Underplayed Gems

Victims of the Past (1937)

Victims of the Past poster
Original title
Opfer der Vergangenheit
Directed by
Gernot Bock-Stieber
Genre
documentary film, propaganda film
Country
Nazi Germany
Runtime
25h 05m
Rating
8.0 of 10 from 1 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

This Nazi propaganda film argues that caring for people with hereditary illnesses harms healthy Germans. It presents institutional care as a violation of natural selection and a waste of resources. The movie was shown in all German cinemas to build support for the T-4 Euthanasia Program.

coldclinicaldisturbingpropagandisticmatter-of-factunsettlingpreachy

What happens

Victims of the Past (original German title: Opfer der Vergangenheit: Die Sünde wider Blut und Rasse, English: Victims of the Past: The Sin against Blood and Race) is a Nazi propaganda film made in 1937, directed by Gernot Bock-Stieber and Kurt Botner. This movie was a sequel to Erbkrank (Hereditary Illness), which showed images of inmates of German asylums in order to bolster public support for the planned T-4 Euthanasia Program for the mentally ill. The practices of providing institutions and care for the victims of hereditary diseases are described as transgressing the law of natural selection, and the expense of such care is depicted as a drain on healthy workers, and preventing the use of such money to help healthy Germans make better lives. It was shown in every cinema in Germany. Adolf Hitler reportedly liked it. Like the other five movies depicting the condition of the mentally ill in Germany, the movie was produced by the NS-Rasse und Politisches Amt (National Socialist Racial and Political Office). However, this film was the only one produced with sound. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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