Shortly after and even before America was attacked in 1941 numerous cartoons were made insulting the Nazis and the Imperial Japanese Army for their evil deeds overseas.

During World War 2 – the most senseless, horrific, brutal, and painful war in history (I’m not kidding) along with its’ father World War 1, animators went to work on making asses out of the Axis,

Along with this, novelist Gregor Ziemer, an immigrant who fled from the Nazis, wrote the novel Education for Death, a documentary on an imaginary child that turned into one of Hitler’s soldiers. This novel immediately gained attention from Walt Disney, having just finished a quint of animated features and already creating several war shorts involving Donald Duck.

For decades, Education for Death along with the World War 2 shorts were unavailable for viewing due to concerns over the subject matter until 60+ years later when it was put on DVD.

The tale of a boy, Hans, who forcefully ends up becoming a Nazi soldier. He is turned into a monster, and only to be remembered in death as a meaningless puppet to Hitler’s regime.

Narrated by Art Smith.

While most anti-Nazi cartoons involved humor, there is little or no humor in this one.

Roughly everything shown in this cartoon truly happened. Innocent kids were forcefully turned into monsters and as they got older became soldiers for the Nazis.

The holocaust is not mentioned despite the awareness in the early 40s by America.

Animation was mostly done under the reign of Ward Kimball – yep, same animator who animated the curious oysters in Alice in Wonderland.

The final image of the graves resembles Metallica’s Master of Puppets album cover. Fitting since these soldiers were nothing but puppets.

Arguably the darkest thing to come out of Disney – should be considered a horror cartoon.

From what TV Tropes has said, Hans would’ve already gone to war as a child in 1945 when the Allies invaded Nazi Germany.

Anyone thinking of Anakin Skywalker’s turn to Vader from seeing this? Given George Lucas took enormous inspiration from the Nazis over Palpatine and the Galactic Empire I wonder if he watched this somehow.

Now that I think of it, Education for Death seems like a retelling of Frankenstein as a monster is created.

Yes yes, I know Hans isn’t technically a monster, but the way he turns from a happy-go-lucky kid to turning into a Nazi soldier makes me think of something out of Frankenstein.

One of the darkest cartoons of the 1940s – even more disturbing than whatever was shown on Disney’s animated features. Part of why this just goes so high up on the horror level is that the majority of what’s shown actually happened.

The Nazi book burnings look like something out of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Here though it is much, much, much darker.

Much like George Pal’s War of the Worlds and When Worlds Collide, I throw this under horror. It shows the truth and terror that Nazis truly were.

I can only call this cartoon as Indiana Jones’s most beloved Disney short. It showcases the true terror and mind-twisting that the Nazis were responsible for in the 1930s and 1940s, turning innocent children like Hans into human beings so horrible, that even Genghis Khan, Vladimir Putin, Joseph Stalin, and Attila the Hun would cower in fear.

Folks, I learned about the Nazis in school when I was 14-15. I could never feel concerned hearing about Genghis Khan or Joseph Stalin (though they were both really bad people) after hearing about the Nazis. I made fun of the Nazis years ago from watching Daffy the Commando and Der Fuehrer’s Face, and the Nazis deserved every single bit of hatred and insult toward them. I HATE Nazis. I fucking hate them.

With all the recent horrible antisemitism from Hamas and the recent white supremacy coming out Donald Trump’s crooked fan club that I’ve been hearing about, it comes no surprise that I’ve found myself thinking about this one to remember how screwed up, rotten, and downright nightmarish the Nazis truly were.