Many people know the story of the Titanic from the blockbuster hit starring Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio. However, another motion picture made decades earlier cast the tragedy in a much different light.
In 1943, Adolf Hitler’s minister of propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, commissioned the movie “Titanic,” with the government’s own take on the ship disaster – one founded on hatred. The film depicted the British as greedy, cowardly, and incompetent.
Ron Foley MacDonald of the Titanic Film Festival in Halifax calls the flick “A feature film extravaganza that would expose the Titanic as a kind of critique of British character and imperial ambition.”
“There’s no question it’s a propaganda piece. It was commissioned by Goebbels himself, who was the propaganda minister. And the whole purpose was to make the British look bad.”
The 1943 movie was a stark contrast to the James Cameron-directed Hollywood hit that premiered in 1997. Instead, the Nazis portrayed the Titanic’s voyage as an exercise in corporate greed, even creating a fictional, heroic character whose warnings went unheeded.
That “hero” was a German first officer named Peterson.
“To keep to the course and at full speed would endanger the lives of more than 2,000 people,” Peterson says to the character of J. Bruce Ismay, president of the White Star Line that owned the Titanic. Ismay was featured as the villain in many Titanic films.
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Peterson went to say, “In the event of an accident, the space in the lifeboats isn’t sufficient to rescue even a small number of the passengers.”
Historian Andy Webb says, “He’s, in effect, the only one onboard who knows they’re headed for disaster. He tries to get them to slow down, to adopt a much safer course.
“If only they’d listened to this German officer, all would have been well.”
“Peterson” was right, of course, but the prideful English wouldn’t listen in this fictional account of what happened aboard the doomed liner.
A documentary, airing April 15 on History Television, uses original production documents and recently discovered sections of Goebbels’s diary to give insight on the Nazis’ “Titanic.”
The German military played a significant role during the movie’s production. Marines were pulled from war duty to appear as extras. Even a large navy ship was used to act as the Titanic’s double.
The motion picture’s budget spiralled out of control, however, to about $200 million U.S.
Then, tragedy struck director Herbert Selpin. “(He) had uttered some remarks about the German army that were not flattering,” Foley MacDonald says.
“He was arrested and found hanging in his cell the next day.” The ill-fated director had been garroted with his own suspenders.
Selpin had also refused to follow orders, resisting efforts to make the British appear more cowardly.
Another director finished the movie in 1943. It was a flop, and Nazi censors pulled it from theatres because audiences were too sympathetic to the passengers. It was banned in Germany, but not forever.
The movie resurfaced years after World War II – without the propaganda.
“As much as the story was about a terrible tragedy, the 1943 German Titanic itself was a disaster.”
In Halifax, the Titanic Film Festival will show the 1943 version of “Titanic” for free on Monday at 7 PM at the Dal Art Gallery.
The documentary “Nazi Titanic” airs Sunday, April 15 nationwide on History Television at 3 PM PDT; 4 PM MDT (CST in Saskatchewan); 2 PM CDT; 3 PM EDT; and 4 PM ADT. Please check your local listings for repeated broadcasts.
With files from Global National’s Ross Lord and Postmedia News
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