Topic
Film in the Annexed Territories of Poland and in the Protectorate of Bohemian and Moravia
In the annexed territories of Poland and in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, cinema was used as an instrument of National Socialist rule. The project examines the extent to which feature films were used as a means of implementing Germanisation policy.
Germanisation with the Help of Cinema? Feature Films in the Annexed Territories of Poland and the Protectorate Bohemia and Moravia.
The Nazis regarded film as an important medium of propaganda, which, in the Altreich (Old Reich), was intended not least to further cement loyalty to the Volksgemeinschaft (people’s community) that had been »ethnically cleansed«. In Central and Eastern Europe, the occupying powers took different approaches to cinema: while strict restrictions were in place in the annexed Polish territories, denying Poles access to cinemas and preventing them from making their own film projects, the occupying power in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia permitted a tightly regulated Czech film culture and cinema-going. But how did the occupying powers in these two regions conceive and shape film policy with regard to the so-called »ethnic Germans« – that is, the heterogeneous groups intended to become part of the Volksgemeinschaft in the East? The project focuses on film policy, the range of films on offer and cinema reception.
