Backfire at the BBC
"(CHANGING THE TUNE," which came over from 2YA the other evening, is interesting, but as propaganda must be one of the feeblest sessions the BBC have perpetrated. The purpose of this "satirical document" (sic), we were told, was to show how Dr. Goebbels has had to alter the songs of the German people to suit the changing fortunes of war. In each case we were given first the recorded German version with heavily ironical comments by a very self-satisfied BBC voice, and then the same voice singing the English
translation. The session began with a song of 1939 vintage entitled "We'll All Set Off Against England" (heard in the film version of The Moon Is Down), continued through a rousing melody about the Afrika Korps ("Let's All
Go to Africa") and the sentimental "Lilli Marlene" (unfortunately just as popular with our own troops. as with our enemies!) and finished with a nostalgic little ditty in which three Germans on garrison duty in Russia yearn for home. Now there is no argument that originally there was self-confidence among the Germans and that this feeling must now have given place to disillusionment. But what about the complacency of our own mood at the beginning of the war, and our own songs: "We'll Hang Our Washing on the Siegfried Line" and "Run, Rabbit, Run"? Se eeeceeeeeenceeneemnemeeeen
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 12, Issue 289, 5 January 1945, Page 7
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227Backfire at the BBC New Zealand Listener, Volume 12, Issue 289, 5 January 1945, Page 7
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