Resistance

In the middle of The Second World War a 10-minute cartoon premiered in Nazi Germany. Weather-beaten Melody follows the story of a wasp flying through a meadow who comes across an abandoned phonograph and inadvertently brings it to life by dragging his stinger across the record. Soon, insects and wildlife from all around are dancing together and enjoying the new sound brought to the countryside. It is a remarkable artefact, not just for the level of skill required to achieve some difficult animation techniques, such as rotoscoping, which would rival the sophistication of Walt Disney’s output of that time. More significant is the content and the themes that the cartoon portrays for a work produced under the scrutiny and with the finance of a racist, totalitarian state. There is a strong element of escapism to the story in the way that the creatures throw off the shackles of work, and this was typical of a significant majority of German propaganda directed at a war-weary population. However what is surprising is the way in which the cartoon challenges Nazi social and cultural beliefs in its portrayal of a diverse, happy community.

Nazi doctrine deemed many races and cultures to be inferior and dangerous to the National Socialist movement. To this end many forms of popular music from America, such as Jazz, were banned outright and could not be played or listened to. German musicians responded to the ban with Swing, which was a close but tolerated relation to Jazz, sans saxophone. One such example is the song featured in the cartoon written by Bruno Balz. Around this music an eclectic mix of creatures, a clear metaphor for a cosmopolitan society, socialise and live together peacefully. This contrasts sharply with the Nazi’s treatment of East European prisoners of war, many of whom died in captivity or were murdered, as were innocent Jews, Gypsies, Slavs, homosexuals and Jehovah’s Witnesses amongst the civilian populations of the countries the Nazis occupied. Perhaps the conflict between director Fischerkoesen’s message of tolerance against the prevalent practise of discrimination served to confuse some of the people who saw the film, and made them question the morality of their leaders. The impact of such of a film is very difficult to measure without written testimony, but as an artifact of resistance it provides some comfort, that even in the darkest chapters of human history there were sophisticated attempts to subvert and change a corrupt system from within.