Download Propaganda and Censorship during the First World War

Propaganda and Censorship
during the First World War
Learning Objective: To understand the nature of
propaganda and censorship
Learning Outcome: To evaluate and explain how
propaganda and censorship were used during the
First World War.
Censorship
• During the First World War the British Government
carefully controlled what people wrote, said or heard
about the war. This was in order to keep up morale,
to ensure people continued to support the war effort
and to persuade young men to volunteer.
• The Defence of the Realm Act was passed in 1914
this gave the Government the powers of censorship
throughout the war. This censorship was to ensure
that the public did not find out the worst features of
the Western Front, especially the heavy casualties
and often poor living conditions. The government also
did not want the British people exposed to the enemy
(German) view of the war, (that Germany was in the
right as they were fighting a war of self defence).
Source A – A photograph of dead German troops killed by a
British bombardment July 1917
Lesson 2
Work in Pairs, imagine you are army
censors.
1. Study source A. Would you censor or
publish this? Give your reasons for your
answer.
2. Using your copy of the letter written by
a soldier on the western front highlight any
words, phrases or sentences that need to
be removed because they might upset
morale or give away military information.
Dear Man and dad
Near Amiens
12th July 1916
I am writing this letter from a trench near Amiens in
France where the Northumberland Fusiliers are stationed.
Yesterday we launched an attack against the Germans.
we captured a stretch of their trenches. However two of my
Close mates were killed by German machine guns. I've
made some really good friends in the trenches. However,
The food id awful and there are rats everywhere. However
we must not give up. It looks like we are getting ready
for another attack tomorrow.
Love Billy
Consider the following
experiences written about by
Frederick Littler during 1916,
then write a letter home
showing which elements would
be censored.
First World War.com - Memoirs &
Diaries - The Diary of Thomas Fredrick
Littler: July-December 1916
True / False
• German soldiers were caught bayoneting
babies for fun.
• In Germany there was a factory where
human corpses were melted down and
made into bars of soap for general use.
• German soldiers crucified women.
• German soldiers raped women.
Propaganda
• During the First World War the government used
propaganda to ensure support for the war and to
encourage young men to volunteer for the war effort.
The British government set about convincing the
public that Germans were evil and had to be stopped.
Often stories were wildly exaggerated to make the
enemy appear worse. For instance by the end of 1914
it was widely believed in Britain that the German
armies in Belgium were bayoneting babies and
murdering innocent civilians. Newspapers published
artists impressions of women being crucified. One of
the most famous stories was that there was a German
factory where human corpses were melted down and
made into soap.
Consider the following propaganda
posters from the First World War.
What techniques are they
Using? How effective are they ?
Why?
First World War.com - Propaganda Posters: United Kingdom
Source B: An article in the Accrington Observer, 19th
September 1914
• In the towns and villages where the German army
stop they begin by requisitioning food and drink,
which they consume till they are drunk. Then the
scenes of fire, murder and especially pillage begin,
accompanied by acts of deliberate cruelty, without
respect to sex or age. They seize the opportunity to
decimate the population, pillage the houses, and then
set them on fire. After a preliminary attack and
massacre, they shut up the men in the church, and
then order the women to return to their houses and
leave their doors open all night.
Lesson 2
Task – Inferences
• What can you learn from source B about the
German army in 1914?
• This is an inference question, which means it is asking
you to think:
• What is the source suggesting? What message is it
trying to put across?
• Remember when answering inference questions in the
exam, once you have given an inference, you should
support it with evidence from the source.