Nazi Propaganda

Nazi Propaganda

Propaganda • The spreading of information and ideas to advance a cause or discredit an opposing cause Nazi Propaganda goals: 1. To create a positive image of Hitler and the Nazi Party 2. To create a negative view of those considered to be enemies, particularly Jews

Hitler’s Propaganda Methods • Present simple themes in a repetitive manner • Appeal to emotion rather than intellect • Have broad appeal to the masses • Focus mainly on one enemy - Claim that this enemy is at the root of all problems

Propaganda: Pervasive in Nazi Germany • Images – Posters, Book and Newspaper Illustrations • Spoken Word – Nazi Speeches and Radio broadcasts; Songs and slogans • Printed Word – “Der Sturmer” ; Academic publications; School curricula • Dramatic - cinema (i.e. Triumph of the Will; The Eternal Jew; Jud Suss); Party Rallies

Goals of Pro-Nazi Propaganda • To portray Hitler and The Nazi Party as the saviors of Germany • To connect the Nazis to a positive, idealistic vision of Germany’s future • To portray the Nazis as confident, decisive, and overwhelmingly powerful

Hitler as the Heroic Leader

Hitler Brings Unity

“The Reich will never be destroyed if you are united and loyal.”

Appeals to Traditional Values Motherhood “German Women Think of Your Children Vote Hitler”

Youthful Idealism

“Youth serves the Fuhrer”

“Workers of the mind and hand –

Vote for the front soldier Hitler!”

Power and Pageantry

Goals of Anti-Jewish Propaganda • To connect Jews to every problem facing Germany and every other group seen as opponents • To reinforce traditional negative stereotypes about Jews • To create a climate of contempt toward Jews • To dehumanize the image of Jews (to facilitate discrimination, segregation, exile, and murder)

Jews as Aliens “Only a racial comrade can be a citizen. Only a person of German blood, irrespective of religious denomination, can be a racial comrade. No Jew, therefore, can be a racial comrade.” Point 4 - Nazi Party Program, 1920

The Jew as Eugenic Threat “With satanic joy in his face, the blackhaired Jewish youth lurks in wait for the unsuspecting girl whom he defiles with his blood, thus stealing her from her people. With every means he tries to destroy the racial foundations of the people he has set out to subjugate.” Adolf Hitler - Mein Kampf

The bottom slogan reads: “Women and girls, the Jews are your undoing!”

The Jew as Communist From the cover of the book The Eternal Jew

The Jew as Capitalist Exploiter “The God of the Jews is Money. And to gain money, he will commit the greatest crimes. He will not rest until he can sit on the largest sack of money, until he becomes the King of Money.”

The Jew as Warmonger “If international finance Jewry inside and outside Europe should succeed in plunging the nations once more into a world war, then the result will not be the bolshevization of the earth, and thus the victory of Jewry, but the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe!” Adolf Hitler - January 30, 1939

Nazi propaganda poster blaming Jews for the war

All Enemies are Jews!

Note the similarity between the portrayal of Churchill (who was not Jewish) and the antisemitic stereotype.

Jews depicted as controlling the Allies

Jews plotting to rule the world

The Protocols of the Elders of Zion (Front cover of a French edition)

The “Blood Libel”

The Jew as demonic

From an advertising poster for a movie

The Poison Mushroom A Children's Book

“Jews Get Out!”: A Children’s Game

Dehumanizing Words “We had the moral right, and the duty toward our nation to kill this people who wished to kill us. … We do not, because we were exterminating a bacillus, wish to be infected by that bacillus in the end and die.” Heinrich Himmler - October 4, 1943

Dehumanizing Words “Was there any form of filth or profligacy, particularly in cultural life, without at least one Jew in it? If you cut even cautiously into such an abscess, you found, like a maggot in a rotting body, often dazzled by the sudden light - a little Jew” Adolf Hitler - Mein Kampf

Dehumanizing Images: Jews portrayed as vermin

Results of Propaganda • “True Believers” are empowered by propaganda to engage in behavior that would otherwise be forbidden. • Propaganda shifts the “frame of reference” regarding the subject. Formerly extreme ideas enter legitimate discussion. • The “piling on” effect mutes opposition.

Lessons for Today • Learn to recognize and interpret propaganda and to distinguish it from legitimate attempts to inform. • Recognize distortions embedded in public communication (i.e. - stereotypes, misuse of statistics, over-generalization, guilt by association, etc..) • Recognize that images and words are important because they create the social climate – which will tend either toward respect or contempt.