Goebbels, the Reich's Minister of Propaganda could not have had better training. He held a doctorate in Literary Criticism having been mentored into the field by one of the premiere Jewish scholars of the day. He had a love of Goethe, the German poet, a master in the use of language. Instead of applying his knowledge in creative paths, Goebbel used his extensive knowledge of language to fight the most complex and grandiose propaganda war the world has ever known to further the war effort of the Third Reich. Goebbels learned early in the process that a combination of timing, right words, and knowledge could sway virtually millions to either grandiose national spirit and Fuhrer worship, or complete demoralization. Through elaborate control and placement of information, and the knowledge and use of the psychology of propaganda, he created the stage on which the war was fought. Goebbels notes as Reich Propaganda Minister show that every word and wording of publications, media broadcasts and even directives to staff or to Hitler and Berlin were carefully chosen and weighed to carry not just the meaning but the effect he wished it to have.

USING LANGUAGE TO CONTROL INFORMATION AND THINKING

Language played such an important role in the Third Reich it can not be underestimated. Even long before Hitler took power, Hitler, Goebbels and other National Socialists used the manipulation of language in accruing power and establishing the Nazi party, so that by the time the Third Reich gained power, their methods were established. Likewise, from centuries of persecution, the Jews also had developed an adeptness and skill at using language to conceal and obscurely pass information. The Nazis even early studied the Jews' use of language meticulously.

The syntax and semantic manipulation of language was so discrete that 'Nazi German' or Nazi-Deutsche came to be considered a defined pattern in linguistic studies. It was characterized by the following:

CHARACTERISTICS OF NAZI GERMAN OR 'NAZI-DEUTSCHE'

Use of Euphemisms and Emphacized words, along with the amelioration of concepts. Dawidowicz (1980) notes an example of the 'killing of the insane' changing to 'euthanasia' changing to a numeric rubric: the T4 program. Words which concealed what the Nazis really planned were used, such as 'final solution' or endlosung for the destruction of the Jews.

Words taking on an 'apocalyptic' sense were used to incite crowds

Vague words hid meanings such as sonderbehanlung, or 'special treatment' which indicated cruelty and killing to the initiated.

Nazi Language was the 'language of despotism': words were chose to reflect a world view

Expressions were reductionist: sentences of communications were carefully constructed to indicate only a particulary sway of thought. Repetition of simple, constructed concepts brought Germany under Goebbel's spell.

Sayings and speeches were witty and kept to Nazi ideology: Eckhart trained Hitler in oratory and the mesmerizing of crowds by actions and speech

Nazi-Deutsche stood apart from traditional German in that it was considered by intellectuals, unrefined and barbaric: Paul Tillich once noted that Hitler 'butchered' the German language, shortly before being exiled. It is characterized by weak and short sentences, "passive construction and "intransitive verbs"¹

Notably, battle imagery was frequently peppered into language usage with a focus on "cosmic and impesonal forces.

Nazi Deutsche vs Jewish Language Use

while the Nazis used concealing terms and battle imagery, the Jews often resorted not just in WWII but later to what Dawidowicz refers to as "aesopic methods", or the communication of concepts in concealed literary forms such as fables, stories, poems, letters, opera or art: this was a veiled fist against tyranny. Rescuers in the Shoah alos picked up on similar methods: the Hugenots, for example at LeChambon referred to new Jewish arrivals for hiding as shipments of Old Testaments. Biblical allusions were used: Haman and Esau represented the enemy or a tyrant: even in 1st century Christianity this was used such as when Paul speaks of Rome in veiled terms. The Nazis, though, having developed deceit and propaganda into a fine art, suspected every one else of using the same methods: one of the initial charges against Sophie and Hans Scholl was sedition by revealing military information or location through poetic references in letters. Goebbels with a doctorate in literary criticism, chaired by a foremost Jewish linguist, probably more than any other man in History developed the most complete, complex and sinister use of language for changing and keeping minds in nationalistic fervor. [Quoted terms from Dawidowicz, "A Holocaust Reader": On Studying Holocaust Documents]

Presenting Germany Abroad

The Nazis had a particular interest on communications in the foreign Press and foreign governments. Goebbels felt that language in the press could change even the attitudes the Americans had toward Germany, or, for example keep an ally such as India. In India, comparisons were made between Hitler and Ghandi, driving off the British they depicted as carrying a "bamboo truncheon".¹ The Nazis interests though in America were stronger than any other country save perhaps for Great Britain. In the U.S. propaganda was media based, particularly in the Press. The Nazis had key people in the United States (not all Germans) who would feed certain stories sympathetic to the Germans to the Newspapers, or put a 'slant' on other stories so as to cause favorable feelings towards the Germans.² It must be remembered that before the war, and even for the first two years, the US had not made a decision to enter the European war, and even if they did, on which side. The US had been friends with both Germany and Great Britain. They saw both as having imperialistic tendencies. The US also knew that both countries had shown such moves in the past. This was coupled by an isolationist point of view, in which many felt that immigration should be frozen and that the US should attend defensively to its own interests, so while Americans were to be concerned, it was not seen until after Pearl Harbor as 'our war'. As such, Goebbels directed strong efforts from the Reich Propaganda Ministry towards inculcating favor for Germany. Germans favorable to the Nazis, many even directly placed found positions on newspapers and periodicals, the German Bunds taught German-American Children and families about the great strides Hitler was making in the Fatherland, and propagandists such as Father Coughlin preached a gospel of hatred.

BACK TO TOP

Germans living in Germany at the time of WWII, were not a naive people. Germany from the time of the Reformation led the world in issues of freedom of religion (and at the same time, strict church-state alliances), in philosophy, the arts, economics and other disciplines. German was the birthplace of the modern university, where sciences gained authority as such or were delegated to the realm of art or conjecture. At the same time they were used to a monarchy in the Kaiser system, with strong Protestant favor, and for the 20th century German, open thought and discussion was a part of life before the Third Reich. By the time Hitler even began to come to power, there were over 30 major political parties/movements in Germany. The Weimar Republic, began in disfavor with Catholic-Socialist control of the government and placing Germany in serious debt by agreeing to pay reparations from WWI, but freedom of thought and discussion were still open and such movements as the Bauhaus, Dadaism, a return to Volkische Mysticism and the occult found a home along with existentialism, the Social Gospel, and a strong avant-garde Arts community.

When Hitler came to power, he knew that he had to inculcate complete allegiance to accomplish the objectives of the Nazi Party. Goebbels as head of Reich Propaganda Ministry managed in a few years with a complete system of management over the Press, Radio, and even word of mouth, to govern what German people believed

From the beginning, Hitler and Goebbels understood the power of music: they knew it could form morale, send soldiers marching to a nation's cause, or cause a domestic population to turn towards war, or 'worse' towards peace. Music was also the center the new aesthetic which Hitler hoped to bring about and the Reichmusikammer, or Reich Music Chamber was formed early in 1933, and required all musicians to be registered for public performance and music related endeavors. While Jews were allowed to register at first, it paralleled the removal of Jewish artists and musicians from their posts at universities, opera and performance halls, and registration of Jews early in the RMK became only a way identifying and targeting Jewish musicians and their families for persecutions. Later, a requirement was added that all members of the RMK must be German citizens; since Jews lost their citizenship due to the requirement of Aryan background for German citizenship, they effectively lost any right to perform, copyright, or teach music. This removal of Jewish influence of Music, which was considered degenerate and seditious to the new German order, was the first point in propaganda control of music: Germany would have one music, one way.

Another way Goebbels directed to control music, was in the control of broadcasting. Music had to take on certain forms, and all broadcasts of 'degenerate' music were forbidden: these included American 'Negro' music such as Jazz, Blues and such, and much American pop, although several songs like 'Stormy Weather' were parodied for the Nazi war effort. Goebbels at one point censored a broadcast later in the war of Mozart's Requiem: he felt the playing of the piece on a Sunday afternoon was morose and depressive and would affect the morale of the domestic population. The censorship of the Reich Propaganda Ministry under Goebbels was so tight, that even daily broadcasts of music were orchestrated to align with producing moods and affect towards the 'war effort'. All Jewish Music, including the greats, such as Meyerbeer, Mendelssohn and Mahler were censored even though the last two had converted to Christianity and Catholicism respectively. Oddly, though, while the Third Reich was adamantly opposed to all forms of degenerate music they were not opposed to using Jazz and Swing, which they considered the most degenerate of American music for propaganda purposes and a swing band called 'Charlie and his Orchestra.' Notes one source:

So Goebbels took it upon himself to assemble a group of talented swing musicians who could discreetly put Hitler’s message to toe-tapping music. The group was headlined by singer Karl Schwedler, who anglicized his name to “Charlie.” Along with an array of instrumentalists, including conductor Lutz Templin, he began recording in 1940, and shortly thereafter the group became known as “Charlie and his Orchestra.”²

While it may seem odd, later in the war towards 1942, Goebbels at first discouraged and then censored the playing of traditional Christmas music. His reasoning was that Christmas made the average German think of peace and grow 'soft' or tenderhearted, the exact opposite of what the Reich was attempting to bring about in the German psyche. He noted however that one had to be very careful because too much censorship of Christmas related endeavors though he openly discouraged them, could cause Germans to rebel, since Christmas was so ingrained in the German tradition. Music was also used abroad, especially in Great Britain via the secret transmitters, or radio broadcasts which came disguised as popular music stations and programming, but which were interjected with Nazi leanings or outright propaganda.

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¹Boelke,C. (transl.) The Secret Conference Notes of Josef Goebbels: 19 -1943 ² Kissel, Joe "Charlie and his Orchestra Swing music as Nazi propaganda", Nov 10,2004:in Interesting Things of the Day http://itotd.com/articles/364/ ³Arts and the Holocaust

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Statistics, is often viewed by the general public as definitive: we see percents, predictions, confidence levels, and we hear scientists and pollsters report "statistically significant" findings, often equating those figures with the truth, but this is a general misunderstanding which the Germans used to their advantage in WWII, and Goebbels used the manipulation of statistics artfully. His use of Statistics came often in reports of

bombings against German targets,
reports of battle dead and later civilian dead, and in
reports of German victories abroad.¹

Statistics were often used to increase confidence in German army victories, and diminish the importance of strikes against Germany. Statistics were often manufactured when they were too skewed in the wrong direction, but often real statistics were used, but interpreted with sophistry, making them look like they were either unimportant, or actually supported German goals. An example would be the following:

If there had been an air raid in which 7500 or so Germans were killed, reports would not talk of massive losses, or even report the number, but would talk about the brave Germans who gave their lives for Germany, and and focus on the percent. There were 80,600,000 Germans in 1939, so the percent of Germans who died in that raid would have been, .000009. , a miniscule sounding figure, far less that even a fraction of a percent, and alarm would be downplayed. However, if 7500 Jews had been killed, there would be reports of finding 'thousands' of Bolshevik terrorists, Jews, vermin, etc, encouraging the degree to which Germany was now safe.

One important note in the use of and interpretation of Statistics which Goebbels made clear: he instructed his staff never to overplay figures even if in the Nazi's favor: he was consistent in wanting control, over false hope: he reasoned that false hope would have only a momentary effect and that the backlash of incredulity would harm the believability of the Nazi hierarchy.

Statistics & The Jews

Issues with Statistics and the Jews started in WWII have lasted down through today, and the argument is not only between Historical Revisionists or "Holocaust Deniers", but between and among Holocaust scholars themselves. During the War, Jewish deaths and deportations were over-reported to Berlin, and under reported to world agencies and the press. For example, when Eichmann asked how many had been gassed at Auschwitz, Hoess gave him an estimate of 4.5 to 5 million,² substantially over the figure that scholars declare now. Among themselves and to their superiors, numbers were grossly over-reported, often even beyond the figures legitimate Holocaust scholars use now, due to their inflated arrogance and self-reward. To the public and to the foreign press and governments, the numbers were unreported or marginally reported, and to world agencies such as the Red Cross ghettos were reported as 'retirement communities'³, or Jewish neighborhoods, disease was almost always the cause of death, and the numbers went un or underreported.

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¹Boelke, (Ed.) The Secret Conferences of Josef Goebbels: 193x-194,xxxx

²The Eichmann Interoggation Records: Israeli Police Records. ³The Music of Terezin

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·Church declared to be living on nothing but continuous repetition 1-21-43 and yet the churches are not empty. ·Compared Nazism in its early stages having steady recruitment.

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Could America be seduced by Nazi Propaganda? Most would think not, but during the pre-war years before 1940 (pre-war for the US); the Third Reich developed a massive campaign in the U.S. targeted at the newspapers, media, and general public to at the very least sway public opinion to their side, and in their greatest hopes to win the U.S. to their side in an effort to "fight communism". The Reich recruited prominent German community leaders appealing still to their sense of "the Fatherland" in a hope of establishing an intelligence base in the U.S. They were moderately successful. They also fed stories, propaganda and counter-propaganda to American Newspapers, an effort spearheaded by no less than the Propaganda ministry of Goebbels.

Mass rallies were held even during the war years in the United States, the largest at Madison Square Garden decrying the Jews as dangerous and seditious and encouraging German Bund members and others to join their cause. German Bund Fellowships, meant primarily as ethnic community groups, held parades in honor of the Nazis and pro-nazi speeches were given. The Germans exploited a book by an American author, George Miller called I found no Peace with promoted sympathy to the Nazi cause in the U.S. and kept such pro-nazi sympathizers as Charles Lindbergh, the reknown pilot in the limelight. After major events in the war in which the Nazis looked bad, e.g. blowing up a ship of civilians, the Nazis had confederates feed stories to the U.S. press countering the information, usually blaming it on the British, or 'revealing' that the persons were not civilians at all.

Using every known means of media, the Propaganda ministry of the Third Reich knew the value of propaganda on foreign soil. To this end, several "secret transmitters" which were placed primarily on British soil were begun by the Reich to broadcast Nazi-favorable programming and discussion, under the guise of British ownership. While Britain and Germany were fierce adversaries by the end of WWII, the relationship until then had been diplomatic, there were many like-minded Germans and Britons. The "secret transmitters" broadcast Nazi perspectives to Britons, under carefully planned programming even down to what type of music was played. The transmitters lasted long into the war before being discovered.