A Walk Through the 20th Century With Bill Moyers; WWII: The Propaganda Battle

<v Announcer>In keeping with Chevron's tradition of service throughout the 20th century, the people of Chevron bring you this program in support of public television. <v Bill Moyers>I'm Bill Moyers, propaganda has been around ever since the serpent seduced Eve with the illusion that a taste of forbidden fruit would make you the equal of God. It worked, Eve bit and learned that rose gardens don't grow from green apples, but it worked. And that's what counts about propaganda, not whether it's true, but rather it moves someone to act. The aim of the propagandist is to create attitude and moral behavior. Long ago, rulers and priests used magnificent monuments, august palaces and dazzling emblems, magic totems and wondrous legends, simple parables and proverbs, all to inspire awe and obedience from the common folk. We owe the actual word to the church, to those cardinals who in 1622 organized to carry on missionary work in the name of the congregation for the propagation of the faith. But it's our century, the 20th that created the superstate and put into the hands of its propagandists a power beyond the dreams of the ancient sorcerers. This power, the power of film. Until this century, people had to be won over by individual persuasion or in crowds. Mass communications change that. Film in particular. Now the propagandists could reach the whole crowd at once and yet touch each person in that crowd individually. We saw this powerfully and frighteningly demonstrated during the Second World War. The first war in which both sides used motion pictures as weapons. Our broadcast is about that war of ideas whose combatants fought not with artillery and tanks, but with images and symbols. Berchtesgaden, Germany, a popular ski resort in the German Alps. Fritz Hippler has been living here among the sunny slopes since 1948. He is a retired but robust 70 years old, a respected member of the community. But 40 years ago, Fritz Hippler was a film maker for Adolf Hitler. His name is in the history books as the director of the hate film of all time, The Eternal Jew. <v Film clip>[Film clip from "The Eternal Jew"] [Speaking in German]

<v Bill Moyers>Audiences gasped at scenes like this one, sensationalizing the Jewish practice of ritual butchery. The shock of such scenes reinforced a calculated campaign of anti-Semitism aimed at arousing German emotions to accept the coming Nazi slaughter of the Jewish people. Today, he lives on this quiet little street. His house commands a view of the German Alps and the former country estate of Adolf Hitler. Fritz Hippler is obviously not a man troubled by his memories. <v Fritz Hippler>You see, there's a famous oversight's back where Hitler's house stand up to the date where it was blown up some years after the war. In the last months of the war it was bombed by allied air fleet. And some days after it was blown up, it disappeared. And there, above the peak of the hill, you see a little house, that's the so-called eagle's nest, the house guests of Hitler were transported when they visited him. <v Bill Moyers>A frequent guest was Fritz Hippler's boss, Joseph Goebbels, minister of popular enlightenment and propaganda. These color movies taken by Hitler's mistress Eva Braun, show the comings and goings of the men who ran Nazi Germany. Joseph Goebbels was one of the most powerful. His job to forge a nation's will through propaganda

<v Film clip>[Propaganda film clip, speaking in German, subtitles on screen as follows] Power based on guns may be good, but it is far better to win and hold the hearts of the people. <v Bill Moyers>Both Goebbels and Hitler were persuaded of the power of film to sway those hearts by stabbing directly to the seat of emotions. They were so obsessed with film that each had his own private viewing room where he could retire after dinner to screen movies of all kinds. One night, Goebbels arranged to show the Lambeth Walk. This was a short film produced by the British to ridicule the Nazis. Hitler's propaganda minister was eager to see what the enemy was up to. His chief of motion picture production, Fritz Hippler was there. <v Fritz Hippler>Goebbels was with his family and in his room where he showed film performances. I arrived a little later and then he told to me, you must see a little film. That's the greatest shameless impertinence I ever saw invented by a Jewish brain. See it and make your decision.

<v Film clip>[Clip from "Doing The Lambeth Walk," speaking German and footsteps set to catchy music]. <v Fritz Hippler>This impression was for me, so terrible that I fell into a laughter, which I couldn't stop. It was like we call it, kampf, I don't know your word. I could not stop to laugh and riot laughing, I saw into Goebbel's face who looked at me very strange and and told me that I had strange ideas in having such a reaction to this terrible and shameless film, but I couldn't help it. But after one minute, his wife began to accompany my laughter to and as the other people beside Goebbels also laughed. And thus the situation was the same for me. <v Bill Moyers>Fritz Hippler was 17 years old when he joined the Nazi Party as a student organizer. He was an early convert for in the late 1920s, the Nazis were still a scattered gang of extremists on the fringes of society.

<v Fritz Hippler>All right, this time I was quite a simple member of the party and I marched with the other one through the streets of Berlin. I tried to win more and more members for my students movement, and I succeeded in getting a majority in the University of Berlin and then other high schools. <v Bill Moyers>The Nazis needed bright, young, true believers to forge their propaganda weapons. And Hitler believed as the swastika rose over Germany, he'd climb the ladder of Nazi power. By 1936, he was head of German newsreels. <v Fritz Hippler>My task was to convince the masses of our German policy and no dictatorship and no totalitarian state. So new as a newsreels as well as the journals have a right to report objectively. In a totalitarian state, so media film as well as a press has the same, the same task as a publicity department and a big concern and a big and a big firm. <v Film clip>[Film clip of German newsreel, speaking German with live translation to English] Tank destroyers ready for battle, day after day long trains loaded with weapons and ammunition of all types leave German armament plants.

<v Fritz Hippler>And in the same way as they don't talk about bad possibilities, we didn't talk about these things. We only showed the good sides and not the dangerous. Every week I was sitting in cinemas and witness myself the effect of these newsreels upon the audience, but what is more important is that the so-called Security Service or the SS had agents in all towns and villages who looked at the audience and how the audience reacted, said this man or this woman had not applauded. We were informed about some of the actions of every newsreel. <v Film clip>[Film clip of German newsreel, speaking German with live translation to English] Mass rally in the Berlin Sportpalast honoring workers and technicians at Nazi arms plants.

<v Fritz Hippler>I think the main thing of propaganda is what Goebbels repeated at all times. The secret of propaganda is to simplify complex or complicated things, to make them as simple as possible, as simple that even the less ingenious men can understand what I mean, simplify. And then if you had found the form, which tells a complicated thing in the simplest way when you have found this form, then secondly, repeat it, repeat it every day, simplify and repetition. That's the secret of modern propaganda. I was not only successful in the newsreels, I also completed some documentary films, and in 1939, the chief of the film department of the Propaganda Ministry and went. There are several reasons why he went and I was called as his successor and I had to supervise all film companies that existed in Germany. This was undoubtedly an exciting thing. So it would be the same as when you would be elected to be the chief of the American film industry would be also exciting for you or for everyone. <v Bill Moyers>It is 1939. The Nazis have begun their conquest of Europe and Fritz Hippler is at the height of his career. From director of the newsreels, he's become head of the entire German film industry. He's just 30 years old. Two of his feature length documentaries campaign in Poland and Victory in the West will be shown to audiences around the world, including viewers in a still neutral America. Their purpose is to arouse German national pride through demonstration of German might. But there's another message, too, for viewers abroad. Brute force devouring flame. These are the faces Hitler expected would frighten the world into appeasing him. Yet even Adolf Hitler must disguise aggression with a fig leaf of excuse. And he knows how. He has said, quote, The great masses of the people will more easily fall victim to a big lie than to a small one. The big lie about Poland, as you'll see, is that the invasion is liberation for Germans living in Danzig and elsewhere under Polish rule and revenge for the atrocities those Germans have allegedly suffered. Intelligent citizens within Germany watched and believed.

<v Fritz Hippler>"Campaign in Poland" was a composition of the most effective parts of all the newsreels we got from the so-called propaganda companies. The purpose of the film was to show the German public the campaign from the beginning up to the end,

<v Film clip>[Film clip of "Campaign in Poland"] Everywhere where Germans live, our troops are heartily and gratefully welcomed. The days of terror and Polish persecutions are over once and for all. All signs recalling the years of foreign rule are quickly removed. Polish murderers are being confronted with their tortured victims in one of the last prisoners' camps. Here, for instance, is a man who recognizes the murderer of his brother. <v Fritz Hippler>It's clear that all sorts the film campaign in Poland had one task in showing the German people the German strength. And to show in the same way as we got the victory, now we all get to victory after those. Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur in Latin, and this means that people always want to hear things and the events that are agreeable.

<v Film clip>[Film clip of newsreel, speaking German with live translation to English] On the morning of June 1st, a German armored division proceeded to attack the river Sauer. <v Fritz Hippler>This film was a documentation of the reasons why is a war against the Western countries began and in which way it marched up to the victory. This time, we had also a special unit of cameramen and we had a task to be the first to ahead to get the immediate impression of the combat. Because it was not only a film directed towards the German public, so it was also a film directed towards all the world to show them keep out of the World War. Do your own work and let us do our work. It's quite clear that's the impression of this film was very depressing to all people in the other countries. The effect on German audience was a big wave of sympathy and of applause. That's quite clear, just rolls of film where the very, very great and deep and success in with all Germans.

<v Bill Moyers>This poster announced a different kind of film. The Nazis, you see, were up to something else beyond demonstrating their power or arousing the pride of Germany. They intended to incite hatred of the Jews. Anti-Semitism was an old story in the world in the 1930s, but mass propaganda helped to make national policy of genocide. When the young Fritz Hippler turned his talents to the Nazi cause, he became an accomplice to the mass murder of millions.

<v Film clip>[Film clip of newsreel, speaking in German, subtitles as follows] Men and women of Germany, the era of over-refined Jewish intellectualism has ended forever. The breakthrough provided by the revolution has made our streets German once again. <v Fritz Hippler>The German people was not more anti-Jewish than all other peoples, the French people were was much more anti-Jewish than the German people. And this fact didn't please to Hitler and to Goebbels. They both wanted to have the German people much more anti-Semitic than it was. All the journalists, the press, and also by means of the film. So people was shown pictures to make them anti-Semitic and the most terrible film, the most famous of them, "The Eternal Jew," bears my name in the beginning of the film and with this fact, was this fact I have to live since this time because I came to judges and to denazification chambers and so on and so on, because of this fact. <v Film clip>[Film clip from "The Eternal Jew," speaking in German, live translation to English] These of his, you know, mean These faces are a striking refutation of the liberal theories that all who bear the human countenance are equal. It is an admitted fact that Jews will change their external appearance as they leave their breeding sites in Poland to work in other parts of the world. Payot and beard, skullcap and caftan are Jewish characteristics that everyone will recognize. Without these, it takes a sharp eye indeed to detect their racial origins.

<v Fritz Hippler>We thought that the Jewish people would have a bad fate, but a fate consisting only in being transferred to another region of Poland, to an eastern region of Poland and out of Germany, to Poland and to this eastern region. <v Film clip>[Film clip from "The Eternal Jew," speaking in German, live translation to English] Wherever rats turn up, they spread annihilation throughout the land, destroying property and food supplies. This is how they disseminate disease, pestilence, leprosy, typhus, cholera, dysentery. Just like the Jews among mankind, rats represent the very essence of malicious and subterranean destruction.

<v Fritz Hippler>A film of hate. Yes, we had the same feeling, but we didn't talk about it, we couldn't prevent it. This was not our idea. What we- we did our job, but we didn't know what consequences could follow. And we had no idea that this could be a basis on which a mass murder would follow. <v Film clip>[Film clip from "The Eternal Jew," speaking in German, live translation to English] If the international Jewish bankers succeeded once again in precipitating the nations into a world war, the result will not be a victory of the Jews, but the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe.

<v Fritz Hippler>So propaganda has to make complicated things simple, so propaganda has to show the enemy on the other side as a devil and the own side as heaven. <v Film clip>[Film clip from "The Eternal Jew," speaking in German, live translation to English] The eternal law of nature, maintaining the purity of race is the legacy of the national socialist movement to the German people for all of time.

<v Fritz Hippler>We spoke to the souls or to the unconsciousness of the public. So propagandist, he has to speak the language of the masses, but by speaking so he also can govern the souls of the masses. <v Bill Moyers>Looking at Fritz Hippler's film The Eternal Jew, we must keep reminding ourselves that the purpose of propaganda is action. The viewers were expected to do something about what they saw. When other human beings are compared to rats and vermin that spread disease, it takes no great leap of imagination to know what you're expected to do with the creatures. Hippler's films were shown in neighborhood movie houses all over the country. Their target was everyone sitting before the hypnotic attraction of the screen and ultimately the mind of all Germany. How would America answer Hippler and Hitler? There is such a thing as pro-Democratic propaganda of course, even a brief glance at Tom Paine's sizzling 1776 pamphlet Common Sense shouting down British Rule of America can tell us that. But at root, democracy and propaganda are uneasy companions. The official propagandist in a totalitarian state is at home. The environment he works in totally control. Only his view of reality is broadcast. All others fall before the censor. Democracy, on the other hand, is a babble of competing propagandas so at war's outbreak we lack by on the very machinery for making ideas march to a single drum. And yet America did answer it, answer it effectively with a series of films made for the United States Army entitled "Why We Fight." Talk about arousing people to act. When Franklin Roosevelt watched the first one, he turned to the White House audience and said, "Every man, woman and child in the world must see this film." Sure enough, not only were American soldiers and civilians to see it, but it was shown in theaters all over the world, including the Soviet Union. For millions of people, "Why We Fight" brought the issues home in words and images everyone could understand. <v Film clip>[Film clip, "Why We Fight"] In Germany, they call the new order National Socialism or Nazism. In Italy, they had a shorter word. Fascism. In Japan, they had lots of names for it. A new era of enlightenment. The new order in Asia. The co-prosperity sphere, but no matter how you slice it, it was just plain old fashioned militaristic imperialism. They say trouble always comes in three. Take a good close look at this trio. Remember these faces. Remember them well. If you ever meet them, don't hesitate.

<v Bill Moyers>If these images look familiar, it isn't too surprising. "Why We Fight" took the genius of Axis filmmaking and turned it back upon itself. The footage for these American propaganda films was unwittingly supplied by the enemy, by Friz Hippler and his colleagues in Italy and Japan. Who was the genius behind all this? Who made the films that moved presidents, prime ministers and millions of citizens and soldiers around the world? Well, to answer the Nazis, the American government turned to Hollywood, California, and to a cocky little immigrant from Sicily named Frank Capra. <v Film clip>[Announcer on awards show clip] Ladies and gentlemen, the recipient of the 10th annual life achievement award, Mr. Frank Capra.

<v Bill Moyers>He represents all that is honored, respected and adored in Hollywood. Four times he won the Academy Award. His very name has become part of the language, Capra-esque. A sentimental blend of patriotism, humor and above all, a belief that life is rounded with a happy ending. Even now, we enjoy "It Happened One Night," "Meet John Doe" and "Mr. Smith goes to Washington." they were the stuff American dreams were then made of, an ordinary American taking on the system and against the odds, beating it. In 1941, Capra was at the peak of his career, enjoying the prospect of a multimillion dollar contract with United Artists. But all that was to be suddenly and swiftly changed. The world by now was anything but Capra-esque. <v Film clip>[Newsreel] December 7th, 1941. A date which will live in infamy.

<v Bill Moyers>American soldiers mobilized for war and with them, Major Frank Capra, 45 years old, salary, 250 dollars a month. The most talented people were being assembled from across the country to work for a new service of the United States Army, the morale branch. Capra reports directly to Chief of Staff General George C.. Marshall. When you first called on General Marshall at the Pentagon, what did he tell you he wanted you to do? <v Frank Capra>We come in and he said, you know, we have an enormous problem. He said, we know that if you shoot an American and he'll shoot back. But can he take this being away from home? Can he take this discipline? And his answer? In my opinion, he can if we tell him what he's fighting about. <v Bill Moyers>So General Marshall was asking you, in effect, to give the boys a reason to fight?

<v Frank Capra>Give the boys a reason to fight and don't lie. They must believe it. If they don't believe it, we're dead. <v Bill Moyers>Why did he think that films were the means to accomplish this? <v Frank Capra>Because he had tried it with lecturers. He had tried it with books. It wouldn't work. They weren't interested. The boys weren't learning anything. They wanted something the boys knew about that boys liked films. See, these boys liked and believed films. <v Bill Moyers>Had General Marshall seen some of your films? <v Frank Capra>Yes he had. He had seen quite a few of my films. As a matter of fact, he selected me out of the eye of a bunch of Hollywood guys when he got this idea that he must work with film. <v Bill Moyers>But your films were comedies in Hollywood. <v Frank Capra>He wanted somebody that could reach the people. That was able to reach the people that I had been able to reach the people who make films and make them laugh and cry, make them like things. Here I got the greatest heroes, the greatest villains on the world stage. Real, not actors, real. <v Film clip>[Film clip of "Why We Fight"] Causes and events leading up to our entry into the war. Well, what are the causes? Why are we Americans on the march? Is it because of Pearl Harbor? Is that why we are fighting? What is it because of?

<v Bill Moyers>What was your specific aim with "Prelude to War"? This was the first film, <v Frank Capra>First my specific aim was to show the difference between our method of living, our thinking about our families and so forth, and the enemies. The enemy was out to destroy, destroy anybody they didn't agree with. We were trying to mind our business over here, send our kids to school. We weren't the anti-war and we didn't want any war, part of any war. That's where we were <v Film clip>[Film clip of "Prelude to War," part of "Why We Fight" series, multiple people speaking one after the other] Another war? Not for me. This time America should keep out and I know I will. I haven't the slightest idea of European affairs. In the event of war in Europe, I think we should stay out of it entirely. We should mind our own business. By other means, no. Yes, fight! No! No! If my country calls, yes. No!

<v Frank Capra>Pearl Harbor turned the tables. <v Bill Moyers>What did you think you had to do to make them aware of what was at stake and to make them want to go? <v Frank Capra>To tell them what they had in mind? You see how Hitler looked like Charlie Chaplin? He came on to you, he did the [Capra mocks Hitler with a smattering of German phrases] and actually, you know, he was one of the Marx Brothers. For me. A lot of people laughed. And when Mussolini did his big, you know, big, big stuff. You thought he was a clown. <v Bill Moyers>Characters out of a Hollywood movie.

<v Frank Capra>A Hollywood movie. Yeah. If it weren't so evil, if there weren't so many people getting killed, it was a comedy. <v Bill Moyers>But what did you want Amer- America [cut off]. <v Frank Capra>High comedy. So your job? My job was to make believe that these people were real. And when they said Heil Hitler, they meant it. <v Bill Moyers>You know that incredible film Leni Riefenstahl made? Did you go see that? <v Frank Capra>I saw that and it scared the hell out of me. I went back to my little chair at my office and met and made one telephone. And I sat there and I sat there and I was like I was I was a very unhappy man. How can I possibly top this? <v Bill Moyers>It impressed you. <v Frank Capra>Tremendous. <v Bill Moyers>When you saw this incredible documentary that the Germans had done, what went through your mind?

<v Frank Capra>The enormous impact of it. I could see that it promised Superman stuff to them. I could see where the kids of Germany that would go anyplace and die for this guy. The power of the film itself, it should show that they knew what they were doing and they understood propaganda and then they understood how to reach the mind. So how how do I reach the kid down the street? You know? <v Bill Moyers>The American kid. <v Frank Capra>The American kid. How do I tell him he's riding his bike and, you know, you know, doing that in front of you, you've got this, how do I reach you? Thought hit me. Well, how did it reach me? They told me. <v Bill Moyers>In their film.

<v Frank Capra>Yeah, so I said, let's let them see only their stuff. We make nothing, we shoot nothing, but we use their own stuff as propaganda for ourselves, let them see, let them see the guys, let them see these guys. <v Film clip>[Film clip of "Why We Fight," Hitler speaking in German with live translation to English] Stop thinking and follow me, cried Hitler. I will make your masters of the world. And the people answered, "Heil!" Stop thinking and believe in me bellowed Mussolini, and I will restore the glory that was Rome. The people answered, "Duce! Duce!" Stop thinking and follow your God Empire, cried the Japanese warlords and Japan will rule the world and the people answered "Banzai! Banzai!" <v Bill Moyers>But the Signal Corps try to block you every every step of the way.

<v Frank Capra>Absolutely. <v Bill Moyers>They wanted to make films about how many battleships we had, how many submarines and our industrial might and all of this. How did you overcome the typical bureaucratic hostility to an outsider like yourself? <v Frank Capra>When I got this idea of using their films, turning it back on, turning them back on themselves. I said, where are the films? Where who's got the who's got the films? Well, nobody knew and nobody seemed to know where they were and wouldn't talk. And so I started out I went to, we first went to the FBI where are the enemy films are supposed to be? We don't know, try the Treasury. We went to the Treasury. Finally, we get that. I get down to a man who was alien property custodian and he's a little Jewish man. <v Bill Moyers>Alien property custodian.

<v Frank Capra>There's a little Jewish man. He says what can I do for you? And I say, sir, enemy films. What about them. I've got to have them. They tell me you've got 'em. He says I've got I've got warehouses full of them. I've got all the news reels for the last 25 years. Why do you want them? Oh Jesus. I said Mr. Claus, his name was Claus. Oh my. General Marshall has given me a job to do this so and so and so and so on, so to show to our people. Well, he said it's about time somebody does something like this, but you're too late. Five days ago, I got an order from the chief operating officer to deliver all this film to him. I said, Mr. Claus you're a citizen. Now let's take off our uniforms. I'm a citizen. If they get a hold of that film, it will never be used. It had been put away in the bins, nobody will know what the hell to do with it. I've got to have that film Mr. Claus and I can't get it from the ?inaudible?. They will never give it to me. He says Frank Capra. He knew who I was. "Mr. Smith goes to Washington" huh? I say yeah. He says, did you come in here 10 days ago and demand that I turn all these films over to you as an Army officer? I promise. I, I vow that I came here and asked you. Of course. Yes, sir. OK, he makes me sign things, and I signed up for the whole film. <v Film clip>[Film clip of "Why We Fight"] Applauding on cue the words of the leaders, each system did away with free speech and free assembly. Each system did away with a free press and substituted a press controlled by the party through their ministries of propaganda. Each took complete control of the theater, the movies, the radio. Every cultural activity in every channel of information was controlled by the most important members of the party. Each did away with free courts and trial by jury, each forced its decrees by an army of secret police who held the power of life and death over every individual. And for the few who still believed in freedom and said so, it was already aanswered. The greatest intellect in the world can be silenced with this. That is an exact translation of the words these Blackshirts cheer so lustily. [Man speaking German] Whenever I hear anyone mention the word culture, the first thing I do is reach for my gun. Yes, they had the answer. A black jacket and a gun.

<v Bill Moyers>You shall know, the truth.

<v Frank Capra>You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. <v Bill Moyers>What was the truth to Frank Capra about World War Two? <v Frank Capra>Truth was that if we lost, we lose our freedom, certainly above all that. And I thought freedom was our most precious commodity. And if we lost our freedom, we'd lose everything. <v Film clip>[Film clip of "Why We Fight"] The average American was quite unconscious of the fact that some people had this in mind for the little John Q's. <v Bill Moyers>But it literally thrives, "Prelude to War" conflicting and contrasting images, comparing the good things of the American life with the evils of the enemy

<v Frank Capra>And the danger to us that we were not aware of. <v Bill Moyers>Was that kind of sharp editing intercutting familiar to you? Was it something? <v Frank Capra>Yes it was. I must say we did it better than we had ever done before because we had to, well, I said we had an enormous story to tell. Great story to tell. Great, great stakes <v Bill Moyers>And so you don't have any doubts about film as moral warfare? <v Frank Capra>No, no, you don't have any doubts <v Film clip>[Film clip from "Why We Fight"] For this is what we are fighting. Freedom's oldest enemy. The passion of the few to rule the many. This isn't just a war. This is a common man's life and death struggle against those who would put him back into slavery. We lose it and we lose everything, our homes, the jobs we want to go back to, the books we read, the very food we eat, the hopes we have for our kids, the kids themselves. They won't be ours anymore. That's what's at stake, it's us or them. The chips are down. Two words stand against each other, one must die. One must live. 170 years of freedom decrees our answer. <v Bill Moyers>There was criticism of "Prelude to War" from some politicians.

<v Frank Capra>Yes. <v Bill Moyers>Some senators thought it was propaganda. <v Frank Capra>Yes. <v Bill Moyers>Some thought it was going to help Roosevelt get elected to the fourth term. <v Frank Capra>Yes. <v Bill Moyers>And curiously, some people thought it was going to cause the American people to hate. <v Frank Capra>Yes. Yes. That was Mr. Mellet. <v Bill Moyers>Senator? <v Frank Capra>Yes, he wanted, he thought it's too gruesome. The American people should not see this picture. They'll hate the Germans from there on. And then we never can be friends again <v Bill Moyers>Did that criticism bother you? <v Frank Capra>No. <v Bill Moyers>Did you want people to hate? <v Frank Capra>No, I don't want people to hate. I wanted to knock off people that hated. I wanted to stop that hatred. And you couldn't stop that hatred unless you unless you stopped it and you weren't you weren't going to stop it with candy bars. Now, not until they showed some of the stuff that we got at Dacchau that George Stevens photographed and his crew did actually impinge itself on the minds of the horror. The horror of this whole thing was was really then we believed. <v Bill Moyers>Did you believe this before you saw it?

<v Frank Capra>No. <v Bill Moyers>What was the impact on you? <v Frank Capra>Just simply it left me just speechless, colorless, bloodless. I couldn't possibly believe that there was that kind of savagery in the world between men. Men, the highest while the animals. Man, the man who created the God, who were the men who created all kinds of things. To end up here in a pile of bones burned. It was a terrible, terrible shock. You know, 30 million people died because Hitler says "mein kamph." 30 million people die. That little jerk, and he said these words and they followed them and it doesn't speak well for the human race. <v Bill Moyers>Do you ever wonder if Hitler and his propaganda chief, Goebbels and Hippler, realized they were giving Frank Capra the rope to hang them with?

<v Frank Capra>I don't think so. I think they I never I never heard that they get caught, but that's exactly what they did. They hung themselves. We didn't hang, we just showed them what they were. And they weren't pretty. And they were mad dogs. <v Bill Moyers>I was surprised when Frank Capra brought those still photos of the concentration camps with him to our interview. I hadn't expected it. He talked about them in a sad and incredulous voice, as if still stunned by the revelation. All these years later, he had made a series of propaganda films because, as he said, our freedom is at stake. But not until the war's end, and those photographs devolved to the unfathomable horror of mass murder, was it known how much more was also at stake. For Hippler's talents that helped to foster greater evil, those of Frank Capra to defeat it. And yet Capra was uncomfortable enough so to bring the photos as an additional justification for having himself been a propagandist, even a propagandist on democracy's behalf. Propaganda is not a disinterested search for truth. And because it isn't, it defies everything that Capra believed in, just as it embodies everything that Hitler's mentality so readily accepted. It's not the least of this century's paradoxes that something so potentially dangerous for truth and freedom became an indispensable weapon in the arsenal of their defense. I'm Bill Moyers. Here are some scenes of programs to come on our walk through the 20th century. Let's talk about some of what you referred to in the past as your happiest recollections. One was traveling with Harry Truman on his famous 1948 whistlestop campaign across America. And you call him Gallant Harry. Why was that? <v Unnamed political adviser>That was in 1948 when he was obviously defeated. He couldn't win. He was just helpless there. There were I think there were 50 reporters on that special train. And Newsweek took a poll. And every one of us, including I, we said he's going to be defeated. We all knew he was going to be defeated. And but he didn't know it. And we'd ask each other that anybody told him he can't win.

<v Bill Moyers>You said he got wonderfully corny. The further west he got <v Unnamed political adviser>He was just professionally corny. Yes. He was beyond belief, corny. He said, I'm going down to Berkeley for to get me a degree. And his he brought in his grandfather, who had been a covered wagon rider, and he kept bringing the grandfather in. And then some little scandal was supposed to have been exposed during his absence. And it didn't amount to anything. And his reply to that was, they can't prove nothing. They ain't got a thing on me. And my dear friend Tom Stokes put those two lines together and oh, Susanna, I'm going down to Berkeley for to get me a degree. They can't prove nothing. They ain't got a thing on me and they all sang well, there's always a there's always a song that grows out of any one of these trips. And he used to be in those days. <v Bill Moyers>Right from the start, we crowded around it, fascinated by what it could do. There wasn't much to look at, it wobbled and [inaudible] and scattered things in its path, noisy and insular. it threatened everything that stood motionless and much else besides. And the faithful horse could still beat it on the track. But somehow the auto was meant to be ours. And with hardly a backward glance, we let it brush us towards the future into a century on wheels. Being 16 in America means being old enough to drive and sports cars like the Thunderbird, the Corvette and the Mustang were designed with the young in mind. This is how you can get a girl or a guy and the best place to get to know them.

<v Bill Moyers>It was a decade for heroes and celebrities in sports, in the movies, and in personal accomplishments that caused us to respond with admiration and awe. It was a time of prohibition, speakeasies and gangsters and of high fashion, the roaring 20s they were called. And the decade did roar. But it was also a time of hard work for millions and a prejudice against radicals, labor and Blacks.

<v Unnamed commentator>I just characterize the 20s as the dream period of all time, everything seemed to go great and everybody seemed to look beautiful. <v Unnamed commentator 2>It was decadence, I think is the best way I could put it in one word. <v Unnamed commentator 3>We were working so hard for so little that eventually, after 10 years of that, we produced the Depression. <v Announcer>This program has been brought to you by the people of Chevron who have been helping to supply America's energy needs throughout the 20th century. Schools, colleges and other educational organizations may obtain videocassettes of "A Walk Through the 20th century with Bill Moyers" by calling 800-424-7963 or by writing PBS video post office box 8092 Washington, D.C. 200024. A teacher viewer Guide for the series has been developed by Primetime School Television, a nonprofit educational organization. The guide is available upon request from Chevron by writing "A Walk Through the 20th century with Bill Moyers" 742 Bancroft Way, Berkeley, California, 94710.