It was 1945 when the meek Theodor Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, author of children’s books, inventor of Private Snafu and creator of Grinch the character recently brought to the screen by Jim Carrey, composed the words of Your Job in Germany, one of the most venomous tirades ever written against the German people.

They have been trained to hate and destroy. / They believe they were born to be masters. / That we are inferiors designed to be their slaves. / They may deny it now but they believe it, they will try to prove it again. / Don’t argue with them, don’t try to change their point of view. / Other allied representatives will concern themselves with that. / You are not being sent into Germany as educators. / We are soldiers. / You will observe their local laws, respect their customs and religion and you will respect their property rights. / You will not ridicule them. / You will not argue with them. / You will not be friendly. / You will be aloof, watchful and suspicious. / Every German is a potential source of trouble; therefore, there must be no fraternization with any of the German people. / Fraternization means making friends, the German people are not our friends. / You will not associate with German men, women or children. / You will not associate with them on familiar terms either in public or in private. / You will not visit in their homes nor will you ever take them into your confidence. / We are determined that the vicious German cycle of war – war – war – shall once and for all time come to an end. / That is your job in Germany.

Capra’s film is essentially identical to the one made for Warners by Don Siegel, even if with a different commentary, called Hitler Lives. This film won an Oscar as best short, but later on Siegel tried to distance himself from it: “We were too close to the end of World War II to have any perspective. Everything was overdrawn, overstressed. We showed the normal German race as viciously as we portrayed the Nazis…”