“Why not peace with Hitler?” – No real anti-war demonstration in 1941

As Russia's war against Ukraine rages, there are also many voices calling for negotiations with Putin instead of providing Ukraine with weapons to defend their country. While politically left-wing parties like the Greens in favor of arms deliveries , the AfD tries to be a peace party and is against arms deliveries .
Similar mutual views existed in the USA during the Second World War, but with reversed roles: A photo of a demonstration is intended to show that the political left used sometimes bizarre slogans such as “Why not make peace with Hitler?” ) demonstrated on the posters.
But this demonstration was staged.

The Sharepic

This shows a black and white image of a demonstration:

The description: “ Liberals defending Hitler, New York City – December, 1941 “
The posters read: “ Hitler has not attacked us. Why attack Hitler? ", " Why not peace with Hitler? ” and “ Europe for Europeans, America for Americans .”

The source of the photo: A video

The only thing that can be agreed upon is the year, 1941, because opinions are already divided when it comes to the month in which the photos (yes, there are several) are said to have been taken: Does the scene take place in December (as in the one above Sharepic) or in July 1941?

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The solution: The writer of the tweet is right, the scenes were actually taken on July 17, 1941 in New York . A video of this was seen for 19 seconds in an episode of " March of Time ", an American newsreel and documentary series shown in English-language cinemas from 1935 to 1951.

The episode at the time was called “ Peace by Adolf Hitler ” and was 18 minutes long in total, 19 seconds of which showed this demonstration. At the time, politicians like Senator Burton K. Wheeler described the “March of Time” broadcasts as “ warmongering propaganda .”

The video was staged

This demonstration can also be found on YouTube, but here's where things get strange: it lasts 6 minutes and always shows a similar scenery from almost the same camera perspective.

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So you not only see the demonstrators standing, then holding up the signs and starting to walk, but you can also see the same passers-by again and again, sometimes seen from the front and sometimes from behind.

Strangely enough, there should at least be something in the newspaper about such a demonstration in New York, right? However, we couldn't find an article about it in the New York Times archive What we were able to find, however, was the source of the YouTube video with the various scenes, here: At the digital United States Holocaust Memorial Museum .

And, as the video already makes clear, it also says that the demonstration was staged and therefore never took place. It was filmed solely for the series “March of Time”, 19 seconds of the 6 minute long footage were then used for one episode.

Conclusion

There is no evidence to be found that there was not a demonstration with similar signs at some point. However, the demonstration in the pictures or in the video is staged, and this for a series that was in principle very much in favor of America's entry into the Second World War, which is why it can certainly be assumed that the political left is using the staged scenes should be little ridiculed.

Also interesting:

The claim is circulating as a screenshot and a video that BILD reported on Ukrainian refugees who burned down their hosts' house.
But it is a clearly demonstrable fake! BILD didn't report on Ukrainians burning down their hosts' house!