The Nazis Strike


The Nazis Strike is the second film of Frank Capra's Why We Fight propaganda film series. It introduces Germany as a nation whose aggressive ambitions began in 1863 with Otto von Bismarck and with the Nazis as their latest incarnation.

Heartland Theory

Hitler's plan for world domination is described in terms of Halford Mackinder's Heartland Theory, starting at about three minutes into the film:

Fifth column activity

The next focus of the film is the "softening-up" of the Western democracies using fascist organizations such as the Belgian Rexists, the French Cross of Fire, the Sudeten German National Socialist Party of Konrad Henlein, the British Union of Fascists and the German American Bund. Meanwhile, within Germany the Nazis are beginning an enormous process of rearmament.
Germany then begins its territorial expansion with the first target being Austria, Hitler's "full-scale invasion test". He then uses his Sudeten "stooges" under Konrad Henlein to "soften up" Czechoslovakia and annex the Sudetenland with the help of a Britain and France desperate to avoid war. Hitler's use of the concept of self-determination as a justification for these annexations is ridiculed by reference to prominent German Americans thoroughly loyal to the Allied cause, including Admiral Chester Nimitz, Henry J. Kaiser, Wendell Willkie and Senator Robert Wagner.

Invasion of Poland

The film concludes with the Invasion of Poland, which is depicted with many inaccuracies.
The extreme disparity between the two sides is emphasized – the Nazis have 5,000 modern tanks against Poland's 600 obsolete models, while the Luftwaffe had 6,000 modern monoplanes opposed by the less than 1,000 aircraft of the Polish Air Force, many of which are outdated biplanes. Animation is also used to graphically show how Polish army units were encircled and destroyed. The film suggests that most of the Polish air force was destroyed on the ground, and that the Polish Army relied heavily on mounted cavalry – suggesting that its makers learned the details of the Polish campaign largely from Nazi propaganda, where both claims were often made. The stubborn resistance of Polish forces in the Hel peninsula is recognized, as are the widespread Nazi atrocities following the Polish defeat. Overall, the movie gives the false impression that Polish army was ineffective, pathetic even, and did no damage to the Germans. The film also alleged that there was widespread collaboration with the invading Germans.
The Nazis are forced to stop at the Bug River when they meet the advancing Red Army. The film misrepresents the Nazi–Soviet alliance, claiming that the pact was signed only after West had turned down Soviet requests to ally themselves against the Germans, and that overall "it didn't make any sense." As the film was made when the Soviets were allied to the Western democracies against the Nazis, the film justifies this occupation by the Soviet need to obtain a buffer zone against a further Nazi advance to the east, and implies that the Soviets entered Poland to stop Hitler, this time repeating Soviet propaganda. The movie makes no mentions of the Soviet invasion and their battles with the Polish border forces, or that the Soviets broke their non-aggression pact with Poland. Soviet atrocities against the local population are omitted as well.
The film then notes that Hitler now turns west to finish off Britain and France, which have declared war on Nazi Germany, rather than risk a two-front war, leading to the third part of the installment, which deals with the German invasion of Western Europe. It concludes with the quote by Winston Churchill from his speech to Allied delegates in 1941:

Critical reception

Polish-American historian Mieczysław B. Biskupski gives a harsh review of the movie, calling it "a conglomeration of patriotic exhortation, crackpot geopolitical theorizing, and historical mischief making." He notes that the film was more than inaccurate, that it was an intentional attempt to falsify certain facts about the war, in particular, through its misportrayal of the Soviets. The film casts Poles into the role of failure, and Soviets into the role of guiltless saviors, thus serving a clear ideological role of justifying the Anglo-American alliance with the Soviet Union.