Nazi Propaganda

Propaganda Defined

Information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view. (Google definition)

•It serves a specific agenda • Incite action• Change views/beliefs• Persuade

Important note: Not all propaganda is negative or evil. Some can be very helpful, such as propaganda used in public health campaigns.

Nazi Propaganda

• Joseph Goebbels: Hitler’s minister of propaganda

• “All propaganda has to be popular and has to accommodate itself to the comprehension of the least intelligent of those whom it seeks to reach.”

– Adolf Hitler

• “By the skillful and sustained use of propaganda, one can make a people see even heaven as hell or an extremely wretched life as paradise.”

– Adolf Hitler

When “reading” visual propaganda, pay attention to:• The artist’s use of color• Facial expressions• Background details• Words

• Band-wagon: People want to be part of the majority (and usually “winning” team) so they jump on the band wagon so they don’t feel left out.

Think about…

• How are the people/concepts being portrayed in the piece of propaganda?

• The artist is trying to bring out what emotional response in the “reader”?

• What is the artist’s intended message?

Long Live Germany!

• What is this poster’s agenda? Of what is it trying to convince you?

• What details in the photo contribute to the intended message/effect?

#1

What are the artists messages? How does the artist get the message across?

#2

Opening lines from The Eternal Jew• A propaganda film which was filmed in Poland after the

occupation.

• “The civilized Jews that we know in Germany give us only an incomplete picture of their racial character. This film shows genuine shots of the Polish ghettos. It shows the Jews as they really are, before they conceal themselves behind the mask of the civilized European.”

“Behind the enemy powers:

the Jew”

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#4

“Healthy parents have healthy children.”

#5

Elsewhere in the world…• It was not just the Nazis.

• America was at war with the Axis powers (Germany & Japan)• They needed the public to buy war bonds, remain employed,

support the war, and believe without a doubt in the evilness of the Japanese and Nazis.

#6

Caricature definition: a picture, description, or imitation of a person or thing in which certain striking characteristics are exaggerated in order to create a comic or grotesque effect.

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In recent news… #9