Nazi propaganda

Propaganda, or the dissemination of one-sided information on a large scale intended to influence or control public opinion, was key to the National Socialists, or Nazis, seizing and holding power in Germany under Adolf Hitler. Under Hitler’s leadership, Germany launched a campaign of lies, misinformation, and misdirection that were used to garner public support for the regime and its tactics, which included suspension of civil liberties, suppression of political opposition, invasion of neighboring countries, and the violent persecution of Jews and other ethnic groups. Propaganda efforts also included actions designed to pit the Allied nations in World War II against one another and prevent an Allied victory.

Background

Hitler laid out his views on the importance of propaganda early, in his 1925 memoir Mein Kampf. In it, he emphasized the importance of gaining and holding public support by constantly repeating a few very simple messages that will appeal to all listeners on a basic emotional level and discourage critical thought. Scapegoating was a key element of Nazi and other right-wing propaganda in Germany in the years between the world wars—Germany had suffered a crushing defeat in World War I, and a belief developed on the right that Germany would not have had to surrender militarily, but was instead "sold out" by its leaders, many of them under the influence of Jewish interests, or Communists, or actually being Jews or Communists themselves. This legend of betrayal at the end of World War I became very appealing to Germans, especially after the depression of the 1930s set in and created tremendous economic suffering and desperation.

Both Anti-Semitism and anti-Communism were thus powerful weapons in the Nazi propaganda arsenal from the beginning. Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany in 1933, and shortly thereafter, the Reichstag (the German parliament building) was set on fire. The main suspect was a Dutch Communist, and Hitler and the Nazis seized on this as a pretext to suspend civil liberties, outlaw the German Communist Party, and eventually seize absolute power. Similarly, in 1938, when Herschel Grynszpan, a seventeen-year-old German Jew living in France, assassinated Nazi diplomat Ernst vom Rath, the Nazi regime used the incident as an excuse to launch widespread violent attacks on Jews, Jewish-owned businesses, and synagogues across Germany. This incident, known as Kristallnacht, is often regarded as the start of the Holocaust. In both the Reichstag fire and the assassination of vom Rath, discrete incidents were used to great advantage by Nazi propagandists to advance preexisting goals, by instilling fear in the population that Germany was under imminent threat from Communists and Jews.

Similarly, propaganda aimed at Allied and neutral countries attempted to make it seem as if Germany had become invincible to outside attack. Rumors of secret and powerful weapons and a fleet of super fighter planes were spread to enforce the idea of German invincibility. Before the German military began an invasion, propaganda was used to demoralize the targeted population. In Austria, for example, Germans were sent undercover to undermine local police forces and make them seem to be incapable of maintaining order. Blackmail of prominent people to win support was another favorite propaganda tactic. In Belgium, Nazi agents sowed discord by spreading rumors that King Leopold III had sold out his people and was making secret deals to advance his own interests.

Impact

Propaganda was effectively used within Germany to prevent organized opposition to Nazi control. By maintaining control of the arts and mass media, chiefly through the establishment of the Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, which was established in 1933 and headed by Joseph Goebbels, the Nazis gained tremendous sway over what Germans read, watched, and thought about. The regime used filmmakers such as Leni Riefenstahl to create films filled with anti-Semitism and images of the power and glory of the Third Reich, as the Nazi regime was known. Some 2.5 million Germans in uniform regularly read the military propaganda magazine the Signal. Other widely read Nazi publications included the Völkischer Beobachter (the People’s Observer), Das Reich (the Reich), Der Angriff (the Attack), and Der Stürmer (the Attacker).

Throughout World War II, newsreels served as an avenue for promoting the strength of the German military, and political cartoons emphasized German superiority over all other groups. Books not acceptable to the new way of thinking were burned in public as ordered by Goebbels. Nazis also controlled the German airwaves, and inexpensive radios were to be found in all homes. Radios capable of receiving signals from outside Germany were carefully hidden in case of surprise inspections by the Gestapo, the Nazi secret police.

Well-known Nazi propagandists who regularly appeared on the German radio included radio personality Hans Fritzsche, who was known for his anti-British stance. Preserved letters written to Fritzsche suggest that while many Germans were highly supportive of his on-air statements, others questioned them. William Joyce, known by the nickname "Lord Haw Haw," was another popular propagandist. A British fascist who moved to Germany in 1940, Joyce got a job as an English-language broadcaster delivering pro-German broadcasts targeting British audiences. He was captured at the end of the war and eventually hanged for treason in Great Britain.

Prisoners of war were likely to be coerced into participating in propaganda campaigns. Despite the atrocities they suffered, they were under strict orders to assure those at home that they were being well treated. When International Red Cross inspectors were due at concentration camps such as Theresienstadt, an enforced camp beautification campaign was launched. Despite the farce, the Danish Jews housed at Thersienstadt were later transported to Auschwitz or Birkenau where most of them died.

In the United States, efforts to combat Nazi propaganda included publication of Divide and Conquer (1942), which detailed common tactics used by Hitler and warned the public that Hitler’s purpose was to create an environment of confusion, indecisiveness, and panic. The popular magazine Saturday Evening Post reprinted the entire pamphlet to enhance distribution of the message.

While Nazi films and other forms of propaganda may seem ludicrous by twenty-first-century standards, the principle of reducing complex social problems to a simple issue of one common enemy that must be destroyed has proven effective in rallying support for governments across times and places.

Bibliography

Bauer, Brad. "Defiance of the Lambs." World War II 27.5 (2013): 48–53. Print.

Herf, Jeffrey. The Jewish Enemy: Nazi Propaganda during World War II and the Holocaust. Cambridge: Belknap, 2006. Print.

Herf, Jeffrey. Nazi Propaganda for the Arab World. New Haven: Yale UP, 2009. Print.

"German Propaganda Archive." Calvin College. Calvin College, n.d. Web. 25 Aug. 2016.

Kirsch, Jonathan. The Short, Strange Life of Herschel Grynszpan: A Boy Avenger, a Nazi Diplomat, and a Murder in Paris. New York: Liveright, 2013. Print.

"Propaganda." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. USHMM, n.d. Web. 25 Aug. 2016.

Welch, David. "Nazi Propaganda." BBC. BBC, 30 Mar. 2011. Web. 25 Aug. 2016.

Znamenski, Andrei A. "From ‘National Socialists’ to ‘Nazi’: History, Politics, and the English Language." Independent Review 19.4 (2015): 537–61. Print.