- Farmers
- Women and Mothers
- Business and Middle Classes
- Racists
- And The Unemployed
Hitler used Poster to explain what he wanted people to believe and again changed the massages on the posters to suit the audience it was aimed at.
Here are some of the examples of the posters used for propaganda during the build up to the Second World War.
Giving different groups of people different information was a lot easier to do than today; as different classes and social groups did not mix and were generally positioned in different parts of the country. There weren’t really national newspapers making it even easier to give different messages to different people. The different groups were told what they wanted to hear, and because of the diversity of the population nobody worked out that the messages Hitler was putting across to the nation were not possible all together.
As well as Posters the Nazis used Radio, Film and Newspapers to get there messages to their people. Radio was quiet recently invented and not everyone could afford one, this also showed the division in the nation. The radio was successful because Hitler was one of the greatest public speakers of all time. Film was also useful as it could show what the ideal family should be like. It was also used to show how the Nazi Regimes should ideally work, whereas they would not be able to happen in actual life.
I believe that Propaganda was one of the most important reasons why there was little opposition in Germany towards the Nazi Regimes; however, there were other important factors that meant that there was no opposition.
These include:
Terror – Hitler used Terror to intimidate and scare the opposition, the SS were a major influence over this and terrorized people by the thought of Concentration Camps and Extermination Camps. In addition to this Himmler, head of the SS, took over the regular (non party) police gaining more authority, than ever, over the German public. After this The SA and the Gestapo went from door to door to find anybody who was against the Nazi regimes. They arrested many Communists, Socialist and Trade Union leaders who went against the Nazi’s; many of these people were murdered.
The Hitler Youth – Hitler used the Youth to bring up a generation that believed and responded in the way he wanted, automatically. Hitler turned a whole generation around so that it became a very physically strong youth. Everything was changed to teach children all the information Hitler wanted them to know and none of the information that they didn’t. Hitler even went as far as to change nursery rhymes to reflect what the Nazi’s believed in. It was primarily a way of indoctrinating the youth to believe in the Nazi regimes and to convince and convert their parents to believe the same thing. As well as creating an army without the questions and prevention from other countries (because of the Treaty of Versailles banning Germany from having a proper army)
Being a Good Leader – Hitler couldn’t just use propaganda to show the nation what he wanted them to be like and what benefits he could give them, he actually had to speak to them and without him being able to talk to the nation this would have never happened. Hitler’s book ‘Mien Kampf’ shows just what sort of person Hitler was, a great and influential leader. He describes his ambitions for the country; however he does not mention anything to do with dead of anybody, or concentration camps as this would scare and put off the German from following the Nazis and Hitler.
Hitler also made German Citizens aware of the German Economy. By using help from Dr Hjalmar Schacht, Hitler was able to convince the nation that Germany had a strong economy and that Germany was economically thriving. He used propaganda and speeches to the unemployed people in Germany to solve the increasing problem of unemployment. Hitler made all the Jewish workers give up their jobs to Aryan men, he also persuaded women that their job was in the home bringing up families, and this again allowed unemployment levels to decrease as men took the jobs the women were forced to give up.
In Conclusion, I believe that the success of the Nazi Regimes is broken down to three really important sections; ‘The stick’, ‘The carrot’ and ‘Propaganda’.
‘The Stick’ was the Terror tactics used by the Nazis. Nazis would control the courts meaning that the outcome for the Jews taken to the courts was always Bias, and in the Nazis favour, the Nazi courts sentenced over 200,000 Jews, all of these people where put straight to death or were taken to Concentration and Extermination Camps such as Auschwitz . The terror approach also included the SS, Hitler’s body guards, and the Gestapo to search out all those who were against Hitler and the Nazi’s. These people could be anybody, teachers who weren’t teaching Hitler’s ideology in classrooms or just people who refused to respect the Nazi’s and give the sign of ‘Heil Hitler’. The Nazi’s did not just use discrimination against the Jews; they also used Terror tactics against Homosexuals, Gypsies, Tramps, Alcoholics and other untermention denominations.
‘The Carrot’ is the term used for the Nazi achievements, or methods used to keeps Germans believing that Hitler was doing the best thing for Germany. Under this Policy people benefited, especially the farmers, women, industrial workers and middle classes that Hitler was good for Germany.
Farmers benefited due to the Nazis paying them money to help them to keep their farms going.
Women benefited as they were given loan to look after their children and the more children they had the high percentage of the loan they got to keep.
Middle Classes benefited as the Nazis destroyed the threat of communism within Germany and restored the belief of Germany being a strong and confident nation. This was done by Hitler going against the League of Nations and Treaty of Versailles.
Industrial Workers benefited as they were being paid for the work that they were doing towards the war efforts. Although the wages were not that good for factory workers it was just enough for people to live. This was good for Hitler as well, as he decreased the percentages of unemployment and was also getting more and more weaponry for the war ahead. Hitler therefore managed to create an economic Boom.
Then lastly there is ‘Propaganda’. Propaganda backed up both the carrot and the stick as it used the ideas behind both of them. Without the basis of ‘the Carrot’ and ‘the stick’ propaganda wouldn’t have made sense to the people.
Propaganda stretched right across Germany, the Nazis took over Radio and Film, and would only promote Nazi messages. They also stopped the production of newspapers and only released the papers that benefited the Nazis. Many Propaganda films came out such as “The Triumph of the Will” and “The Eternal Jew”. Then after the successes of the German nation at the Olympics the film “Olympia” came out. Hitler also ordered statues of German heroes to be made for the German people to have someone to aspire to be.
Therefore, I think that all three factors must be taken into consideration. Alone none of would have been very effective and the Nazis would have faced many opposition marches, and many people would have rebelled. By enforcing all three together, it made the Germans fear the Nazis but also believe that if they suck to Nazi regimes there way of life and the strength of Germany would be restored.
