Building Nazi Party Credibility in 1944

Recently I’ve been adding material from 1944, late in the war.  Today’s addition is an essay on the Nazi Party’s efforts to deal with the results of Allied bombing.  The party had less popularity than it wanted — articles like this were an effort to persuade people that the party was engaged in valuable work.

Building Faith in German Victory (1944)

Until Stalingrad, it was reasonable for the average German to believe in ultimate German victory.  Propaganda’s job was relatively easy.  After February 1943, the job was harder.  Today I am adding material from mid-1944 intended for use in Sprechabende, or evening discussion meetings.   These were organized primarily for members of the Nazi Party and were intended to boost their faith, but also to provide them with material they could use in talking with their fellow citizens.  The article is titled: “Now More than Ever: We Believe in Victory!”

It outlines the military, economic, political, and worldview arguments party members could use in talking with their fellow citizens.

Anti-Semitic Material for Girls (1944)

Although most Jews had already been killed by February 1944, the Nazi continued their anti-Semitic propaganda.  Today I am adding training material to be used in meetings with girls.  Although most  girls would have had no direct experience with Jews, they are told that Jews remain a deadly threat to Germany.

A 1927 Nazi Caricature: Killing Jews with Poison Gas

In Mein Kampf, Hitler writes that Germany would not have lost World War I if 12,000 - 15,000 “Hebrew corruptors of the people” had been killed with poison gas.

There were not a lot of such suggestions in Nazi propaganda before 1933 of killing Jews en masse, but Julius Streicher’s Der Stürmer did run occasional cartoons like this one that I am today adding to the page on pre-1933 cartoons from Der Stürmer.

A Nazi is pumping poison gas into a tunnel beneath an oak tree representing Germany. Dead Jewish rats are strewn about.  The caption: “When the vermin are dead, the German oak will flourish.”

2000 Years of German Culture (1937)

1937 was a big year for art in Munich.  The new Munich art gallery opened, at which annual displays of approved Nazi art were held until 1944.  And there was a festival titled “Two Thousand Years of German Culture.”

Today I add six color photographs of the event, taken from the party’s monthly art magazine, Die Kunst im Dritten Reich.

Germans to be Exported (1931)

Fritz Reinhardt was a significant figure in Nazi propaganda.  Before 1933 he instituted a correspondence school that trained about 6,000 Nazi speakers.  He issued a barrage of material to support those speakers.

In 1929 he issued a pamphlet claiming that under the Young Plan, an international agreement on German reparations, Germans would be sent abroad to work for the French.  This is a follow-up pamphlet that appeared in October 1931, making the same claim.

Although like all good propaganda it provides enough evidence to make the argument at least superficially plausible, he does make the astonishing (and completely unsupported) statement that twenty to thirty million Germans would have to be sent abroad under the Young Plan.

Power & Style: A World History of Politics and Dress

I just got an advance copy of Power & Style: A World History of Politics and Dress (Paris: Flammarion, 2012).  Published simultaneously in English and French, it is scheduled to be released on 5 March 2013.

I provided an image of a painting of Hitler in uniform.  The book is filled with vivid and fascinating illustrations from throughout history.