Some comments on propaganda in pre-WWII Germany

[kcwayne]

This paragraph (pg 247), from William Shirer's Rise and Fall of the Third Reich is very much reflective of the way I feel about Fox news and its followers. America has tumbled down a slippery slope that makes its resemblance to Hitler's Germany frightening.


I myself was to experience how easily one is taken in by a lying and censored press and radio in a totalitarian state. Though unlike most Germans, I had daily access to foreign newspapers, especially those of London, Paris, and Zurich, which arrive the day after publication, and though I listened regularly to the BBC and other foreign broadcasts, my job necessitated the spending of many hours a day in combing the German press, checking the German radio, conferring with Nazi officials and going to party meetings. It was surprising and sometimes consternating to find that notwithstanding the opportunities I had to learn the facts and despite one's inherent distrust of what one learned from Nazi sources, a steady diet over the years of falsifications and distortions made a certain impression on one's mind and often misled it. No one who has not lived for years in a totalitarian land can possibly conceive how difficult it is to escape the dread consequences of a regime's calculated and incessant propaganda. Often in a German home or office or sometimes in a casual conversation with a stranger in a restaurant, a beer hall, a cafe, I would meet with the most outlandish assertions from seemingly educated and intelligent persons. It was obvious that they were parroting some piece of nonsense they had heard on the radio or read in the newspapers. Sometimes one was tempted to say as much but on such occasions one was met with such a stare of incredulity, such a shock of silence, as if one had blasphemed the Almighty, that one realized how useless it was even to try to make contact with a mind which had become warped an for whom the facts of life ha become what Hitler and Goebbels, with their cynical disregard for truth, said they were.

[azoth]

1. It's frightening, isn't it?

I have one friend in particular who does exactly that - parrots what she hears on faux or from her husband. It maddened me, before the election, to try to discuss things with her because she staunchly and stubbornly *refused* to listen to anything contrary.

It's like cult mentality. I'm truly baffled by the people I thought to be intelligent and still voted for the shrub. I do not get it - still don't, as a matter of fact. Like the German villagers living a hundred yards from the death camps who just blinked and went on about their merry ways.

[norml]

2. Here's a good link to Nazi propaganda from that era...

For anyone who tries to tell you the Nazis were nothing like the present movement that calls itself conservative, have them read the original material produced by the Nazis themselves. http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/

[The Doctor.]

3. After WWII we thought that could not happen again...

Which is precisely why it has.

[HockeyMom]

4. Knew Germans who fled Nazis

I knew a German couple, Christians, back in the 70s who fled Nazi Germany in 1939. Lovely people. I used to spend hours talking to them about what life was like there, why they left, etc. I could write a book. Yes, that piece is only a small portion of what they told me it was like. And too all who say Bush "isn't murdering people", well, I can only say, Hitler didn't start out murdering people either when he first came to power. It was a gradual control of the "hearts and minds" of the German people and a bit by bit of taking away of free speech and their civil rights, until they were too afraid to do anything about it.

[Kingshakabobo]

7. I used to wonder why the Jews didn't flee earlier.

Now, as a gay man, I wonder if I'll know when is a good time to get out.

[rabbit2484]

5. I watched the movie yesterday

Just wanted to put thungs in perspective. Try and tell myself it's not that bad now. Try.

[kcwayne]

6. What movie are you referring to?

[rabbit2484]

8. "Rise and Fall ot the Third Reich"

Not must else I hadn't seen that was at the library.

[kcwayne]

10. I didn't realize a movie had been made of this

But the closest thing I can find reference to is "The Third Reich", I am not sure it is the same thing. Who is in the version you watched?

[rabbit2484]

12. Im sorry, it's a documentary, not a movie

William Shirer narrates it. It has a lot of video clips and pictures from rallies, speeches, etc.

Has anyone ever seen "Blind Spot"? Another doc, written by Hitler's secretary just a couple of years ago. I haven't seen it, wondering if it was any good.

[rabbit2484]

13. Heres a link

http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/movie.html?v_id=41503

[Dzimbowicz]

9. Hermann Hesse wrote

Don't rejoice in his defeat you men,
for the bitch who bore him is in heat again.

[ilovenicepeople]

11. What a Coincedence today I purchased the book: Berlin Diary

The Journal of a Foreign Correspondent 1934-1941 by William L.Shirer.I had noticed the Rise and Fall a couple days ago and I passed up on buying it (at Value Village)today when I went back there I noticed this book Berlin Diary (1941)by the same author I'm interested to see how many bells will go off in my head when reading this book?:scared:

[norml]

14. Another good book on this is "The Nazi Seizure of Power"

"The Experience Of A Single German Town 1922-1945 by William Sheridan Allen".