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By Grace Davis Lincoln College Preparatory Academy Mr. Henderson Nazi Anti-Jewish Propaganda It is the night November 9th, 1938. Across Germany, fires consume synagogues, Jewishowned properties are ransacked and destroyed, and Jewish businesses are laid to waste. By the time the sun rises on November 10th, ninety-one Jews have been killed, and roughly 30,000 deported to concentration camps (PBS). This violence was propagated not only by Nazi soldiers, but by citizens of Germany. How were these ordinary people made to believe that Jews were worthy of being treated this way? Nazi propaganda used and exploited pre-existing stereotypes by taking control of the media to exclude certain groups, notably Jews, from society. Propaganda is biased information designed to shape public opinion. The goal of Nazi propaganda was to dehumanize and exclude certain groups, mainly Jews, from society (“Defining the Enemy”). The first step to cultivating this hate towards Jews was to take control of the media and eliminate freedom of the press. Journalists against Nazi ideals were driven from their jobs, exiled, or arrested. Altogether, about two thousand journalists lost their jobs (Herf, 18). Then, on October 4, 1933, the government passed the Editorial Control Law, which placed all newspapers under government control. This law banned Jewish people from holding any position as a journalist, and effectively destroyed free press in Germany. It also ensured that Nazi propaganda reached nearly everyone (“Defining the Enemy”). The organization in charge of this takeover was the Ministry of Propaganda, which controlled much more than just newspapers. There were departments for radio, film, books, theater, fine arts, music, pop culture, and the domestic, foreign, and periodical press (Herf, 20). Everyone would come into contact with Nazi propaganda at some point, probably quite often. Thanks to Word of the Week, anyone who simply took a walk in the street would be exposed to Nazi ideals. Word of the Week was a wall newspaper that was posted all over Germany in public places (Herf, 20). It featured colorful, easy to read graphics that described current events in an antisemitic light. Often, Jewish people were portrayed as a fat man in formal wear, holding a whip and a cane. This is called transfer, a commonly used propaganda technique where certain qualities are associated with a person or object. In this case, Word of the Week suggests that Jewish people rich, and have gained all their wealth from the work of others, hence the whip. Many other common propaganda techniques were used by the Third Reich. In Mein Kampf, Hitler wrote that to influence the masses, the message must be intellectually simple, with a few key points repeated (2). It should focus on one subjective view, and ignore all others. Finally, it should appeal to the emotions of the masses, and present the message in terms of good and evil, with a big contrast and no gray area between the two. All of these techniques are commonly used today. Focusing on one subjective view and ignoring others is called card stacking, and is used by advertisers and politicians everywhere. To fully examine the methods of Nazi propaganda, it is necessary to analyze individual messages propagated by propaganda. Nazi propaganda claimed that the Jews controlled Germany’s economy, currency, and railroads. This is blatant misinformation, and appeals to the public’s pre-existing stereotypes and fear. It claimed that the Jews dominated professional life, but German statistics from 1933 show otherwise (Herf, 36). Another claim made by the Nazi regime was that the Jews were “against the German blood and race” (qtd. in Herf, 36). This ignited feelings of nationalism, or pride for one’s country, which has contributed to the rise and fall of many nations throughout history. In addition, this statement is an example of a glittering generality, where the message appeals to general ideals, like love of country. The Nazis also used Jews as a scapegoat. A pamphlet released in 1941 blames the Jews for World War One, and uses this as a reason to discriminate against them (Bytwerk). Speeches were also a potent form of propaganda. In a speech, Joseph Goebbels attacked New York mayor LaGardia by claiming that he was Jewish and a “businessman of death” (qtd. in Herf, 40), because LaGardia denounced the Nazi regime. In fact, LaGardia was Catholic, not Jewish, so in addition to being a personal attack, Goebbels’s statement was completely false. Hitler often attempted to transfer negative feelings for the Soviets to the Jews. In a speech, he claimed that most Bolsheviks, the dominant political power in Soviet Russia, were Jews. In addition, he repeatedly claimed that 98% of Soviet leaders were Jewish, which is not true, and is a misuse of statistics. Countless Jewish people and families were affected by this propaganda. Among them is Annette Hochfeld. When she was five, her mother took her downtown and would essentially put blinders on her to prevent her from seeing the propaganda that depicted Jews as ugly, rich, and evil (IWitness). Hochfeld recalls that people threw mud and feces at her house because she and her family were Jewish. Based on this research, I firmly believe that propaganda does deceive people, and that Eric Hoffer’s statement was incorrect. The goal of Nazi propaganda was to exclude people, mainly Jews, from society. To do this, it dehumanized Jews. The only reason that anyone would believe the claims made by said propaganda was if they didn’t personally know any Jewish people. This is actually quite likely. In 1933, there were approximately 505,000 Jews in Germany, out of a total population of 67 million. Jews made up just 0.75% of the German population ("Germany: Jewish Population in 1933."), so it’s very possible – even likely – that the majority of non-Jewish Germans didn’t personally know any Jews. This alone doesn’t seem like enough reason for the majority of Germany to go along with genocide. However, the lack of contact with Jews and the constant propaganda would easily be enough to deceive the majority of people. Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf that propaganda must appeal to the less educated masses, the target of Nazi propaganda. The less educated masses can truly be deceived by propaganda because they have little to no prior knowledge of the subject of the propaganda. An argument can be made that the masses should have thought more critically and questioned whether what they were seeing was really true. How would these people get answers for their questions? They certainly wouldn’t get them from the newspapers. The Editorial Control Law put the press under government control, and there were eighty four anti-Jewish lead stories in a single newspaper between 1939 and 1945 (Herf, 183). In addition, the propaganda wasn’t just in newspapers. It was on the radio, in films and museums, and plastered onto walls inside and outside, so that everyone was exposed to it at all times, all of it with the goal of dehumanizing Jews and glorifying the Nazi regime. In conclusion, the Nazi regime used and exploited stereotypes to exclude Jews from society. They used a variety of propaganda techniques that are still commonly used today, and inserted themselves into every possible medium to convince the German people that Jews deserved the atrocities committed against them. Based on this research, I have concluded that in this case propaganda truly deceived people, rather than helping them to deceive themselves. Since people can be deceived, it’s necessary to closely examine and analyze everything, so as not to fall victim to propaganda. Works Cited Referenced from MCHE website Bytwerk, Randall. "When You See This Symbol..." Calvin College, 2004. Web. 10 Mar. 2016. "Defining the Enemy." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Council, n.d. Web. 25 Feb. 2016. Hitler, Adolf. "Extracts From Mein Kampf By Hitler." Mein Kampf (1981): 22-26. Midwest Center for Holocaust Education. Web. 23 Feb. 2016. Outside Sources Annette Hochfeld, Interview Code: 48350 Visual History Archive, USC Shoah Foundation. Accessed online at IWitness on March 13, 2016. Herf, Jeffery. The Jewish Enemy: Nazi Propaganda during World War II and the Holocaust. Cambridge, MA: Belknap of Harvard UP, 2006. Print. PBS. "Kristallnacht" PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 28 Feb. 2016. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. "Germany: Jewish Population in 1933." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Council, 29 Jan. 2016. Web. 23 Feb. 2016. <http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005276>.