Did You Know That...
1n 1943, a film version of the Titanic was produced and directed by the Nazis initially as a propaganda film aimed against the British?
April 14, 1912. That is of course a date that anyone alive then and now must surely recognize. On the night of that day, the passenger liner RMS Titanic struck an iceberg and took over 1,500 lives with it, being called one of the worst maritime tragedies of all time. Since then, the story has taken on proportions of, pardon to say, titanic size. The "unsinkable ship" legacy has been as much one of hubris, arrogance, and greed as it was one of self-sacrifice and honor, and it has spawned books, magazine articles, and even movies.
As much a surprise to me as it is to you, the long-lost story of one of these movies came to light only recently in 2012. And what is perhaps more surprising is that it came during a chaotic and catastrophic time, World War II, from the mind of one of history's most desicable characters, Nazi Party Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels.
I was watching the History Channel today and I watched a two-hour special called "Nazi Titanic". In this telling program, I was quite shocked and surprised to discover that even the dreaded Nazis commissioned a film version of this story. As the story goes, in July 1940 Joseph Goebbels is busy trying to stir the propaganda machine to turn opinion against the sole remaining enemy to Germany at this time, Great Britain. And to do this, he uses the German film industry to find a way to get the public both in Germany and Britain to see that a German victory over their enemy would be "justified". To his relief, a script is brought to him by a German producer named Harold Brandt, who titles it "Titanic". It is indeed the story of the maiden voyage of the doomed passenger liner that sinks with a large loss of life, a tragedy that will be unfortunately turned into a message of British incompetence and designed to illustrate the arrogant nature of the British people, while highlighting the morally superior German people. Of course, Goebbels takes the script and gives it a more Nazi-friendly view, to illustrate Bruce Ismay as a corrupt man who chose profit over passengers' personal safety, his underlings as tempted souls who also see value better in the British pound. Goebbels even has the gall to put a German officer, a Lt. Peterson, as the only moral character to underline German common sense. The movie was slated to have a budget, according to the program, of eight million Reichsmarks, a costly budget for that time.
Goebbels slates a Nazi Party director, Herbert Selpin, to spearhead the filming. Selpin is seen initially in the program as an ambitious young man, with dreams of being Germany's greatest director, but with a morally ambiguous personality. While he sees the practicality of working in a Nazi-run state that controlled all aspects of society, he appears to be a privately troubled figure, worried about the constant presence of the army soldiers on the set. He signed his friend at the time, Walther Zehlert-Olfenius, as the lead scriptwriter and together the pair started work on the project. But the project would see a troublesome production schedule.
The special indicated that because Selpin had a big ego, he often called for items to production, such as a large ocean liner the Cap Argona, to fill in for the Titanic itself. He would often film at night, even though the technology existed to allow "night scenes" to be filmed during the day, in full defiance of the blackouts that Germany exercised in 1942. He demanded a twenty-foot model of the Titanic to be constructed for the sinking scene, but there did not exist a big enough water tank for it and so production had to wait until one could be procured. The beginning of the project did not appear to go well either, as the actors were not rehearsed prior to the shooting and often times preferred to get drunk rather than act professionally on the set. To make matters worse, the scenes were shot near a naval port and the sirens and bells often interrupted the shooting.
By mid-late 1942, while production was nearing its completion, Selpin had apparently had enough. He began to criticize the constant breakdown of order on the set, and then made the mistake of insulting the German army and the Iron Cross. Now this of course offends the one person who feels most personal about these remarks-- Zehlert-Olfenius, his friend. Zehlert-Olfenius served during the First World War and was awarded the Iron Cross for bravery, and these remarks (mind you, made while both were drunk at a party) cut deep into him. Zehlert-Olfenius makes a report and sends it to the Gestapo headquarters in Berlin, who then proceed to arrest Selpin. As Selpin stands trial in late 1942, he takes breaks in between interrogation to finish filming what he can, poignantly directing the drowning scenes and perhaps leaving a testament to his ultimate fate. After a short trial, in which he perhaps foolishly or heroically asserts his feelings over his remarks, he is imprisoned and told to await further sentence. But sadly, he hanged himself in his prison cell in January 1943, perhaps already knowing he would not leave alive.
The story of what becomes of the film is recounted in the final forty-five minutes of the special. Goebbels needs the film completed and hires another director, Hans Demanovsky, to finish filming. The film is presented to him in July 1943 for a private screening, but what Goebbels sees is anything but what he intended. The movie contains scenes of people panicking and fleeing the approaching water, of officers callously telling everyone to save their own hides, and of desperate struggles and death throes-- precisely what was going on in Germany at the time. As the Allied air offensive is leaving Germany's cities in destruction and the Allied armies are approaching, it appears to Goebbels that this film would serve to humiliate Nazi Germany and instead remind civillians of the horrors they were experiencing. Even his message of the brave German officer Peterson is hijacked, as his character is presented as the voice of reason, choosing to question authority rather than follow it blindly, which was not what the Nazis wanted. The film ends up banned in Germany but shown in the occupied countries, ironically becoming a hit as thousands come to see it. The cost of the production drains a lot of the Nazi treasury, and the situation was not remedied when Goebbels tried again with the movie Kohlberg in 1945. And even perhaps more ironic, Selpin had used soldiers from the German army as extras, and hundreds of them, when they would have been used for defense of Germany itself against the approaching Red Army.
So what becomes of the movie? The program informs that though the film is initially banned by Goebbels, it does get shown in Germany in 1950, to a minor review. The British get their hands on the film and recycle some of the sinking scenes for their own 1953 movie, A Night to Remember, though Selpin and Goebbels understandably receive no credit. Even the Cap Argona is not spared from the war: in March 1945 the Nazis load it up with explosives and, in an abject cruelty, concentration camp prisoners and let it float in the Baltic Sea, where British bombers and fighters sink the ship with nearly the entire 5,000 man complement.
I found it odd that Selpin becomes credited as an unsung hero in the program. It may be speculation to claim that the practical Nazi director could be called so, since he wanted fame and glory that only the Nazis seemed available to afford him, but what is odd is that he did seem to fit that mold, choosing to derail the Nazi war effort with his impossible requests and demands, as the program claims. He ends up, in my opinion, alongside John Rabe, the Nazi Party member who set up the safety zone for civilians during the Japanese massacre of Nanking in 1937, as a contradictory hero--a member of a group that sought destruction but saw instead the need to make a stand against such harm and atrocity. I found this program enlightening and definitely informative. I think that if you ever see this program, Nazi Titanic, it might have a profound effect on you too. Watch for yourself, maintain an open mind, and research the subject when you are done.
