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German newsreel propaganda in France, 1940–1944

2004; Routledge; Volume: 24; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/0143968032000184498

1465-3451

Brett Bowles,

Italian Fascism and Post-war Society

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes Roel Vande Winkel, Nazi newsreels and foreign propaganda in German‐occupied territories: the German version of Ufa's foreign weekly newsreel (1940–1944), Doctoral dissertation (Ghent University, 2003); Steve Wharton, Screening Reality: French documentary under German occupation (Bern, 2004); Sylvie Lindeperg, Clio de 5 à 7: les actualités filmées de la Libération, archives du futur (Paris, 2000); James Charrel, Les actualités cinématographiques en France, 1940–1944, MA thesis (Université de Paris VIII, 1999). Marc Ferro, Le film, une contre‐analyse de la société? and Critique des actualités, in Ferro (ed.), Cinéma et Histoire (Paris, 1977); Jean‐Pierre Bertin‐Maghit, Le cinéma français sous l'Occupation: le monde du cinéma français de 1940 à 1946 (Paris, 1989). From 1989 to 2001 Ferro hosted Histoire parallèle, a weekly television series that compared representations of key international events in different countries' newsreels. The episodes devoted to the war are available on the CD‐ROM Histoire parallèle: la seconde guerre mondiale (Paris, 1996). In France the largest wartime newsreel collections are housed at the Inathèque de France in the Mitterrand National Library (Paris) and Pathé Television Archives (Saint‐Ouen). In addition, the Etablissement de Communication et de Production de la Défense (Ivry‐sur‐Seine) and the Centre National de la Cinématographie's Archives du Film (Bois d'Arcy) hold several hundred documentaries made between 1940 and 1945. Most of the German‐supplied clips came from various editions of the Auslandstonwoche (ATW). See Roel Vande Winkel's article in this issue for a discussion of how these editions were made and their differences from the Deutsche Wochenschau. For a detailed catalog of the series, see Edith Réta (ed.), Les archives de guerre, 1940–1944 (Paris, 1996). The films themselves are available for consultation on VHS transfer at the Inathèque de France and at the Bundesarchiv‐Filmarchiv, Berlin. Select episodes are also available for viewing on‐line at «www.ina.fr/voir_revoir/guerre/videos.fr.html». Statistics based on Réta (ed.), Les archives de guerre. Actualités Mondiales (hereafter AM), Issue 2, 7 August 1940. The issue numbers and dates correspond to Réta (ed.), Les archives de guerre. AM, Issue 2, 7 August 1940; AM, Issue 3, 14 August 1940; AM, Issue 22, 25 December 1940. AM, Issue 3, 14 August 1940. AM, Issue 37, 11 April 1941. AM, Issue 15, 6 November 1940. AM, Issue 29, 13 February 1941. AM, Issue 21, 18 December 1940. AM, Issue 2, 7 August 1940; AM, Issue 11, 9 October 1940; AM, Issue 20, 11 December 1940. AM, Issue 52, 25 July 1941; AM, Issue 53, 1 August 1941; AM, Issue 54, 8 August 1941; AM, Issue 57, 29 August 1941; AM, Issue 59, 12 September 1941; AM, Issue 65, 24 October 1941; AM, Issue 99, 19 June 1942; AM, Issue 103, 17 July 1942. AM, Issue 52, 25 July 1941. On this point, see Pierre Laborie, L'opinion française sous Vichy (Paris, 1990), pp. 102–107, 141–154. Of the total 1299 clips shown, only 11 dealt with collaboration. Statistics established using Réta (ed.), Les archives de guerre. AM, Issue 25, 15 January 1941; AM, Issue 43, 23 May 1941; AM, Issue 63, 10 October 1941; AM, Issue 70, 28 November 1941; AM, Issue 93, 8 May 1942; AM, Issue 103, 17 July 1942; AM, Issue 106, 7 August 1942. AM, Issue 29, 13 February 1941; AM, Issue 45, 6 June 1941; AM, Issue 50, 11 July 1941; AM, Issue 89, 10 April 1942. Statistics based on Réta (ed.), Les archives de guerre. AM, Issue 43, 23 May 1941; AM, Issue 49, 4 July 1941; AM, Issue 50, 11 July 1941; AM, Issue 52, 25 July 1941; AM, Issue 59, 12 September 1941; AM, Issue 62, 3 October 1941. Susan Tegel, Jew Süss/Jud Süss (Trowbridge, 1996); David Culbert, The impact of anti‐Semitic film propaganda on German Audiences: Jew Süss and The Wandering Jew (1940), in Richard A. Etlin (ed.), Art, Culture, and the Media under the Third Reich (Chicago, 2002), pp. 139–157; Stig Hornshøj‐Møller, Der ewige Jude; Quellenkritische Analyse eines antisemitischen Propagandafilms (Göttingen, 1995); Joan Clinefelter, A cinematic construction of Nazi anti‐Semitism: the documentary Der ewige Jude, in Robert C. Reimer (ed.), Cultural History through a National‐Socialist Lens: essays on the cinema of the Third Reich (Rochester and Suffolk, 2000), pp. 133–154. Michael Marrus and Robert Paxton, Vichy France and the Jews (New York, 1981), pp. 203–214; Laborie, L'opinion française sous Vichy, pp. 270–281. Report dated 27 July 1942, Situation de Paris series, Archives of the Paris Police Prefecture (hereafter APP). Memo dated 17 August 1940, AJ 40/889, French National Archives, Paris (hereafter AN). Report dated October 1940, AJ 40/889, AN. Report dated 1 October 1940, BA 2097, APP. Report dated 11 October 1940, AJ 40/889, AN. Report dated 11 October 1940, BA 2097, APP. On the history of the film, see Thomas Sakmyster, Nazi documentaries of intimidation: ‘Feldzug in Polen’ (1940), ‘Feurtaufe’ (1940) and ‘Sieg im Western’ (1941), Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 16:4 (1996), pp. 485–514. French reports dated 4 November and 9 December 1940, Situation de Paris series, APP; German report dated 28 January 1941, AJ 40/889, AN. The first clip appears in AM, Issue 10, 2 October 1940; the latter two in AM, Issue 11, 9 October 1940. For details on the founding, organization, and functioning of the Aussenstelle Paris, see Roel Vande Winkel's article in this issue, pp. 17–21. For an in‐depth discussion of unoccupied‐zone film propaganda, see Brett Bowles, Newsreels, ideology, and public‐opinion under Vichy: the case of La France en Marche, French Historical Studies, 27:2 (2004), pp. 419–464. FAPG incorporated only 21 of the 100 reports from the eastern front shown in the AM. Figures for FAPG are based on the index available at Pathé Television Archives, which also houses a complete collection of the series on VHS. The footage appeared in AM, Issue 16, 13 November 1940 and FAPG, Issue 7, 11 December 1940. For an in‐depth comparison of the two versions, see Christian Delage and Vincent Guigueno, Montoire, une mémoire en représentations, Vertigo, 16 (1997), pp. 45–57. FAPG, Issue 7, 11 December 1940. Statistics based on Réta (ed.), Les archives de guerre. AM, Issue 48, 27 June 1941. The original FAPG film was released on 17 June 1941, the anniversary of the armistice. Report dated 20 April 1942, Situation de Paris series, APP. Report dated 29 June 1942, Situation de Paris series, APP. AM, Issue 90, 17 April 1942 through AM, Issue 100, 26 June 1942. AM, Issue 27, 31 January 1941. Reports dated 2 and 6 February 1941, BA 2097, APP. Reports dated 11, 13, and 14 February 1941, BA 2097, APP. Report dated 5 May 1941, Situation de Paris series, APP. Reports dated 14 April and 18 May 1941, BA 2097, APP. Reports dated 19, 20, 27 July and 2 August 1941, BA 2097, APP. Report dated 20 July 1941, BA 2097, APP. Reports dated 15 and 22 September 1941, Situation de Paris series, APP. Propaganda Abteilung report dated 15 July 1941, Microfilm T 501/141, frame 678, United States National Archives, Washington, DC. Reports dated 2 August, 7 August, 13 August, 17 August, 7 September, and 29 December 1941, BA 2097, APP; report dated 9 February 1942, Situation de Paris series, APP. AM, Issue 54, 8 August 1941; AM, Issue 77, 16 January 1942; AM, Issue 94, 15 May 1942. Reports dated 13 June 1941, 19 January 1942, 11 May 1942, and 29 June 1942, Situation de Paris series, APP. AM, Issue 74, 26 December 1941; AM, Issue 81, 13 February 1942; AM, Issue 84, 6 March 1942; AM, Issue 85, 13 March 1942; AM, Issue 96, 29 May 1942; AM, Issue 98, 12 June 1942. The main details are summarized below. For a step‐by‐step account, see Jean‐Pierre Bertin‐Maghit, Le cinéma sous l'Occupation, pp. 106–119. Brett Bowles, La Tragédie de Mers‐el‐Kébir and the politics of filmed news in France, 1940–1944, forthcoming in The Journal of Modern History, 76.2 (2004). Memo dated 26 January 1942, F 42/118, AN. Report dated 9 May 1942, F 42/119, AN. Text from the cover of the corporate journal Filmafric, June–July 1942. FA, Issue 1, 21 August 1942. Statistics based on Réta (ed.), Les archives de guerre. FA, Issue 15, 27 November 1942. FA, Issue 3, 4 September 1942; FA, Issue 9, 16 October 1942. At his own request, Hitler also largely disappeared from the other ATW editions and the DW during the same period, perhaps because of health problems related to Parkinson's disease. On this point, see Kay Hoffmann's article in this issue. FA, Issue 5, 18 September 1942; FA, Issue 4, 29 January 1942. FA, Issue 3, 4 September 1942; FA, Issue 5, 18 September 1942; FA, Issue 9, 16 October 1942; FA, Issue 12, 6 November 1942; FA, Issue 16, 4 December 1942; FA, Issue 20, 7 January 1943. FA, Issue 3, 4 September 1942; FA, Issue 5, 11 September 1942; FA, Issue 12, 6 November 1942; FA, Issue 21, 7 January 1942. Letter from Clerc to Laval dated 23 October 1942, F 42/119, AN. Letter from René Buron (General Secretary of the COIC) to Louis‐Emile Galey (General Director of National Cinematography) dated 17 October 1942, F 42/119, AN. Letters from Henri Clerc to Marcel Garnier (theater owner in Marseille) and Jean d'Albert (theater owner in Perpignan) dated 16 September 1942, F 42/119, AN. Reports dated 5 October and 30 November 1942, Situation de Paris series, APP. Reports dated 24, 25, 27 December 1942, BA 2097, APP. The first bombardment report appeared in FA, Issue 31, 19 March 1943; the first Milice report in FA, Issue 25, 5 February 1943. FA, Issue 25, 5 February 1943 and FA, Issue 29, 5 March 1943. Reports dated 6 and 8 March 1943, BA 2097, APP. Letter from Von Weyrauch to Clerc, 8 April 1943, 2 AG/555, AN. Weyrauch's ire can be explained in part by the fact that most ATW newsrooms were not allowed to edit battle footage provided by Berlin. My thanks to Roel Vande Winkel for this clarification. Letter from Clerc to Von Weyrauch, 8 April 1943, 2 AG/555, AN. Reports dated 26 July 1943 and 6 September 1943, Situation de Paris series, APP. Report dated 5 April 1943, Situation de Paris series, APP. Report dated 26 December 1943, Situation de Paris series, APP. Report dated 27 October 1943, BA 2097, APP. Report dated 26 December 1943, Situation de Paris series, APP. Letter from Clerc to Laval, 23 December 1943, F 42/133, AN. Reports dated 14 January, 29 April, 9 May, 25 May, 28 May, 22 June, and 9 July 1944, BA 2097, APP. Reports dated 30 April and 26 May 1944, BA 2097, APP. Additional informationNotes on contributorsBrett Bowles Brett Bowles is Assistant Professor of French at Iowa State University. He recently completed a book on Marcel Pagnol's fiction films from the 1930s and is preparing a second manuscript on film propaganda in France during the Second World War. His article on French newsreel coverage of Mers‐el‐Ke¯bir is forthcoming in the June 2004 issue of The Journal of Modern History. Brett Bowles is Assistant Professor of French at Iowa State University. He recently completed a book on Marcel Pagnol's fiction films from the 1930s and is preparing a second manuscript on film propaganda in France during the Second World War. His article on French newsreel coverage of Mers‐el‐Ke¯bir is forthcoming in the June 2004 issue of The Journal of Modern History.