Nazi propaganda is a relatively recent topic of close study. Historians of all persuasions, including Eastern Bloc writers, agree about its remarkable effectiveness. Their assessment of its significance, however – whether it shaped or merely directed and exploited public opinion – is influenced by their approach to wider questions raised by the study of Nazi Germany, such as the question whether the Nazi state was a fully totalitarian dictatorship, or whether it also depended on a certain societal consensus.
This eBook delves into the history of the Nazi propaganda machine. From its early days before the outbreak of war when their goals were to establish external enemies (countries that allegedly inflicted the Treaty of Versailles on Germany) and internal enemies, such as Jews, Romani, homosexuals, and Bolsheviks. Hitler and Nazi propagandists played on the anti-Semitism and resentment present in Germany. Through to the latter days where problems in propaganda arose easily in this stage; expectations of success were raised too high and too quickly, which required explanation if they were not fulfilled, and blunted the effects of success, and the hushing of blunders and failures caused mistrust. The increasing hardship of the war for the German people also called forth more propaganda that the war had been forced on the German people by the refusal of foreign powers to accept their strength and independence.
Filled with insight, analysis and various forms and examples of the Nazi Propaganda machine. This is a must read for anyone with more than a passing interest in the Nazi group and perhaps their most understated yet most powerful weapon of all.
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