The Nazi Titanic

Discussion in 'Books, Films, TV, Radio' started by Oggie2620, Mar 6, 2012.

  1. Oggie2620

    Oggie2620 Senior Member

    I have just watched a really interesting programme on Channel 5. Not something very many people know about. This is quote from the Channel 5 site:


    The bizarre story of a forgotten propaganda film made by the Nazis about the sinking of the Titanic.

    Made at the height of World War II, this film was conceived as the ultimate propaganda movie with the famous disaster recast as a story of Allied weakness and German courage. At the time it was one of the most expensive and ambitious movies ever filmed. The story of its creation rivals a Hollywood movie script with tales of betrayal, murder and massacre. It featured military personnel moved from the front to act as extras, the director was arrested and possibly executed on the orders of Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels and, in the last days of the war, the ship used for the filming was sunk (by the RAF) with many Jews on board, as the Nazis tried to cover up the horrors of the Holocaust. The Nazis shot as many as they could that escaped drowning...

    For 60 years, the film was shrouded in secrecy. Now, using Goebbels’s private diaries, unseen home-movies shot behind-the-scenes during the production and the original production design book, we reveal for the first time the extraordinary story of the Nazi Titanic.

    Interesting that some of the scenes filmed were later used in a British film in 1958 about the Titanic called "A night to remember! www.imdb.com/title/tt0051994/

    Heres some more interesting articles:
    www.hsse.nie.edu.sg/staff/blackburn/Nazititanic.html
    www.media-awareness.ca/english/resources...ucting_titanic_4.cfm
     
  2. wowtank

    wowtank Very Senior Member

    I believe that been on TV before.
     
  3. Drew5233

    Drew5233 #FuturePilot 1940 Obsessive

    Aptly timed for the 100th anniversary. Not sure what propaganda they hoped to get from a ship that sunk before WW1.
     
  4. At Home Dad (Returning)

    At Home Dad (Returning) Well-Known Member

    you have to kind of admire the chutzpah of Goebals...

    the way he wasted money on ideological vanity projects
    (when his nation REALLY needed those funds to fight war)
    reminded me of good ol' Gordon Brown!
     
  5. Kuno

    Kuno Very Senior Member

    @ Oggie; do I understand your above statement correct: The RAF has sunk the ship full of "KZ-people" as the Nazis tried to cover up the horrors of the Holocaust.

    Would you plese provide some details here?
     
  6. Oggie2620

    Oggie2620 Senior Member

    It seems that the people were moved from the camps right in the last few days of the war onto the ship. They thought that maybe the Germans were going to remove them from the country but the RAF intervened by bombing the ship and a whole fleet of others (dont think they realised it the camp people on it). Anyway the Germans were preventing people leaving so a lot drowned but some did get away and as they were trying to come ashore the Germans were apparently shooting them both in the water and as they got out. Those people who did escape were I think very lucky!!!

    Obviously it might be Channel 5 making something out of nothing but they quoted a survivor...
     
  7. Efamily

    Efamily Junior Member

    This programme jarred with me. The main reason apart from the "tabloid" look was the very poor editing and use of inappropriate stock film.

    For example the narration was about Nazi use of film as propaganda, cue stock scenes of Neremburg rallies, except I would swear that one brief clip was of massed troops in GI issue helmets. Later on when the narrator says some thing along the lines, "SS troops machine gunned surviors of the Cap Arkona in the water", cue scenes of German soldiers machine gunning assault landing craft! there were many other examples.

    When such poor standards of program making are evident it makes me wonder is it at all credible as a history. Loked this afternoon at Ch5 web page and the comments underline what I have suspected.

    Nazi Titanic: Revealed | Revealed | Channel 5

    So what was "Revealed" not the truth anyway.

    Nick
     
  8. Ramiles

    Ramiles Researching 9th Lancers, 24th L and SRY

    There's a BBC audio drama called "Sunk" - originally aired as Saturday drama, about (4pm Sunday 29th April 2018) to be repeated on Radio4 extra / BBC Iplayer etc.:

    BBC Radio 4 - Saturday Drama, Mike Walker - Sunk

    Mike Walker - Sunk
    Saturday Drama

    A drama to mark the 100 year anniversary of the Launch of Titanic (31st May 1911).

    This is the fascinating story behind the 1943 Nazi propaganda film, Titanic, which was up until then, the most expensive German film ever. The film was commissioned by Goebbels with a view to discredit British and American capitalists. Ironically, this production became a symbol for the corruption and 'sinking' of the Third Reich itself.

    Cast
    Walter Zerlett-Olfenius .....Richard Laing
    Herbert Selpin.....Blake Ritson
    Joseph Goebbels.....Jason Watkins
    Hans Nielsen .....Nick Dunning
    Sybille Schmitz .....Lucy Cohu
    Ernst Fritz Furbringer .....Miche Doherty
    Miss Volkmaan.....Séainín Brennan
    The Barman.....Paul Kennedy

    Producer/Director.....Gemma McMullan

    Mike Walker is one of the UK's leading radio dramatists and is also a feature and documentary writer and published author.
     

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