Anyone else remember that big brouhaha over Warner Brothers and Disney cartoons back in the forties?  And I’m not talking about the ones that people like to scream “racist!” about, no…I’m talking about the full-on propaganda cartoons.  Well, I found a stash of them on YouTube, not surprisingly, so I figured I’d give you guys the rundown, starting with this Donald Duck short from the deep dark depths of 1943, Der Fuehrer’s Face.

First, let me say that hearing Donald say “Heil Hitler, Heil Emperor Hirohito, Heil Mussolini” is a head trip the likes of which you don’t come back from any time soon.  And it will be an even BIGGER shock to hear him do it a DOZEN TIMES in rapid succession.  Seriously, I kept count. It was twelve. In a row.  But as a propaganda piece, you can definitely see where it would succeed, as it portrays the German state as a bankrupt, backward society where the German people are reduced to mindless automatons that salute their fuehrer on sight or at the mere mention of his name while enduring horrible privation all at the same time.

Of course, Donald’s brief foray into Nazidom won’t last long, and will actually end almost flamboyantly, but it was still the kind of trip you don’t take often.  It’s worth your eight minutes (well, almost eight minutes) and should be a great time that’ll teach you a few things too.