Wwii Propaganda

Joseph Goebbels, the mastermind of Nazi politics, describes propaganda in the following quote “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”   Ultimately Nazi propaganda was superior to allied propaganda. To understand why Nazi propaganda was much better we must first study how each side used their propaganda and how they both won hearts and minds of their citizens.

For the Nazis it was important to convince the public that it was necessary to fight. The Nazi party created a series of movies and posters to solicit labour towards the war effort, encourage the conservation of materials, promote Hitler to the people, dehumanize German Jews,   illustrate how badly Germans who lived in Eastern European countries were treated,   and demonize Russians.   The Nazi’s won their citizens minds by overwhelming them with the use of propaganda. Propaganda soon became so influential in Germany that it eventually lead to changes to the citizenship law.   The speeches of Nazi political leaders were by far the most effective component of Nazi propaganda. Through many rallies where millions of people would show up Hitler and Joseph Goebbels, the head of the Ministry of Propaganda, connected with the people winning their hearts and creating a sense of extreme nationalism.

Similar to the Nazis the allied forces used their posters to solicit labour, promote conservation of materials, and to warn people of how serious a Nazi threat really was.   The policy of non-interventionism was the main reason why American propaganda was not as effective as Nazi propaganda. For the most part...