Editing Volksdeutsche (section)

===Internal propaganda===
Nazi propaganda used the existence of ethnic Germans who they called {{Lang|de|Volksdeutsche}} in foreign lands before and during the war, to help justify the aggression of Nazi Germany. The annexation of Poland was presented as necessary to protect the ethnic German minorities there.<ref>Cinzia Romani, ''Tainted Goddesses: Female Film Stars of the Third Reich'' p. 145 {{ISBN|0-9627613-1-1}}</ref> Massacres of ethnic Germans, such as [[Bloody Sunday (1939)|Bloody Sunday]], or alleged atrocities, were used in such propaganda, and the film ''[[Heimkehr]]'' drew on such putative events as the rescue of {{Lang|de|Volksdeutsche}} by the arrival of German tanks.<ref>Robert Edwin Hertzstein, ''The War That Hitler Won'' p. 289 {{ISBN|0-399-11845-4}}</ref> ''Heimkehr'''s introduction explicitly states that hundreds of thousands of Poles of German ethnicity suffered as the characters in the film did.<ref>Robert Edwin Hertzstein, ''The War That Hitler Won'', p. 287 {{ISBN|0-399-11845-4}}</ref>

{{Main|Heimkehr}}

''[[Menschen im Sturm]]'' reprised "Heimkehr"'s effort to justify the invasion of [[Slavonia]], using many of the same atrocities.<ref>Robert Edwin Hertzstein, ''The War That Hitler Won'' pp. 292–293 {{ISBN|0-399-11845-4}}</ref> In ''[[The Red Terror (film)|The Red Terror]]'', a [[Baltic German]] is able to avenge her family's deaths, but commits suicide after, unable to live with meaning in the Soviet Union.<ref>[[Erwin Leiser]], ''Nazi Cinema'' pp. 44–45 {{ISBN|0-02-570230-0}}</ref> ''[[Refugees (1933 film)|Flüchtlinge]]'' depicted the sufferings of [[Volga German]] refugees in Manchuria, and how a [[Führerprinzip|heroic blond leader]] saved them; it was the first movie to win the state prize.<ref>Erwin Leiser, ''Nazi Cinema'' pp. 29–30 {{ISBN|0-02-570230-0}}</ref> ''[[Frisians in Peril]]'' depicted the suffering of a village of Volga Germans in the Soviet Union;<ref>Erwin Leiser, ''Nazi Cinema'' pp. 39–40 {{ISBN|0-02-570230-0}}</ref> it also depicted the murder of a young woman for an affair with a Russian{{snd}}in accordance with Nazi principle of [[Rassenschande]]{{snd}}as an ancient German custom.<ref>[[Richard Grunberger]], ''The 12-Year Reich'', p. 384, {{ISBN|0-03-076435-1}}</ref>

Sexual contact between what the Nazis viewed as different 'races' followed by remorse and guilt was also featured in ''[[Die goldene Stadt]]'', where the [[Sudeten German]] heroine faces not persecution but the allure of the big city;<ref>Cinzia Romani, ''Tainted Goddesses: Female Film Stars of the Third Reich'' p. 86 {{ISBN|0-9627613-1-1}}</ref> when she succumbs, in defiance of [[blood and soil]], she is seduced and abandoned by a Czech, and such a relationship leads to her drowning herself.<ref name="rhodes20">Anthony Rhodes, ''Propaganda: The art of persuasion: World War II'', p. 20, 1976, Chelsea House Publishers, New York</ref>