Nazi Propaganda

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Nazi Propaganda
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Two Purposes

• To create a positive image of Hitler and the Nazi
  Party
• To create a negative view of those considered to
  be enemies, particularly Jews

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Hitlers 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

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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

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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 Germanys future
• To portray the Nazis as confident, decisive, and
  overwhelmingly powerful

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Hitler as the Heroic Leader
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Hitler Brings Unity
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The Reich will never be destroyed if you are
united and loyal.
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Appeals to Traditional Values
Motherhood German Women Think of Your
Children Vote Hitler
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Youthful Idealism
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Youth serves the Fuhrer
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Workers of the mind and hand Vote for the
front soldier Hitler!
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Power and Pageantry
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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)

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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

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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

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The bottom slogan reads Women and girls, the
Jews are your undoing!
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The Jew as CommunistFrom the cover of the book
The Eternal Jew
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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
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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

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Nazi propaganda poster blaming Jews for the war
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Note the similarity between the portrayal of
Churchill (who was not Jewish) and the
antisemitic stereotype.
All Enemies are Jews!
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Jews depicted as controlling the Allies
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Jews plotting to rule the world The Protocols
of the Elders of Zion (Front cover of a French
edition)
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The Blood Libel
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The Jew as demonic
From an advertising poster for a movie
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The Poison MushroomAChildren's Book
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Jews Get Out! A Childrens Game
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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

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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

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Dehumanizing Images Jews portrayed as vermin
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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.

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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.