Triumph Over Violence (Обыкновенный фашизм)

Mosfilm

Film Studio 3

Ordinary fascism

The documentary uses trophy documentary footage from the Film Archive

of the German Ministry of Propaganda and the personal photo archive of Adolf Hitler,

and also a variety of amateur photos taken by Nazi officials and soldiers.

Ordinary Fascism

In our documentary, we certainly do not intend to cover all aspects of such a complex phenomenon as fascism.

This is simply impossible within the constraints of a single documentary.

It is also impossible because many important aspects of fascism were never filmed, thus leaving no documentary evidence.

From a vast amount of materials, we simply selected those that impressed us the most and those that,

in our opinion, allow us together with our audience to ponder over this phenomenon.

Chapter One

A merry cat.

A hungry cat.

A sly cat.

A bear.

An unhappy lion in the zoo.

Right from their first word and their first step, children feel the need for creative expression.

And how different these children are.

They contemplate the world and try to express it any way they can.

A construction site.

The first snow.

A stadium.

The 20th century.

The 21 st century.

These people do not realize that we are filming them...

...and, to a certain degree, we feel sorry for this.

We came to one of Moscow's universities during the entrance exams,

set up our camera in the yard and tried to observe,

without being noticed, how people await the results of the exams,

how differently they behaved and expressed their innermost feelings.

Well, it is common knowledge that one has to wear one's oldest pair of shoes during the exams...

...and, of course, having a haircut on the eve of the exam bodes certain failure.

And here is the announcement of the results.

How amazingly diverse human beings are.

And someone is waiting for these people.

I think someone is.

Although the waiting can be different, as well.

Probably, only love can make people resemble each other in some way.

This is Moscow.

And here is Warsaw.

There are many people down below,

and all of them have their own personal perception of the surrounding world,

and every one is a human being.

For every mother, her child is the best in the world.

For every child, his mother is the best, the most beautiful and unique.

"My mother is the most beautiful woman" is the title of this series of children's drawings.

My mother is a ballet dancer.

And my mother is a singer.

For this kid from Berlin, his Mom is the most beautiful woman,

whereas for this kid from Moscow, his Mom is the best.

"Deutchland uber alles" is written on this post.

Germany is more important than anything.

Germany is above all.

Today, new museums replace former concentration camps in Europe.

Wooden barracks have long been burnt down; only ruined chimneys jut out from the grass.

Skeletons of brick buildings are overgrown with weeds and wild flowers.

We can enter this building.

The smell of human bodies has been gone for decades.

Thousands died here.

And now the visitors leave their inscriptions on the walls, as they do everywhere.

These freshly painted furnaces cooled off a long time ago,

and the bathtub built for the commandant of the crematorium right next to them is now useless.

Tons of women's hair lie behind a special protective glass.

Matted and tightly packed, it does not look like human hair anymore.

There are thousands of prosthetic devices behind the glass.

There are children's chamber-pots in a huge bunker.

Mothers who came here with their kids thought they would live here.

This neat mound is piled up from ashes and withered bones of a million of people.

Certainly, those are human beings too.

Well, they think they are.

And this is a crowd, the masses, as Hitler used to call it.

A crowd.

Here, an individual carries no worth.

The strength is in numbers - dozens, hundreds of thousands, millions.

One chair was left for the Fuehrer.

Just one. Just for him.

He is going to sit down now.

He sat.

Chapter Two. "Mein Kampf" or how to treat calf's hides.

At approximately the same time a unique copy of Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf,

the bible of German Fascism, was printed in an ancient German city.

Calves of the best German breed were chosen for the cover.

They were skinned,

and the hides were tanned on ancient machines.

Here you see a tanning machine built in the 18th century.

Masters, who underwent background checks as far as ten generations

made an especially durable parchment from these hides.

A team of calligraphy experts re-wrote the book by hand, using special ink,

unique quills and a unique typeface,

which had been approved by dozens of officials.

This footage is taken from a Kulturfilm called "Buch der Deutschen".

You can hear the voice of the announcer.

It is a long film, and, of course, we could show you only a small portion of it.

As to the content of the book, it is a pity that people did not read it carefully.

If the Germans had studied it thoroughly,

the fate of Germany might have been different.

A team of mine workers descended an old German mine and extracted ore.

The ore was smelted in special kilns.

Binder plates were made out of the ore.

These were stainless, refractory steel plates.

Here, they are being forged.

Now they are going to be affixed,

and the book will be ready.

It is supposed to last for a thousand years in a perfect condition, without getting tarnished or rusty,

because the Reich of Adolf Hitler, the Third Reich was supposed to last for a thousand years.

Now, the book is going to be placed in a special sarcophagus.

Here.

Later, it will be buried in a special mausoleum.

Chapter Three. A few words about the author.

Adolf Hitler was known to the police since 1912.

Here is his police record card.

A son of a petty bureaucrat and a mediocre painter,

he reached the rank of corporal during World War I.

After the war, he became a paid Reichswehr informer.

A frequent customer of beer halls, he was sent as a spy...

...to the national-socialist German Worker's Party formed shortly after the war.

You can judge by yourself to what extend it can be called a socialist and worker's party...

...while watching this old newsreel showing a procession of party activists and those who reviewed the parade.

Hitler liked the party, though.

He signed up under Number 7 and set upon a task of becoming a Number One.

A petty bourgeois, an ordinary citizen, he understood very well the mentality of the masses.

A skillful demagogue, he soon became the principal speaker for the party...

...and was later to become the Fuehrer of the Nazi party.

By then, young men in uniform and swastika signs had started to appear on the streets of German towns.

Storm troopers - the backbone of the party - are marching here.

The ranks of storm troopers were formed from petty bourgeoisie

,

from petty officials and lumpen proletariat.

Party officials did not mind recruiting even common criminals.

As Hitler once said:

"I need people with strong fists...

...whose principles will not prevent them from taking human life if necessary."

Here you see these people with strong fists.

"And if on occasion they swipe a watch or a jewel, I don't care a tinker's damn."

Commoners peered at this new party and new uniforms with open interest.

They were impressed by the music bands, uniforms and swastikas.

Initially, Hitler lacked the appearance of a leader.

You will see it now.

But he practiced, and practiced hard.

Here, you see him practicing his speech in front of a mirror.

Those are pictures from a photo album kept by his personal photographer.

And now you will see how he applies his skills in practice.

He delivered speeches frequently and promised a lot.

He promised prosperity for everyone, promised to return German lands annexed by the Treaty of Versailles.

He promised tenants lower rents, and landlords the opportunity to raise rents.

He promised department store owners that he would eliminate competition,

and owners of small shops that he would destroy department stores.

In short, he was scattering promises generously to left and right.

"Sieg Heil!"

Rallies and parades of storm troopers were becoming more and more immense in scale.

They cost a lot of money,

although the party received generous subsidies from unknown sources.

For instance, at one of the rallies, the participants consumed about a million or a million and two hundred thousand sausages.

And in 1934, the amount of sausages consumed reached two and a half million per rally.

The connection with the Reichswehr is seen in every frame.

Great importance was attached to traditions and uniforms -

starting from the ritual of banner consecration. Just look at Hitler's face.

He certainly "grew up," figuratively speaking.

Parades in the cities assumed frightening proportions and resembled state ceremonies,

although the future Nazi party did not yet hold the reigns of power.

In order to seize this power, the fascists needed Hindenburg. Here he is.

An old Imperial General, a close supporter of Kaiser Wilhelm II,

Hindenburg became President of German republic by a twist of fate.

Respect for the institution of the Kaiser and a thirst for revenge played an important role.

He probably did not even realize what the notion "republic" meant,

but... Sorry, it seems he is lost... Ah, that's all right, he is going to find the way... There he goes...

He did it!

So, I was saying that probably did not even know what the republic was; but nevertheless, he became its president.

An old aristocrat, he despised Hitler and called him a corporal.

However, in 1933, he received a letter from a group of the most influential German industrialists, the owners of monopolies.

To the letter was attached two billion German marks,

and those two billion demanded that Hindenburg appointed Hitler to the post of German Reichschancellor.

Large business needed a dictator.

Hindenburg did not want to appoint Hitler,

but two billion marks...

You will see now how he parts with twenty pfennig and understand what two billion marks meant to him.

There it goes!

Gone!

He meticulously closes his wallet.

Nevertheless, he appointed Hitler as Reichschancellor.

Hitler was greeted with the fascist salute.

Later Hitler stated, "We managed to persuade the old man in three weeks.

He thanked Hindenburg in kind.

And now Hitler is finally in his office.

In the beginning, he maintains a collegiate attitude; he even refuses to be the first to sit down and offers a seat to his colleagues.

The members of his Cabinet included Goering, von Papen, von Blomberg, Frick, Hugenberg - his party comrades and large industrialists.

Hitler sits down.

From that moment, the fate of Germany took a drastic turn.

Chapter Four. Meanwhile...

Chapter Four. Meanwhile...

Let's see find out what interested western moviemakers during that period,

the years of Hitler's rise to power.

This is video footage from the World In Review newsreel.

Here is the King of England.

He was, incidentally, a cousin of Nicolas II. As you can see, he was still alive and kicking then.

And here is the former King of Spain. He was also filmed.

Look at his face. Does it strike you as a face of an intellectual person?

The King of Norway apparently attending a ship launching ceremony.