Walt Disney Animated Short - Education for Death (1943) Remastered 4K 60FPS

AI Video Upscaling Program Used: https://www.topazlabs.com/topaz-video-ai/r... (Affiliate) Education for Death: The Making of the Nazi is a thought-provoking animated propaganda short film created by Walt Disney Productions, released on January 15, 1943, through RKO Radio Pictures. Directed by Clyde Geronimi and chiefly animated by Milt Kahl, Ward Kimball, Frank Thomas, and Bill Tytla, the film is based on the non-fiction book of the same title authored by American writer Gregor Ziemer. The storyline follows Hans, a young boy born and raised in Nazi Germany, his indoctrination into the Hitlerjugend, and his ultimate march to war.

The film begins with a German couple proving their pure Aryan lineage to a Nazi German supreme judge, who then approves their son's name, Hans, and dedicates him to the service of Der Fuehrer Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. The couple is rewarded with a copy of Mein Kampf for their allegiance. As Hans grows up, he is exposed to a distorted version of Sleeping Beauty that portrays Hitler as the heroic knight rescuing an obese Valkyrie representing Germany from the clutches of a witch symbolizing democracy. Consequently, Hans becomes captivated by Hitler, and he, along with other young Hitler Youth members, salutes a portrait of Hitler dressed as a knight.

When Hans falls sick, his mother prays for his recovery, fearing the authorities will send him to a death camp. A Nazi officer demands that she nurse Hans back to health quickly and ensure he is ready for service, implying that if Hans does not recover, he will be euthanized. The officer also orders her not to do anything that might weaken Hans's resolve or spirit. Hans eventually recovers and resumes his "education" in a classroom where he and his classmates, all dressed in Hitlerjugend uniforms, salute portraits of Hitler, Hermann Goering, and Joseph Goebbels. After witnessing a cartoon of a rabbit being eaten by a fox, Hans sympathizes with the rabbit, but his teacher reprimands him and forces him to conform to the belief that the weak must be destroyed.

Hans later participates in a book-burning campaign, incinerating books containing ideas that oppose Hitler's ideology (such as works by Albert Einstein, Baruch Spinoza, and Voltaire), replacing the Bible with Mein Kampf and the crucifix with a Nazi sword. He spends his teen years in the Sturmabteilung uniform and eventually becomes a "Good Nazi" in Wehrmacht uniform, consumed by hatred for anyone opposing Hitler. Devoid of laughter, hope, tolerance, or mercy, Hans and his fellow German soldiers march to war only to vanish into rows of identical graves marked by swastikas and helmets.

Education for Death: The Making of the Nazi was produced during a time when Disney was under a government contract to create 32 animated shorts between 1941 and 1945. After the financial failure of Fantasia (1940), which led to near-bankruptcy and a strike involving half of Disney's employees, the studio secured a contract with the U.S. government to produce 32 short propaganda films at $4,500 each, thus saving the company from bankruptcy and keeping employees on payroll.

In the film, the dialogue is in German, and no English subtitles or direct translations are provided. Adolf Hitler's voice is featured in a scene depicting a torchlight rally. The short was released on May 18, 2004, on Walt Disney Treasures: Walt Disney on the Front Lines.

The book Education for Death by Gregor Ziemer, an American author and educator who lived in Germany from 1928 to 1939, highlights the Nazi education of German youth. Ziemer's book inspired two adaptations: Education for Death and Hitler's Children. The former takes Ziemer's observations very seriously, showcasing Hans's transformation from an innocent, kind youth into a chained and muzzled Nazi drone. The stormtrooper and hiking trip scene is adapted into a classroom setting, where the teacher instructs the students about nature's laws, emphasizing the strong fox's right to kill the weak rabbit. When Hans disagrees with the teacher, he is punished until he conforms. The book-burning scene is incorporated into the film's ending, illustrating Nazi transformation and destruction. The scene shows a torch-bearing crowd setting fire to books by John Milton, Baruch Spinoza, Albert Einstein, Voltaire, and Thomas Mann, as well as Felix Mendelssohn's wedding march, which alludes to the Nazi race laws, and a pile of burning artwork.