James Windsor 10L 13.07.2009
Nazi Control and Hitler’s Foreign Policy
There are mainly three methods used by the Nazi’s in keeping control and nazifying Germany, these were Education, Propaganda and terror. All three were used to control the German people and to keep them doing what the Nazi’s wanted. The first of the three education, In my opinion is defiantly one of the more important as children are probably the most naïve to political views, and will believe what they’re told as they assume that what they are being taught is the truth. The Nazi’s filled all the children’s textbooks with questions that would get them thinking in a Nazi manner for example “A lunatic asylum cost six million marks, how many houses at twenty thousand marks each could have been bought instead” the question despite being a maths questions makes the children think how many houses could have been bought promoting the Nazi’s views that lunatics should not be cared for as they were not part of the Aryan race. Education was used in all schools and so all the children would be taught it creating a very strong basis for the Nazi movement undermining what their parents thought, as most children would otherwise follow their parents political views, education was a great way to undermine this The whole idea of education was turned upside down and was used to shut children’s minds instead of opening them. The curriculum was also altered to support Nazi ideas that boys should do military skills and physical activity and girls should focus on domestic skills. Propaganda was also utilised by the Nazi’s they put up many posters with clever slogans etc. showing how good they were and often criticising Jews, Communists, beggars, gypsies and others who were not Nazi Aryan, films were also used, films such as “Triumph of the will” showed the Nazi’s in a positive manner depicting Nazi soldiers marching to classical music and the film also contains a number of Adolf Hitler’s speeches. Films were also used to put across racial values and ideas the cinema was often used a method of attacking Jews. Books and radio were also used heavily by the Nazi’s to make sure the view was followed by a number of the German people, Hitler strongly believed in using a few phrases many times to get it into peoples head’s. Radio was an especially effective method of propaganda as the Germans owned more radio’s per head of population that the USA. Goebbels also believed that radio was important as he once stated “I consider radio to be the most modern crucial instrument that exists for influencing the masses. Newspapers were also used for Nazi purposes and were censored so that no anti-Nazi articles could be published the Nazi’s would also publish things such as general instruction 674 which stated “In the next issue there must be a lead article featured as prominently as possible in which the decision of the fuhrer no matter what it will be will be discussed as the only correct one for Germany” Terror was the last form of control used by the Nazi’s and it was aimed mostly at those Propaganda and education did not work on. This involved Concentration/Death camps, and the public hanging’s of many groups that opposed the Nazi’s these were aimed to shock and scare Germans into following Nazi ideas, even if they did not believe them they would support the Nazi’s out of fear. The Nazi’s also burned and vandalised many buildings of opposing groups especially the Jews, which was also part of their terror tactics
