Frank CapraWhy We Fight: The Nazi Strike

"The Nazis Strike," Chapter II of Frank Capra's "Why We Fight" series,
summarizes Adolph Hitler's plan for world conquest and Germany's full
scale preparation in pursuit of this end. While the Nazis plead poverty
and pacifism, they spend incredible amounts of money to prepare a war
machine of unparalleled strength and destructive capability. While
Hitler assures the other leaders of the world he has no interest in
promoting National Socialism, he begins "softening up" future target
nations by sponsoring local Nazi organizations in other countries. The
film explains that the key to Germany's world conquest is the occupation
of central Russia, a heartland rich in natural resources. Hitler begins
his march in this direction by annexing Austria and part of
Czechoslovakia. With these new territories, he now possesses a massive
front against Poland, which he invades and conquers within three weeks.
After the invasion of Poland, Britain and France declare war on Germany,
which then signs a non-aggression pact with the Soviets so Hitler can re-focus his
energy against his enemies to the west.

This item is part of the collection: Cinemocracy

Producer: Frank Capra
Audio/Visual: sound, color

Creative Commons license: Public Domain

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Reviewer: Shevek - - April 24, 2008
Subject: A small point

I am a History teacher. I am also left of center. That being said, I use the "Why We Fight" series in the classroom.

Yes, its propaganda but, heck, everything is.

This is a fine piece. So long as the instructor makes sure to explain why Germans were driven to put their faith in a madman and Capra's bias, then this can be of great use.

I would also point out that attempting to draw parallels between what is happening in the Middle East and WW2 is a shaky analogy. WW2, for good or ill, is often thought of as the only "good" modern war. Some historians go so far as the call it the "perfect" war (ignoring Dresden and the A-Bomb). That being said, you will find precious few historians which would call the conflict in Iraq "perfect," "good" or even "acceptable."

Just some food for thought. Adios.

Reviewer: Hamilcar21 - - December 9, 2007
Subject: The Way It Was

Sure, it's propaganda, and people are wary of propaganda. But the world was quite different then, and many of the wary who write reviews for these propaganda films were not alive in those days. They might not think that a Hitler here or a Stalin there would have much bearing on their lives.

The fact is that every feature of American and world history to this very day is the way it is because of what transpired in the day of Hitler and Stalin. Every feature. The science of nuclear power. The science of computers. The "science" of 21st century politics.

It was propaganda such as seen in this remarkable film that made people like us, the relatively unaffected Americans of the 1930s and 1940s, realize that we had better stop screwing around and start paying attention to the ominous direction that world events had taken. And we finally did, although quite belatedly and with almost disastrous results.

Just because it's an old film doesn't mean its message has lost relevance to the people living today. It tells a story of a slice of history which actually happened (yes, those people are really dead and gone forever) and which can happen again whenever well-meaning but naive people, such as our relatively lazy and coddled selves, refuse to believe it can happen.

It happened then, and shame on them. If it happens again, shame on us.

Reviewer: Patton Was Right - - November 10, 2007
Subject: I Really Pity The American Left

I've been reading various posts by the leftist members of this archive and I generally pity all of you on the left. How frightened you must be. The hopelessness you must feel. Even as you embrace our Muslim enemy in order to gain his mercy, he still hates you and will kill you. To live in a world when you yourself are cowardly and embrace non violence to mask your weakness. But take heart, my spineless friends. Luckily for you, there are patriots among us who are willing to take-up arms and march to war so that you may take to the streets to protest, burn the flag and spit in the faces of those who serve our great country and do nothing short of saving your worthless ass.

Reviewer: Mensch - - March 26, 2007
Subject: god bless marginal IQs

Hitler was democratically elected. Read all about it. And much less dubiously than Bush's famous Florida stunt they still laugh about in Nigeria.

Americans have a hard time discerning propaganda from bullshit, - have a walk on Madison Avenue one Sunday afternoon, or ask Tony Snow.

Had Hitler retired after 6 years in office,
he's be one of history's great statesmen,
but instead he had one too many apple schnaps
and amphetamine-laced sauerkraut and went off
the handle to the produce the most shameful disaster of the last century. The war cost 60 - 80
million lives. Less than 10% were jews. Goebbels
was captured and taken to Hollywood, just like
Von Braun went to Houston. At least it seems like that to me.

Reviewer: GCarty - - July 5, 2006
Subject: Esalkin is a right-wing moron

Hitler was the popular ruler of a heavily industrialized nation of 80 million people, who controlled a military which man for man was the world's best by a wide margin (thanks to the Prussian military tradition), and who invaded many major Western countries which the Americans held dear (because many Americans had ancestors from those countries).

Saddam was a two-bit thug who shot his way to power in a country of 15 million people with almost no industry (and no resources except oil). Unlike Hitler (and like Stalin) he was an ogre ruling by fear alone and for this reason crippled his army (which wasn't much good to start with, due to Arabs losing their military traditions during the centuries of Turkish rule) by murdering all its best generals (popular generals would be a threat to Saddam's rule, you see). His only foreign wars were against the Islamic Republic of Iran - a country with very few friends in the West - and against Kuwait - a pipsqueak country originally carved artificially from Iraq by British imperialists.

It sickens me how right-wing warmongers accuse their opponents of "appeasement". "Appeasement" means giving concessions to an adversary (as Chamberlain did with the Sudetenland) so they don't attack YOU, not merely the act of abstaining from attacking THEM. If you always reject "appeasement" as defined by the rightists, you turn not into Churchill, but into Hitler.

Reviewer: victorgeorge - - May 26, 2006
Subject: Why we fight: The Nazi Strike

Reference GCarty and Mike18xxx. I was under the impression that we are invited to write our opinions of the film, not to comment on the opinions of others. This form of egoismus never fails to lead to quarrels and misunderstandings. That, gentlemen, is the way wars start.
The Film was, after all, propaganda, and propaganda is always exaggerated and biased; otherwise it would not achieve its purpose. The film's quality was good and if any one can really enjoy war propaganda films, it is okay to watch.

Reviewer: Kiumars - - April 29, 2006
Subject: History is written by the conquerors and is biased.

History is written by the conquerors and is biased. After the WWI Germany was devastated and ruined, reviving the country and the nation to the level that the whole Europe collectively could not fight with, could not be the work of a bunch of idiots and mentally ill people!

Reviewer: mike18xx - - April 15, 2006
Subject: GCarty is an any-wing moron

Hitler's Nazi party bullied its way into power via assassination and intimidation, and maintained itself thusly for nearly ten years before proceeding to overt war. Hussein (who had a soft spot for the Nazis) was an even closer parallel to Joseph Stalin, who assassinated and intimidated his way into power, killed all his best generals, lost a way against a "pipsqueak" country (Finland), and still managed (after getting caught with his pants down in Operation Barbarosa) to field enough men and tanks and planes to have crushed the Nazis in the end even without his allies creating a two-front war via D-Day.

Oh, and the poor, oppressed, "colonized" Arabs? You witless git: It ain't called "Islamofascism" for nothing; and it's been on the warpath for 1,400 years since L. Ron Muhammod formulated divine justification for pillage, homicide, rape and slavery. Welcome to World War IV, stupid.

Reviewer: esalkin - - January 3, 2006
Subject: War mongering propaganda?

Imagine the screams from the left if they made a similar film about Iraq. Of course, they could not make this film today. There are no Americans in Hollywood.

Reviewer: COOL!! AWESOME!! HURRAH!!! - - December 19, 2005
Subject: WHY?!!!

Nice Film, complete and thoughfull approach to Nazi Politics and of course, they should never have risen...

Reviewer: ERD - - December 2, 2005
Subject: Brilliant Motivation

This is a brilliant film which, step by step, clearly explains why Nazi agression had to be stopped. Top quality in its visual and narrative approach.