Two New German World War II Posters

A visitor to the site provided images of two posters which I’ve added to the GPA’s page of posters from 1933-1945. The first was new to me.  Issued, I think, shortly after the German defeat at Stalingrad, it encourages Germans to fight unceasingly until “final victory.” It would have been odd to issue the slogan for 1943 in May (during the second campaign). There is GPA page with directives for this campaign.

The second is an SS recruiting poster used in Belgium.

I am not certain of the date, but it is probably from 1942 or 1943.

Propagandizing German Women in 1941

I have a lot of instructional material on the site, directives aimed not at the public, but at propagandists.  Today I am adding instructions for leaders of Nazi women’s groups from September 1941. This was three months after the invasion of the Soviet Union had begun.  The first item works to build morale for coming difficult days.  The second section deals with sexual relations with foreigners.  Relations with Jews, of course, were prohibited. However, there was a range of other groups, and an interesting gender difference.  It was OK for men to have relationships with racially-related foreigners such as the Dutch or Scandinavians. If they married, their wives would join the German racial community.  Women, however, were not to have such relationships, since even though their partners might be “racially desirable,” the women would likely move to their husbands’ countries and thus be lost to Germany, which “needed every German.”

Building Confidence in German Victory (August 1943)

Today I’m adding the last in my current supply of issues of the Redner-Schnellinformation, irregular bulletins issued to Nazi speakers by the Reichspropagandaleitung.  Earlier in 1943, the Nazis had suffered defeats at Stalingrad and in North Africa.  The news in August 1943 had not gotten better.  Germans were understandably wondering how Germany could still win the war.

This issue tells speakers to be optimistic, to tell their audiences that Germany had every requirement for victory on its side.  However, it was remarkably vague about what that might mean.

On Cuts in the German Meat Ration (1943)

Of late I’ve been adding material intended for the guidance of Nazi speakers.  Today’s item is from May 1943, and explains the necessity for a cut in the meat ration.  This was a delicate matter to present to the public.  The Nazis used a variety of methods.  First, the issue was mentioned in newspaper articles.  Then the party’s speaker corps presented the case directly to audiences throughout Germany.

It is also interesting to consider the context.  Speaker directives both preceding and following this one dealt with a major anti-Semitic propaganda campaign that was going on in May 1943.

New Issues of the Wochenspruch der NSDAP

The GPA has a page on the Wochenspruch der NSDAP, a weekly poster with quotations intended to be inspiring.  They were posted in public places throughout Germany. According to Nazi sources, about 500,000 were issued each week. After about mid-1940, they were issued by the Reichspropagandaleitung, the Nazi Party’s propaganda office.  Before that, many were issued by the individual Gau propaganda offices, which makes tracking them rather difficult. The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek in Leipzig, for example, has only scattered holdings of the early issues.

A collector often provides me with scans of ones I have not seen before.  Today, I am adding four new ones to the page.  The most interesting is this one:

It has a particularly nasty anti-Semitic text (translated on the page — look for the one dated December 12, 1938 from Gau Saarpfalz).

I have three issues of the Wochenspruch for sale should you be interested.

Nazi Speaker Advice on the Importance of Oil

Today I’m adding advice to Nazi speakers that quotes an article by U.S. Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes on the threat of the Axis dominating world oil supplies, and thereby winning the war.  It was a standard Nazi propaganda tactic — realizing that the German public did not entirely believe Nazi propaganda, the propaganda system looked for other ways of persuading people that Germany’s chances for victory were good.  It’s interesting to compare this directive with the one issued a month earlier that I added a few days back ordering speakers not to suggest in any way that victory was near.  This one is consistent — it suggests victory will happen, but makes no promises of how soon.

Icke’s article was published in the 15 August 1942 issue of Collier’s. 

The Nazis had no easy way to get current American periodicals.  I assume this one was secured in a neutral country like Spain or Portugal, which explains why the issue is dated six weeks after Ickes’s article appeared  in the U.S.

Don't Build False Optimism (August 1942)

Today I’m adding another issue of the Redner-Schnellinformation issued by the Nazi Party’s Reichspropagandaleitung. It went to the party’s corps of speakers throughout the country. This one dates to August 1942, the last point at which from the Nazi perspective the war was going well. The summer offensive had gained a lot of territory, and the public was longing for an end to the war that year.  Speakers were ordered to avoid encouraging that thought in any way.  It was far better to announce victories once they had actually been won rather than to build false hopes that, when dashed, would damage morale.