Post on 23-Aug-2020
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 black-haired 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 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 Capitalist Exploiter
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
Note the similarity between the portrayal of Churchill
(who was not Jewish) and the antisemitic stereotype.
All Enemies are Jews!
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.