During World War II and immediately after it, in addition to the many private films created to help the war effort, many Allied countries had governmental or semi-governmental agencies commission propaganda and training films for home and foreign consumption. Animated films are not included here.
Originally a British War Office services training film by Ealing Studios based on the wartime security axiom that "Loose lips sink ships" / "Careless talk cost lives", it was also distributed commercially as its propaganda was of general strategic importance thus applicable to all citizens.
The United States had the largest film industry of any of the Allied powers, and its use for propaganda purposes is legendary. Because it was so big, there was no single governmental or semi-governmental agency that centrally controlled it. Instead, the Office of War Information co-ordinated efforts among many entities to produce propaganda:
The 1942 Academy Award for Best Documentary, whose time frame included part of 1943, was split among four films, including the two seen here. Also, that year saw the amalgamation of the feature and short subject documentary categories into a single category.
Based on the non-fiction book of the same name by American author Gregor Ziemer. This film is by The Walt Disney Company, and the characters speak German
The low countries were overrun by Nazi Germany in the May–June 1940 blitzkrieg. The Dutch East Indies, the Netherlands most important colony, was conquered by Japan in early 1942. However each had a government in exile which set up the Belgian Ministry of Information and Netherlands Information Bureau, which produced the following films. There were also films made by the resistance while the respective countries were occupied.
