All language subtitles for The.True.Story.Of.Lili.Marlene.1944.BluRay.1080p.DTS.x264.eng

Lili Marlene is the name of a song.

The story of Lili Marlene, well,
it's a sort of modern fairy story, really,

only it's a true story as well.

When the fighting men come home,

they bring with them trophies
and souvenirs of the war,

the Second World War.

But there's one trophy that you will only
find in the homes of the Eighth Army,

the dilsc Of a German song:
Lili Marlene.

(♪ Orchestra plays song intro...)

♪ Vor der Kaserne,
vor dem groBen Tor

♪ Stand eine Laterne
und steht sie noch davor... ♪

This trophy was captured in the Libyan
desert in the autumn of 1942.

But the history of Lili Marlene
takes us back to the year 1923,

to the time when the men
of the Eighth Army were still children.

"These captured German guns
commemorate the devotion to duty

"and the achievements of those
who fought for their country

"in the Great War of 1914-1918."

In Germany, 1923 was a strange year.

Inflation had reduced
the country to a state

where money and even life itself
had lost all meaning,

and in 1923, out of this chaos,

Hitler made his first attempt to gain
power in the streets of Munich.

National Socialism and the Nazi Party
came from the south.

But in the north and particularly
in Hamburg, they stuck to democracy.

Hamburg, as a matter of fact,

was the last German stronghold
to fall before Hitler's attack

and it was in Hamburg,
then the largest port in the world,

that Lili Marlene was born.

(Speaks German)

Vor der Kaserne,

Vor dem groBen Tor,

Stand eine Laterne,

Und steht sie noch davor...

'In the dark of evening
where you stand and wait

'hangs a lantern gleaming
by the barrack gate.

'We'll meet again by lantern shine
as we did once upon a time,

'we two, Lili Marlene.

'We two, Lili Marlene.'

(♪ Bugle call)

The music of Lili Marlene
was written in 1938.

The first person to sing the song

was a little Swedish girl
called Lale Andersen

when she was working
in a nightclub in Berlin.

♪ In the dark of evening
where you stand and wait

♪ Hangs a lantern gleaming
by the barrack gate

♪ We'll meet again by lantern shine

♪ As we did once upon a time

♪ We two, Lili Marlene

♪ We two, Lili Marlene

♪ Our shadows once stood facing

♪ A tall one and a small... ♪

(Crowds shouting)

At that time nobody paid any attention
either to Lale Andersen or to the song.

It was the first year of the war

and the German soldiers
were given purely military music.

(♪ Song begins with fanfare...)

In the autumn of 1940
after the fall of France,

the Germans formed
their famous Afrika Korps

and they sent it into battle
with its own special song,

"Panzer rollen in Afrika vor",
Panzers advance in Africa.

Lili Marlene and Lale Andersen
were still unknown.

Their first real appearance
was in the spring of 1941.

(Fanfare)

(German man) 'The German Reich
is from this morning

'in a state of war against
the usurpers of Belgrade.'

In the bombing of Belgrade,

the Luftwaffe had contrived
to leave the radio station

more or less untouched.

Among the first troops to arrive there

was a so-called
Propagandakompanie,

consisting of war correspondents,
newsreel cameraman,

and particularly radio engineers.

Their orders were to proceed
to the radio station,

wipe out any patriot resistance,

make contact with a fifth column
inside the station,

and begin broadcasting at once.

But first they had to be sure
who was in charge of the station,

patriots or the fifth column.

The Propagandakompanie
had Tommy guns issued to it!

as well as radio apparatus.

(Distant hammering)

(Hammering continues...)

- Heil Hitler.
- Heil Hitler. Chief Engineer Lester.

Major Zielbrenner, Propagandakompanie.

- Heil Hitler.
- Heil Hitler.

(Speaking German...)

Fifth Column.

But even with their help
there was a rush to get going.

The lights were off but the station
had its own power for transmission.

Among the luggage
of the Propagandakompanie

there was a suitcase
of gramophone records

to broadcast in the gaps between
the communiqués and propaganda talks.

(Hammering)

Here is the Belgrad Rundfunk.

This Radio Belgrade, transmitting
for the first time in German.

(Continues in German...)

The Nazi plan was to use Belgrade
as a Deutscher Soldatensender,

that is to say, a radio station for
programmes for the German troops.

(Speaks German)

The door.

And now to end our first broadcast,
one more record.

Lili Marlene sung by Lale Andersen.

Lili Marlene.

(♪ Music begins...)

♪ In the dark of evening

♪ Where you stand and wait

♪ Hangs a lantern gleaming

♪ By the barrack gate

♪ We'll meet again by lantern shine

♪ As we did once upon a time

♪ We two, Lili Marlene

♪ We two, Lili Marlene... J”

(Crew sing)
♪ We two, Lili Marlene... ♪

From the first moment,

Lili Marlene was a smash hit
with the German troops.

From Africa, the occupied territories,
and the U-boats,

letters came pouring in

asking about that song with the girl
and the sentry and the lamppost

and in Berlin they exploited
this enthusiasm

and they built a programme
round the song

a "messages from home" programme
to the forces at the front.

What's more, this was
just the moment for it,

for in the same month, June 1941,

they'd opened up a new front,
a front 1,000 miles long:

the Russian front.

(Fanfare)

This is the Deutsche
Soldatensender Belgrad.

Tonight we present to you
a new radio feature.

The Young Sentry of Belgrade.

From Russia to the Atlantic Wall
the sentry calls you, one and all

From Norway down to Africa

The log is open, here we are

We meet outside
the barrack square

And find our loved ones
waiting there

We call Oberfeldwebel Karl Hoffman,
Feldpostnummer 4-9-2-7-6-F.

(Radio presenter continues...)

"'Tender greetings from Mummy and Dad

"'and a big kiss from Liselotte.“

And the singer,
the little Swedish nightclub girl?

What had become of her?

♪ Then came the trumpet blowing

♪ Retreat to you and me

♪ My love, I must be going

♪ Or else three days CB

♪ And so I whisper cheerio

♪ Oh, darling, how I hate to go

♪ My sweet Lili Marlene

- ♪ My sweet
- ♪ My sweet Lili Marlene

♪ My sweet Lili Marlene... ♪

Tonight is the anniversary

of the opening
of the Young Sentry programme

from the Deutscher
Soldatensender Belgrad,

and tonight it is officially announced
that from the Forces alone

more than one million Reichsmark
have been donated

to the Lale Andersen winter relief fund.

♪ The golden lantern burning
knows you well and true

♪ Your words so soft and yearning

♪ The bright desire of youth

♪ But, ah, should he die
your soldier dear

♪ Who then would stand

♪ And kiss you here

- ♪ Who then, Lili Marlene?
- ♪ Who then?

♪ Who then, Lili Marlene? ♪

The popularity of Lili Marlene

spreads with the victories
of the glorious Wehrmacht.

Only last week,

the 150th Lale Andersen café bar
was opened in Germany

and a statue of Lili Marlene was
erected on the Smolensk Road.

♪ Mit dir, Lili Marleen

♪ Mit dir, Lili Marleen! ♪

By the Bolshevik enemies
being beaten on the eastern front.

The last strongholds
of British imperialism are crumbling,

under the onslaughts
of General Field Marshal Rommel,

and the Trieste division
of our beloved Italian allies

have accepted Lili Marlene
as their battle song.

'In a few weeks, then,
Alexandria will be ours

'and the fall of Stalingrad will have
opened the gates to the east.'

This evening
at the Berlin State Opera House

Frau Staatsschauspielerin
Emmy Goering

will by special request include
Lili Marlene in her programme.

♪ Wie einst, Lili Marleen!

♪ Wie einst

♪ Lili Marleen! ♪

But on July 4th 1942,

the Eighth Army
held the line at El Alamein,

and it was here
that Denis Johnston of the BBC

found our men
also listening to Lale Andersen.

(Johnston) There weren't many radios
out forward near the battle area,

except probably the one
in our recording truck,

and we used to turn on the news
every night and listen to it,

and you'd sit there
with nothing to be seen at all

except the little glow
from the dial of the radio

and from these trucks dispersed out
all over the desert about 50 yards apart,

chaps who'd come in when they heard
the radio coming across the sand,

rather like...like birds
coming in round a lighthouse,

and they'd sit around
and listen to the news,

and you'd see the glow
from their cigarettes and their pipes,

and from this little dial on the radio,

and after the news was over,

we'd turn over to this "messages
Home" programme from Germany

and listen,

and before long it would go, "Oompah,
oompah", and there was Marlene.

♪ The golden lantern burning

♪ Knows you well and true

♪ Your words so soft and yearning

♪ The bright desire of youth... ♪

(German radio presenter speaks)

'Front and homeland
now say farewell to each other,

'and the sentinel closes his logbook,

'and once more the strains
of Lili Marlene float through the night.'

(Distant singing)

Home.

Home. Home.

It's a funny thing, the way the Germans
of all people are sentimental about home.

But they seem to forget
that other people have homes too.

The Eighth Army. The Russians.
The oppressed peoples of Europe.

They all have homes.

We will see whose home thoughts
serve them best.

'This is Denis Johnston here
and we're recording out in the desert

'and you must forgive me if I'm shouting

'because I'm shouting across
the voice of British guns.

'Standing here in the moonlight,
it's a most amazing panorama,

'for miles from north to south,
a great semicircle.

'There are all sorts of flashes

'in an almost unbroken barrage
being rocketed to the enemy.

'Yes, now the barrage is lifting
and the tanks are coming forward.

'I can see Grants. No, no,
they're Shermans. And Honeys.

'And behind them
here come lorries full of infantry.

'The infantry are going up,
the Highland division,

'holding the guns, following the tanks.

'They're going up after the barrage.'

So, the Eighth Army
swept on to El Agheila,

capturing on its way
800 miles of desert, 75000 prisoners

5,000 tanks, 1,000 guns

and thee famous enemy song
of Lili Marlene.

♪ Wie einst, Lili Marleen

♪ Wie einst, Lili Marleen ♪

The German radio

continued to broadcast Lili Marlene
to the men at the front.

But it had other listeners as well,

listeners in Britain,

people to whom the famous song

was just one more piece
of enemy propaganda

to be taken down
and analysed in sober quiet.

The BBC...

(Song plays)

Then came Stalingrad.

The struggle for Stalingrad is ended.

The Sixth Army,

under the exemplary leadership of
General Field Marshal Von Paulus,

'has had to succumb to the numerical
superiority of the enemy

'and to adverse conditions.'

Paulus surrendered before Stalingrad
on 2nd February 1943,

and that night the Berlin radio

announced a three-day
closing of all entertainments,

cinemas, theatres, and variety halls.

And the tune of Lili Marlene,

which had been heard
for 500 consecutive nights

on the Belgrade radio,

was stilled into silence.

The next day, 3rd February,

something even more astonishing
happened.

From a neutral country,
there came word

that Lale Andersen was
in a concentration camp.

She had been sending
messages home to Sweden.

"All I want is to get out
of this terrible country."

There is no time for singing.

We can whisper only,
and listen to the enemy,

and resist.

(Chiming)

Now it was our chance.

Now it was the BBC's turn

to send a message from
Lale Andersen to the German troops.

To send the tune back to Germany.

The same tune,
but with different words

and a different singer, Lucy Mannheim.

The letter of Lili Marlene written to her
young sentry on the Eastern Front.

♪ My heart is sad and weary

♪ As I write this today

♪ For life is grey and dreary

♪ Since you were marched away

♪ You say,
"I'm a soldier, it must be"

♪ But that can bring no help to me

♪ I'm waiting by the lantern

♪ Your own Lili Marlene

♪ Your man is dead, I hear it

♪ His grave the Russian snow

♪ Yes, die you must, I fear it

♪ For Hitler wills it so

♪ Oh, could we only meet once more

♪ Our country free of shame and war

♪ And stand beneath the lantern

♪ We two

♪ Lili Marlene

♪ Führer, I thank and greet you

♪ For you are good and wise

♪ Widows and orphans meet you

♪ With hollow silent eyes

♪ Hitler, the man of blood and fear

♪ Hang him up on the lantern here!

♪ Hang him up from the lantern!

♪ Our Führer

♪ Lili Marlene ♪

But that is not the end
of the story of Lili Marlene.

Well, Lili Marlene
followed us all the way up.

When we got to the Mareth Line,

the song was getting pretty popular there
and the battalion ran a concert

where one of our chaps
sang it rather well,

only after that we were all singing it.

Eventually we got to Sicily
and more Lili Marlene.

They had it in the cafés there.

The Italian girls, they sang it in Italian,
of course, and that wasn't so good.

We had our own words
written for the song,

and on the whole I think the boys
would rather think of Lili Marlene

as the Eighth Army's battle song.

♪ There was a song
Eighth Army used to hear

♪ In the lonely desert

♪ Romantic, sweet and clear

♪ Over the ether came the strain

♪ The soft refrain each night again

♪ With you, Lili Marlene

♪ With you, Lili Marlene

♪ With you, Lili Marlene

♪ We know the music
wasn't meant for us... ♪

Lili Marlene was born
in the docks in Hamburg,

and then she went to Berlin
and then flew to Belgrade.

She was sent to the desert
and was captured,

and then she was transformed,

and marched with the armies
of liberation into the heart of Europe.

♪ Afrika Korps have vanished
from the earth

♪ Smashed soon will be
the swine who gave it birth

♪ No more to hear
that lilted refrain

♪ Each night again that soft refrain

♪ With you, Lili Marlene

♪ With you, Lili Marlene J”

Now look into the future.

Peace.

Come to the London docks
on a Saturday night in peacetime.

Here you will find the scene set

for the last appearance of Lili Marlene.

When the blackout is lifted
and the lights of London are relit

and the shining domes
of Stalingrad are being rebuilt,

then the true people and the real joys
of life will come into their own again.

and the famous tune of
Lili Marlene

will linger in the hearts of
the Eighth Army as a trophy of victory

and as a memory of the last war

to remind us all to sweep fascism
off the face of the earth

and to make it really the last war.