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POLITICAL FILMS OF THE REICH - PART III: JUNGES EUROPA - THE HITLER YOUTH NEWSREELS * with switchable English subtitles *

Junges Europa was a series of "newsreels" for the Hitler Youth put out between 1942 and 1944.  There appears to have been seven newsreels total, of which three are presented here.  It is clear that the newsreels were designed to run in conjunction with Die Deutsche Wochenschau newsreels, shown in theatres with feature films.  Whether the Hitler Youth newsreels were to run only with certain films aimed at youthful audiences is not known.
 
 
JUNGES EUROPA NR. 1  (1942):
 
Auxilliary firefighting units of the Hitler Youth go into action; BDM girls become streetcar conductors and ticket punchers; Dutch children in a National Socialist educational camp; A Hitler Youth chior sings at a convalescent hospital; German youth help with the harvest and colonize farms in the annexed East; Feeding wildlife in the Alpine regions; The Hitler Youth Marine in training; Italian fascist youth in a paramilitary training camp. 
 
In German with switchable English subtitles.  Overall, very good film quality.  Approximately 13 minutes.
 
 
JUNGES EUROPA NR. 5 (1943):
 
Trainees graduate from the Adolf Hitler School; BDM girls sew clothing for and take care of children from bombed-out neighborhoods; A practice drill with the HJ Marine; In a glider training camp of the Hitler Youth; Hitler Youth train on assault boats.
 
In German with switchable English subtitles. Overall, very good film quality.    Approximately 12 minutes.
 
 
JUNGES EUROPA NR. 7 (1944):
 
Slovakian youth are trained to become soldiers; Rumanian children in armament plants; German and Spanish youth honor the fallen Kondor Legion airmen in Spain; In a camp for children evacuated from air raid threatened lands in Bohemia and Moravia; Hitler Youth train to be grenadiers and sappers; Hitler Youth train to be Gebirgsjager; German youth do their part in the factories.
 
In German with switchable English subtitles. Overall, very good film quality. Approximately 11 minutes.
 
 
Also included on this DVD are two supplementary political films:
 
 
HELFERINNEN DER WEHRMACHT  (1942):
 
This film details the work of female volunteers in the service of the Wehrmacht.  By 1944, almost all of them were considered de facto Wehrmacht personnel and the positions were no longer voluntary.  We see them working as communications officers; anti-aircraft helpers; training horses for frontline duty; firefighting; truck maintenance; etc.
 
In German with switchable English subtitles. The film quality depends on the source material.  Overall, decent, but unsharp, film quality.  Some sound issues. Approximately 7 minutes.
 
 
HANDE AM WERK  (1935):
 
The full title of this piece is Hande am Werk - Ein Lied von deutscher Arbeit, and the title is appropriate.  This can best be described as a "symphonic poem", with most of the film being music and a pictorial presentation of the various forms of labor, which were making a place for Germany among the top industrial producers of a world deep in economic recession.  The economy in Germany was starting to recover under the Weimar government when Hitler took office in 1933; but the Nazis reaped the credit for a sharp turn around in unemployment by launching a massive public works project.  At a time when most of the world looked enviously at Germany's falling unemployment rates and the Nazis' success in pulling the country out of the worldwide Depression, a film about and dedicated to labor was no abstract concept the common man couldn't understand.  Interestingly enough though, the scenes and messages of the film remind me very much of similar films put out at the time in the USSR, another country, which was able to boast "full" employment in a world where work and bread were hard to come by.
 
In German with switchable English subtitles. Unsharp and indistinct features. Approximately 54 minutes.
 
 
TOTAL DURATION:  97 MINUTES.  IN GERMAN WITH SWITCHABLE ENGLISH SUBTITLES