 2012), The Last Prussian: A Biography of Field Marshal Gerd Von Rundstedt, p. 127
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