Erbkrank (1935)

Directed by

Herbert Gerdes

Genre

documentary film, propaganda film

Country

Nazi Germany

Runtime

25 min

Rating

7.0 of 10 from 1 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

This Nazi propaganda film aims to dehumanize people with mental illness and intellectual disabilities. It shows footage from psychiatric hospitals to build public support for a government euthanasia program.

propagandisticbleakclinicaldisturbingmanipulativestarkcolddark

What happens

Erbkrank (English: Congenitally Diseased) is a 1936 Nazi propaganda film directed by Herbert Gerdes. Erbkrank was one of six propagandistic movies produced by the NS-Rasse und Politisches Amt (National Socialist Racial and Political Office), from 1935 to 1937 to demonize people in Germany diagnosed with mental illness and mental retardation. The goal was to gain public support for the T-4 Euthanasia Program then in preparation. This film, as the others, featured footage of patients in German psychiatric hospitals. Adolf Hitler reportedly enjoyed the film so much that he encouraged the production of the full-length film Victims of the Past: The Sin against Blood and Race. In 1937, Erbkrank was reportedly showing in nearly all Berlin film theaters. Prior to World War II, the film was distributed in America through the Pioneer Fund. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

• The Inheritance (1935)
• Dasein ohne Leben (1941)
• Victims of the Past (1937)
• Metall des Himmels (1935)
• Tag der Freiheit: Unsere Wehrmacht (1935)
• Triumph of the Will (1935)
• Alles Leben ist Kampf (1937)
• Friesennot (1935)