Germany invades Poland. German aircraft drop leaflets over Warsaw, stating the policy made by the Germans, in Warsaw, Poland. Polish civilians read the leaflet. German Luftwaffe aircraft land at an airbase. German soldiers and Luftwaffe airmen relax at an airfield, and play chess. German airmen work on planes.
Germany invades Poland. Polish officers surrender to German officers and they salute each other. Polish officers get inside an army vehicle. A German officer looks at a map on the table.
British aircraft carrier 'Courageous' sunk by a German submarine. A fleet of German ships underway at sea. A passenger carrier at sea. German officers look through binoculars. Number of ships at harbor. Soldiers disembark from the ship.
Germany invades Poland. The view of a bridge with a damaged railway track in Poland. Ruins in the city after bombing. German soldiers on horse carts. Troops load and fire artillery. Rifles kept on snow covered surface. German ski troops advance in winter clothing. Soldiers load and fire artillery at Polish enemy on hillside. British and Polish prisoners of war march on street.
The last portion of Emma Lazarus’sonnet,"The New Colossus," is shown as engraved on a tablet inside the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty. Illustrations of immigrants arriving and felling trees to build dwellings in America. Reenactments of early English, Scottish, and Dutch settlers building houses and working at crafts in New England. Italian sulphur mine workers in Louisiana. Immigrants, from France and Switzerland, planting vineyards in California and New York State. Danes, Norwegians, and Swedes, sowing seed and cultivating crops in the Midwest. Polish and Welsh immigrants in American coal mines. African Americans harvesting cotton on farm fields in the United States south, including a woman picking cotton with her baby riding on her long collecting bag. A Spaniard on horseback in the Southwest. Mexicans working in Texas oil fields and on ranches of New Mexico. Greek and Portuguese fishermen with huge catches of fish. A German technician working with fine instruments. Hungarian and Russian immigrants working in steel mills. Irish, Slavs, and Chinese, building railroads. Closeup of lumberjack's axes and saws cutting trees. A forge and a blacksmith shoeing a horse with horseshoes. A woman at work with a spinning wheel. Railroad ties and rails being placed. An antique railroad workman's locomotive and car. Men installing telegraph wire on rough poles. A early historic railroad 0-4-0 steam locomotive (appears to be one of the few replicas of "The Atlantic" which had been built in the 1830s) pulling a single small passenger train car. Cowboys on horseback rounding up steers. Herds of cattle,sheep, and pigs, bound to market. Farmers tilling soil with horse-drawn cultivators, preparing tobacco leaves for drying, and loading cotton bales. Machines spinning thread in a textile mill or factory. Fabric weaving machines at work. An early steam boat underway in a river. Early model automobile driving on dirt road. Wright Brothers' Wright Flyer airplane in flight with several persons on board. Early tractors and harvester machinery working on a farm. Glimpses of American industrial plants and transportation in rapid succession (some of it showing building of Hoover Dam and building of the Chrysler Building in New York City). Oil well drilling and a "gusher" oil well spouting oil upward. Steel mills, locomotive trains, and then a scientist in a laboratory working with beakers and a solution. Dynamite charges blasting away sides of mountains and gorges, and scenes of dam construction and dams opening to allow water gushing. Large electrical control levers being thrown to run electricity, and scenes of electric transmission towers and facilities. Natural gas storage areas. Golden Gate bridge under construction and high rise skyscraper buildings being constructed, including the Chrysler Building circa 1930 while still under construction in New York City. Aerial view of New York City. Camera panning over the gravestones in Arlington National Cemetery.
U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt addressing dignitaries, Washington DC. Dignitaries from various American Nations seated at a table. President Roosevelt addresses them. Flags in the background. He talks about the war. He warns the German dictator Hitler that the United States will match 'force to force' to defend the hemisphere. Exterior of the U.S. Capitol. Senator Pepper defends the President's note to the dictator. Senator Bridges talks against the note.