Hitlers' Germany the Role Propaganda Term Paper

Marie Corelli writes in her article: Poisoning Young Minds in Nazi Germany: Children and Propaganda in the Third Reich about a math problem taught in the German schools under the Nazi regime: "The Jews are aliens in Germany -- in 1933 there were 66,060,000 inhabitants in the German Reich, of whom 499,682 were Jews. What is the percent of aliens?"(Corelli, 2002).

Another important age group, the youth, received full attention from the part of the Nazis and the first youth organization was established in 1922 and was called the Jungsturm Adolf Hitler. It went through a series of transformations and had several different names, till it finally became the name: Hitler Yugend. By 1935 over a half of the total German youth was member of this organization. After 1939 it became compulsory for the young Germans to join the organization.

It is obvious that children, young people, mothers were only used as means of producing a nation that would enable the government to keep its power and expand as much as it pleased and suited it. A strong indoctrinated nation, ready to fight and to send its offspring in battle at whatever cost was the best the Nazi Party could have. The propaganda worked very well in these areas of education.

The Nazi propaganda was prolific in producing printing materials destined to be studied in the schools. The National Socialist philosophy was poring from all sides. There is a booklet entitled on the German People and Its Territory that starts with the declaration of the very essence of this philosophy: "The worldview of National Socialism is today the common property of the whole German people. All unprejudiced citizens of good will have made National Socialist thinking so deeply their own that it provides the support for every question of life and provides direction for every action."(Eher, 1937) This is how the brainwashing begins inside the Hitler Jugend organization.

The adult population was manipulated by simply proving how effective the new order works in its favour, putting away its fears of losing the old values and order, position in society and wealth.

The theories of propaganda in the Nazi's views are made clear by Hitler's beliefs: "propaganda for the masses had to be simple, it had to aim at the lowest level of intelligence, it had to be reduced to easily learned slogans which then had to be repeated many times, concentrating on such emotional elements as love and hatred." (Welch, p.25)This proves the way Hitler envisaged the role of the masses in his work of conquering first a nation, then the whole world. Besides it intense actions in taking over people's minds, the propaganda aimed also at using the international socio-political situation and bring the public opinion into believing that, for example its radical racist views are only supported by other nations as well. The diabolical machinery of poisoning minds used every opportunity to explain its beliefs and actions and prove them the only solution viable for the whole German nation. The emigration laws from different countries were used as an example that they too didn't want Jews or other groups that were not suitable inside their boarders.

The supreme argument in favour of the purity of race was coming from genetics. Science was used with the outcome of such unscientific and devastating effects for the whole world. Racism was institutionalized. There laws like: "The Law to Protect the Genetic Health of the German People (Healthy Marriage Law) promulgated on the 26th of October 1935 and several others in the same spirit. The Jews are also clearly excluded from belonging to the German nation by the Reich Citizenship Law,"15 October 1935.

The Nazi propaganda machine left nothing in the hands of fate when it came to playing with people minds. Everything was carefully studied and each movement was supported by so called scientific explanations. The German precision worked at its best in the filed of Nazi propaganda and its success in winning a whole nation was complete.

Bibliography

1. Eher, Franz. On the German People and Its Territory.Nazi Propaganda: 1933-1945. 2007. Retrieved: Oct. 21, 2007. Available at http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/hjhandbuch.htm

2. Spielvogel, Jackson J. Hitler and Nazi Germany a History 5th Edition. Prentice Hall. Upper Saddle River. 2004

3. Welch, David.….....