Nazis and the Cinema

Before the rise of television, the cinema was a key medium of entertainment and information. The Nazi regime, which inherited the largest film industry outside Hollywood, realised this, with some of the most memorable images of Hitler and his party coming from Leni Riefenstahls film Triumph of the Will. Susan Tegel has written a comprehensive account of the films made in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945, including the notorious feature film, Jud Süss, and the compilation documentary Der Ewige Jude. She explores in detail how the film makers were controlled and used by the regime and examines other less well-known films featuring Jewish characters and how their image differed from film to film. She also looks at the industry itself, its reorganization, funding, the interventions of the Propaganda Ministry headed by Goebbels, the compromises which people had to make, the careerism and the dangers which some faced either of unemployment or worse.