{{short description|1937 Nazi propaganda film}} {{More citations needed|date=December 2009}} {{Infobox film | name = Victims of the Past | image = | alt = | caption = | native_name = Opfer der Vergangenheit | director = Gernot Bock-Stieber, Kurt Botner | producer = | writer = | screenplay = | story = | based_on = <!-- {{Based on|title of the original work|creator of the original work|additional creator(s), if necessary}} --> | starring = <!-- {{startplainlist}} --> | narrator = | music = | cinematography = | editing = | studio = <!-- or: | production_companies = --> | distributor = <!-- or: | distributors = --> | released = {{Film date|1937}} | runtime = 25 minutes 5 seconds | country = Germany | language = German | budget = | gross = }} '''''Victims of the Past''''' (original German title: '''''Opfer der Vergangenheit: Die Sünde wider Blut und Rasse''''', English: '''''Victims of the Past: The Sin against Blood and Race''''') is a Nazi propaganda film made in 1937, directed by Gernot Bock-Stieber and Kurt Botner.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Sterilization; marriage health law - Collections Search - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |url=https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn1002456 |access-date=2023-04-08 |website=collections.ushmm.org}}</ref>
This movie was a sequel to ''Erbkrank'' (''Hereditary Illness''), which showed images of inmates of German asylums in order to bolster public support for the planned T-4 Euthanasia Program for the mentally ill. The practices of providing institutions and care for the victims of hereditary diseases are described as transgressing the law of natural selection, and the expense of such care is depicted as a drain on healthy workers, and preventing the use of such money to help healthy Germans make better lives.<ref name="leiser90"/>
It was shown in every cinema in Germany.<ref name="leiser90">Erwin Leiser, ''Nazi Cinema'' p90 {{ISBN|0-02-570230-0}}</ref> Adolf Hitler reportedly liked it.{{Citation needed|date=April 2023}}
Like the other five movies depicting the condition of the mentally ill in Germany,{{Which|date=April 2023}} the movie was produced by the NS-Rasse und Politisches Amt (National Socialist Racial and Political Office). However, this film was the only one produced with sound.
==See also== * Aktion T4 * List of films made in the Third Reich * Nazism and cinema * Euthanasia * ''Alles Leben ist Kampf'' * ''Das Erbe'' * ''Erbkrank'' * Life unworthy of life * List of German films 1933–1945
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *{{IMDb title|0247595}} *[https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn1002456 Entire film available online] at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Victims of the Past}} Category:1937 short documentary films Category:1937 films Category:Black-and-white documentary films Category:German short documentary films Category:Nazi propaganda films Category:Films of Nazi Germany Category:Films about euthanasia Category:German black-and-white films Category:1937 German films Category:Films directed by Gernot Bock-Stieber
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