How effective was propaganda in affecting the way people acted and thought

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How effective was propaganda in affecting the way people acted and thought?

The Nazis used various methods of propaganda before and throughout the Second World War in order to gain total control of the German people. Of course, it was a gradual process but surely enough, the country soon became a totalitarian state; with every aspect of society monitored and controlled by the government. Manpower played a huge role in this, with Gestapo, SA (which became the SS after the Night of the Long Knives, regular police and Nazi party members ensuring discipline and communal support of the Nazi ideals. With Minister of Propaganda, Joseph Goebels, at the helm the propaganda machine had huge influence both on the way people acted and thought. Or so it seems; but how effective was it in reality?

        Propaganda was incorporated into everything; indoctrination of schools was common, as children were particularly vulnerable and grew up in a society that taught them no different. An example of this is in textbooks and exams. Jews were often mentioned and depicted negatively while so-called pure Germans were made to sound strong, hardworking and loyal to their country. Propaganda may have been effective both in the way children acted and thought, as it likely that they would have been persuaded and influenced by it. In this case, they probably would have not thought that what they were thinking about other races or people was wrong, as some were perhaps not old enough to make their own judgements and relied on what they were told.

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Culture was dominated and monitored by the Nazis and, as such, media was censored to suit them. This was known as “Weltanschaung” (world view), the seven sub-cultures of which were: art, radio, music, theatre, literature, films and the press. Key themes were incorporated into them to depict the messages that the Nazis desperately wanted to establish: militarism, nationalism, anti-Semitism, supremacy of the Aryans, anti-modernism, cult of the Führer and traditional culture. Of course, it would be easy to say that this had huge impact on the German people and all agreed with the government. However, this was not the case! ...

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