Final throes of World War I and postwar situation. German submarines sinking allied ships. American workers work in war plants. U.S. Army General John Joseph Pershing visits France. American soldiers disembark from a ship in France. Germans defeat Russians on Eastern front and divert troops to the Western front. German soldiers on horse drawn wagons and others walk carrying guns as they move. Riots in Russia after it collapses in war. American soldiers fire field artillery. U.S. President Woodrow Wilson writes letters to countries at war like Germany. Papers with the 14 points to maintain peace. The soldiers of Germany and America on battle field. Dead soldiers on ground. Soldiers carry another injured soldier on a stretcher. The people protest during a rebellion in Germany. Soldiers of America cheer signing of Armistice. Cemetery. .Americans on streets in the U.S. after the war. President Woodrow Wilson goes on a tour of Europe. He sails to different places. Prime Minister David Lloyd George of the United Kingdom, Prime Minister Vittorio Emanuele Orlando of Italy, Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau of France, and President Woodrow Wilson of the United States in France during the signing of the Treaty of Versailles. Map shows the different nations formed after the war. The president returns after his visit. Henry Cabot Lodge, a U.S. senator. President visits different places to explain the peace treaty. Sketches show the President suffering a paralytic stroke and his wife takes his important decisions. Sketch depict the opponents of the peace treaty and the defeat of the league of nations. Warren Gamaliel Harding elected as the new President Harbinger of the future: views of Adolf Hitler on the rise in postwar Germany.
Opens with bell tolling Victory against Germany in World War II. Next, a slate reads: "Victory Leads to Peace," and a farmer is seen with cattle pulling a plow. But narrator says "the problem now is future peace," and a map of Germany is shown overlaid with "Your Job in Germany." A cartoon of a soldier is superimposed on the map, along with one of a World War 1 American soldier and a figure of possible future soldier with similar mission. Camera focuses on parts of German aircraft in a jumbled heap. Closeups of weary defeated German soldiers at end ot World War II. Glimpse of Adolf Hitler speaking and haranguing an audience from a podium in an animated and forceful way. Swastika flags displayed from houses in a quaint German town. Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Reich Minister of Propaganda, at a microphone. Glimpse of a German concentration camp. But as they appear, each of the Nazi elements promptly disappears, showing the scenes without such Nazi symbols and persons. Skeleton remains of bombed buildings. Flower displays. Bucolic German rural countryside and quaint old villages in peaceful settings. Camera focuses on a book titled "German History." Chapter I, titled "Blood and Iron," shows Image of Otto von Bismarck. German troops march in a parade. Narrator states that "under Bismarck, the German empire was built." (He formed the German Empire in 1871, unifying Germany with himself as Imperial Chancellor, while retaining control of Prussia at the same time.) The film shows mounted German lancers as it alludes to Bismarck's campaigns against Denmark in 1867; Austria in 1866; and France, in 1870. Germany's leaders celebrating its status, in 1871, as the mightiest power in Europe. Troops marching and girls dancing nearby. Farmers plowing field with a horse and cow. Classic peaceful rural alpine scenes with local people in agricultural pursuits. A group of local German musicians playing folk music as village people dance outdoors. Back to the book, Kaiser Wilhelm II is shown on Chapter 2, entitled: "Deutschland über Alles." Gathering of German soldiers in Pickelhaube (spiked helmets). A German Big Bertha howitzer firing. German troops marching against Serbia; Russia; and France (with view of war damaged French cathedral). German invasion of Belgium in 1940 (with view of clock tower resting in rubble). German troops seen in Italy, walking past battle-damaged buildings. German Zeppelin dropping bombs on British targets and view of bombed out London neighborhood. Next scene shows a capsized ship with survivors running across its hull. Film slate labels the scene as United States, as if it is a U.S. ship attacked by Germany. (Actually, it is the Austro-Hungarian Battleship, SMS Szent Istvan, torpedoed, by Italian torpedo boats, during World War I.) Next, American soldiers in trench are seen going "over the top" and into "no man's land" on the western front of World War 1. Glimpse through a window of Kaiser Wilhelm II, after defeat of Germany, in 1918. View of Germans in a Beer Garden. Picturesque view of German town. A German orchestra performing. American soldiers marching out of Germany, with flags waving. Back to the history book,as chapter III is revealed, entitled "Today Germany, tomorrow, the world," and featuring Adolf Hitler. German troops invading Austria (where a civilian lies dead on the ground). German troops entering Czechoslovakia (where local people in tears render the Nazi salute). They march into Poland (where a girl weeps over someone, not seen, on the ground). They march into France (where a wounded, bandaged child cries in a bed). Next, is a scene from England, where a British child victim of bombing lies dead in the remains of a shelter. German troops invading Norway, Holland, Denmark, Belgium, Luxembourg and Russia (where a woman tries to rouse a dead woman). They invade Yugoslavia (where women sit near coffins of children) and Greece (where a woman rescues a naked child). A U.S. merchant ship explodes after being torpedoed by a German submarine (unseen). Scenes of destruction with people plucking dead victims from rubble of buildings. American troops invading Normandy, France on D-day, June 6, 1944. Several American soldiers fall to German gunfire on the beach. Wounded American soldiers being transported in jeeps on the battlefield and being placed on landing craft for evacuation. Americans walking past huge piles of destroyed aircraft parts. A landing craft filled with wounded American soldiers. American wounded and dead on a battlefield. Sailors abandoning a burning American ship by jumping into the sea. A sailor picked up in a life boat. A wounded American soldier being dragged from the beachhead at Normandy. Various wounds being treated by U.S. Medical Corps personnel. More scenes of American wounded being moved on stretchers. Scene shifts abruptly to German people folk dancing. Film concludes with question marks about the future.
Rail cars on the November, 1947 "Friendship Train," at a sea port in the U.S.A. Behind it is seen the funnel of the SS Exiria, of the American Export Lines. The camera moves around to show the Exiria, displaying a large American flag and words,"Friendship Food Ship," on her hull. A steam locomotive on train in France, delivering relief supplies, displays crossed American and French flags on it. Trucks on road in France, displaying French and American flags and pictures of the Freedom Train on their sides, with words:"Ravitaillement, offert spontanment au peuple de France à partir de peuple Americain." (Refueling, spontaneously offered to the people of France from American people.) The SS Exiria docked in an Italian port. A catholic priest and several nuns with a group of boys, standing on the pier, wave American flags. Another group of American girls enthusiastically wave American flags. A large crowd waves several large Italian flags. President Harry S. Truman, at his desk on the White House, Washington, DC, signs the Economic Recovery Act of 1948 (AKA Marshall Plan). Secretary of State Marshall speaking in support of the legislation before Congress. Senator Arthur H. Vandenberg, of Michigan, speaking in support of the bill.
Mix of actual footage and scenes with actors. Professor in laboratory extolling virtues of international research and researchers, in science and medicine. Voice-over with German accent speaks about inferior peoples and the scenes darken. Images of Nazi, Fascist, Japanese leaders and their followers including Fuhrer Adolf Hitler, Pierre Laval, Oswald Moseley, Fritz Kuhn, Japanese Emperor Hirohito, Rudolf Hess (or Heß), Julius Streicher, Joseph Goebbels, Heinrich Himmler and Benito Mussolini. Footage from World War I era shows rubble from bombing in French cities and towns, and French citizen refugees leaving homes with hand pulled wagon carts. German Kaiser Wilhelm II descends steps and reviews cheering German Army forces in 1914. French poster calls for military mobilization. Mobilized French soldiers march in France as citizens cheer them off to war. Explosions of shells on World War 1 battlefield. French "taxicab army" of French military vehicle line leaving Paris. Battles of Verdun and Chemin des Dames showing French artillery and French soldiers. David Lloyd George confers with Clemenceau. Close ups of General Foch and then of General Joffre. Armament factory in France manufacturing arms in World War 1. British battle scenes at Passchendale and Ypres. Scenes of U.S. battles at Chateau Thierry, the Argonne. U.S. Marines battling at Balleau Wood and Cantigny. Lloyd George greets citizens in England. Close up of British General Haig. American General John J Pershing greets French Generals in World War I. U.S. President Woodrow Wilson is shown. World War II era events: Adolf Hitler addressing a crowd. Brownshirt SA soldiers and other German Army soldiers march and goosestep. Remilitarized Germany invades Poland in 1939, and then France in 1940. Hermann Goering reviews marching troops. Elevated, overhead view of German troops marching with hands raised in Nazi salute, and shadows of their salutes are cast on the ground in front of them as they march. Close up side view of Hitler giving Nazi salute to cheering troops. German artillery and railroad guns fired and tanks advance during invasion of France. French Army soldiers fighting the invading German soldiers; French soldiers fire artillery. French civilian women and children refugees flee in carts as Luftwaffe aircraft fire guns and strafe their path.
Robert Kronfeld Austria's glider pilot crosses the English Channel in round trip glide. He is congratulated at by the people at St. Inglevert airfield near Calais, France, after winning the Annual Glider Meet. He handled a motor less aircraft from France to England and back again the same day. A French aircraft crashes while landing during the competition. 20 June 1931.
Events during the Paris Peace Conference. The French troops march and take positions. Arrival of dignitaries in motor cars at Trianon Palace Hotel (1 Bd de la Reine, 78000 Versailles, France) in Versailles, France. The event marks the handling of Peace Treaty to the German delegates. Guards assist delegates upon their arrival. French Marshal Ferdinand Foch arrives. Marshal Foch inspects the French Guard of Honor.