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World War II (68)

  • Break-through
    Break-through
    1944 11 min
    Allied troops land on the Normandy coast and drive eastward to the gates of Germany. Opening scenes are of the D-Day landings and establishment of Canadian forces on the beachhead. Pictures of bitter street fighting and of pin-point bombing tell the story of Caen's capture and the advance towards Falaise. Made from footage filmed by units of the Canadian Army Overseas.
  • Battle of Europe
    Battle of Europe
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    1944 15 min
    The story of air power over Europe that shows how night saturation raids by British and Canadian squadrons were coordinated with daylight precision bombing by American air forces during World War II.
  • Banshees Over Canada
    Banshees Over Canada
    James Beveridge 1943 19 min
    This newsreel documentary made during WWII was used to illustrate Britain's preparations for an air attack. Scenes depict destruction wrought by enemy planes, the efficiency of retaliation by the Royal Air Force and the precautions taken in Canada against possible air attack. Part of the Canada Carries On series.
  • Behind the Swastika: Nazi Atrocities
    Behind the Swastika: Nazi Atrocities
    1945 5 min
    This short documentary reveals the atrocities that occurred in German concentration camps during World War II. With images of suffering humans and mass graves, this film depicts the events that transpired under Hitler's rule and the condition of the prisoners when they were liberated by the Allied Forces.

    This newsreel was produced by the NFB at the end of the Second World War and therefore does not convey the full scope of the atrocities committed during the Holocaust. It contains disturbing images. Viewer discretion is advised.
  • Canada at War, Part 8: New Directions
    Canada at War, Part 8: New Directions
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    1962 27 min
    December 1943 - June 1944. Canada, war-seasoned, girds for the final assault. In London, Commonwealth prime ministers meet and Mackenzie King holds out for Canadian independence in foreign policy. In the Arctic, Canadian ships sail the Murmansk run with supplies for beleaguered Russia. The Italian campaign intensifies. In the south of England the Allies poise for attack.
  • Canada at War, Part 12: V Was for Victory
    Canada at War, Part 12: V Was for Victory
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    1962 27 min
    April-August 1945. Hitler had said: 'Whoever lights the torch of war in Europe can wish for nothing but chaos.' By 1945, Germany is beaten. V-Day celebrations verge on the hysterical, but occupying armies uncover the staggering atrocities of Belsen, Auschwitz, and Buchenwald. Franklin D. Roosevelt dies. The world's first atomic bomb is dropped on Japan.
  • Canada at War, Part 6: Turn of the Tide
    Canada at War, Part 6: Turn of the Tide
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    1962 27 min
    October 1942 - July 1943. The inherent strength of the Allies begins to be felt. Canadian munitions factories operate at peak capacity. U.S. Marines land on Guadalcanal and the Solomons. Montgomery's 8th Army strikes Rommel at Alamein; the R.C.A.F. joins in air strikes against Germany.
  • Canada at War, Part 7: Road to Ortona
    Canada at War, Part 7: Road to Ortona
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    1962 27 min
    July 1943 - January l944. The objective at last--Fortress Europe. The Canadian 1st Division, flanked by the British and Americans, pushes into Italy. Italians surrender but the Germans resist. Ortona, a 15th-century town, riddled with bullets and grenades, is taken by Canadians in fierce and costly street fighting.
  • Churchill's Island
    Churchill's Island
    Stuart Legg 1941 22 min
    It presents the strategy of the Battle of Britain, showing with penetrating clarity the relationships between the various forces made up the island's defenses. Here is the Royal Air Force in its epic battle with the Luftwaffe, the Navy in its stubborn fight against the raiders of sea and sky, the coastal defenses, the mechanized cavalry, the merchant seamen and behind them all, Britain's tough, unbending civilian army.
  • Canada at War, Part 2: Blitzkrieg
    Canada at War, Part 2: Blitzkrieg
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    1962 27 min
    April - November 1940. With devastating speed Germany takes Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg. Italy declares war. The British withdraw from Dunkirk. Mackenzie King feels the Canadian pulse on conscription. England is strafed by the Luftwaffe, and Britons accept Churchill's challenge of 'blood, sweat and tears.'
  • Children from Overseas
    Children from Overseas
    Ruby Grierson  &  Stanley Hawes 1940 10 min
    A WWII film about children evacuated from Britain and sent to Canada for their safety. The film begins in England with children seeking shelter as anti-aircraft guns roar outside. On their arrival in Canada, they are thrilled by the brightly lit cities, powerful Canadian trains, hot dogs and ice cream. They find, too, that instead of becoming Mounties or cowboys, they have to go to school. The closing sequence shows them learning to ski and skate and preparing for Christmas in their new homes.
  • Canada at War, Part 1: Dusk
    Canada at War, Part 1: Dusk
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    1962 27 min
    1936 - March 1940. In Europe war clouds gather as Germany re-arms and Hitler propounds his 'master race' doctrine. Chamberlain's appeasement fails. Germany overruns Czechoslovakia. Britain declares war; Canada makes an independent decision to join. The first Canadian troopship sails from Halifax.
  • Canada at War, Part 5: Ebbtide
    Canada at War, Part 5: Ebbtide
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    1962 27 min
    July - September 1942. A time of defeat and disaster. Hitler is at the apex of his power. A Canadian division probes at Dieppe and is repulsed with heavy casualties. Canadian factories take over production of the fabled Lancaster night bomber; Canadian bush pilots ferry the big planes across the Atlantic. German U-boats penetrate the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
  • Canadian Screen Magazine No. 1
    Canadian Screen Magazine No. 1
    1945 10 min
    Vocational Training for Repats: Vocational training for Canadian veterans includes courses in the building trades, haircutting, mechanics and electronics, as well as home economics and hairdressing. Canadian Soap for UNRRA: Soap is manufactured in Canada for distribution throughout Europe by the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration. Railway Cars for Russia: Railway cars are produced in Canada and shipped to the Soviet Union to help rebuild the Russian transportation system.
  • Canada at War, Part 13: The Clouded Dawn
    Canada at War, Part 13: The Clouded Dawn
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    1962 27 min
    August 1945 - 1946. Japan surrenders. World War II is over, but the scars are deep. Canadian prisoners are released from Japanese war camps. In Canada, as elsewhere, the monumental task of rehabilitation begins. In Ottawa the Gouzenko case shocks the nation. The trials at Nürenberg begin. The United Nations is formed. Canada, now a much stronger, independent nation, enters the Cold War.
  • Canada at War, Part 11: Crisis on the Hill
    Canada at War, Part 11: Crisis on the Hill
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    1962 27 min
    September 1944 - March 1945. On the eve of victory Canada faces an internal crisis: an acute shortage of men for overseas service precipitates the conscription issue, threatens national unity and the King government. In Europe, Canadian divisions fight their way to the top of the Italian boot, then regroup for the final onslaught on Germany. They fight in the battles of the Reichswald and Hochwald forests, and finally cross the Siegfried Line.
  • Canada at War, Part 3: Year of Siege
    Canada at War, Part 3: Year of Siege
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    1962 27 min
    September 1940 - October 1941. The Battle of the Atlantic begins. German U-boats take their toll of Canadian convoys. The purge of Jews begins. German armies march into Russia. Mackenzie King is booed at Aldershot. Men of the Winnipeg Grenadiers and Royal Rifles leave for a fateful mission in Hong Kong.
  • Canada at War, Part 10: Cinderella on the Left
    Canada at War, Part 10: Cinderella on the Left
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    1962 27 min
    June - December 1944. V-1 rockets, and later V-2s, rain death and destruction on Britain; their launching sites are mopped up by Canadians advancing on Pas de Calais. The Third Division spearheads the attack on the Scheldt estuary. Germans make a last-ditch stand in the Battle of the Bulge. In the English Channel, Canadian sailors man swift motor torpedo boats against German E-boats.
  • Canada at War, Part 4: Days of Infamy
    Canada at War, Part 4: Days of Infamy
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    1962 27 min
    December 1941 - June 1942. The war is now global and pressures on Canada mount. Without warning Japan strikes at Pearl Harbor. Canadians adjust to food rationing, salvage drives. The British Commonwealth Air Training Plan is inaugurated in Canada. In Ottawa, Winston Churchill makes his 'some chicken, some neck' speech.
  • Canada at War, Part 9: The Norman Summer
    Canada at War, Part 9: The Norman Summer
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    1962 27 min
    June - September 1944. D-Day, June 6, 1944. In early morning hours, infantry carriers, including one hundred and ten ships of the Royal Canadian Navy, cross a seething, pitching sea to the coast of France while Allied air forces pound enemy positions from the air. Cherbourg, Caen, Carpiquet, Falaise, Paris are liberated. Canadians return, this time victorious, to the beaches of Dieppe.
  • Canada Communique No. 16
    Canada Communique No. 16
    1945 11 min
    White Treasure: Salt used in the industrial front of World War II is mined at Malagash, Nova Scotia. Soviet Medal Awarded to R.A.F. Flier: British Flight Lieutenant Douglas Barber, training in Canada, receives the Soviet Medal for valor at the Soviet embassy in Ottawa. Boys From Under Prepare to Fight Japs: Australians and New Zealanders complete their training under the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan. Also included is the Private Snafu film The Chow Hound, from the American Army-Navy Screen Magazine series.
  • Canadian Army Newsreel Issue No. 6
    Canadian Army Newsreel Issue No. 6
    1942 9 min
    This newsreel includes the following sequences: 1. Lady Patricia Ramsay Inspects PPCLI 2. Pigeon Post 3. Bringing in the Sheaves 4. Canadians Meet Norwegians in Soccer Play-Downs 5. British Mayors Visit Canadian Troops 6. Little Girls and Big Guns 7. Turn on the Heat 8. Massed Bands Open "Wings for Victory" Week
  • Canadian Army Newsreel Issue No. 7
    Canadian Army Newsreel Issue No. 7
    1943 9 min
    This newsreel includes the following sequences: 1. Black Watch Easter Service 2. Medical Inspection 3. Army Soccer Finals 4. Baseball Season Opens 5. The King's Farm 6. Tunnellers Receive Gibraltar Keys 7. Khaki Close-ups 8. Man of Vimy
  • Democracy at Work
    Democracy at Work
    Stanley Hawes  &  Fred Lasse 1944 18 min
    This short documentary was made near the end of World War II to introduce the subject of the need for labour-management committees. Government and industry in Canada were looking to a post-war era where production would have to be converted to peacetime. The objective was to improve productivity by reducing absenteeism, workplace accidents and keeping morale high.
  • Death by Moonlight: Bomber Command
    Death by Moonlight: Bomber Command
    Brian McKenna 1991 1 h 44 min
    This feature-length documentary focuses on the Canadian pilots who served in the air force bomber command in Britain during World War II. From the outset, it was clear to Britain that air combat would be the key factor in the battle against Hitler's Germany. Told they would be targeting factories and military targets, the airmen were actually ordered to drop their payloads on civilians in an attempt to annihilate the enemy. Using interviews, re-enactments, old footage and photographs, Brian McKenna's film depicts the war from the perspective of the pilots.
  • Everywhere in the World
    Everywhere in the World
    1941 16 min
    This 1940s newsreel demonstrates how the U.S.A. and the Commonwealth countries contributed to the war effort during World War II.
  • Eye Witness No. 46
    Eye Witness No. 46
    1952 11 min
    These vignettes from 1952 covered various aspects of life in Canada and were shown in theatres across the country. Subjects included a floating laboratory ship from the National Research Council, a visit by a group of Canadian veterans revisiting Normandy plus events at Toronto's Maple Leaf Gardens.
  • Firemen Go to War
    Firemen Go to War
    1946 17 min
    This is a record of the part played during World War II by the Canadian Corps of Firefighters in saving Britain's bombed cities from destruction. It shows the preliminary training of the Corps before it went overseas, as well as the more rigorous training later on, with British equipment and techniques suited to the special conditions encountered during raids. Scenes from the worst-hit cities illustrate the size of the job that faced the firefighters, and the importance of the work they did. The leisure time activities of this group of Canadians in Britain are also described.
  • Fields of Sacrifice
    Fields of Sacrifice
    Donald Brittain 1963 38 min
    This 1964 documentary returns to the battlefields where over 100,000 Canadian soldiers lost their lives in the First and Second World Wars. The film also visits cemeteries where servicemen are buried. Filmed from Hong Kong to Sicily, this documentary is designed to show Canadians places they have reason to know but may not be able to visit. Produced for the Canadian Department of Veteran Affairs by the renowned documentary filmmaker Donald Brittain.
  • A Friend for Supper
    A Friend for Supper
    Gudrun Bjerring 1944 10 min
    In this short film made during World War II, a teacher explains how children in Russia, China and occupied Europe are going hungry and how Canada is helping to remedy the situation.
  • Food, Weapon of Conquest
    Food, Weapon of Conquest
    Stuart Legg 1941 21 min
    This 1940s wartime newsreel shows the food shortage in Nazi-occupied countries that have been forced to hand over their farm produce to Germany, leaving their own populations hungry. Part of the Canada Carries On series.
  • Food: Secret of the Peace
    Food: Secret of the Peace
    Stuart Legg 1945 11 min
    Made at the end of WWII, this short film shows scenes of food queues, hunger riots and famine in liberated Europe, pointing out the political danger that lies in starvation conditions. Causes of food shortages and measures taken by the Allies to solve these problems are described.
  • Fortress Japan
    Fortress Japan
    1944 16 min
    This short documentary examines the strength of the enemy forces in Japan towards the end of World War II. The mobilization of Japan's people and the consolidation of her fleets and armies along the front are weighed against the Allied Forces preparations for increasing attacks.
  • Food: Secret of the Peace [Discussion Trailer]
    Food: Secret of the Peace [Discussion Trailer]
    1946 5 min
    A group discussion of the issues raised in the film Food: Secret of the Peace. It points out the social and political dangers of starvation conditions.
  • Fighting Norway
    Fighting Norway
    Sydney Newman 1943 10 min
    During World War II Norwegian patriots struck at Germany from the rear, linking Canada, the United States and Britain with Soviet Russia. Norwegian resources around the world were mobilized, and at Canadian training stations Norwegian airmen forged a lasting friendship between the two countries. Includes footage from the British film All for Norway.
  • The Gates of Italy
    The Gates of Italy
    1943 21 min
    This short 1943 documentary from the World in Action series zooms in on Benito Mussolini, the politician and National Fascist Party leader who led Italy into World War II. Examining his confused dictatorship, the film reveals the political and military dilemma of the impoverished Italian people as Mussolini goes down to defeat and is finally ousted, on 25 July 1943.
  • Geopolitik - Hitler's Plan for Empire
    Geopolitik - Hitler's Plan for Empire
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    Stuart Legg 1942 20 min
    Hitler planned to dominate the world. A major factor in his thinking was the geopolitical theory of Karl Haushofer. (Released under the title Hitler's Plan in the World in Action series.)
  • Harvests on the March
    Harvests on the March
    Roger Morin 1949 43 min
    This short documentary follows Alberta farmers Jack Sutherland and Ted Quaschnick as they travel with transport trucks and a crew down through the wheat-producing plains of the American mid-west all the way to Texas and back. During these years of machinery shortages, the American harvest could use all the help that’s available. Through picturesque shots of the golden prairies, this film captures a moment in time when new agricultural cultivation methods for greater yield and quality are being developed to sustain an ever-growing population.
  • How They Saw Us: Women at War
    How They Saw Us: Women at War
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    Ann Pearson 1977 10 min
    This 1942 British film, Women at War, contrasts sharply with similar Canadian productions. It accepts women's direct participation in the war effort as a natural outgrowth of their peacetime occupations.
  • Inside France
    Inside France
    Stuart Legg  &  Tom Daly 1944 21 min
    This short film focuses on the period between World War I and World War II when France was struck by riots, strikes and economic stress. During the war that followed there was again internal dissension, between those supporting the Fighting French and those supporting the Vichy government. With the end of the war, however, France put itself on the road to recovery, rebuilding its strength on more solid foundations.
  • In Desperate Battle: Normandy 1944
    In Desperate Battle: Normandy 1944
    Brian McKenna 1992 1 h 43 min
    This documentary looks at the events of June 6, 1944, when a combined force of American, British and Canadian troops landed on the beaches of Normandy. The Allied invasion of occupied France was a turning point in the war against Hitler's Germany. From a tactical view, Canada's role was limited; strategically, it was pivotal. Part of the 3-part series The Valour and the Horror.
  • Inside Fighting Russia
    Inside Fighting Russia
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    1942 22 min
    Drawing on vast resources of labor and materials, and strengthened by new faith and leadership, the Soviet Union was able to change the course of World War II. With indomitable spirit Russia's people withstood enemy attack, fought back, and disrupted Hitler's timetable. (Also released under the title Our Russian Ally.)
  • John Bull's Own Island
    John Bull's Own Island
    Stuart Legg 1945 20 min
    Made at the end of WWII, this documentary looks at Britain's post-war period. During a time of economic hardship, Prime Minister Winston Churchill is concerned about the future of his nation. Part of the World in Action series.
  • Letters from Karelia
    Letters from Karelia
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    Kelly Saxberg 2005 48 min
    This feature-length documentary sheds light on "Karelia Fever," a phenomenon of the 1930s that led many Finnish Canadians to a tragic fate in the Soviet Union. Taimi Pitkanen last saw her brother Aate in Leningrad in 1931. She was returning to Canada from Moscow while her brother was heading to Soviet Karelia, where his skills as an English-Finnish electrician were in demand.

    He wrote letters home until 1941, when Hitler attacked the USSR. After that, no one in Canada heard from him. Some 60 years later, letters (written but unmailed) were discovered that revealed his fate and brought together Taimi and Alfred, the son Aate never had a chance to meet. Alfred follows his father's journey from Thunder Bay to Karelia. With him, we learn about Aate and one of the great dreams of the 20th century.
  • Labour Front
    Labour Front
    1943 21 min
    This newsreel on the mobilization of manpower during World War II shows how the workers on production lines produced a tremendous volume of materials for the Allied war effort. It points out that after the war these workers expect to find the opportunities of peace.
  • Letter from Aldershot
    Letter from Aldershot
    John Taylor 1940 9 min
    Part of the Canada Carries On series, this short film portrays the First Division of the Canadian Active Service Force in Aldershot, England. Using an intimate letter home as a narrative device, this film reveals how the troops were received, what their living conditions were like, how they would get along with their English allies and how they spent their leisure time.
  • Memorandum
    Memorandum
    John Spotton  &  Donald Brittain 1965 58 min
    This documentary follows a Holocaust survivor in 1965 on an emotional pilgrimage to Bergen Belsen, the last of 11 concentration camps where he was held by the Nazis. He and 30 other former Jewish inmates travel through the new Germany. Scenes still vivid in his mind are recalled in flashback. The memorandum of the title refers to Hitler's memo offering a "final solution" to the "Jewish problem."
  • My Grandmother Ironed the King's Shirts
    My Grandmother Ironed the King's Shirts
    Torill Kove 1999 10 min
    Torill Kove's grandmother often told her stories. One in particular revolved around ironing shirts for the King of Norway. And what if that intriguing detail was just the tip of the iceberg? Perhaps she also worked covertly in the Norwegian resistance... Maybe she even spearheaded a campaign to create an unprecedented brand of guerrilla warfare! Treating history as a fabric woven from personal stories, animator Torill Kove follows a thread of family history, embroidering it with playful twists along the way. In My Grandmother Ironed the King's Shirts, she imaginatively renders her grandmother's life and work in Oslo, especially during World War II. Sharp and whimsical, her story combines her grandmother's tales with historical events and fantasy, and shows how a cherished anecdote can come to acquire a mythical status. My Grandmother Ironed the King's Shirts is about an ordinary woman with a revolutionary instinct. With sharp humour it explores storytelling, myth-making and the important contributions that are possible through the most humble means.
  • The Mask of Nippon
    The Mask of Nippon
    Margaret Palmer 1942 21 min
    An anti-Japanese propaganda film produced during World War II.
  • My Mother's Village
    My Mother's Village
    John Paskievich 2001 1 h 41 min
    In a documentary that spans two continents and several generations, acclaimed director John Paskievich delves into the experience of exile and its impact on the human spirit.

    Almost fifty years after his family fled Ukraine for freedom in Canada, the filmmaker visits his parents' homeland. It's a place both familiar and foreign. Drawing on his years growing up in Winnipeg, Paskievich explores how children of refugees and immigrants are caught between two worlds. While they struggle to put down roots in a new country, they must also preserve traditions of a distant land they have never known.

    Paskievich's journey through Ukraine is interwoven with stories of displacement from other prominent Ukrainian Canadians--authors George Melnyk and Fran Ponomarenko, filmmaker Bohdana Bashuk, director Halya Kuchmij and dancer Lecia Polujan. A rich tapestry of memory and history, My Mother's Village brings to light the humour, anger, joy and complexity of living between borders.
  • Mutual Aid
    Mutual Aid
    1944 5 min
    An animated short about the work of Canada's Mutual Aid Board and the necessity for this cooperation between the Allied countries.
  • No More Hiroshima
    No More Hiroshima
    Martin Duckworth 1984 25 min
    This short documentary depicts the stories of two hibakusha, survivors of the 1945 atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This film follows them on their mission to New York as representatives of the Japanese Peace Movement at the second United Nations Special Session on Disarmament held in June 1982.
  • Now - The Peace
    Now - The Peace
    1945 21 min
    This short film looks at the plans made at Dumbarton Oaks in 1945 for a renewed international organization devoted to world peace - the United Nations.
  • No More Hibakusha!
    No More Hibakusha!
    Martin Duckworth 1983 55 min
    Hibakusha is the Japanese word for the survivors of the American bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This powerful and moving documentary focuses on a few of the eighty hibakusha who journeyed from Japan to New York in June, 1982, to take part in peace demonstrations held to coincide with the Second United Nations Special Session on Disarmament. They came to urge the nations of the world to prevent nuclear war. Instead of concentrating on the physical suffering of the victims, the film reveals the mental anguish of the hibakusha, who are still haunted by nightmares.
  • Our Northern Neighbour
    Our Northern Neighbour
    Tom Daly 1944 21 min
    This short film, part of The World in Action series, looks at Soviet foreign policy from 1917 through World War II. It considers the historical and political imperatives and the value of the Soviet Union as an ally.
  • Out of the Ruins
    Out of the Ruins
    Nicholas Read 1946 32 min
    Greece was ravaged first by World War II, and then by civil war. This film looks at the economic and social problems which resulted, and at the need for peace in this war-torn land. The efforts of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration to provide effective aid are highlighted.
  • Partners in Production
    Partners in Production
    1944 36 min
    The opening scenes of this film recall the grim days of Dunkirk. We see Britain in that time of crisis girding herself for the siege with the organization of Civil Defence and ARP, and the formation of the Home Guard. On the industrial side, the film shows readjustments made to increase production, such as the absorption of women into war factories and the setting up of labour-management committees. In describing how these committees functioned in the coal industry, the film demonstrates the importance of total democracy in waging total war.
  • Raymond Klibansky: From Philosophy to Life
    Raymond Klibansky: From Philosophy to Life
    Anne-Marie Tougas 2002 50 min
    The filmmaker did not suspect that meeting a philosopher would have such a profound effect. It compelled her to shed light on the exceptional life of Raymond Klibansky, his uncommon destiny and his path to humanity. As a German Jewish philosopher of action, he lived in times of upheaval, war and hate. As a young man, he moved in the circles of Karl Jaspers, Erwin Panofsky, Marianne Weber, Ernst Cassirer and Albert Enstein. Early in his career, he made his mark as a historian of ideas and a philosopher, and his work was known around the world. Then came the Nazi lie, which he condemned and, better yet, fought. In the prime of his life, he was Chief Intelligence Officer in the British Secret Service during World War Two. He moved to Montreal in 1946, where he has continued to promote tolerance and fight for freedom on all fronts.
  • Return to Dresden
    Return to Dresden
    Martin Duckworth 1986 27 min
    In 1945, Great Britain and the United States organized a bombing raid that devastated the ancient city of Dresden. This short documentary returns exactly 40 years after its destruction and celebrates its renaissance with the re-opening of one of the most beautiful opera houses in Europe. One guest at this gala was the Canadian navigator of one of the bomber planes, returning to Dresden on a mission of peace that brought him face-to-face with the people who were once his enemies.
  • Road to the Reich
    Road to the Reich
    Tom Daly 1945 10 min
    This short documentary includes highlights of the Allied advance from Normandy to Antwerp during WWII, including the bombing of Calais, the capture of V-2 launching sites, action on Walcheren Island and the arrival of Allied ships at Antwerp.
  • Suffer Little Children
    Suffer Little Children
    Sydney Newman 1945 10 min
    This short documentary is part of the Canada Carries On series. At the end of World War II there were sixty million sick and starving children in Europe. The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration undertook to provide food, clothing, shelter, medical care, education and sympathetic attention to these terrorized victims of war.
  • Savage Christmas: Hong Kong 1941
    Savage Christmas: Hong Kong 1941
    Brian McKenna 1991 1 h 44 min
    In the autumn of 1941, nearly 2,000 inexperienced Canadian soldiers were sent to Hong Kong at the request of the British government as a symbolic show of strength that would deter a Japanese attack on the colony. Canada's soldiers found themselves in the midst of a desperate battle they could not hope to win. On Christmas Day, 1941, the British colony of Hong Kong officially surrendered to Japan. The surviving defenders became prisoners of war. Over the next three and a half years, many of them would come to envy the dead.
  • Showa Shinzan
    Showa Shinzan
    Alison Reiko Loader 2002 12 min
    This animated film tells the story of a young Japanese girl's relationship with her grandfather, a postmaster and amateur geologist. When the neighboring Mount Usu erupts during World War II, he records its activity. As he witnesses the birth of a new mountain named Showa Shinzan, he transcends the misery and folly of war that surrounds them and teaches his granddaughter a valuable lesson about life. Evoking the tradition of Bunraku puppetry, this animated film is based on actual events.
  • UNRRA - In the Wake of the Armies
    UNRRA - In the Wake of the Armies
    Guy Glover 1944 18 min
    This short film from 1944 depicts the aftermath of World War II in Europe, with people desperate for food, clothing, and medical and agricultural supplies. It then captures the raison d’être for the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, as they’re shown stepping up to help those in dire need.
  • A War Story
    A War Story
    Anne Wheeler 1981 1 h 21 min
    Based on the diaries of Canadian doctor Ben Wheeler during his internment in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp during World War II, this feature-length docudrama is a glowing account of the spirit and its will to survive physical and mental suffering. The film is comprised of newsreel footage, interviews and dramatic re-enactments.
  • The War for Men's Minds
    The War for Men's Minds
    Stuart Legg 1943 21 min
    This short newsreel highlights the battles faced by both Axis and Ally powers over the minds of the world through propaganda and information. Part of the World in Action series, this film includes footage of Winston Churchill, Benito Mussolini, and Adolf Hitler.
  • Women Are Warriors
    Women Are Warriors
    Jane Marsh 1942 14 min
    This short film from WWII focuses on the increasingly important roles women occupy on the various war fronts. In England, their more active jobs include ferrying planes from factory to airfield and operating anti-aircraft guns. In Russia, they are fighting on the front lines as well as acting as parachute nurses, army doctors and technicians. In Canada women have joined active service auxiliaries, and thousands labour day and night in factories turning out the tools of war. From the Canada Carries On series.
  • Warclouds in the Pacific
    Warclouds in the Pacific
    Stuart Legg 1941 20 min
    This short film examines the Japan that emerged at the beginning of the 1900s and was firmly established as an industrialized nation by the outbreak of World War II. Facing the greatest threat in their history, the democracies of the Pacific took careful stock of this new Japan and its strength, and erected a vast system of defence across the world's greatest ocean.