Bundesarchiv Bild 102-17049, Joseph Goebbels spricht

The propaganda of the Nazi regime that governed Germany from 1933 to 1945 promoted

Nazi ideology Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...

by demonizing the enemies of the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported t ...

, notably

Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

and

communists Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

, but also capitalists and

intellectual An intellectual is a person who engages in critical thinking, research, and reflection about the reality of society, and who proposes solutions for the normative problems of society. Coming from the world of culture, either as a creator or a ...

s. It promoted the values asserted by the Nazis, including heroic death, ''

Führerprinzip The (; German for 'leader principle') prescribed the fundamental basis of political authority in the Government of Nazi Germany. This principle can be most succinctly understood to mean that "the Führer's word is above all written law" and th ...

'' (leader principle), ''

Volksgemeinschaft ''Volksgemeinschaft'' () is a German expression meaning "people's community", "folk community", Richard Grunberger, ''A Social History of the Third Reich'', London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1971, p. 44. "national community", or "racial community", ...

'' (people's community), ''

Blut und Boden Atrocity is a German heavy metal band from Ludwigsburg that formed in 1985. History First started in 1985 as Instigators and playing grindcore, Atrocity arose as a death metal band with their debut EP, ''Blue Blood'', in 1989, followed soon b ...

'' (blood and soil) and pride in the Germanic ''Herrenvolk'' (

master race The master race (german: Herrenrasse) is a pseudoscientific concept in Nazi ideology in which the putative " Aryan race" is deemed the pinnacle of human racial hierarchy. Members were referred to as "''Herrenmenschen''" ("master humans"). T ...

). Propaganda was also used to maintain the cult of personality around Nazi leader

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

, and to promote campaigns for

eugenics Eugenics ( ; ) is a fringe set of beliefs and practices that aim to improve the genetic quality of a human population. Historically, eugenicists have attempted to alter human gene pools by excluding people and groups judged to be inferior o ...

and the annexation of German-speaking areas. After the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, Nazi propaganda vilified Germany's enemies, notably the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States, and in 1943 exhorted the population to

total war Total war is a type of warfare that includes any and all civilian-associated resources and infrastructure as legitimate military targets, mobilizes all of the resources of society to fight the war, and gives priority to warfare over non-combata ...

Enemies

Jews

Antisemitic propaganda was a common theme in Nazi propaganda. However, it was occasionally reduced for

tactic Tactic(s) or Tactical may refer to: * Tactic (method), a conceptual action implemented as one or more specific tasks ** Military tactics, the disposition and maneuver of units on a particular sea or battlefield ** Chess tactics ** Political tact ...

al reasons, such as for the 1936 Olympic Games. It was a recurring topic in Hitler's book '' Mein Kampf'' (1925–26), which was a key component of

. Early in his membership in the Nazi Party, Hitler presented the Jews as behind all of Germany's moral and economic problems, as featuring in both communism and international capitalism. He blamed "money-grubbing Jews" for all of Weimar Germany's economic problems. He also drew upon the antisemitic elements of the stab-in-the-back legend to explain the defeat in World War I and to justify Nazi views as self-defense. In one speech, when Hitler asked who was behind Germany's failed war efforts, the audience erupted with "The Jews". After the failure of the Beer Hall Putsch in November 1923, he moderated his tone for the trial, centering his defense on his selfless devotion to the good of the ''Volk'' and the need for bold action to save them; though his references to the Jews were not eliminated (speaking, for instance, of "racial tuberculosis" in "German lungs"), they were decreased to win support. Some Nazis feared their movement lost its antisemitic edge, and Hitler privately assured them that he regarded his previous views as mild. Hitler in ''Mein Kampf'' describes Jews as "a dangerous bacillus". Afterwards, Hitler publicly muted his antisemitism; speeches would contain references to Jews, but ceased to be purely antisemitic fulminations, unless such language would appeal to the audience. Some speeches contained no references to Jews at all, leading many to believe that his antisemitism had been an earlier stage. Still, the antisemitic planks remained in the Nazi Party platform. Even before they ascended to power, Nazi essays and slogans would call for boycotts of Jews. Jews were associated with money-lenders,

usury Usury () is the practice of making unethical or immoral monetary loans that unfairly enrich the lender. The term may be used in a moral sense—condemning taking advantage of others' misfortunes—or in a legal sense, where an interest rate is c ...

and banks, and were portrayed as the enemy of small shopkeepers, small farmers and artisans.Richard Grunberger, ''The 12-Year Reich'', p 15, Jews were blamed for the

League of Nations The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference that ...

, for

pacifism Pacifism is the opposition or resistance to war, militarism (including conscription and mandatory military service) or violence. Pacifists generally reject theories of Just War. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campaign ...

, for

Marxism Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialectical ...

, for international

capitalism Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, priva ...

, for

homosexuality Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to pe ...

, for prostitution, and for the cultural changes of the 1920s. In 1933, Hitler's speeches spoke of serving Germany and defending it from its foes: hostile countries, Communism, liberals, and culture decay, but not Jews. Seizure of power after the Reichstag fire inaugurated April 1 as the day for a boycott of Jewish stores and Hitler, on the radio and in newspapers, fervently called for it. A propaganda poster supporting the boycott declared that "in Paris, London, and New York German businesses were destroyed by the Jews, German men and women were attacked in the streets and beaten, German children were tortured and defiled by Jewish sadists", and called on Germans to "do to the Jews in Germany what they are doing to Germans abroad." The actual effect, of apathy outside Nazi strongholds, caused Nazis to turn to more incremental and subtle effects. In 1935 the first set of antisemitic laws went into effect in Nazi Germany; the Nuremberg Laws forbid the Jews and political opponents from civil service. They classified people with four German grandparents as "German or kindred blood", while people were classified as Jews if they descended from three or four Jewish grandparents. A person with one or two Jewish grandparents was a Mischling, a crossbreed, of "mixed blood". These laws deprived Jews of German citizenship and prohibited marriage between Jews and other Germans. The Nuremberg Laws forbid any sexual relations between Aryans and non-Aryans who were along with the Jews, for example the "Gypsies, Negroes, and their bastard offspring". The

Aryan Paragraph An Aryan paragraph (german: Arierparagraph) was a clause in the statutes of an organization, corporation, or real estate deed that reserved membership and/or right of residence solely for members of the "Aryan race" and excluded from such rights a ...

, which excluded Jews and other "non-Aryans" from many jobs and public offices, was officially justified with overt antisemitism, depicting Jews as have undue representation in the professions. Anti-Jewish measures were presented as defensive.The Jewish Problem
Nazi speakers were instructed to say that Jews were being treated gently. Stock answers to counter-arguments were provided for them. Jews were attacked as the embodiment of capitalism. After six issues devoted to ethnic pride, '' Neues Volk'' featured an article on the types of the "Criminal Jew"; in later issues, it urged no sympathy for victims of the Nuremberg laws, while arguing that its reader could see Jewish life going on about them, unpersecuted. Goebbels defended Nazi racial policies, even claiming that the bad publicity was a mistake for Jews, because it brought forward the topic for discussion. At the 1935 Nazi party congress rally at Nuremberg, Goebbels declared that "

Bolshevism Bolshevism (from Bolshevik) is a revolutionary socialist current of Soviet Marxist–Leninist political thought and political regime associated with the formation of a rigidly centralized, cohesive and disciplined party of social revolution, ...

is the declaration of war by Jewish-led international subhumans against culture itself." Der Untermensch

The Nazis described the Jews as ''

Untermenschen ''Untermensch'' (, ; plural: ''Untermenschen'') is a Nazi term for non-Aryan "inferior people" who were often referred to as "the masses from the East", that is Jews, Roma, and Slavs (mainly ethnic Poles, Serbs, and later also Russians). The ...

'' (subhumans), this term was utilized repeatedly in writings and speeches directed against them, the most notorious example being a 1942 SS publication with the title "Der Untermensch" which contains an antisemitic tirade. In the pamphlet "The SS as an Anti-bolshevist Fighting Organization", Himmler wrote in 1936: "We shall take care that never again in Germany, the heart of Europe, will the Jewish-Bolshevistic revolution of subhumans be able to be kindled either from within or through emissaries from without." By the mid-1930s, textbooks with more antisemitic content were used in the class room. (This sometimes backfired, with antisemitic caricatures being so crude that the children were unable to recognize their Jewish classmates in them.) "The Jewish Question in Education" assured teachers that children were not only capable of understanding it, but that their sound racial instincts were better than their parents', as witness that the children would run and hide when a Jewish cattle dealer came to deal with their parents. Biology classes were to emphasize the division of species in nature, to lead children to the analogy: With this, teachers were informed, the logic of the Nuremberg Laws will be easy to explain. This time also saw a vast increase in antisemitic popular culture; not bearing the overt stamp of Nazi approval, it was regarded as more objective than Ministry of Propaganda information. Even children's books such as ''

Der Giftpilz ''Der Giftpilz'' is a piece of antisemitic Nazi propaganda published as a children's book by Julius Streicher in 1938. ''

Das Schwarze Korps ''Das Schwarze Korps'' (; German for "The Black Corps") was the official newspaper of the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS). This newspaper was published on Wednesdays and distributed free of charge. All SS members were encouraged to read it. The chief edit ...

'' increased the harshness of its tone toward Jews, in order to prepare the SS for racial war. This element could also appear in other propaganda in which it was not the centerpiece. The villains of '' Hans Westmar'' were not only Communists but Jews as well. This, however, did not reach the pitch of later propaganda, after the war. Goebbels, despite his personal racism, approved only two comedies and one historical drama with overt antisemitism. Newsreels contained no references to Jews. Propaganda aimed at women as bulwarks against racial degeneration lay heavy emphasis on their role in protecting racial purity without indulging in the antisemitism of ''Mein Kampf'' or ''Der Stürmer''. Gerhard Wagner, at the 1936 Nuremberg Rally, discussed the racial law more in terms of the pure and growing race than the evil of the Jews. A 1938 pamphlet urging support for Hitler in the referendum detailed Nazi accomplishments with no mention of antisemitism. This reflected a desire to subtly present their racial doctrines, as apparently objective science. The ground was laid for later antisemitic works by heavy emphasis on the ethnic chauvinism. Hitler made only three overtly antisemitic speeches between seizing power and the war, but included various cryptic comments about Jews that the hardcode Nazis knew meant he had not abandoned the beliefs. Antisemitic propaganda was in particularly suppressed during the Olympics, when ''Der Stürmer'' was not allowed to be sold on the streets.Anthony Rhodes, ''Propaganda: The art of persuasion: World War II'', p20 1976, Chelsea House Publishers, New York In 1939, Hitler's January 30 speech opened with praise for the flowering of the German people, but went on to declare that whatever was detrimental to the people could not be ethical, and to threaten Jews as the authors of any coming war. In 1942, newspapers quoted Hitler as saying that his "prediction" was being realized.

The Holocaust

In 1941, when Jews were forced to wear the Star of David, Nazi pamphlets instructed people to remember antisemitic arguments at the sight of it, particularly Kaufman's ''

Germany Must Perish! ''Germany Must Perish!'' is a 104-page book written by Theodore N. Kaufman, which he self-published in 1941 in the United States. The book advocated the sterilization of all Germans and the territorial dismemberment of Germany, believing that t ...

''. This book was also heavily relied on for the pamphlet "The War Goal of World Plutocracy". The

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...

was not a topic even for discussion in ministerial meetings; the one time the question was raised it was dismissed as being of no use in propaganda. Even officials in the Propaganda Ministry were told atrocities against Jews were enemy propaganda. But with the Holocaust, aggressive antisemitic propaganda was therefore implemented. Goebbels's articles in ''Das Reich'' included vitriolic antisemitism. The alleged documentary '' The Eternal Jew'' purported to show the wretched lives and destruction wrought by Jews, who were lower than vermin, and the historical drama ''

Jud Süß (, "Süss the Jew") is a 1940 Nazi German historical drama and propaganda film produced by Terra Film at the behest of Joseph Goebbels. It is considered one of the most antisemitic films of all time. The film was directed by Veit Harlan, who ...

'' depicted a Jew as gaining power over the Duke by lending him money and using the power to oppress his subjects and enable himself to rape a pure German woman, by having her husband arrested and tortured. Wartime posters frequently described the Jews as responsible for the war, and being behind the Allies. Fervently antisemitic pamphlets were published, including alleged citations from Jewish writing, which were generally poor translations, out of context, or invented. An attack on "Americanism" asserted that the Jews were behind it.�
The Dangers of Americanism
The difficulty of simultaneously maintaining anti-Communist propaganda, and propaganda against Great Britain as a plutocracy also led to increased emphasis on antisemitism, describing Jews as being behind both. Instructions for propaganda speakers in 1943 directed them to claim that antisemitism was rising throughout the world, quoting an alleged British sailor as wishing Hitler would kill five million Jews, one of the clearest reference to extermination in Nazi propaganda.

Outside Germany

Antisemitic propaganda was also spread outside Germany. Ukrainians were told that they had acted against Jews many times in the past for their "high-handedness" and would now demand full payment for all injuries. Reports indicated that although the high percentage of Jews in the Communist party had its effect, the Ukrainians viewed it as a religious matter, and not a racial one. Bundesarchiv Bild 133-075, Worms, Antisemitische Presse,

Bundesarchiv Bild 133-075, Worms, Antisemitische Presse,

In ''Der Stürmer''

The propaganda periodical ''

Der Stürmer ''Der Stürmer'' (, literally "The Stormer / Attacker / Striker") was a weekly German tabloid-format newspaper published from 1923 to the end of the Second World War by Julius Streicher, the '' Gauleiter'' of Franconia, with brief suspensions ...

'' always made antisemitic material a mainstay, throughout its run before and during Nazi power. It exemplified the crude antisemitism that Hitler concealed to win popular and foreign support, but its circulation increased throughout the Nazi regime. Even after Streicher was under house arrest for gross misuse of office, Hitler provided him with resources to continue his propaganda. Salacious accounts of sexual offenses featured in nearly every issue. The Reichstag fire was attributed to a Jewish conspiracy. It supported an early plan to transport all Jews to Madagascar, but this prospect was dropped as soon as it became an actual possibility. Later, taking

Theodore N. Kaufman Theodore Newman Kaufman (February 22, 1910 – April 1, 1986), sometimes given incorrectly as Theodore Nathan Kaufmann, was an American Jewish businessman and writer known for his genocidal views on Germans. In 1939, he published pamphlets as " ...

with the importance that the Nazis generally attributed to him, urged that Jews intended to exterminate Germany, and urged that only with the destruction of Jews would Germany be safe. Its "Letter Box" encouraged the reporting of Jewish acts; the unofficial style helped prevent suspicion of propaganda, and lent it authenticity. A textbook written by Elvira Bauer in 1936, entitled ''Trust no Fox on the Green Heath and No Jew Upon his Oath'', was designed to show Germans that the Jews could not be trusted. It portrayed the Jews as inferior, untrustworthy and parasitic. A further antisemitic children's book entitled ''The Poisonous Mushroom'', written by Ernst Hiemer, was handed out in 1938. Again it portrayed the Jews as worthless subhumans and through a text containing seventeen short stories, as the antithesis of Aryan humanity. The Jew was dehumanized and was seen as a poisonous mushroom. The book included encompassed strands of both religious and racial antisemitism towards the Jews. The contents of this book were following themes "How to Tell a Jew", "How Jewish Traders Cheat", "How Jews Torment Animals", "Are there Decent Jews?" and finally "Without Solving the Jewish Question, No Salvation for Mankind". Two years later by the same author another textbook which attacked the Jews through racial antisemitism and decrying the evils of racial miscegenation. In this text, Jews were portrayed as bloodsuckers. He claimed Jews were equal to tapeworms, claiming that "Tapeworm and Jew are parasites of the worst kind. We want their elimination. We want to become healthy and strong again. Then only one thing will help: Their extermination." The aim of such texts was to try and justify the Nazis racial policy on Jews. Der Stürmer was frequently used in schools as part of Nazi "education" to the German youth. Despite its overly antisemitic status, the paper published letters from teachers and children approving of it. Roughly 100,000 copies were printed of the book. The title comes from a phrase by

Martin Luther Martin Luther (; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, theologian, author, hymnwriter, and professor, and Augustinian friar. He is the seminal figure of the Protestant Reformation and the namesake of Lutherani ...

, whose anti-Jewish remarks the Nazis were happy to use.

Communists

Adolf Hitler's anti-communism was already a central feature of his book ''Mein Kampf.'' Nazi propaganda depicted Communism as an enemy both within Germany and all of Europe. Communists were the first group attacked as enemies of the state when Nazis ascended to power. According to Hitler, the Jews were the archetypal enemies of the German ''Volk'', and no Communism or Bolshevism existed outside Jewry. In a speech in 1927 to the Bavarian regional parliament the Nazi propagandist Julius Streicher, publisher of Der Stürmer, used the term "Untermensch" referring to the communists of the German

Bavarian Soviet Republic The Bavarian Soviet Republic, or Munich Soviet Republic (german: Räterepublik Baiern, Münchner Räterepublik),Hollander, Neil (2013) ''Elusive Dove: The Search for Peace During World War I''. McFarland. p.283, note 269. was a short-lived unre ...

: "It happened at the time of the avarianSoviet Republic: When the unleashed subhumans rambled murdering through the streets, the deputies hid behind a chimney in the Bavarian parliament." Prior to their seizure of powers, conflicts with Communists, and attempts to win them over, featured frequently in Nazi propaganda. Newspaper articles presented Nazis as innocent victims of Communist assaults. An election flyer aimed at converting Communists. Articles advising Nazi propagandist discussed winning over the workers from the Marxists. Election slogans urged that if you wanted Bolshevism, to vote Communist, but to remain free Germans, to vote Nazi. Goebbels, aware of the value of publicity (both positive and negative), deliberately provoked beer-hall battles and street brawls, including violent attacks on the Communist Party of Germany. He used the death of

Horst Wessel Horst Ludwig Georg Erich Wessel (9 October 1907 – 23 February 1930) was a Berlin ''Sturmführer'' ("Assault Leader", the lowest commissioned officer rank) of the ''Sturmabteilung'' (SA), the Nazi Party's stormtroopers. After his killing in 1 ...

who was killed in 1930 by two members of the Communist Party of Germany as a propaganda tool against "Communist subhumans". Great Anti-Bolshevist Exhibition leaflet cover

Great Anti-Bolshevist Exhibition leaflet cover

The spectre of Communism was used to win dictatorial powers. The Reichstag fire was presented by Nazi newspaper as the first step in a Communist seizure of power. Hitler made use of it to portray Nazis as the only alternative to the Communists, fears of which he whipped up. This propaganda resulted in an acceptance of anti-Communist violence at the time, though antisemitic violence was less approved of. When the Pope attacked the errors of Nazism, the government's official response was a note accusing the Pope of endangering the defense against world Bolshevism. After the Nazis came to power in 1933, Communists were among the first people that were sent to concentration camps. They were sent because of their ties with the Soviet Union and because Nazism greatly opposed Communism. The

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, link ...

began the propaganda of portraying Germany as a protector against "

Jewish Bolshevism Jewish Bolshevism, also Judeo–Bolshevism, is an anti-communist and antisemitic canard, which alleges that the Jews were the originators of the Russian Revolution in 1917, and that they held primary power among the Bolsheviks who led the revo ...

", making heavy use of atrocity stories. Before the

Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact was a non-aggression pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union that enabled those powers to partition Poland between them. The pact was signed in Moscow on 23 August 1939 by German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ri ...

, from 1936 to 1938, substantial anti-Bolshevist campaigns were conducted.The Great Anti-Bolshevist Exhibition
In 1937 the ''Reichspropagandaleitung'' had an anti-Bolshevist exhibit travel to major cities. In film, Russian Communists were depicted as ruthless murderers. In '' Flüchtlinge'', only a heroic German leader saves

Volga Germans The Volga Germans (german: Wolgadeutsche, ), russian: поволжские немцы, povolzhskiye nemtsy) are ethnic Germans who settled and historically lived along the Volga River in the region of southeastern European Russia around Saratov a ...

from Bolshevik persecution on the Sino-Russian border in Manchuria. '' Frisians in Peril'' depicts a village of Volga Germans being ruthlessly persecuted in the Soviet Union. Goebbels addressed the 1935 annual congress of the Nazi Party with an anti-Communist speech. The first declaration of the Pact presented it as a genuine change, but this was unpalatable to the Nazi faithful and the line was soon watered down even before its violation. News reports were to be neutral on the Russian army and carefully expurgated of "typical Bolshevist phrases". Still, anti-Communist films were withdrawn. After the invasion of the Soviet Union, propaganda resumed, quickly linking the attack with British forces, which simplified the task of attacking both Communism and "plutocracy" at once. Within two weeks of the invasion, Goebbels proclaimed the attack the preservation of European civilization from Communism. A weekly propaganda poster declared that the soldiers would liberate Europe from Bolshevism. Anti-Communist films were re-issued, and new films such as '' The Red Terror'' were issued. Guidelines issued to the army described the Soviet commissars as inhuman and hate-filled. They were also told that the Soviets took no prisoners. This also allowed Goebbels to make use of anti-Communist propaganda to the occupied nations, portraying a Utopia protected by German versus a slave camp under Communism.Anthony Rhodes, ''Propaganda: The art of persuasion: World War II'', p183 1976, Chelsea House Publishers, New York The term Iron Curtain was invented to describe this state. This propaganda asserted, with blatant falsity, that Germany wanted to protect European rather than German culture, from the threat. A rare Ukrainian poster from 1941 shows people looking through a wall and telling the Ukrainians that the Soviets had built a wall around them to keep their misery invisible. In 1942, a "Soviet Paradise" exhibit was opened to depict the Soviet Union as having been found a place of filth and poverty. This was supplemented with a pamphlet and "documentary film" of the same title. Also in 1942, the Nazi government believed Churchill's fall was possible, which Goebbels chose to spin as England surrendering Europe to Bolshevism. This received continuing plan and was a major element in the

Sportpalast speech The ''Sportpalast'' speech (german: link=no, Sportpalastrede) or Total War speech was a speech delivered by German Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels at the Berlin Sportpalast to a large, carefully selected audience on 18 February 1943, as ...

. Preparations were made, in anticipation of victory in Russia, to present this as the triumph over Communism. In 1943, the defeat at Stalingrad led to a serious Anti-Bolshevist campaign in view of the possibility of defeat. The

Katyn massacre The Katyn massacre, "Katyń crime"; russian: link=yes, Катынская резня ''Katynskaya reznya'', "Katyn massacre", or russian: link=no, Катынский расстрел, ''Katynsky rasstrel'', "Katyn execution" was a series of m ...

was exploited in 1943 to drive a wedge between Poland, Western Allies, and the Soviet Union, and reinforce the Nazi propaganda line about the horrors of Bolshevism and American and British subservience to it. Pamphlets were released to whip up fear of Communism. The negative impact of Soviet policies implemented in the 1930s were still fresh in the memory of Ukrainians. These included the Holodomor of 1933, the Great Terror, the persecution of intellectuals during the Great Purge of 1937–38, the massacre of Ukrainian intellectuals after the annexation of Western Ukraine from Poland in 1939, the introduction and implementation of Collectivisation. As a result, the population of whole towns, cities and villages, greeted the Germans as liberators which helps explain the unprecedented rapid progress of the German forces in the occupation of Ukraine. The Ukrainians at first had been told it was being freed from Communism; this had quickly given way to exploitation, where even celebrating Kiev's "liberation" was forbidden, but the failure at Stalingrad brought propaganda into play. Films such as '' Hans Westmar'' and '' Hitler Youth Quex'' depicted the deaths of their heroes as martyrs killed by Communism; in both films, the movement appears as an overall threat, with some ruthless villains as leaders, but with some misguided Communists who could be inspired by the heroes—as, indeed, potential Nazis.Robert Edwin Hertzstein, ''The War That Hitler Won'' p262 Literature, too, depicted heroic German workers who were taken in by international Marxism, but whose Aryan nature revolted on learning more of it. ''

Der Giftpilz ''Der Giftpilz'' is a piece of antisemitic Nazi propaganda published as a children's book by Julius Streicher in 1938.Hitler Youth The Hitler Youth (german: Hitlerjugend , often abbreviated as HJ, ) was the youth organisation of the Nazi Party in Germany. Its origins date back to 1922 and it received the name ("Hitler Youth, League of German Worker Youth") in July 1926. ...

members that once he had been a Communist, but he had realized that they were led by Jews who were trying to sacrifice Germany for Russia's benefit. From very early on after the invasion of the Soviet Union, permission was given to eliminate all communists:

Capitalists

Capitalism Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, priva ...

was also attacked as morally inferior to German values and as failing to provide for the German people. Great Britain was attacked as a

plutocracy A plutocracy () or plutarchy is a society that is ruled or controlled by people of great wealth or income. The first known use of the term in English dates from 1631. Unlike most political systems, plutocracy is not rooted in any establishe ...

. A few months after the invasion of Poland, Goebbels released his "England’s Guilt" speech that blamed the war on Imperial Britain's "capitalist democracy" and warmongers, denouncing England for having the richest men on earth while their people get little of this wealth. In that speech, Goebbels claimed that "English capitalists want to destroy Hitlerism" in order to retain its imperial status and harmful economic policies. This was portrayed as Jewish, so as to attack both

Communism Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a ...

and plutocracy, describing Jews as being behind both. Anti-capitalist propaganda, attacking "interest slavery", used the association of Jews with money-lenders. Nazi propaganda and officials such as

Robert Ley Robert Ley (; 15 February 1890 – 25 October 1945) was a German politician and labour union leader during the Nazi era; Ley headed the German Labour Front from 1933 to 1945. He also held many other high positions in the Party, including ''Gaul ...

describe Germany as a "

proletarian nation Proletarian nation was a term used by 20th century Italian nationalist intellectuals such as Enrico Corradini to refer to Italy and other nations that they regarded as being productive, morally vigorous, and inclined to bold action - by analogy wi ...

" as opposed to the plutocratic England, a political divide that Goebbels described as "England is a capitalist democracy" and "Germany is a socialist people's state." Initially the Nazis wanted to have alliance with United Kingdom, however after the war started they were denounced as "the Jew among the Aryan peoples" and as plutocrats, fighting for money. Another major theme was the difference between British "

" and Nazi Germany. German newspapers and newsreels often pictured photos and footage of British unemployed and slums together with unfavorable commentary about the differences in living standards of the working class of Nazi Germany vs that of the working class living under British "plutocracy". Simultaneously, propaganda presented them as tools of the Communists. A German parody stamp, of one depicting King George and Queen Elizabeth, replaced the queen with Stalin and added a hammer and sickle, and stars of David. The Parole der Woche's weekly wall newspaper declared that the United States and Britain had agreed to let Stalin take Europe. Using propaganda to present the Jews as being behind both helped juggle the issues of opposing "plutocracy" and Communism at once.Michael Balfour, ''Propaganda in War 1939-1945: Organisation, Policies and Publics in Britain and Germany'', p163 After the invasion of the Soviet Union, propaganda resumed, quickly linking the attack with British forces, which simplified the task of attacking both Communism and "plutocracy" at once.

Intellectuals

The Nazi movement was overtly anti- rationalist, favoring appeals to emotion and cultural myths. It preferred such "non-intellectual" virtues as loyalty, patriotism, duty, purity, and blood, and allegedly produced a pervasive contempt for intellectuals. Both overt statements and propaganda in books favored sincere feeling over thought, because such feelings, stemming from nature, would be simple and direct. In '' Mein Kampf'', Hitler complained of biased over-education, brainwashing, and a lack of instinct and will and in many other passages made his anti-intellectual bent clear. Intellectuals were frequently the butts of Hitler's jokes.

Hitler Youth The Hitler Youth (german: Hitlerjugend , often abbreviated as HJ, ) was the youth organisation of the Nazi Party in Germany. Its origins date back to 1922 and it received the name ("Hitler Youth, League of German Worker Youth") in July 1926. ...

and the

League of German Girls The League of German Girls or the Band of German Maidens (german: Bund Deutscher Mädel, abbreviated as BDM) was the girls' wing of the Nazi Party youth movement, the Hitler Youth. It was the only legal female youth organization in Nazi Germany. ...

were overtly instructed to aim for character-building rather than education. The theory offered for Nazism was developed only after practice, which had denigrated expert thinking, only to seek out intellectuals who could be brought to support it. Sturmabteilung speakers were used, though their reliance sometimes offended well-educated audiences, but their blunt and folksy manner often had their own appeal. One popular Munich speaker, declaring biological research boring, called instead on racial emotions; their "healthy ethnic instincts" would reveal the quality of the Aryan type. A 1937 essay aimed at propagandists "Heart or Reason? What We don't Want from Our Speakers", explicitly complained that speakers should aim for the heart, not the understanding, and many of them failed to try this. This included an unrelentingly optimistic view. Pure reason was attacked as a colorless thing, cut off from blood.The Spirit of Race
Education Minister Rust ordered teachers training colleges to relocate from "too intellectual" university centers to the countryside, where they could be more readily indoctrinated and would also benefit from contact with the pure German peasantry. An SS paper declared that IQ varied inversely with male infertility, and medical papers declared that the spread of educational pursuits had brought down the birth rate. This frequently related to the blood and soil doctrines and an organic view of the German people. "Blood and soil" plays, for instance, depicted a woman rejecting her bookish fiancé in order to marry an estate owner. It also related to antisemitism, as Jews were often accused of being intellectual and having a destructive "critical spirit". Susan Sontag,
Fascinating Fascism
' The

book burnings Book burning is the deliberate destruction by fire of books or other written materials, usually carried out in a public context. The burning of books represents an element of censorship and usually proceeds from a cultural, religious, or politi ...

were hailed by Goebbels as ending "the age of extreme Jewish intellectualism." This view affected the creation of propaganda as well. Goebbels, who never tired of railing against intellectuals, told propagandists to aim their work toward the woodcutter in Bad Aibling. Overall, these themes reflected Nazi Germany's split between myth and modernity.

Russians

Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-031-2436-03A, Russland, Hinrichtung von Partisanen

Russia was the primary target of Hitler's expansionist foreign policy. In his book, '' Mein Kampf'', Adolf Hitler dedicated a chapter to Eastern policy and detailed his plans for gaining "living space" (

Lebensraum (, ''living space'') is a German concept of settler colonialism, the philosophy and policies of which were common to German politics from the 1890s to the 1940s. First popularized around 1901, '' lso in:' became a geopolitical goal of Imper ...

) in the East. He called on the German people to "secure its rightful land on this earth," and announced: Because the Russian people were Slavic, not Germanic, the Soviet Union was also attacked on racial grounds for "living space" as Nazi ideology believed that ''only'' the Nordic people (referred to as the Germanic people) represented the ''Herrenvolk'' (

) which was to expand to the East (

Drang nach Osten (; 'Drive to the East',Ulrich Best''Transgression as a Rule: German–Polish cross-border cooperation, border discourse and EU-enlargement'' 2008, p. 58, , Edmund Jan Osmańczyk, Anthony Mango, ''Encyclopedia of the United Nations and Interna ...

). To Hitler,

Operation Barbarossa Operation Barbarossa (german: link=no, Unternehmen Barbarossa; ) was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and many of its Axis allies, starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during the Second World War. The operation, code-named after ...

was a "war of annihilation", being both an ideological war between German Nazism and Jewish Bolshevism and a racial war between the Germans and the Bolshevik, Jewish, Gypsies and Slavic ''Untermenschen'' (

Generalplan Ost The ''Generalplan Ost'' (; en, Master Plan for the East), abbreviated GPO, was the Nazi German government's plan for the genocide and ethnic cleansing on a vast scale, and colonization of Central and Eastern Europe by Germans. It was to be under ...

). Influenced by the guidelines, in a directive sent out to the troops under his command, General Erich Hoepner of the Panzer Group 4 stated: Heinrich Himmler in a speech to the Eastern Front Battle Group "Nord" declared: During the war, Himmler published the pamphlet "Der Untermensch" (The Subhuman) which featured photographs of ideal Aryans contrasted with photographs of the ravages of barbarian races (Jews) from the days of Attila and Genghis Khan to massacres in the Jewish-dominated

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

. Hitler believed that after the invasion of the Soviet Union, the war in the East was to destroy

, as well as aiming to ruin the Great Russian Empire, and a war for German expansion and economic exploitation. Goebbels, in ''Das Reich'', explained Russian resistance in terms of a stubborn but bestial soul. Russians were termed "Asiatic" and the Red Army as "Asiatic Hordes". The troops were told that in World War I, the Russian troops had often feigned death or surrender, or donned German uniforms, in order to kill German soldiers. Until early 1942 the following slogan was in use "the Russian is a beast, he must croak" (der Russe sei eine Bestie, er muesse verrecken) but the need for Russian manpower in the German labor force led to its demise. Events such as the

Nemmersdorf massacre The Nemmersdorf massacre was a civilian massacre perpetrated by Red Army soldiers in the late stages of World War II. Nemmersdorf (present-day Mayakovskoye, Kaliningrad Oblast) was one of the first prewar ethnic German settlements to fall to ...

and

Metgethen massacre The Metgethen massacre (german: Massaker von Metgethen) was a massacre of Germany, German civilians by the Red Army in the Königsberg, East Prussia, suburb Metgethen, which is now Imeni Alexandra Kosmodemyanskogo in Russia's Kaliningrad Oblast, c ...

were also used by German propaganda to strengthen the fighting spirit on the eastern front towards the end of the war.

Czechs and Slovaks

Until the end of

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

in March 1939, that state was a major target of abuse. Czechoslovakia was represented as an "abomination" created by the

Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles (french: Traité de Versailles; german: Versailler Vertrag, ) was the most important of the peace treaties of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June ...

, an artificial state that should never had been created. Moreover, Czechoslovakia was frequently accused of engaging in some sort of genocide against the ethnic Germans of the Sudetenland with German media making recurrent and false claims of massacres of Sudetenlanders. In addition, the Czechoslovak-Soviet treaty of 1935 was represented as an aggressive move aimed at Germany.Jacobsen, Hans-Adolf "The Structure of Nazi Foreign Policy" pages 40-94 from ''The Third Reich The Essential Readings'' edited by Christian Leitz, Blackwell: London, 1999 page 73. A particular favourite claim was that Czechoslovakia was a "Soviet air-craft carrier" in Central Europe, namely that were secret

Red Air Force The Soviet Air Forces ( rus, Военно-воздушные силы, r=Voyenno-vozdushnyye sily, VVS; literally "Military Air Forces") were one of the air forces of the Soviet Union. The other was the Soviet Air Defence Forces. The Air Forces ...

bases in Czechoslovakia that would allow the Soviets to bomb and destroy German cities. The high-point of anti-Czechoslovak propaganda was in 1938 with the crisis that ended in the

Munich Agreement The Munich Agreement ( cs, Mnichovská dohoda; sk, Mníchovská dohoda; german: Münchner Abkommen) was an agreement concluded at Munich on 30 September 1938, by Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and Italy. It provided "cession to Germany ...

Poles

At first, Hitler and the Nazis saw Poland as a potential ally against the Soviet Union, Hitler repeatedly suggested a German-Polish alliance against the Soviet Union, but Piłsudski declined, instead seeking precious time to prepare for potential war with Germany or with the Soviet Union. Eventually in January 1934 the German–Polish Non-Aggression Pact was signed and all attacks against Poland ceased. A sign of the change occurred in 1933 when a German professor published a book that was given much media attention calling for German-Polish friendship, and praised the "particularly close political and cultural relationship" between Germany and Poland that was said to be 1,000 years old. Nazi World War II poster Danzig is German

Nazi World War II poster Danzig is German

For many years, it was forbidden to discuss the German minority in Poland, and this continued through into early 1939, even while newspapers were asked to press the matter of Danzig. The reasons for this lay with the German–Polish Non-Aggression Pact of 1934, an attempt on the part of Germany to split the ''

Cordon sanitaire ''Cordon sanitaire'' () is French for "sanitary cordon". It may refer to: *Cordon sanitaire (medicine), a cordon that quarantines an area during an infectious disease outbreak *Cordon sanitaire (politics), refusal to cooperate with certain politic ...

'' as the French alliance system in Eastern Europe was known. Propaganda attacks on Poland would inspire the Poles to doubt the sincerity of Germany's policy of rapprochement with Poland. In 1935, when two secretaries at the German War Ministry were caught providing state secrets to their lover, a Polish diplomat, the two women were beheaded for high treason while the diplomat was declared ''persona non grata''. Through the two women were widely vilified in the German press for engaging in espionage on behalf of a "foreign power", the name of the "foreign power" was never mentioned in order to maintain good relations with Poland. At the same time, the loss of territory to Poland under the

was widely resented in Germany, and under the Weimar Republic, no German government had willing to recognize the frontiers with Poland, with many Germans being unwilling to accept legitimacy of Poland at all. In inter-war Germany, anti-Polish feelings ran high. The American historian

Gerhard Weinberg Gerhard Ludwig Weinberg (born 1 January 1928) is a German-born American diplomatic and military historian noted for his studies in the history of Nazi Germany and World War II. Weinberg is the William Rand Kenan, Jr. Professor Emeritus of History ...

observed that for many Germans in the Weimar Republic, Poland was an abomination, whose people were seen as "an East European species of cockroach". Poland was usually described as a ''Saisonstaat'' (a state for a season). In inter-war Germany, the phrase ''polnische Wirtschaft'' (Polish economy) was the expression Germans used to describe any situation that was a hopeless muddle. Weinberg noted that in the 1920s, every leading German politician refused to accept Poland as a legitimate nation, and hoped instead to partition Poland with the Soviet Union. The Nazis were not prepared to be seen as less tough with Poland than the Weimar Republic, so until 1939 the topic of Poland was simply avoided. Nazi propaganda demanded that Danzig should be returned to Germany. Since the

separated Danzig (Polish: Gdańsk) from Germany and it became part of the semi-autonomous city-state Free City of Danzig. The population rose from 357,000 (1919) to 408,000 in 1929, according to the official census 95% of whom were Germans. Germans who favored reincorporation into Germany received political and financial support from the Nazi regime. Nazi Germany officially demanded the return of Danzig to Germany along with an extraterritorial (meaning under German

jurisdiction Jurisdiction (from Latin 'law' + 'declaration') is the legal term for the legal authority granted to a legal entity to enact justice. In federations like the United States, areas of jurisdiction apply to local, state, and federal levels. J ...

) highway through the area of the Polish Corridor for land-based access between those parts of Germany. There was a lot of German pro-Nazi supporters in Danzig, in the early 1930s the local Nazi Party capitalized on pro-German sentiments and in 1933 garnered 50% of vote in the parliament. Hitler used the issue of the status of the city as a pretext for attacking Poland and in May 1939, during a high-level meeting of German military officials explained to them: ''It is not Danzig that is at stake. For us it is a matter of expanding our

in the east'', adding that there will be no repeat of the Czech situation, and Germany will attack Poland at first opportunity, after isolating the country from its Western Allies. As the Nazi demands increased, German-Polish relations rapidly deteriorated. In the spring of 1939, just before the invasion of Poland, a major anti-Polish campaign was launched, asserting such claims as forced labor of ethnic Germans, persecution of them, Polish disorder, Poles provoking border incidents, and aggressive intentions from its government. Newspapers wrote copiously on the issue. In such films as ''

Heimkehr ''Heimkehr'' (English: "Homecoming") is a 1941 Nazi German anti-Polish propaganda film directed by Gustav Ucicky. It received the rare honor "Film of the Nation" in Nazi Germany, bestowed on films considered to have made an outstanding contribut ...

'', depicted Polish ethnic Germans as deeply persecuted—often with recognizable Nazi tactics—and the invasion as necessary to protect them. In attempts to try and justify the Nazis invasion of Poland, Goebbels produced photographs and other evidence for allegations that ethnic Germans had been massacred by Poles.

Bloody Sunday Bloody Sunday may refer to: Historical events Canada * Bloody Sunday (1923), a day of police violence during a steelworkers' strike for union recognition in Sydney, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia * Bloody Sunday (1938), police violence aga ...

was presented in the manner most favorable to Nazi propaganda. The nazis used the

Gleiwitz incident The Gleiwitz incident (german: Überfall auf den Sender Gleiwitz; ) was a false flag attack on the radio station ''Sender Gleiwitz'' in Gleiwitz (then Germany and now Gliwice, Poland) staged by Nazi Germany on the night of 31 August 1939. Along ...

to justify their invasion of Poland, although the incident was set up by

Himmler Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (; 7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945) was of the (Protection Squadron; SS), and a leading member of the Nazi Party of Germany. Himmler was one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany and a main architect of th ...

and

Heydrich Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich ( ; ; 7 March 1904 – 4 June 1942) was a high-ranking German SS and police official during the Nazi era and a principal architect of the Holocaust. He was chief of the Reich Security Main Office (inc ...

using

concentration camp Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simpl ...

inmates dressed in Polish uniforms' It was alleged that the Poles had attacked a German radio station using the prisoners, who were all murdered at the scene. Glivice radio tower

Germany invaded Poland on September 1 after having signed a

non-aggression pact A non-aggression pact or neutrality pact is a treaty between two or more states/countries that includes a promise by the signatories not to engage in military action against each other. Such treaties may be described by other names, such as a tr ...

with the Soviet Union in late August. The German attack began in Danzig, with a bombardment of Polish positions at

Westerplatte Westerplatte is a peninsula in Gdańsk, Poland, located on the Baltic Sea coast mouth of the Dead Vistula (one of the Vistula delta estuaries), in the Gdańsk harbour channel. From 1926 to 1939, it was the location of a Polish Military Transi ...

by the German battleship

Schleswig-Holstein Schleswig-Holstein (; da, Slesvig-Holsten; nds, Sleswig-Holsteen; frr, Slaswik-Holstiinj) is the northernmost of the 16 states of Germany, comprising most of the historical duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of Sc ...

, and the landing of German infantry on the peninsula. Outnumbered Polish defenders at Westerplatte resisted for seven days before running out of ammunition. Meanwhile, after a fierce day-long fight (1 September 1939), defenders of the Polish Post office were tried and executed then buried on the spot in the Danzig quarter of Zaspa in October 1939. In 1998 a German court overturned their conviction and sentence. The city was officially annexed by Nazi Germany and incorporated into the

Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia (german: Reichsgau Danzig-Westpreußen) was an administrative division of Nazi Germany created on 8 October 1939 from annexed territory of the Free City of Danzig, the Greater Pomeranian Voivodship (Polish Corridor ...

. The death of some Polish cavalry soldiers, caused by tanks, created a myth that they had attacked the tanks, which German propaganda used to promote German superiority. Nazi propaganda in October 1939 told Germans to view all ethnic Poles, Gypsies (Romani) and Jews on the same level as ''

Untermensch ''Untermensch'' (, ; plural: ''Untermenschen'') is a Nazi term for non-Aryan "inferior people" who were often referred to as "the masses from the East", that is Jews, Roma, and Slavs (mainly ethnic Poles, Serbs, and later also Russians). The ...

en''. To prevent such anti-Polish stigma, when Polish children were kidnapped for

Germanization Germanisation, or Germanization, is the spread of the German language, people and culture. It was a central idea of German conservative thought in the 19th and the 20th centuries, when conservatism and ethnic nationalism went hand in hand. In ling ...

, official orders forbade making the term "Germanizable Polish children" known to the public.

Gitta Sereny Gitta Sereny, CBE (13 March 192114 June 2012) was an Austrian-British biographer, historian, and investigative journalist who came to be known for her interviews and profiles of infamous figures, including Mary Bell, who was convicted in 1968 of ...

"Stolen Children"
/ref> They were referred to as "

Polonized Polonization (or Polonisation; pl, polonizacja)In Polish historiography, particularly pre-WWII (e.g., L. Wasilewski. As noted in Смалянчук А. Ф. (Smalyanchuk 2001) Паміж краёвасцю і нацыянальнай ідэя� ...

German children" or "Children of German descent" or even "German orphans". Germans were informed that the children's birth certificates had been falsified, to show them as Poles and rob them of their German heritage.

The British

The position of Nazi propaganda towards the United Kingdom changed over time in keeping with Anglo-German relations. Prior to 1938, as the

Nazi regime Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

attempted to court the British into an alliance,

Nazi propaganda The propaganda used by the German Nazi Party in the years leading up to and during Adolf Hitler's dictatorship of Germany from 1933 to 1945 was a crucial instrument for acquiring and maintaining power, and for the implementation of Nazi polici ...

praised the " Aryan" character of the

British people British people or Britons, also known colloquially as Brits, are the citizens of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the British Overseas Territories, and the Crown dependencies.: British nationality law governs m ...

and the

British Empire The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts e ...

. However, as Anglo-German relations deteriorated and the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

broke out, Nazi propaganda vilified the British as oppressive, German-hating

plutocrats A plutocracy () or plutarchy is a society that is ruled or controlled by people of great wealth or income. The first known use of the term in English dates from 1631. Unlike most political systems, plutocracy is not rooted in any established ...

. During the war, it accused "

perfidious Albion "Perfidious Albion" is a pejorative phrase used within the context of international relations diplomacy to refer to acts of diplomatic slights, duplicity, treachery and hence infidelity (with respect to perceived promises made to or alliances f ...

" of war crimes, and sought to drive a wedge between Britain and France.Anthony Rhodes, ''Propaganda: The art of persuasion: World War II'', p31 1976, Chelsea House Publishers, New York

Americans

Anti-American propaganda dealt heavily with a lack of "ethnic unity" in the United States. ''The Land Without A Heart'' portrayed it as a racial mishmash where good people were destroyed. American culture was portrayed as childish, and Americans as unable to appreciate European culture. An article "America as a Perversion of European Culture", itself classified, was provided for use by propagandists. This drew on a long tradition, from the time of German Romanticism, that America was ''kulturlose Gesellschaft'', a society incapable of culture. Goebbels gave a speech on American negative reactions to anti-Jewish campaigns in 1938, to call for their stopping their criticism. Hitler declared America as a "mongrel nation", grown too rich too soon and governed by a capitalist elite with strong ties to the Jews and the Americans were a "mongrel people" incapable of higher culture or great creative achievements. Newspapers were warned, soon after war broke out, to avoid portraying news in a manner that would embarrass American isolationists, and that the United States was considerably more hostile than it had been before World War I. Efforts were made to minimize the future shock of America's joining the war, which had produced a great impact in 1918, and were generally successful. As with the British, the claim was made that the war had been forced on Germany by America. In 1943 the

was used to portray American and British governments as subservient to Communism.

's 1941 book '' Germany Must Perish'' was used to portray America as seeking to destroy Germany.Never!

Values

In May 1938, ''Life'' observed that more than 99% of

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

and

Austrian Austrian may refer to: * Austrians, someone from Austria or of Austrian descent ** Someone who is considered an Austrian citizen, see Austrian nationality law * Austrian German dialect * Something associated with the country Austria, for example: ...

voters had supported the ''

Anschluss The (, or , ), also known as the (, en, Annexation of Austria), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into the German Reich on 13 March 1938. The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a " Greater Germany ...

''. Although there had been irregularities, the magazine acknowledged that the results were "largely honest". It then discussed "the real effectiveness of Nazi demagogy" in obtaining such results:

Action

As a counterpoint to their

anti-intellectualism Anti-intellectualism is hostility to and mistrust of intellect, intellectuals, and intellectualism, commonly expressed as deprecation of education and philosophy and the dismissal of art, literature, and science as impractical, politically ...

, the Nazis heavily favored action. Manuals for school teachers, under "Literature", instructed that since only the vigorous were educationally valuable, anything that discouraged manliness was to be avoided.

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

's ''

Hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

'', while not actually forbidden, was denounced for "flabbiness of soul".Milton Mayer, ''They Thought They Were Free: The Germans 1933-45'' p193 1995 University of Chicago Press Chicago

Leni Riefenstahl Helene Bertha Amalie "Leni" Riefenstahl (; 22 August 1902 – 8 September 2003) was a German film director, photographer and actress known for her role in producing Nazi propaganda. A talented swimmer and an artist, Riefenstahl also became in ...

's ''

Der Sieg des Glaubens ''Der Sieg des Glaubens'' ( en, The Victory of Faith, Victory of Faith, or Victory of the Faith, italic=yes) is the first Nazi propaganda film directed by Leni Riefenstahl. Her film recounts the Fifth Party Rally of the Nazi Party, which occur ...

'' glorified the mass adulation of

at the Nuremberg rally of 1933, although the propaganda film was later deleted and banned following the murder of Roehm in the

Night of the Long Knives The Night of the Long Knives (German: ), or the Röhm purge (German: ''Röhm-Putsch''), also called Operation Hummingbird (German: ''Unternehmen Kolibri''), was a purge that took place in Nazi Germany from 30 June to 2 July 1934. Chancellor Ad ...

. She also produced ''

Triumph of the Will ''Triumph of the Will'' (german: Triumph des Willens) is a 1935 German Nazi propaganda film directed, produced, edited and co-written by Leni Riefenstahl. Adolf Hitler commissioned the film and served as an unofficial executive producer; his n ...

'', her film of the 1934 rally, which gave greater prominence to the SS. Women, too, were expected to be strong, healthy, and vital, despite being primarily mothers; a photograph subtitled "Future Mothers" showed teenaged girls dressed for sport and bearing javelins. A sturdy peasant woman, who worked the land and bore strong children, was an ideal, contributing to praise for athletic women tanned by outdoor work. '' Das deutsche Mädel'' was less adventure-oriented than the boy's ''Der Pimpf'',Material from "Das deutsche Mädel"
/ref> but far more emphasis was laid on strong and active German women than in ''NS-Frauen-Warte''.

Death and sacrifice

Heroic death was often portrayed in Nazi propaganda as glorious.Robert Edwin Hertzstein, ''The War That Hitler Won'' p252 It was glorified in such films as '' Flüchtlinge'', '' Hans Westmar'', and '' Kolberg''. ''

Wunschkonzert ''Wunschkonzert'' (''Request Concert'') is a 1940 German drama propaganda film by Eduard von Borsody. After '' Die große Liebe'', it was the most popular film of wartime Germany, reaching the second highest gross. Background The popular music s ...

'', though chiefly about the homefront, features one character who dies playing the organ in a church in order to guide his comrades, though he knows the enemy forces will also find him. The dead of World War I were also portrayed as heroic; in a film of ''

Operation Michael Operation Michael was a major German military offensive during the First World War that began the German Spring Offensive on 21 March 1918. It was launched from the Hindenburg Line, in the vicinity of Saint-Quentin, France. Its goal was t ...

'', the general tells a major that they will be measured by the greatness of their sacrifice, not by that of their victory, and in '' Leave on Parole'', the people are portrayed as being corrupted by pacifist slogans while soldiers stand their ground unflinching. Even the film '' Morgenrot'', predating the Nazi seizure of power and containing such un-Nazi matters as a woman refusing to rejoice because of the sufferings on the other side, praised such deaths and found favor among Nazi officials for it. Karl Ritter's films, aimed on youth, were "military education" and glorified death in battle.Anthony Rhodes, ''Propaganda: The art of persuasion: World War II'', p21 1976, Chelsea House Publishers, New York Propaganda about the ''Volk'' depicted it as a greater entity to which the individual belonged, and one worth dying for.The Volk
The effect was such that a Jewish woman, reflecting on her longing to join the

, concluded that it had been the admonition for self-sacrifice that had drawn her most. This call for self-sacrifice and not individuality was praised by many Germans. Several dead stormtroopers were singled out for glorification by Goebbels, especially

. His posthumous fame stemmed from his "martyr's death" and Goebbel's selection of him to glorify among the many Storm-Troppers who died. While the film '' Hans Westmar'' had to be fictionalized to omit details not palatable with the Nazis in power, it was among the first films to depict dying for Hitler as dying for Germany and glorious. His decision to go to the streets is presented as fighting "the real battle". The films '' Hitler Youth Quex'' and ''

S.A.-Mann Brand ''S.A.-Mann Brand'' (Storm Trooper Brand) is a Germany, German film made around the time that Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany. It was released in mid-June 1933 in film, 1933. The film presents the story of a truck driver, Fritz Brand, w ...

'' also glorified those had died in the struggle to seize power; ''Quex'' was based on a novel that sold over 200,000 copies over two years. Soldiers and street fighters were the heroes of the Nazi movement—those who had died or might die. Even the 1936 anthem for "Olympic youth" celebrated not sports but sacrificial death. Bundesarchiv Bild 183-E0406-0022-011, Russland, deutscher Kriegsgefangener

Bundesarchiv Bild 183-E0406-0022-011, Russland, deutscher Kriegsgefangener

This continued in the war. In 1942–3, the

Winter Relief The ''Winterhilfswerk des Deutschen Volkes'' ( en, link=yes, Winter Relief of the German People), commonly known by its abbreviated form ''Winterhilfswerk'' (WHW), was an annual donation drive by the National Socialist People's Welfare (german: ...

booklets recounted the stories of 20 decorated war heroes. The dead of the Battle of Stalingrad were portrayed as heroes of

Valhalla In Norse mythology Valhalla (;) is the anglicised name for non, Valhǫll ("hall of the slain").Orchard (1997:171–172) It is described as a majestic hall located in Asgard and presided over by the god Odin. Half of those who die in combat e ...

, not as having failed but as having held back Russian regiments. A 1944 Mother's Day Card, particularly intended for the wives and mothers of the war dead, presented a mystical view that, although there was no afterlife, the dead continued in the life that followed them. Similarly, ''

Die grosse Liebe ''The Great Love'' (German: ''Die große Liebe'') is a 1942 German drama film directed by Rolf Hansen and starring Zarah Leander, Viktor Staal and Grethe Weiser. It premiered in Berlin in 1942 and went on to become the most commercially success ...

'' depicted its self-centered heroine learning to bravely send the air force lieutenant she loves back to his squadron. The battle was seen by others outside Germany as the turning point in the defeat of Hitler. Goebbels attempted to contrast German heroism with Douglas MacArthur's flight, accusing him of cowardice—somewhat ineffectually, as the Germans knew he had been ordered to leave. The creation of the ''

Volkssturm The (; "people's storm") was a levée en masse national militia established by Nazi Germany during the last months of World War II. It was not set up by the German Army, the ground component of the combined German ''Wehrmacht'' armed forces, ...

'' had propagandists make full use of themes of death, transcendence, and commemoration to encourage the fight. While men were the ones depicted as dying for Germany, women were also presented as needing to sacrifice. Exercise was praised as making young women strong, able to do hard physical labor for their country at need, particularly in agriculture, where the blood and soil ideology glamorized hard labor at the farm. This was not, however, translated in strong propaganda for women to join the workforce during the war;

NS-Frauenschaft The National Socialist Women's League (german: Nationalsozialistische Frauenschaft, abbreviated ''NS-Frauenschaft'') was the women's wing of the Nazi Party. It was founded in October 1931 as a fusion of several nationalist and Nazi women's asso ...

, in its magazine ''

NS-Frauen-Warte The ''NS-Frauen-Warte'' ("National Socialist Women's Monitor") was the Nazi magazine for women. Put out by the NS-Frauenschaft, it had the status of the only party approved magazine for women and served propaganda purposes, particularly supporti ...

'' and the speeches of

Gertrud Scholtz-Klink Gertrud Emma Scholtz-Klink, ''née'' Treusch, later known as Maria Stuckebrock (9 February 1902 – 24 March 1999), was a Nazi Party member and leader of the National Socialist Women's League (''NS-Frauenschaft'') in Nazi Germany. Nazi activities ...

, urged such behavior, and collections of essays praised heroic German women of the past, but the propaganda was weak and not widespread or repeated. Part of the problem may have been that the German government had called for sacrifice incessantly since 1931, and could bring no new appeal to it with the outbreak of war. Women, and other civilians, were also called on by Goebbels to reduce their standard of living to that of soldiers and civilians living in bombed areas, so as to sacrifice that material for total mobilization. Teachers' guidelines instructed that since people with hereditary weaknesses were personally innocent, their voluntary submission to sterilization was a great sacrifice for the good of the people, and they should not be treated with contempt.

Führerprinzip

Many propaganda films developed the importance of the ''

'' or leader principle. '' Flüchtlinge'' depicted

Volga German The Volga Germans (german: Wolgadeutsche, ), russian: поволжские немцы, povolzhskiye nemtsy) are ethnic Germans who settled and historically lived along the Volga River in the region of southeastern European Russia around Saratov ...

refugees were saved from persecution by a leader, who demands their unquestioning obedience. ''

Der Herrscher ''The Ruler'' (German: ''Der Herrscher'') is a 1937 German drama film directed by Veit Harlan. It was adapted from the play of the same name by Gerhart Hauptmann. Erwin Leiser calls it a propagandistic demonstration of the Führerprinzip of Na ...

'' altered its source material to depict its hero, Clausen, as the unwavering leader of his munitions firm, who, faced with his children's machinations, disowns them and bestows the firm on the state, confident that a worker will arise capable of continuing his work and, as a true leader, needing no instruction. In schools, adolescent boys were presented with Nordic sagas as the illustration of

, which was developed with such heroes as

Frederick the Great Frederick II (german: Friedrich II.; 24 January 171217 August 1786) was King in Prussia from 1740 until 1772, and King of Prussia from 1772 until his death in 1786. His most significant accomplishments include his military successes in the S ...

and Otto von Bismarck.

in particular indoctrinated for blind obedience and "Führer worship". This combined with the glorification of the one, central Führer. At the time of the Beer Hall Putsch, he used his trial to present himself, claiming it had been his sole responsibility and inspiring the title ''Fuhrer''. During the Night of Long Knives, his decisive action saved Germany, though it meant (in Goebbels's description) suffering "tragic loneliness" from being a Siegfried forced to shed blood to preserve Germany. A speech explicitly proclaims, "The Führer is always right". Booklets given out for the

donations included ''The Führer Makes History'', a collection of Hitler photographs, and ''The Führer’s Battle in the East 2''. Films such as '' The March to the Führer'' and ''

'' glorified him.

Carl Schmitt Carl Schmitt (; 11 July 1888 – 7 April 1985) was a German jurist, political theorist, and prominent member of the Nazi Party. Schmitt wrote extensively about the effective wielding of political power. A conservative theorist, he is noted as ...

, drawn to the Nazi party by his admiration for a decisive leader, praised him in his pamphlet ''State, Volk and Movement'' because only the ruthless will of such a leader could save Germany and its people from the "asphalt culture" of modernity, to bring about unity and authenticity.

Volksgemeinschaft

The ''

'' or people's community received a great deal of propaganda support, a principle that the Nazis continually reiterated.

Richard Grunberger Richard Grunberger (7 March 1924 Vienna, Austria – 15 February 2005) was a British historian who specialised in study of the Third Reich. He was born in Austria to Jewish parents. After the 1938 Anschluss with Hitler's Germany, he was put on ...

, ''The 12-Year Reich'', p 18, The ''Volk'' were not just a people; a mystical soul united them, and propaganda continually portrayed individuals as part of a great whole, worth dying for. This was portrayed as overcoming distinctions of party and social class. A common Nazi mantra declared they must put "collective need ahead of individual greed"—a widespread sentiment in this era. The commonality this created across classes was among the great appeals of Nazism. After the failure of the Beer Hall Putsch, Hitler, on the trial, omitted his usual pre-putsch antisemitism and centered his defense on his selfless devotion to the good of the ''Volk'' and the need for bold action to save them. The Versailles settlement had betrayed Germany, which they had tried to save. Thereafter, his speeches concentrated on his boundless devotion to the ''Volk'', though not eliminating the antisemitism. Even once in power, his immediate speeches spoke of serving Germany. The ''Volksgemeinschaft'' was also used for war support. Film on the home-front during World War II, depicted the war uniting all levels of society, as in the two most popular films of the Nazi era, ''

'' and ''

''. Failure to support the war was an anti-social act; this propaganda managed to bring arms production to a peak in 1944.

Blood and soil

Closely related to the community was the notion of blood and soil, a mystical bond between the German people and Germanic lands.Blood & Soil: Blut und Boden
A true Volkish life was rural and agrarian, rather than urban, a theme predating the Nazis but heavily used by them. It was foundational to the concept of ''

''. Prior to their ascension to power, Nazis called for a movement back to the rural areas, from the cities (which conflicted with the rearmament and its need for urbanization). "Blood and soil" novels and theater celebrated the farmer's life and human fertility, often mystically linking them. '' Neues Volk'' displayed demographic charts to deplore the destruction of the generous Aryan families' farmland and how the Jews were eradicating traditional German peasantry. Posters for school depicted and deplored the flight of people from the countryside to the city.Nazi Racial School Charts
''

Der Giftpilz ''Der Giftpilz'' is a piece of antisemitic Nazi propaganda published as a children's book by Julius Streicher in 1938.degenerate art Degenerate art (german: Entartete Kunst was a term adopted in the 1920s by the Nazi Party in Germany to describe modern art. During the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler, German modernist art, including many works of internationally renowned artists, ...

was that it had been cut off from blood and soil.

Landscape painting Landscape painting, also known as landscape art, is the depiction of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, trees, rivers, and forests, especially where the main subject is a wide view—with its elements arranged into a coherent compo ...

s were featured most heavily in the Greater German Art Exhibitions, to depict the German people's ''

''. Peasants were also popular images, promoting a simple life in harmony with nature. ''Blut und Boden'' films likewise stressed the commonality of Germaness and the countryside.

Die goldene Stadt ''Die goldene Stadt'' ( en, The Golden City), is a 1942 German color film directed by Veit Harlan, starring Kristina Söderbaum, who won the Volpi Cup for Best Actress. Plot Anna, a young, innocent country girl (a Sudeten German), whose mother ...

has the heroine running away to the city; after becoming pregnant, she drowns herself. Her last words beg her father to forgive her for not loving the countryside as he did. The

Rhineland Bastard Rhineland Bastard (german: Rheinlandbastard) was a derogatory term used in Nazi Germany to describe Afro-Germans, believed fathered by French Army personnel of African descent who were stationed in the Rhineland during its occupation by France a ...

s, children of German mothers and black fathers from French occupying troops, received so much propaganda attention as diluting German blood prior to the Nazi seizure of power that a census finding only 145 seemed an embarrassment. Anti-American propaganda dealt heavily with a lack of "ethnic unity" in the United States.A Nazi Analysis of the American Population

Racial pride

The Nazis went to great measures on teaching the German youth to be proud of their race through biology teaching, the

National Socialist Teachers League The National Socialist Teachers League (German: , NSLB), was established on 21 April 1929. Its original name was the Organization of National Socialist Educators. Its founder and first leader was former schoolteacher Hans Schemm, the Gauleiter ...

(NSLB) in particular taught in schools that they should be proud of their race and not to mix. Race biology was meant to encourage the Germans to maintain their racial purity. The NSLB stressed the Nordic racial element of the German ''Volk'' (people) and contrasted it with racial differences to foreign peoples such as the Jews. This could be done without necessarily being antisemitic. Nazi racial policy did not always included the degrading of Jews, but had to always maintain the importance of German blood and the Aryan race. This was often connected to the blood and soil ideology. While young Germans were being taught about the importance of one's blood, they were also taught about the dangers that the Jews represented in Germany and Germany's necessary living space in the East, in particular Russia. Novels portrayed the Germans as uniquely endowed and possessors of a unique destiny. The segregation of races was said to be natural, just as separate species did not come together in nature. Racial biology was often emphasizing on the "

Jewish Question The Jewish question, also referred to as the Jewish problem, was a wide-ranging debate in 19th- and 20th-century European society that pertained to the appropriate status and treatment of Jews. The debate, which was similar to other " national ...

" by showing children how species did not cohabit.The Jewish Question in Education
Scholl textbooks, posters and films emphasized differences between Germans and Jews, between the Aryan master race and the untrustworthy, parasitic and inferior subhumans (Untermenschen). Although the propaganda aimed at racial preservation was aimed at the youth, adults also were subject since the mid-1930s, to the belief that Jews (including women and children) were not only dangerous to Germany but also subhuman. In 1935, the Nuremberg Laws made any sexual relations between Aryans and non-Aryans a criminal offence. Aryans that were found guilty under the laws and charged with ''

Rassenschande ''Rassenschande'' (, "racial shame") or ''Blutschande'' ( "blood disgrace") was an anti-miscegenation concept in Nazi German racial policy, pertaining to sexual relations between Aryans and non-Aryans. It was put into practice by policies like ...

'' ("racial shame") faced incarceration in a concentration camp, while non-Aryans could face the death penalty. In 1922, German race researcher and eugenicist of the

Weimar Republic The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional federal republic for the first time in history; hence it is ...

and the Third Reich era, Hans Günther published a book titled ''Rassenkunde des deutschen Volkes'' (Racial Science of the German People). In the book, Günther recognizes the Germans as being composed of five different Aryan racial subtypes: Nordic, Mediterranean, Alpine, East Baltic, and Dinaric, he viewed the Nordic Germans as being at the top of the racial hierarchy.Anne Maxwell. Picture Imperfect: Photography and Eugenics, 1870-1940. Eastbourne, England: UK; Portland, Oregon, USA: SUSSEX ACADEMIC PRESS, 2008, 2010. P. 150. The book provided photographs of Germans defined as Nordic in areas such as

Salzburg Salzburg (, ; literally "Salt-Castle"; bar, Soizbuag, label= Austro-Bavarian) is the fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020, it had a population of 156,872. The town is on the site of the Roman settlement of ''Iuvavum''. Salzburg was founded ...

and Bedan; and provided photographs of Germans identified as

Alpine Alpine may refer to any mountainous region. It may also refer to: Places Europe * Alps, a European mountain range ** Alpine states, which overlap with the European range Australia * Alpine, New South Wales, a Northern Village * Alpine National Pa ...

and

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western Europe, Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa ...

types, especially in

Vorarlberg Vorarlberg ( , ; gsw, label= Vorarlbergisch, Vorarlbearg, , or ) is the westernmost state () of Austria. It has the second-smallest geographical area after Vienna and, although it also has the second-smallest population, it is the state with the ...

and

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

. The book strongly influenced the racial policy of Nazi Party; Adolf Hitler was so impressed by the work, that he made it the basis of his

policy.

Bundesarchiv Bild 102-16748, Ausstellung

The Nazis often described the Germans as being the '' Ubermenschen'' (superhumans) Aryan master race. This also created their idea of the ''

'' (subhumans), in particular this was aimed at Jews and Roma (Gypsies). The Nazis encouraged the Germans not to race mix and that only racially pure Aryans should be allowed to breed. As soon as the Nazis came to power in 1933 they introduced "racial hygienist" policies such as the July 1933 "Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring" which made sterilisation compulsory to the people who were said to have a range of conditions that were said to be hereditary. This later developed the Nazi regimes euthanasia program in 1939 known as the

Action T4 (German, ) was a campaign of mass murder by involuntary euthanasia in Nazi Germany. The term was first used in post-war trials against doctors who had been involved in the killings. The name T4 is an abbreviation of 4, a street address of t ...

program, the main purpose of this program was to improve the Aryan race through

racial hygiene The term racial hygiene was used to describe an approach to eugenics in the early 20th century, which found its most extensive implementation in Nazi Germany (Nazi eugenics). It was marked by efforts to avoid miscegenation, analogous to an animal ...

and eugenics and get rid of the "hereditarily ill". The German youth learned that the blond, tall, slender, and straight figures (Nordic) was the more "pure" and the ideal Aryan type that they were supposed to be and that the dark, small, thick, and bent bodies of the inferior races (Jews) were people they should not race mix with. They were taught to have nothing to do with them and view them as subhumans. Although the physical ideal for the Nazis was the Nordic-Aryan, contrary to popular belief they did not discriminate against individuals who did not have these features (light hair and light eyes), as long as the individual could prove their ancestry to be Aryan in accordance to the Nuremberg Laws. On trial after the Beer Hall Putsch, foregoing his usual antisemitic speeches, Hitler presented his involvement as a springing from a deep love of the ''Volk''. His speeches centered the glorification of the German people and their virtue. Though lowering or even omitting entirely references to Jews, this laid the ground for later antisemitic propaganda by emphasizing the need to protect the people against all foes. This continued after the seizure of power. One popular Munich speaker, declaring biological research boring, called instead on racial emotions; their "healthy ethnic instincts" would reveal the quality of the Aryan type. Propaganda aimed at women as particular bulwarks against racial degeneration included not their selections of husbands (which lay far more emphasis on racial purity than antisemitic propaganda), but their making a German home, cooking German food, singing German songs, and thereby installing in children a love of Germany. Articles discussed the architecture of a German home, and its interior decoration and the holidays celebrated in it. The overturning of the rule of law was justified on the grounds that law stemmed from the "right to life of the people". Walter Gross, as head of the National Socialist Office for Enlightenment on Population Policy and Racial Welfare, oversaw a massive propaganda effort to increase ethnic consciousness; this was termed "enlightenment" rather than "propaganda" by Nazi authorities, because it was not a call for immediate action but a long-term change in attitude. Gross described the view to be undermined as people thinking of themselves as individuals rather than single links in the great chain of life. The first six issues presented solely ethnic pride, before bringing in any matter of "undesirables".

Bernhard Rust Bernhard Rust (30 September 1883 – 8 May 1945) was Minister of Science, Education and National Culture ( Reichserziehungsminister) in Nazi Germany.Claudia Koonz, ''The Nazi Conscience'', p 134 A combination of school administrator and zealou ...

informed teachers that their task was to educate ethnically aware Germans. His ministry prescribed that no child was to graduate without knowledge of race and inheritance, and what obligations this prescribed for him. Many teachers minimized the teachings about Jews and emphasized those of the ''Volk'', producing an effect more insidious than the less palatable lessons. Many Nazi speakers muted antisemitic themes for general audiences, to instead dwell on the ethnic excellence of the Germans. Gerhard Wagner, at the 1936 Nuremberg Rally, discussed the racial law more in terms of the pure and growing race than the evil of the Jews.Race and Population Policy
The immensely popular "Red Indian" stories by

Karl May Karl Friedrich May ( , ; 25 February 1842 – 30 March 1912) was a German author. He is best known for his 19th century novels of fictitious travels and adventures, set in the American Old West with Winnetou and Old Shatterhand as main pro ...

were permitted despite the heroic treatment of the hero

Winnetou Winnetou is a fictional Native American hero of several novels written in German by Karl May (1842–1912), one of the best-selling German writers of all time with about 200 million copies worldwide, including the ''Winnetou'' trilogy. The ch ...

and "colored" races; instead, the argument was made that the stories demonstrated the fall of the Red Indians was caused by a lack of racial consciousness, to encourage it in the Germans. In 1939, Hitler's January 30 speech, which threatened to destroy Jews as the authors of any coming war, opened with praise for the flowering of the German people, and declare that whatever was detrimental to the people could not be ethical. Goebbels's 1941 Christmas speech was devoted to the greatness of Germans and their certain victory rather than the war. One attack on the United States was that their childish and shallow culture meant they could not fathom the value of the European culture that Germany protected. Goebbels indeed urged Germans to not let their refined sense of justice be exploited by the enemy. He also used the opening of the German Art Exhibition during the war to argue for Germany's culture and the barbarianism of their foes.Immortal German Culture

Children

Nazi propaganda emphasized that the Aryan race could only continue through the children for the future generations. Children were taught that they were biologically superior and were the ''Übermensch'' (superhuman) master race. "Blood and soil" was said to be part of nature. Textbooks discussed how the prolific Slav nations would cause the German people to be overrun. A woman was taught through education that she should bear as many children as possible for the next future generation's master race. A pamphlet "You and Your People", given to children at fourteen, when they left school, urged on them their unity with the ''Volk'', their ancestry, and the vital importance of their marrying within their own race and having many children. Similarly, "The Educational Principles of the New Germany", an article published in a magazine for women, discussed the importance of youth for the future, and how they must learn of the importance of their people and fatherland. Propaganda presented that great men were one of many siblings, or had many children.

, ''The 12-Year Reich'', p 235, ''Kindersegen'', blessed with children, was widely used while desiring no or few children was denounced as stemming from "an asphalt civilization. August 12th was set aside to honor mothers, particularly those with many children. '' Neues Volk'' ridiculed childless couples. The claimed causes for this low birthrate were not always the same; the ''

Völkischer Beobachter The ''Völkischer Beobachter'' (; "'' Völkisch'' Observer") was the newspaper of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) from 25 December 1920. It first appeared weekly, then daily from 8 February 1923. For twenty-four years it formed part of the official pub ...

'' featured a minor controversy, about whether it stemmed from the economic situation, such that women who wanted children were denied them, or from the corrupting effects of liberalism and Marxism, which stripped men and women of a desire for children and could only be countered with spiritual renewal. Leila J. Rupp, ''Mobilizing Women for War'', p 34, , In either case, Nazism was presented as the cure, restoring the economy of Germany, or engaging in a spiritual renewal. As the theory called only for parents of good blood, propaganda attempts were made to destigmatize illegitimate births, although the

Lebensborn Lebensborn e.V. (literally: "Fount of Life") was an SS-initiated, state-supported, registered association in Nazi Germany with the stated goal of increasing the number of children born who met the Nazi standards of "racially pure" and "hea ...

homes were presented to the public as places for married women. This, of course, applied only to those who selected proper partners as the parents of their children. In the movie '' Friesennot'', depicting ethnic Germans persecuted in the Soviet Union, a half-Friesan woman is murdered for her association with a Russian man, as her German blood outweighs her Russian blood. Her murder is presented as in accordance with ancient Germanic custom for "race pollution". Similarly, when the Sudeten German heroine of ''

'' allows herself to be seduced and impregnated by a Czech, she drowns herself. Even fairy tales were put to use for this purpose, with ''

Cinderella "Cinderella",; french: link=no, Cendrillon; german: link=no, Aschenputtel) or "The Little Glass Slipper", is a folk tale with thousands of variants throughout the world.Dundes, Alan. Cinderella, a Casebook. Madison, Wis: University of Wisconsi ...

'' being presented as a tale of how the prince's racial instincts lead him to reject the stepmother's alien blood for the racially pure maiden. This propaganda showed its effects in the marriage advertisements, which decreased money considerations for eugenic ones, with the advertisers representing themselves as and asking for "Nordic" or "Aryan". In wartime, the ''

'' urged women to nevertheless have children to maintain their race.Ready to Die Ready to Live

Propaganda urging that SS members leave an "heir" behind, without regards to whether they were married to the mother, raised a furor, but despite backpedaling, produced a surge in illegitimate births. This, of course, still applied only to children of German parents; repeated efforts were made to propagate ''Volksturm'', racial consciousness, to prevent sexual relations between Germans and foreign slave workers. Pamphlets, for instance, enjoined all German women to avoid sexual relations with all foreign workers brought to Germany as a danger to their blood. The

was particularly regarded as instructing girls to avoid ''

'' or racial defilement, which was treated with particular importance for young females.

Motherhood

Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1973-010-31, Mutter mit Kindern

During the era of the Nazi Party in Germany, policies and propaganda encouraged German women to contribute to the Third Reich through motherhood. To build the Third Reich, the Nazis believed that a strong German people, who acted as a foundation, was essential to the success of Nazi Germany.Bock, G., "Racism and sexism in Nazi Germany: Motherhood, compulsory sterilization, and the state", 1983 Motherhood propaganda was implemented by the Nazis to build the German nation. Within this propaganda there were three main arguments that were used. The first argument that was used in Nazi motherhood propaganda was that German mothers were expected to produce as many children as possible. The mother of Nazi Germany was glorified in visual propaganda. '

Marriage loan Marriage loans (german: Ehestandsdarlehen, ) were part of the promotion of the family in Nazi Germany. Instituted in 1933, they were offered to newlywed couples in the form of vouchers for household goods, initially on condition that the woman sto ...

s' were also created and promoted through propaganda, and these were for recently married couples to fund a baby. These loans were to be used as "vouchers for furniture and other household goods, provided, of course, that the women gave up work on marriage and devoted herself to motherhood". In order to ensure the success of these marriage loans, there were increased taxes for single people and couples without children. Another use of Nazi propaganda was that they wanted women to have as many Aryan children that they could bear to make a future for the next generations master race. The encouragement of by the Nazis came to its peak in 1939 with the introducing of "The Honor Cross of the German Mother" which went to mothers who provided an "important service" for the German nation. The cross was put into three different categories (bronze, silver, gold), a mother who had four or five children earned her bronze cross, whilst a mother who had six or seven children earned her silver cross and the mother who had eight or more children earned her gold cross. Mother's Day in May 1939 saw three million German mothers be honored the ''Mutterkreuz'' (Mother's Cross) whilst their husbands were preparing for the war.Matthew Stibbe, "Women in the Third Reich", 2003 The ideology of a "good mother" in Nazi Germany is described by Rupp "As a mother of her family, she meets the demands of the nation, as a housewife she acts according to the laws of the nation’s economic order, as employed woman she joins in the overall plan of the national household…But her life, like that of the man, is in its major outlines determined by the binding law that everything must be subordinated to the profit of the people".Leila J. Rupp, "Mother of the "Volk": The Image of Women in Nazi Ideology", 1977 This illustrates how the Third Reich used motherhood propaganda to build up the German nation. German Mothers Cross

The second argument within German propaganda is that racially desirable German women were supported in their effort to have children; however undesirable mothers, such as Jews and gypsies, were discouraged from having more children. This was because Nazi Germany wanted to eradicate ‘undesirable’ populations from the Third Reich. If women did not produce desirable children, they were subject to shaven heads, pillorying, public humiliation and execution. Some women were even used a propaganda themselves, and were forced to wear signs in public that said "I have committed racial treason" or "I fornicate with Jews." Great importance was placed on the women's ability to choose desirable mates and have many desirable children. The third argument used in Nazi motherhood propaganda created an ideal Nazi woman, which implicitly encouraged women to always be mothers in one way or another. The first way that this ideal was created was through the construction of spiritual motherhood in Nazi propaganda. German women who were not able to have children were encouraged, through propaganda, to participate in spiritual, rather than physical, maternity by doing womanly work. Their contributions to the war came in the form of mothering German society. Spiritual maternity allowed all women to fulfill their most important duty as caregivers. The next way that motherhood towards Germany was created through Nazi propaganda was through the ideal German woman. This ideal was portrayed by women contained in the propaganda who were "broad-hipped women, unencumbered by corsets, who could easily bear children." Because of this ideal Nazi women was fit and strong, they were typically shown in the propaganda "working in the fields, doing calisthenics, and practicing trades, as well as caring for children, cooking, and working at other more typical ‘womanly’ tasks." These propaganda appeals effectively persuaded German women because it contained the right mixture of traditional ideas, myths of the past, and the acceptance of the needs of a modern economy and lifestyle. Women, while not regarded as equals in Nazi Germany, were noted for their ability to help create and shape a strong Third Reich, and this is portrayed in the motherhood propaganda used by the Nazi government.

Policies

Heim ins Reich

Propaganda was also directed to Germans outside the Third Reich, to return as regions, or as individuals from other regions. Hitler hoped to make full use of the "German Diaspora". Prior to

, a powerful transmitter in Munich bombarded Austria with propaganda of what Hitler had done for Germany, and what he could do for Austria. The annexation of Austria was presented as "enter ngGerman land as representatives of a general German will to unity, to establish brotherhood with the German people and soldiers there." Similarly, the last chapter of

Eugen Hadamovsky Eugen Paul Hadamovsky (14 December 1904 – 1 March 1945) was a politician and radio production director in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1942. Early years Hadamovsky was born and raised in Berlin; he already joined the paramilitary '' Black Rei ...

's ''World History on the March'' glorifies Hitler's obtaining Memel from Lithuania as the latest stage in the progress of history. In the Baltic States, after an agreement with Stalin, who suspected they would be loyal to Nazis, the Nazis set out to encourage the departure of "ethnic Germans" by the use of propaganda. This included using scare tactics about the Soviet Union, and led to tens of thousands leaving. Those who left were not referred to as "refugees", but were rather described as "answering the call of the Fuhrer". As part of an effort to lure ethnic Germans back to Germany, folksy ''Heimatbriefe'' or "letters from the homeland" were sent to German immigrants to the United States. The reaction to these was on the whole negative, particularly as they picked up. Goebbels also hoped to use German-Americans to keep America neutral during the war, but the effect actually produced was great hostility to Nazi propagandists. Radio propaganda to Russia included the threat that if the

s were persecuted, the Jews would have to pay for it, many times over. Newspapers in the occupied Ukraine printed articles about antecedents of German rule over the Ukraine, such as Catherine the Great and the Goths.

Anti-smoking

Nazi Germany conducted propaganda against smoking and had arguably the most powerful anti-tobacco movement in the world. Anti-tobacco research received a strong backing from the government, and German scientists proved that cigarette smoke could cause cancer. German pioneering research on experimental

epidemiology Epidemiology is the study and analysis of the distribution (who, when, and where), patterns and determinants of health and disease conditions in a defined population. It is a cornerstone of public health, and shapes policy decisions and evide ...

led to the 1939 paper by Franz H. Müller, and the 1943 paper by Eberhard Schairer and Erich Schöniger which convincingly demonstrated that tobacco smoking was a main culprit in

lung cancer Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma (since about 98–99% of all lung cancers are carcinomas), is a malignant lung tumor characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. Lung carcinomas derive from transformed, malign ...

. The government urged German doctors to counsel patients against tobacco use.Nazi Medicine and Public Health Policy
Robert N. Proctor, Dimensions: A Journal of Holocaust Studies. Tobacco and pollutants in the workplace were viewed as a threat to the German race, so for partly ideological reasons the Nazi government chose to conduct propaganda against them, as one of many preventative steps.

Eugenics

Although the child was "the most important treasure of the people", this did not apply to all children, even German ones, only those with no hereditary weaknesses. Propaganda for the Nazi eugenics program began with propaganda for eugenic sterilization. Articles in '' Neues Volk'' described the pathetic appearance of the mentally ill and the importance of preventing such births. Photographs of mentally incapacitated children were juxtaposed with those of healthy children. The film '' Das Erbe'' showed conflict in nature in order to legitimate the Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring by sterilization. Biology textbooks were among the most propagandistic in the Third Reich, owing to their content of eugenic principles and racial theories, including explanations of the

Nuremberg Laws The Nuremberg Laws (german: link=no, Nürnberger Gesetze, ) were antisemitic and racist laws that were enacted in Nazi Germany on 15 September 1935, at a special meeting of the Reichstag convened during the annual Nuremberg Rally of ...

, which were claimed to allow the German and Jewish peoples to co-exist without the danger of mixing. Despite their many photographs glamorizing the "Nordic" type, the texts also claimed that visual inspection was insufficient, and genealogical analysis was required to determine their types, and report any hereditary problems; this resulted in children being used by racial agencies to obtain information about their families. Teachers' guidelines instructed teachers to ensure that the children thought sterilization "fulfills the command for loving one's neighbor, and is consistent with God-given natural laws."Nazi Racial Teaching Guidelines
School poster depicted the costs of caring for the handicapped and what could have been bought for healthy families at the same price.

Pro-euthanasia

During the euthanasia program, the film ''

Ich klage an ''Ich klage an'' (; en, I Accuse, italic=yes, link=yes) is a 1941 Nazi German pro- euthanasia propaganda film directed by Wolfgang Liebeneiner and produced by Heinrich Jonen and Ewald von Demandowsky. It was banned by Allied powers after the ...

'' was created to depict a woman being mercifully killed by her husband to escape her fatal illness, and his trial afterwards to stage pro-euthanasia arguments. It culminates in the husband's declaration that he is accusing them of cruelty for trying to prevent such deaths. This situation presented the matter in the most favorable light, far from the solitary, involuntary deaths of those killed by the program under a very broad definition of "incurably ill".

War

Stab-in-the-back legend

The Stab-in-the-back myth, asserting that Germany had not really been defeated in World War I but instead betrayed, was integral to affirming the excellence of Germany. The November Revolution and the "November Germany" resulting were objects of loathing; the hero of the movie '' Flüchtlinge'' turns his back on "November Germany", with its whining and sycophancy, to devote himself to true Germany. All movies depicting the era of defeat do so from the war veterans' point of view: in ''D III 38'', a pilot refused to go on fighting on hearing of revolution, since they were "behaving like pigs" and would laugh at his sacrifice if he died; in ''Pour le Mérite'', a war veteran scorns Weimar and declares he will disrupt it whenever he can; and in ''Leave on Parole'', the people are portrayed as being corrupted by pacifist slogans while soldiers unflinching stood their ground. The humiliation of Germany at Versailles was of good use to Hitler, both inside Germany and outside, where many onlookers were sympathetic.

Destruction of Germany

A common wartime motif was that the Allies intended to destroy this country for its excellence. Goebbels presented it as the stakes of the war. He had the Allied demand for unconditional surrender plastered on the walls of cities. The ''Parole der Woches weekly wall newspaper repeatedly claimed quotations showed that the intent of the Allies was to destroy Germany as a strong, united, and armed country.Parole der Woche
The effect of this was to convince many soldiers that the demoralizing effect of atrocities had to be fought off, because they were fighting for their people's existence. By the end of the war,

propaganda argued that death would be better than the destruction the Allies intended to inflict, which would nevertheless end in death.There Are Two Possibilities...
The propaganda claim was made from 1933 that Germany was under threat and attack and in need of defense.

In occupied countries

This line of propaganda presented obvious difficulties in occupied nations. Propaganda directed at these countries asserted, with blatant falsity, of wanting to protect European rather than German culture, particularly from the threat of Communism.Anthony Rhodes, ''Propaganda: The art of persuasion: World War II'', p288 1976, Chelsea House Publishers, New York At the same time that posters urged the French population to trust German soldiers, other posters urged German soldiers to show no friendship toward prisoners of war.Nuremberg Trial Proceedings Vol. 7: FIFTY-FIRST DAY Tuesday, 5 February 1946
Similarly, German soldiers in the Ukraine were told to steel their hearts against starving women and children, because every bit of food given to them was stolen from the German people, endangering their nourishment. When propaganda had to be visible to both native and foreign populations, a balance had to be struck. Pamphlets urging German women to protect the purity of their blood from foreign slave workers also asserted that this was not a manifestation of contempt for other nations. German Institutes in occupied countries, particularly France, attempted to demonstrate Germanic cultural superiority through cultural programs, which also softened the effects of occupation, and distracted from Nazi plans. According to historian Allan Mitchell, Hitler could not come to a conclusion about where the French and their racial purity belonged in his race hierarchy as in Hitler's mind "the French were neither subhuman nor Aryan." The

Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories The Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories (german: Reichsministerium für die besetzten Ostgebiete (RMfdbO) or ''Ostministerium'', ) was created by Adolf Hitler on 17 July 1941 and headed by the Nazi theoretical expert, the Baltic ...

contained a Main Department for Politics, which dealt with propaganda in the battle against the Soviet Union.

Total war

Early success led many in Germany to believe that the war could be won with ease. Setbacks caused Goebbels to call for propaganda to toughen up the German people and not make victory look easy. As early as the opening of the Battle of Britain, he urged caution in predicting victory. His ''Das Reich'' article called for people to fight rather than wonder how long the war would last. This process culminated in his

, calling for total war. The audience was carefully selected for their reactions, to maximize impace of its radio broadcast.Anthony Rhodes, ''Propaganda: The art of persuasion: World War II'', p36 1976, Chelsea House Publishers, New York Attempts were also made to stir the civilian population into taking jobs in war production. An article appearing for Hitler's birthday urged women to greater efforts as birthday present.Strength from Love and Faith
Goebbels used the assassination attempt on Hitler to urge utmost exertions. The film '' Kolberg'' depicted title town in stubborn resistance to the French forces of the Napoleonic wars in order to stir resistance in the German people. Goebbels explicitly ordered the use of the historical events for a film, which he regarded as highly suitable for the circumstances Germany faced. The film itself can be taken as evidence that hope was lost for the German cause; It glorified resistance to the death, and only through an invented military miracle was the town saved in the film. The fall of Italy was not well prepared for and had a deep impact; a leaflet even circulated drawing analogies between the German and Italian situations. A counter leaflet was spread to accentuate the difference. By the end of the war, propaganda took the only possible tack: declaring death better than defeat. Theodore Kaufman's 1941 book '' Germany Must Perish'' was treated as significant depiction of American thought, and it was claimed that the Allies planned to dismember and fragment Germany, take away its industry, and turn 10 million Germans into slavery. Propagandists depicted the ''

'' as an outburst of enthusiasm and will to resist. ''Das Reich'' depicted Berlin as fighting to the last, with no promises of miracle weapons that would save the day, as was done earlier. Bundesarchiv Bild 183-J28787, Volkssturmbataillon an der Oder

Bundesarchiv Bild 183-J28787, Volkssturmbataillon an der Oder

The demand for

unconditional surrender An unconditional surrender is a surrender in which no guarantees are given to the surrendering party. It is often demanded with the threat of complete destruction, extermination or annihilation. In modern times, unconditional surrenders most ofte ...

was used by Goebbels to strengthen German resistance by pointing to the grim fate that awaited them. The

Morgenthau plan The Morgenthau Plan was a proposal to eliminate Germany following World War II and eliminating its arms industry and removing or destroying other key industries basic to military strength. This included the removal or destruction of all industr ...

for the coming occupation of Germany, approved and signed in late 1944, concluded: ''"is looking forward to converting Germany into a country primarily agricultural and pastoral in its character."'' News of the plan were leaked to the press. Joseph Goebbels said that "The Jew Morgenthau" wanted to make Germany into a giant potato patch. Goebbels used the Morgenthau Plan for his propaganda machine extensively. The headline of the ''

'' stated, "ROOSEVELT AND CHURCHILL AGREE TO JEWISH MURDER PLAN!" Lt. Colonel John Boettiger said that the American troops that had had to fight for five weeks against fierce German resistance to capture the city of Aachen had complained to him that the Morgenthau Plan was "worth thirty divisions to the Germans." On December 11, 1944 OSS operative William Donovan sent Roosevelt a telegraph message from Bern, warning him of the consequences that the knowledge of the Morgenthau plan had had on German resistance. The telegraph message from Donovan was a translation of a recent article in the '' Neue Zürcher Zeitung''.

So far, the Allies have not offered the opposition any serious encouragement. On the contrary, they have again and again welded together the people and the Nazis by statements published, either out of indifference or with a purpose. To take a recent example, the Morgenthau plan gave Dr. Goebbels the best possible chance. He was able to prove to his countrymen, in black and white, that the enemy planned the enslavement of Germany. ...The conviction that Germany had nothing to expect from defeat but oppression and exploitation still prevails, and that accounts for the fact that the Germans continue to fight. It is not a question of a regime, but of the homeland itself, and to save that, every German is bound to obey the call, whether he be Nazi or member of the opposition.

Careless talk

The slogan "The Enemy is Listening" was deployed to discourage talk of sensitive information; a slogan saying "Talk is treachery" was not approved for fear that people would apply it to propaganda. The press had to be warned against creating the impression that spies were everywhere.

Middle Ages

Another major theme within the context of Nazi propaganda was the coupling of mediaeval imagery with contemporary Nazi aesthetics. Many of the propaganda posters used at the time displayed a mediaeval knight, with a shield clad in Swastika. That was not particular just to the Nazis, as many other European countries and even the Imperial German government used some forms of mediaeval imagery, but it was the Nazi regime that actually implemented mediaeval imagery in a fashion that equated themselves to their post-classical predecessors. One of the most famous examples of this was Hubert Lanzinger's 1935 Hitler portrait entitled ''Der Bannertrager'' ("The Standard Bearer"). Hitler is clad in it in the armor of a knight, riding a war horse, and carrying with him the swastika flag. That is exactly the kind of synthesis between contemporary and mediaeval imagery that the Nazis used time and again. That way, the Nazis looked to paint themselves as the return of the heroes of German folklore. The vast majority of the pieces did not involve any specific Nazi leaders, however, and simply placed the imagery of the current era with that of the mediaeval period. Another striking example is the 1936 celebration of the farmers, which shows a giant knight defending a small farm from a hammer and sickle. Images like that one were used during the prewar period typically to inspire the German people to believe in the regine's programs and policies of the Third Reich. In that period of turmoil, such images were designed to encourage support among average people by the association with popular and culturally-significant imagery. Most such images reflected the more militant aspects of the Middle Ages. When the war itself was underway, the Nazis attempted to reach out to more than just the Germans by including feelings of cultural pride toward other Nordic peoples. The Nazis created images that pertained specifically to the Norse Viking heritage in the recruitment of soldiers from Scandinavians. Just as they had in Germany made an appeal to people's heritage, they attempted to create the image that the Nazi's were the embodiment of the Germanic and Nordic past and that anyone who wanted to preserve their cultural heritage should join them. As the war proceeded, propaganda became more pointedly directed at recruiting and used less and less mediaeval imagery, but it was used heavily in the lead-up and consolidation of power by the Nazis in the prewar period. It still being but slightly less often during the war itself. To an extent, as the war turned against Germany, the harsh realities of defeat meant that the average German citizen would be less inclined to support some fanciful depiction of a knight and more inclined to support a realistic depiction of a German soldier.Alexander L George (1959) Propaganda analysis : a study of inferences made from Nazi propaganda in World War II. Evanston, Ill. Row, Peterson

References

{{Nazi propaganda Nazi propaganda

Enemies

Jews

The Holocaust

Outside Germany

In ''Der Stürmer''

Communists

Capitalists

Intellectuals

Russians

Czechs and Slovaks

Poles

The British

Americans

Values

Action

Death and sacrifice

Führerprinzip

Volksgemeinschaft

Blood and soil

Racial pride

Children

Motherhood

Policies

Heim ins Reich

Anti-smoking

Eugenics

Pro-euthanasia

War

Stab-in-the-back legend

Destruction of Germany

In occupied countries

Total war

Careless talk

Middle Ages

See also

References