Classic Shorts Showcase: Education For Death: The Making of a Nazi

Hi and welcome to a different Classic Shorts Showcase, then what your used to.  Yes, I've reviewed dark shorts in the past but this is perhaps the darkest thing I've looked at from Disney and perhaps the scariest. (Except for that dam donkey scene)   Anyways, if you saw last's week Showcase, you  know that I reviewed a WWII short and today, I'll be reviewing another WWII short.  Folks, there's no beating around the bush with this short, it's uncomfortable to watch. Not because it's bad, quite the opposite, it's very good but rather, it's subject matter is what makes it  a hard sit.   Before I get too far into the review, there are some things that should be adressed,  this is perhaps the darkest and grimmest short I'll ever cover. Some of the images from this short may upset or offend some readers and if  you feel that these images will upset, you,  your best bet is to just click out of here now.  This short's title should give away what it's about  and I like to think my fans are mature enough to handle this subject in a serious light.  Now  I should explain why I chose this and the other two WWII shorts to review.   I've always had an interest in this particular area of history and well, these shorts help me to better understand the "How"  and the "Why"   What I mean by this I look at these shorts and took a Holocaust Studies course to better understand twhy the Holocaust happened  and  to also see how it happened.   I don't need to tell you that I don't have the answers to the "How" or the "Why"   but these shorts, Holocaust Museums and classes about the Holocaust give me greater insight into the "How" and "Why". Well, I've put it off long enough, let's get to the review.


The Plot


The basic plot of this short is what the title suggest,  we see the making of a Nazi as we follow young Hans  from birth to adulthood, where all he does is heil and march, heil  and march.  He learns how to become a Nazi and that only the strong should survive.  Of course,  his parents first had to have his name approved and so they had to go here.

The name is safe for now.  Also you'll notice the swastika  all over in this short and I have to say that I'm impressed the animators were able to make that building feel big.  Anyways back to the plot, it's a great idea to do this way because I think this is the most observant way it could've been done.  To me,  the plot is part of what makes this short so effective but it's also the imagery.



Narration


Narrator - Art Smith

The  use of narration is unique.  The narration was done almost like a documentary and that style works for this short and I really feel that was the best way to go with this short because the more they treated it as though it were real, it made the short feel more realistic.




Character


Hans

Hans as a character was a blank slate that comes from the fact that he was a child throughout most of the short.  It was so interesting watching him as he grew up from a young who was innocent and had his own beliefs into a young man who thought the Nazi way.  This is best shown when he is told when his teacher asks him about a drawing on the chalkboard of a fox and and a rabbit and at first, he feels sympathy for the rabbit but over time, he's told that he's wrong and this convinces him that the rabbit is too weak to survive.  While I won't say I connected to Hans,  I will say that I felt bad for what he was becoming.


Ending Images


Now again,  this is an area that needs to be discussed because the imagery in this short is some of the most powerful.

Remember what I said about thinking the Nazi way, this picture represents that here with them blocking out anything that isn't Nazi. Eerie but effective!

I enlarged this image from it's original size so that you could get a better understanding of what it is.  At the very end of the short, we see members of the Third Reich marching along but as the short closes out, they are replaced with crosses with their helmets on the crosses and I take that to mean these Nazi soldiers had died. Again, this goes back to the title Education For Death.



My Final Thoughts


It's hard to say where I stand on this short and I'm not sure that I did a good enough job covering it here but  I hope that I've gone into enough detail to give you an idea of what this short is. As I said, this short is a hard sit because of the subject matter.  Would I reccomend it?   This is one short, where I'm not sure because I think that you need to make the decision of whether or not you can handle this short.  It's really good but very depressing and might easily upset some.  This is one Disney short that I would not show to a young child because A. it wasn't intended for them and it's too dark for a child.   Now that's my thinking but I could be wrong.  I think I've said everything that I need to about this short.   For the next short, I need something light and fluffy. But what, oh I know...

Lambert The Sheepish Lion