Nazi Propaganda
Two Purposes
• To create a positive image of Hitler
and the Nazi Party
• To create a negative view of those
considered to be enemies,
particularly Jews
Hitler’s Propaganda Methods
• Present simple themes in a repetitive
manner
• Appeal to emotion rather than
intellect
• Have broad appeal to the masses
• Focus mainly on one enemy - Claim
that this enemy is at the root of all
problems
Propaganda: Pervasive in Nazi Germany
• Images – Posters, Book and Newspaper
Illustrations
• Spoken Word – Nazi Speeches and Radio
broadcasts; Songs and slogans
• Printed Word – “Der Sturmer” ; Academic
publications; School curricula
• Dramatic - cinema (i.e. Triumph of the Will;
The Eternal Jew; Jud Suss); Party Rallies
Goals of Pro-Nazi Propaganda
• To portray Hitler and The Nazi Party as
the saviors of Germany
• To connect the Nazis to a positive,
idealistic vision of Germany’s future
• To portray the Nazis as confident,
decisive, and overwhelmingly powerful
Hitler as the Heroic Leader
Hitler Brings Unity
“The Reich will
never be
destroyed if
you are united
and loyal.”
Appeals to Traditional Values
Motherhood
“German Women
Think of Your
Children
Vote Hitler”
Youthful Idealism
“Youth
serves the
Fuhrer”
“Workers of the
mind and hand –
Vote for the
front soldier
Hitler!”
Power and Pageantry
Goals of Anti-Jewish Propaganda
• To connect Jews to every problem facing
Germany and every other group seen as
opponents
• To reinforce traditional negative stereotypes
about Jews
• To create a climate of contempt toward Jews
• To dehumanize the image of Jews (to
facilitate discrimination, segregation, exile,
and murder)
Jews as Aliens
“Only a racial comrade can be a citizen.
Only a person of German blood,
irrespective of religious denomination,
can be a racial comrade. No Jew,
therefore, can be a racial comrade.”
Point 4 - Nazi Party Program, 1920
The Jew as Eugenic Threat
“With satanic joy in his face, the blackhaired Jewish youth lurks in wait for the
unsuspecting girl whom he defiles with his
blood, thus stealing her from her people.
With every means he tries to destroy the
racial foundations of the people he has set
out to subjugate.”
Adolf Hitler - Mein Kampf
The bottom slogan reads: “Women and girls,
the Jews are your undoing!”
The Jew as
Communist
From the cover of
the book
The Eternal Jew
The Jew as Capitalist Exploiter
“The God of the Jews
is Money. And to gain
money, he will commit
the greatest crimes.
He will not rest
until he can sit on the
largest sack of money,
until he becomes the
King of Money.”
The Jew as Warmonger
“If international finance Jewry inside and
outside Europe should succeed in plunging
the nations once more into a world war, then
the result will not be the bolshevization of
the earth, and thus the victory of Jewry, but
the annihilation of the Jewish race in
Europe!”
Adolf Hitler - January 30, 1939
Nazi
propaganda
poster
blaming
Jews for the
war
All Enemies are Jews!
Note the similarity between the portrayal of Churchill
(who was not Jewish) and the antisemitic stereotype.
Jews depicted as
controlling the Allies
Jews plotting to
rule the world
The Protocols of the
Elders of Zion
(Front cover of a French
edition)
The “Blood Libel”
The Jew as demonic
From an
advertising
poster for a
movie
The Poison
Mushroom
A
Children's
Book
“Jews Get Out!”: A Children’s Game
Dehumanizing Words
“We had the moral right, and the duty
toward our nation to kill this people
who wished to kill us. … We do not,
because we were exterminating a
bacillus, wish to be infected by that
bacillus in the end and die.”
Heinrich Himmler - October 4, 1943
Dehumanizing Words
“Was there any form of filth or
profligacy, particularly in cultural
life, without at least one Jew in it? If
you cut even cautiously into such an
abscess, you found, like a maggot in a
rotting body, often dazzled by the
sudden light - a little Jew”
Adolf Hitler - Mein Kampf
Dehumanizing
Images:
Jews portrayed
as vermin
Results of Propaganda
• “True Believers” are empowered by
propaganda to engage in behavior that
would otherwise be forbidden.
• Propaganda shifts the “frame of reference”
regarding the subject. Formerly extreme
ideas enter legitimate discussion.
• The “piling on” effect mutes opposition.
Lessons for Today
• Learn to recognize and interpret propaganda
and to distinguish it from legitimate attempts
to inform.
• Recognize distortions embedded in public
communication (i.e. - stereotypes, misuse of
statistics, over-generalization, guilt by
association, etc..)
• Recognize that images and words are
important because they create the social
climate – which will tend either toward
respect or contempt.