Nazi Germany in Animation Works from 40s-60s - Research Paper Example

This was known as the Thaumatrope (Lenburg 272). This led to a series of progression in how the animations operated. Animations have been used since time immemorial to depict different aspects of human life. This ranges from people, scenarios, and events in the past, present and projected ones in the future. Use of animation has proved to be effective and has come in handy where there is no video. However, animations have also been used to propagate vices such as racism and hate speech. Many studios have produced animations with a massive amount of racist work.

One of the notable cases is the racist animation used to depict Nazi Germany by Americans. This was in the period of 1940 to 1960 immediately after the 2nd world war (Langman 22). This paper shall thus reference into the investigation of the old animation works that occurred during the 1940s through to the 1960s over the massive amounts of the racist content that they showed. The paper shall also focus on the Nazi Germany and the manner by which the animations were depicted and were used. Again, information of how the Nazi Germany brought in the same issues affecting animation studios in America shall be investigated.

The reaction to the audience to the racist animations shall also be compared to the present day where these works have been banned. Between 1933 and 1945, Adolf Hitler ruled Germany through the Nazi party. Germany, at this time was referred to as Nazi Germany or Third Reich. Nazi Germany was responsible for the launching of the Second World War in the larger Europe. It was also responsible for the Holocaust, which led to the death of many Jews living in Europe and other minor tribes. Racism was quite rampant in the Nazi Germany.

The Nazis believed that some races were better than other was. Their racist stand was known, but nobody expected they would actually turn against their own people whom they ruled. Hitler had plainly made known his hatred for the Jews. This is why immediately he got to power; he spearheaded the movement against them, which led to the holocaust. Hitler would blame the Jews for all misfortunes in Germany. According to him, they had lost the 1st world war because of a conspiracy by the Jews. He also claimed that the Jews had attempted to destroy Germany, which led to the hyper inflation in 1923.

In January 1933, the Jews were labeled sub humans (Mauch, Christof & Kiran 201). Germans could no longer buy from Jewish shops as they were marked with the yellow Star of David. Soldiers were placed at the doors to make sure no one entered these shops. This was an attempt to drive the Jews into Bankruptcy. Jews were hard working and had earned many fortunes with time. The racism became worse when Jews had to sit on chairs marked for them in public places such as schools and bus parks. In schools, the teachers would openly ridicule Jewish children.

The racism became worse in 1935. The law of Nuremberg was passed making Jews lose their right as German citizens (Mauch, Christof & Kiran 223). Marriages between Jews and non-Jews were prohibited, and from this point on, violence against the Jews became intense. Since this period, and after the Second World War, short animations produced from various studios focused on racist content works. Many of these focused on the Nazi Germany. There were various charges against Disney. It was claimed that Disney was a Nazi.