Nazi Germany invades Memel in 1939. Archive film 91545

An educational film produced by the Reichsanstalt fur Film und Bild in Wissenschaft und Unterricht (a state body), which documents Germany’s annexation of the Memel Territory in 1939. The film emphasises the warm reception that met German troops on the streets of the four territories. An officer throws a newspaper into a crowd. Close up of the newspaper ’Memmelwacht’ declaring freedom for the Memel Territory from Poland. A man climbs a ladder and fastens a little nazi flag above a door. A banner declares “We have come home“. A bilingual sign at a ferry station is defaced, leaving only the German text. A uniformed official opens a metal gate, ecstatic young men and women flood in waving flags. Soldiers poke their heads out of a covered army truck and wave at the crowds, one carries a posy of flowers. Local soldiers wearing uniforms decorated with fresh flowers watch the procession on the ground and in the air. A formation of aircraft fly above. Shots of the sea from a military vessel