(United Nations, 1970; source UN Audiovisual Library, 2019)
Just before the end of the First World War, Woodrow Wilson had the idea of “A general association of nations”. The Treaty of Versailles in 1919 established the League of Nations but its ratification failed in the USA and the country stayed out of the League. Geneva was chosen as the seat of this new international organization.
From its leading personalities (Woodrow Wilson, Lord Robert Cecil, Sir Eric Drummond, Jean Monnet, Herr Stresemann, Aristide Briand, et al.) to its triumphs (membership of Germany in 1926, participation and cooperation of the USA, construction of the Palais des Nations), and tragedies (Wall Street Crash of 1929, withdrawal of Germany), this film presents an account of the first attempt by nations to build an organization to maintain peace, the League of Nations.
(United Nations, 1935; source UN Audiovisual Library, 2019)
Produced by The Realist Film Unit Production for the Information Section of the League of Nations.
This film presents the work and purpose of the League of Nations through various departments (documents section, library, information section, legal section, political section) and members.
(United Nations, 1935; source UN Audiovisual Library, 2019)
Produced by The Realist Film Unit Production for the Information Section of the League of Nations.
This film presents the political matters of the League (mandates system and disarmament) and the economic ones (financial section, intelligence service, communications and transit, social section, narcotics section, intellectual cooperation, health organization).
(United Nations, 1933; source UN Audiovisual Library, 2019)
Shots of the Palais des Nations under construction, its table model and ceremony of completion of the outer structure.
To find out more about other films, check out the website of the Total Digital Access to the League of Nations Archives Project (LONTAD).
LONTAD was launched in 2017 to digitize the entire collection of the League of Nations archives. The five-year-long project will be completed in 2022 with the digitization of approximately three kilometers of archival documents.
