German Propaganda and the effects on The Holocaust and WWII
Propaganda in general is the idea of getting others to believe in one’s own beliefs. Propaganda is the “attempt to influence behavior…by affecting through the use of mass media of communications, the manner in which a mass audience perceives and ascribes meaning to the material world.”1 Propaganda was a major part of Germany’s way to brain wash people into following Hitler and his army. The theme of Hitler and Goebbels, (Paul Joseph Goebbels, was appointed Hitler’s Reichspropagandaleiter, the Nazis national director of propaganda), using propaganda, “was to merge the traditional German patriotism with Nazi ideological motifs”2, this was basically used from1919 to 1945. Propaganda was basically to pressure the Germans who were not Jewish to dislike the Jewish people and believe that, “the war was less a struggle among nations than a fight to the finish pitting Aryan against Jew”3.
Propaganda was and is used through many different techniques. There is propaganda through name calling, glittering generalities, and euphemisms which are categorized as word games. Transfer and testimonial are classified as false connections through propaganda. Plain folks and band wagon are special appeals, and bad logic or propaganda and unwarranted extrapolation are considered logical fallicies.
Name calling connects a person or idea to something negative, like words or symbols. The propagandist uses this technique hoping that the audience will reject the person or idea on the basis of the negative symbol, instead of looking at the available evidence4. “Nazi propaganda was particularly found of such hyperbole, where every noun has its conventional epithet”5. Glittering gen...
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...d Goebbel’s propaganda ideas worked for a while in the interests of a few particular groups, but through all the techniques and ways of spreading propaganda, at the end of the war, their propaganda lost its touch, and the German people wound up surrendering.
Works Cited
1. Baird, Jay W. Nazi War Propaganda, 1939-1945. Ann Arbor, 1974.
2. Baird, p.4
3. Baird, p.6
4. Delwiche, Aaron. “Propaganda.”
http://www.carmen.artsci.washington.edu/propaganda/contents.htm#intro,(11/2/99)
5. Balfour, Michael. Propaganda in War 1939-1945. Boston, 1979.
6. contents, plain-folks
7. contents, transfer
8. contents, logic
9. contents, extrapolation
10. http://www.cobweb.nl/jmoonen/main.htm, (11/2/99)
11. Baird, p.17-18
12. Baird, p.24
13. Balfour, p.435
14. Baird, p.3
15. Baird, p.3
16. Baird, p.5
17. Baird, p.9
Introductory Paragraph: Propaganda is a tool of influence that Adolph Hitler used to abuse the German population by brainwashing them and completely deteriorating an entire race. How does one person get the beliefs of an entire country? Hitler put Joseph Goebbels in charge of the propaganda movement. Goebbels controlled every element of propaganda, there were many varieties of Nazi Propaganda. Propaganda was also being used as a tool to gain the support of the German population for the war, and supporting their government. The Jew’s were the targeted race and were completely pulverized by the Nazi’s. Hitler not only tried to destroy an entire race, he gained complete control of an entire country.
Adolf Hitler was the Fuhrer of Nazi Germany from 1932 to 1945. In a little over a year, one man completely manipulated an entire government and legal system to acquire a totalitarian regime. What many are not aware of is how Hitler’s strategy arose. He single-handedly took control of Germany using many different types of propaganda and oratory skills to appeal to the German people. The purpose of this investigation is to determine the primary methods Hitler used to rise to power. This will be accomplished by researching the types of propaganda Hitler used, his political skills and the impact of his oratory skills on the German people. To research this, the paper will assess academic journals from institutions such as Ithaca and Michigan, works of eminent historians such as Frank McDonough and also Hitler’s own book Mein Kampf.
Propaganda is defined as, “ideas, facts, or allegations spread deliberately to further one's cause or to damage an opposing cause” (Merriam-Webster Dictionary). During World War II, Propaganda was a driving force that kept the battles heated and each nation’s population united for a common cause. When we look back at World War II and the times we were in, how effective was propaganda though? How was it represented, and what images would persuade the people of each country to fight in the war? Both countries, Germany and the United States, created vast promotions during the war that were degrading to their opposing sides. A great sense of nationalism was building up and these propagandists did anythin...
"Propaganda consists of the planned use of any form of public or mass-produced communication designed to affect the minds and emotions of a given group for a specific purpose, whether military, economic, or political" (Levinson). Propaganda is used to gain the support of its viewers on an issue by either false or misleading information.
Propaganda is the art of persuasion, and it had a major influence on WWII. Every country involved in the war had their own way of using propaganda to impact the public in different ways. Some countries were more forceful in presenting their propaganda to their country. Many types of propaganda were used in WWII. Books, radio, films, comic strips, and posters were directed towards the public to put them in a certain mind set about war. Every countries propaganda had different effects on the public. Nazi Germany’s use of propaganda had a greater impact on the public compared to Canada, USA, and Britain’s propaganda.
“By the skillful and sustained use of propaganda, one can make a people see heaven as hell or an extremely wretched life as paradise,” Adolf Hitler once declared. In the lexicon, propaganda means “information, ideas, or rumors deliberately spread widely to help or harm a person, group, movement...” (Dictionary.com). During World War 2, most of the countries exhibited some form of it because as Hitler explained, it could easily influence people, and they used it as a weapon of war. However, although propaganda in the Second World War was beneficial, it wasn’t a morally correct way to gain support from people for their countries.
To persuade one is a challenge in itself, but to sway the minds of everyone is something unfathomable. The infection of ideals was one of many tools used during World War II. The methods differ for propaganda but they share the same purpose, to saturate your view with anomalous thoughts. By reading In the Garden of Beasts, we can deduce that propaganda played a huge role during World War II. It prolonged the United States intervention of the war and allowed Hitler to prolong his exposure of his master plan, genocide of millions. “The art of propaganda consists precisely in being able to awaken the imagination of the public through an appeal to their feelings, in finding the appropriate psychological form that will arrest the attention and appeal to the hearts of the national masses.” (Hitler, p. Chapter 5). Propaganda does more than just affect the minds of its own people; it alters the perception of the world.
Propaganda is mainly used to persuade your audience in thinking and believing in a certain way; the way that you want them to think. In the film of
Propaganda works by adducing a standpoint of an intimation and then that standpoint makes the public want to imperforate the intimation. When Hitler aggrandized to power in 1933 he established a Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda. A common leitmotif encompassed of German propaganda was that whenever they were about to pass a section of legislation that is pernicious to the Jews their propaganda would turn violent. The Germans would have monochrome movies or films playing showing their army in victory. Even if they lost the battle, they would sometimes say they won it. The posters the party put up were usually demoralizing to the Jews, showing Hitler Youth, or showing Hitler usually with children. In the school in Germany they had multifold programs that would phase out other races, especially the Jews from activities. They also taught their doctrine of supernatural supremacy. The teachers were even instructed to demoralize the Jews. Due to Nazi propaganda other races were severely punished all because of one man’s influence.
Propaganda is the dissemination of information to influence or control large groups of people. In totalitarian regime like Nazi Germany, propaganda plays a significant role in consolidate power in the hands of the controlling party (Nazi propaganda).The propaganda used by the Nazi Party in the years leading up to and during Adolf Hitler's leadership of Germany (1933–1945) was a crucial instrument for acquiring and maintaining power, and for the implementation of Nazi policies. The pervasive use of propaganda by the Nazis is largely responsible for the word "propaganda" itself acquiring its present negative connotations (definition).
The Nazis are infamous for their heavy use of propaganda during their reign in the Third Reich, they used many means of propaganda such as posters, cartoons, radio, film, etc. The German citizens’ constant exposure to all of this propaganda from all directions had a deep psychological and psychoanalytical impact on them, it redefined their identity and who they were as well as what they thought of the world around them. Nazi propaganda often had deep symbolic meaning usually associated with anti-semitism and German nationalism, these elements were already present in the minds of the majority of Germans so it wasn’t hard for Adolf Hitler and the rest of the Nazi party to further provoke and enrage the emotions of people concerning these things, they merely had to tap into these pre disposed emotions in a way that would have the most favourable psychological impact for the Nazis. Some of the opinions and mindsets that German citizens had may have been there even before the Nazis came into power and made it seemed like they were brainwashing people with their propaganda, but with what justification can it be said that Nazi propaganda had a psychological and psychoanalytic impact on the German population to a great extent, rather than it being the work of pre set psychological states of mind of people due to the Treaty of Versailles, the Great Depression, Hyperinflation, and other sources which may have led the German population to support and hold anti-semitistic and nationalistic ideologies.
...ch aspect of propaganda slowly managed to desensitise and separate Germans from the truth, by giving the people a perfect leader he united Germany around a pariah that could forge a new Germany, and with this hope Germany’s people were forced to change their beliefs for the good of their country.
Nazi propaganda was a powerful tool in implementing the Holocaust. Nazis used censorship and their control of the media to sway German citizens to their ideals and to quiet down opposition. Propaganda allowed the Nazis to successfully take control of Germany and carry out their plans while maintaining social stability within the country.
"Propaganda tries to force a doctrine on the whole people... Propaganda works on the general public from the standpoint of an idea and makes them ripe for the victory of this idea." ( Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, 1926). During Adolf Hitler’s time, the Jews in Europe were not very well liked. They were doing very well economically because they were prominent bankers and were blamed for the economic problems in Germany because Germans were struggling. He blamed the Jews for the hardships the country was facing. Pamphlets,flyers and flags were put up all over the country that showed Germans that the Jews were being “taken care of”, and caused a bad perspective upon them. Hitlers method of propaganda ranged in variety such as; films, cartoon and even educational material. He used his way of thinking to manipulate change of all Europe to go against the Jewish with the help of Goebbles, the minister of Propaganda and Public Information.
What does the term “propaganda” say, what does one think of, when approached with this term? Would one think it was of a positive of negative connotation? What about the association it had with the holocaust, would it then be considered negative? Did the Nazis use the role of propaganda overtly?