Nazi Germany's Deadly Use of Propaganda

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It is evident that propaganda is based on the emotion of humans, which includes fear, anxiety, pride, greed and adventure. During wartime, propaganda concentrated on both positive and negative themes. These themes embraced family love, patriotism, courage and hope which was in contrast to the neutral themes such as fear of the enemy and antipathy. Many of these messages were not all lies but were depicting a strong proposal towards creating compelling, but somewhat manipulative narratives. However, they were not based on reality, but instead were exaggerated and distorted the truth. Whether people were aware they were being influenced cannot be ruled out. Lindley Fraser once said “Hitler’s belief that by propaganda alone one can move mountains and convert black into white was an absurd and catastrophic exaggeration of the potency of propaganda alike as an instrument of government and as a weapon of war” (Fraser, Propaganda, p.11)

Out of all the deadly weapons deployed by Nazi Germany, probably the most effective one was the use of propaganda- both for the moral of the war-front as well as maintaining the loyalty of the German people. Hitler was obsessed with propaganda and we know that through his writing of two chapters in his book Mein Kampf. One of the first chapters specifically called “War Propaganda” reveals Hitler’s obsession with propaganda and how he wanted to control peoples' minds during the coming struggle. During the first world War, the British and Americans battered the German image with their own propaganda. Impressed with the Allies and how effective it was, Hitler decided to insist upon German leaders to use the same techniques.

“Did we have anything you could call propaganda? I regret that I must answer in ...

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...ting the content over the war was to be released. The second office was The Bureau of Motion Pictures, which was an agency working with Hollywood which set up guidelines to help establish whether a motion picture will help win a war, an attempt to be beneficial to the American war effort. This attempt was achieved by screening unrelenting images, anti Japanese propaganda and took the army into any depth they were willing to venture into in order to glorify the army. Even after the war, films continued to show a different side of the war in order to show that the soldier's efforts were worth it.
Americans and Germans alike, during the Second World War, were constantly bombarded with propaganda in order to keep to morale high on the war front and at home. American propaganda, for example, constantly stereotyped the Italians , Germans and Japanese as evil characters.

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