Memel vote
Creator(s)
- Bundesarchiv (Germany). Filmarchiv
Scope and Content
Map showing the area surrounding the region of Memel, situated between Lithuania and Germany. The narrator speaks of the elections to the provincial government, which had voter turnout of almost one hundred percent, despite the terror inflicted on the Volksdeutsch by the Lithuanians. Shot of a pro-German banner on a street in Memel. View of the Queen Luise Bridge and the plaque designating the border between Memel and Germany. Memel was annexed to Lithuania in 1923. Low aerial shots of Memel and the river and the bridge in the distance. Brief shot of election posters on a post. Long line of people waiting to vote, while the narrator intones that "the people of this land are Germans, like us." More shots of people, faces turned to the camera, in line waiting to vote and voting inside a building. Hitler wanted Memel and its ethnic German population to be reincorporated into the Reich. The ethnic Germans, headed by Dr. Ernst Neumann, became dominant in local politics and most of the Lithuanian and Jewish population fled the territory. Memel was annexed to Germany in March 1939. Low aerial shots of Memel and the river and the bridge in the distance.
Subjects
- BRIDGES
- RIVERS
- SIGNS/POSTERS
- ANSCHLUSS (ANNEXATION OF AUSTRIA)
- VOLKSDEUTSCH
- CHILDREN
- MAPS
- ELECTIONS
- BORDERS/CROSSINGS
Places
- Memel, Lithuania
- , Germany
Genre
- Film
- Newsreels.
Copies
-
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum holds copies of Holocaust-relevant archives from Bundesarchiv, Berlin-Lichterfelde (Abteilung Filmarchiv)