AMERICAN PROPAGANDA covering German newsreels from 1943 with ORIGINAL COMMENTARY

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Episode 252

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Allied Propaganda

"The essence of propaganda consists in winning people over to an idea so sincerely, so vitally, that in the end they succumb to it utterly and can never again escape from it," wrote Joseph Goebbels in his diary. Adolph Hitler agreed. Following the Nazis' rise to power in 1933, he established a Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda with Goebbels as its head. Goebbels promoted the Nazi message through art, music, theater, films, books, radio, and the press, and censored all opposition. Goebbels worked to inflame the anger of Germans over their defeat in World War I and emphasized German cultural and military achievements to boost national pride. He played an important role in creating an atmosphere in Germany that made it possible for the Nazis to commit terrible atrocities against Jews and other minorities.

War and Propaganda

During World War II German propaganda emphasized the prowess of the German army and contrasted it with the British and Allied armies who were depicted as cowards and butchers, or brave but misguided. Russian troops were presented as dehumanized beasts and killers who attacked without fear of death. After the Nazi loss at Stalingrad in February 1943, Goebbels admitted recent losses and argued for total war in his famous Sportpalast speech. While the new strategy prolonged the war, Goebbels recognized that his efforts were failing. A month before his suicide in Berlin, he took note of the Allied propaganda being directed back at him. "Enemy propaganda is beginning to have an uncomfortably noticeable effect on the German people. Anglo-American leaflets are now no longer carelessly thrown aside but are read attentively; British broadcasts have a grateful audience."

British Propaganda

The radio broadcasts were the handiwork of the British Political Warfare Executive (P.W.E.), created by Winston Churchill in 1941 to disseminate propaganda that would damage enemy morale. The British Broadcasting Company's foreign language broadcasts became a key element in the Allied campaign for German loyalties. By 1945 the British had established more than 40 clandestine pseudo-German radio stations using powerful American transmitters. The P.W.E. also delivered subversive messages to the German people through so-called black propaganda, printed postcards and leaflets dropped behind enemy lines. Though a product of Hollywood, William Wyler's award-winning Mrs. Miniver (1942) portrayed the struggle on the British home front and glorified Britain's resolve to fight. The film ended with a rousing sermon in a bombed-out church: "This is the people's war. It is our war. We are the fighters. Fight it, then. Fight it with all that is in us, and may God defend the right." United States President Franklin Roosevelt found the speech so inspiring that he had it printed and airdropped over the European front.

American Propaganda

The Office of War Information (O.W.I.) was the source of such propaganda in the U.S. In 1941 most Americans, especially those who remembered World War I, were still isolationist, believing that their country should rebuild following the Great Depression, not fight a distant war. After the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor, most were convinced to support the war, but Roosevelt created the O.W.I. in 1942 to boost wartime production at home and undermine enemy morale in Europe, Asia, and Africa. OWI photographers documented aspects of homefront life and culture such as women in the workforce, and dealt with a wide array of morale issues such as the question of using Japanese Americans as soldiers, and "subversive activities" like the Los Angeles zoot suit riots.

Highly Visible Messages

Other propaganda came in the form of posters, movies, and even cartoons. Inexpensive, accessible, and ever-present in schools, factories, and store windows, posters helped to mobilize Americans to war. A representative poster encouraged Americans to "Stop this Monster that Stops at Nothing. PRODUCE to the Limit!" It depicted a monster with two heads, one Nazi, one Japanese, clutching the Statue of Liberty in one hand and fending off American advances with the other. Nearby a hand holds a wrench with the inscription "production" -- the key to winning the war.