Goebbels’s Penultimate Speech

 Goebbels delivered his penultimate speech over the radio on 28 February 1945, which I am adding today.  His final speech was on 19 April on the occasion of Hitler’s birthday. 

The military situation was grim. The Soviets were charging in from the east, the Americans and British from the west. Goebbels had no good news to give, as he commented privately in his diaries.  He was forced to resort to what Earnest Bramsted called the “lure of historical parallels.” If Frederick the great had done it then, Germany could to it in 1945.

Last Call to Resist in Vienna (1945)

 For the last few months of World War II the main theme of Nazi propaganda was that if Germans kept fighting, their loyalty and bravery would be crowned with victory.  That began to look thin as time went on.  Today I add an article dated 3 April 1945 that suggested without too much confidence that victory was still possible, but the basic theme was that Vienna was a lost cause, so the Viennese may as well die fighting.

Goebbels on British Propaganda (April 1941)

 In April 1941 the war was looking good from the Nazi perspective.  Goebbels published the article I am adding today that gloated over the failures of British propaganda.

Goebbels mentions a British Ministry of Information campaign on the theme “How Not to Do It.” I’ve tried to chase down that campaign, with limited success. The MoI did began a campaign in June 1941 with the theme “Mend and make do.” Professor David Welch tells me that one element of that campaign was advice on “How not to do this,” which is close to the theme Goebbels provides.  Perhaps information on the campaign was released before it began?

If anyone has more information I would surely appreciate it.

Luther and Hitler 1933

 I would like to know more about this poster.  It was issued in 1933 on the 450th anniversary of Luther’s birth.  I do not know anything more than that, and would welcome enlightenment.

The translation: “Hitler’s battle and Luther’s teaching are the German people’s sure defense.”

On Nazi Speaking Guidelines

The Nazi Party had a large speaker corps.  They needed regular instruction on what to say in meetings throughout Germany.  There is a fair amount of material on the system on the GPA.

Recently, I added to my collection of the Aufklärungs- und Redner-Informationsmaterial issued by the party’s central propaganda office in cooperation with the  German Labor Front, although I am not sure how much of a contribution the latter organization made

I am adding some anti-Semitic instructions from March and April 1943.

That got me to review material on the GPA issued during the anti-Semitic campaigns of spring 1943.  There are general campaign guidelines, speaker information, articles by Joseph Goebbels, and directives for magazine editors.  Since it might be interesting to compare what was said in various places, here is a list of the material available on the GPA.

• Directives for the Anti-Bolshevist Propaganda Action: 20 February 1943
• Goebbels’s essay “The European Crisis”: 28 February 1943
• What Does Bolshevization Mean in Reality?: March 1943
• Speaker Express Information (“The Jewish Question as a Weapon at Home and Abroad”): 5 May 1943
• Goebbels’s essay “The War and the Jews”: 9 May 1943
• Speaker Express Information (“Twilight of the Jews”): 18 May 1943
• Anti-Semitic directives for magazine editors: 21 May 1943
• Goebbels’s essay “Driving Forces”: 6 June 1943

I don’t know of a complete set of this material.  I have most, but all of it.  For those who might find it useful, I provide an index to my collection.

Nazi Propaganda Guidelines in January 1944

I’ve had a long interest in the lower levels of the Nazi propaganda system.  It had tentacles reaching down to the neighborhood level.  These propagandists needed to be instructed.  The Reichsring für nationalsozialistische Propaganda und Volksaufklärung was the subsection of the party propaganda office responsible for that.  Today I’m adding the January 1944 newsletter for the lower Danube area.

 

It discusses Allied bombing, street collections for the party charity, occupational choices for the youth, and more.

Nazi Satire about the USA (1943)

In 1943 the Nazi party’s illustrated magazine ran a series of back page cartoons titled “The Latest from God’s Own Country” satirizing the United States.  I find them interesting, and may add a page of them one of these days.  Meanwhile, here is an example from the Illustrierter Beobachter in March 1943.

The occasion was a report from the New York Times that Christ Episcopal Church in St. Joseph had turned itself into a nightclub for the youth. At the bar, a gentleman says “He would be happy if we occasionally sang a pious hymn.  Let’s do him that favor.”  At the bottom, the priest is praying under pictures of FDR and Stalin: “Dear God, give the President and above all Comrade Stalin the strength to clobber the Nazis! And I thank you from the depths of my heart for the great success of our night club! I can protect my sheep from evil and even make a few dollars.” The woman talking to the deacon says: “You know, Deacon, I have nothing against the nighttime activities here —there must be propaganda, I know — but this is the second time I found a bra underneath the pew during morning prayers — that is going a bit too far.”