History of the Nazi Party

History Nazi Party

Cabaret (1972): History

The 1973 film Cabaret is set during the era of the Weimar Republic, just before the Nazi Party assumed control over Germany. Its main protagonist is Sally Bowles, an expatriate American who vaguely dreams of entering the film industry and becoming a singer and an actress. She performs nightly at the Kit Kat Club, a sleazy nightclub where women wear scanty clothes and dance in front of ogling men. Sally shares a room with Brian, a British, bisexual English teacher. Two of Brian's students, a man who conceals his Judaism and a woman who is a rich Jewish heiress, fall in love over the course of the film. The dangers of being open about one's religion in a society that seems so 'open' about everything else highlights the dangers on the horizon for Berlin and the rest of Germany.

Sally tries to ignore politics, and does not care about the political affiliations of her lovers. She merely wants to have a good time. She and Brian have a brief affair, but after Sally has an abortion, Brian is crushed and leaves Berlin, which is growing more hostile to foreigners, gays, and Jews by the day. One of the most chilling scenes of the film depicts a young man singing "Tomorrow Belongs to Me." The camera first shows the young, blond man's beauty and then pans down to reveal the swastika patch he is wearing on his shoulder.

Cabaret shows how subtly the Nazi Party came to power, at least in the eyes of many Berliners. The German postwar poverty, depression, and desolation caused many people to turn inward and focus upon their own personal dramas and 'divine decadence' (as Sally Bowles calls her green nail polish) rather than the real threats affecting their country. People looked for easy solutions -- sex, money, drink, and the simple racist promises made by the Nazi Party. Outside the Kit Kat Club, Jewish people are being shown beaten in the streets, but no one cares because everyone is having such a good time inside the Club.

The eerie, sinister figure called the Master of Ceremonies presides over the Kit Kat Club, and seems to know what is going on, inside and out. His mantra that inside "life is beautiful" and provides a refuge from the horrors outside rings increasingly hollow over the course of the film. Even he seems to know the phrase is a lie. During one song, he sings "If you could only see her thorough my eyes" to a woman in a guerilla suit. At the end of the song, he slyly turns to the audience and says that "she wouldn't seem Jewish at all," indicating how he knows that Jewish people are being dehumanized outside of the club.

Although Cabaret does not spell out the reasons for the Nazi Party's rise to power, it does show how when people ignore politics and instead only focus upon their own pleasures and emotional dramas, evil will occur. Sally Bowels does not care if a man is a Nazi, so long as he has money and can advance her film career. Brian is more circumspect, but he is so passive and retiring as a character, his opposition to the Nazis proves to be futile. The film shows how in Germany there was no coherent opposition to the Nazi Party, allowing Hitler to take over. Even Jewish people were afraid to openly voice their religious affiliation, and for wealthy and powerful Jews who desired to 'pass' in high-end society, there was a strong motivation to conceal one's religion.