History 104: Western Civilization since 1648

Lecture: World War II

Grosz's painting

George Grosz
I Am Glad I Came Back (1943)

Based on a German poem from World War I, the song "Lili Marlene" was loved by both German and American soldiers in World War II. Here it's sung by Marlene Dietrich, an anti-Nazi German-born movie star who became an American citizen:

Lyrics in German
Lyrics in English

 

We enter parliament in order to supply ourselves, in the arsenal of democracy, with its own weapons.... If democracy is so stupid as to give us free tickets and salaries for this bear’s work, that is its affair.... We do not come as friends, nor even as neutrals. We come as enemies. As the wolf bursts into the flock, so we come.

--Joseph Goebbels, Nazi leader, 1928

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All text, lecture voice audio, and course design copyright Lisa M. Lane 1998-2018. Other materials used in this class may be subject to copyright protection, and are intended for educational and scholarly fair use under the Copyright Act of 1976 and the TEACH Act of 2002.

 

 


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