Propaganda and the Nazis

Nazis and Propaganda

• Joseph Goebbels – Reich Minister of Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda.

• Government monopoly of media.

• Eliminated opposing ideas.

• Created a cult of the Fuhrer.

Broadcasting and the Press

• Mass production of cheap radios.

• Blocked foreign broadcasts.

• Publication and content controlled.

• Reporters had to prove racial and political loyalty.

Literature

• Public book burning.

• Exile of writers considered disloyal.

• New publications must meet one of four criteria:

  • Fronterlebnis (front experience), which emphasized German heroism in battle and the bonds established by the common experience.

  • Works promoting the Nationalist Socialist Weltanschauung, as reflected in the outpourings of the Fuhrer.

  • Heimatroman (regional novels stressing the uniqueness of the German spirit).

  • Rassenkunde (ethnology), which stressed the superiority of the German/Aryan race over all others.

Fronterlebnis

(Front experience), which emphasized German heroism in battle and the bonds established by the common experience.

Heimatroman

Regional novels stressing the uniqueness of the German spirit.

Rassenkunde (ethnology)

Stressed the superiority of the German/Aryan race over all others.

Music

• Wagner - Hitler’s favorite.

• No Jewish or modern composers allowed.

Film

• Some entertainment allowed.

• Major pieces highlighted the party and the Fuhrer.

  • Triumph of the Will.

  • Olympia

• As war progressed, focus turned towards morale building and Anti-Semitic messages.

Art

• Anti-Jewish and anti-Communist.

• Art was to uphold ideals of the regime.

  • No modern artists.

• Overall impact of propaganda was hard to measure as there were those who already believed and those too afraid to speak out.

Propaganda Turns on the Jewish Community

• Anti-Semitism has existed for centuries.

  • Began as religious persecution both before the Christianization of Rome and after.

  • Would transition into racial scapegoating around the time of the Black Plague.

• Existed in almost every Western country at the time of WWII.

  • Hitler simply exploited anti-Semitism and widespread Xenophobia on a larger scale and more successfully than others to further Nazi ideals of the domination of the Aryan race.

  • This will then be twisted with “relatively” new ideas around race that became known as “The Big Lie”.

    • To be clear, Jewish people are a religion and an ethnicity (not a race).

• German Jews blamed for economic problems and cultural
  denigration.

  • Scapegoats for widespread frustration.

• Original Nazi solution was to force them out.

  • Basically make life so difficult that they emigrate.

  • Nearly 300,000 of the half million German Jews driven out by 1938.

• By 1941 German military expanded and gained control over an increasingly large Jewish population, this “solution” would become far more violent.