I started reading this book with the idea that it was only about the Nazi propaganda film "Kolberg", conceived by Goebbels and directed by veteran director Veit Harlan, during the last two years of the war. In reality this book by Kevin Prenger, Dutch historian, is much more. It is the story of the city of Kolberg in the Napoleonic wars. The episode of the siege of the city by the French, portrayed in the film, is precisely from that era. But it is also the story of how that same city developed in times of peace as a spa and tourist establishment. How it was a tourist destination for German Jews and how it suffered (like all of Germany) from anti-Semitism when Hitler came to power.

But it is a book that investigates and weaves its plots deeper, bringing the testimonies of those who lived there and had to leave in the "Gotterdammerung" of March 1945, and of those who fought there. The central part is certainly dedicated to the film with stories and curiosities about the director and the cast, with interesting stories about their past and their career after the end of the war.

There is no doubt that the film did not achieve the desired success, nor the political message, due to the late release (started in 1943 and with enormous production efforts and expenditure of money and material!) managed to reach few of the German public , who in the recent past had also been very sensitive to the message conveyed by the images and cinema as demonstrated by the successes of Leni Riefenstahl's works.

The book, well researched (as evidenced by a large bibliography) and very exciting, sheds light on a city and a film which, without success, we can say, recall an episode from the past (and that too is told as it happened in reality and not in the myth that the Nazi regime made of it) to push the German people to emulate its example in the coming battles that slowly approached the reich from the east.

At the same time it can be said that it also sheds light on a whole lost world (Kolberg today is Poland, now Kolozbreg) which, like a mocking warning to the most exasperated nationalism, highlights how propaganda can do nothing against force of arms.

My rating is five stars, the book is well written, very easy to read and not "academically" boring, well balanced and full of information.

Andrea Di Bernardo, Goodreads

A book that made me think, and one I would happily recommend to others.

Read the Full Review Here

The History Fella

As featured in

The Bookseller, Jan 23

Q&A with the author:

https://www.tracesofwar.com/news/11774/The-Nazis-most-expensive-and-least-watched-propaganda-film.htm

Historiek.net

ARTICLE:

https://www.tracesofwar.com/articles/6984/Evacuation-and-fall-of-the-German-city-Kolberg.htm

REVIEW:

https://www.tracesofwar.com/books/5840/Hitlers-Last-Chance-Kolberg.htm

Traces of War, January 2021

ARTICLE:

https://www.tracesofwar.com/articles/6984/Evacuation-and-fall-of-the-German-city-Kolberg.htm

REVIEW:

https://www.tracesofwar.com/books/5840/Hitlers-Last-Chance-Kolberg.htm

Traces of War, January 2021