Abstract

These selections from amateur films during the Third Reich give a sense of what historians have come to call “everyday life” in Nazi Germany. The use of personal movie cameras increased during the 1930s, as technological advances made all forms of cameras ever more affordable for consumers. Scholars have even referred to the amateur movie movement of the 1930s. In these excerpts from private collections, we see Hitler’s butler in color film with his family (1938), a boat trip and outing for World War I veterans and their families organized by a local NSDAP chapter (1933), and a glimpse of spectators at the Degenerate Art exhibit of 1937. While these excerpts capture more noted examples of Third Reich history, there are numerous films of family, friends, and leisure that do not have direct connections to Hitler or Nazi ideology.

Private Home Videos I: Daily Life in Nazi Germany (1933-1938)

Source

Source: Compilation of footage from the Vosskamp, Julien Bryan, and Bechtler collections.

USHMM: RG-60.4953
Title: World War I soldiers and families travel to Wesel for an SA march and celebration
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, gift of Peter, Ralph, and Edith Liebner

USHMM: RG-60.0375
Title: "Entartete Kunst" (Degenerate Art) exhibition
Accessed at United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Library of Congress

USHMM: RG-60.6950.049
Title: Arthur Kannenberg & Bechtler collection footage
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

© USHMM