U.S. Pressbook for the film “Hitler, Beast of Berlin" (1939)

Pressbook for the American feature film “Hitler, Beast of Berlin” released by Producers Pictures Corporation in October 1939, and re-released in 1942. After encountering opposition from censorship boards, the film was alternatively called “Goose Step,” the title of the adapted novel, and eventually released as “Beasts of Berlin.” In the film, Hans Memling, his wife, and his brother-in-law are members of an underground Nazi-resistance movement. He is arrested and ends up in a camp as a political prisoner. Hans and the other prisoners are interrogated, beaten, and forced into slave labor at the hands of Nazi guards. This was the first American film to depict a simulated concentration camp in Germany. The film also includes newsreel footage of military marches and of Adolf Hitler himself. While it acknowledged a pervasive isolationist mentality, “Beasts” also appealed to the American values of democracy and freedom. Press materials encouraged a sensationalist marketing strategy while official statements claimed that the film was not propaganda. Prior to its release, “Beasts of Berlin” received numerous sanctions from the censors at the Production Code Administration (PCA). This object is one of more than 1,200 objects in the Cinema Judaica Collection of materials related to films about World War II and the Holocaust as well as Jewish, Israeli, and biblical themes.