Josef Goebbels: The Rise Of Nazi Propaganda

This IA will address how the Hitler Youth program effected the Nazification of Germany leading up to World War II. Hitler started the Nazi movement in 1919 and led the Nazis for some time before the whole party took control of Germany (Featherman, 1932). The Nazis officially came to power in 1933, and The Hitler Youth was made official that same year (Baldur von Schirach, 67, Dies; Head of Hitler Youth 1933–40, 1974). Hitler chose Baldur von Schirach as the head of the youth program (“The New York Times Archives”, 1974, p. 36). Schirach’s job as the head of the Hitler Youth was to lead an organization that specializes in training the aryan German youth to embody the perfect Nazi. Once the Nazi’s were in control of Germany the Hitler Youth continued to and grow and grow, and eventually became mandatory for all the adolescent aryan youth in Germany (Central Intelligence Agency, p. 14). The Hitler Youth was the main reason that race in Germany became the society and the state (Waite, p. 340), and the German military was so abundant because of the Hitler Youths ability to train kids and put them into war quickly (Central Intelligence Agency, p. 14).

To reach the masses they tried to build a brand and make the Nazi’s power easily visible to everyone. They did this through mass demonstrations and propaganda. They had great propaganda techniques to help them win over the masses like symbols (swastikas), brochures, uniforms, and bright and exciting posters A lot of these posters tried to appeal to the large number of unemployed workers and ex-soldiers that felt like Hitler could be their champion (Closeman recording #6). According to Spielvogel and Redles, “the Nazis were pioneers in modern electioneering techniques.” They were able to cover fifty German cities in fifteen days with their use of cars, trains, and airplanes (Spielvogel and Redles, page 61). Most importantly however, was the way they were able to gain support from so many different groups with contradictory ideals. They fed the needs and fears of all the different social groups by telling them what they wanted to hear. They told the working-class they would fight capitalism and destroy international high finance. When it came to the middle class they prayed on their growing fear of communism and threat of revolution. To the lower-middle class Nazis blamed and attacked the Jews and their big department stores. They would even drop their attack on Jews in anti-Semitist areas and instead promote nationalism and the safe keeping of religious values (Spielvogel and

The Nazi Party considered the youth of Germany as an important component for the future. Adolf Hitler, the leader of the Nationalist Socialist German Worker’s Party (Nazi Party) wrote in his autobiography Mein Kamp (My Struggle), “whoever has the youth has the future” . Hitler considered the Germany’s youth and the treatment of the youth to be an imperative aspect to guarantee a secure future for Germany and Nazi party and he aimed to create a nation dedicated to the Nationalist Socialist view. In order to achieve this, Hitler exploited the education system and took control of the Youth movement. The Reich Ministry of Education took power of the schooling system permeated it with propaganda to indoctrinate the youth. The majority of the young people in Germany participated in youth groups such as the Hitler Youth and the League of German Girls which trained them for military service and motherhood.

With many young receptive minds at his disposal Hitler initiated the plans that saw all members of Hitler youth indoctrinated into the Nazi ideals. Hitler made it publicly clear what his plans for brainwashing the youths would consist of: “After these youths have entered our organisations at the age of ten, and there experienced, for the first time, some fresh air….. We shall under no circumstances return them into the hands of our old champions of class and social standing, but instead place them immediately in the party, or the labour front, the SA or SS….. And thus they will never be free again for the rest of their lives.” The Nazis successfully achieved the indoctrination by employing many different subtle brainwashing techniques. For example, at drill times, the repetitive use of a song helped numb the young minds of the Hitler Youth. These songs would invariably be related to duty, blood, honour, soil and above all death and fighting. The lyrics of one such song goes like this: “We are marching for Hitler through night and dread/ with the banner of youth for freedom and bread.” This indoctrination

This source’s context contains information about how the youth were trained in preparation for the war and what they were trained for. It gives information about the age ranges for the different groups and rites of passages. It also describes the separation between boys and girls in these youth camps, and is thus valuable to one researching Hitler’s Youth. A limitation of this is that does not reveal anything about Hitler’s success or failure in his military involvement, or reveal anything about his invasions into other countries but simply informs about his Youth programs. It does not reveal his military involvement and is thus not valuable to one researching Hitler’s Involvement in other countries.

Then the Nazis had to prepare for the future and the future of Germany was the youth. Many organisations like the Hitler youth and the league for German Maidens were set up to teach the youth to follow the Nazis. In the Hitler youth they were taught like the military, neat, tidy and organised. The youth saw Hitler as a father figure in the fatherland and obeyed him. Then Hitler used indoctrination in the education system to recruit them into the army as loyal Nazis. There were subtle Nazi views added into all school work to brainwash the youth, as they were naive and didn’t see the wrong side of the Nazis true nature. The future of the people’s community was successfully secure and the Nazis would keep control for years to come.

During the time of Adolf Hitler, many young German Kids were forced to join the Hitler Youth. Teachers pressured the German students into joining the Hitler Youth program, In “Hitler Youth: Growing up in Hitler’s Shadow,” author Susan Campbell Bartolletti discussed the ways Adolf Hitler used education to further Nazi ideals. To make young Germans into good Nazis, Hitler changed the textbooks and the curriculum, so that it only taught Nazi approved ideas. Hitler also made the German students pledge to him every single day, by saying, “Heil Hitler” to a poster of him and a Nazi flag. Hitler and the Nazis also forced teachers to teach the Nazi ideas to make sure that every German student would grow up to be a good Nazi.

Hitler and the Nazis used propaganda to suppress the Jews’ freedoms and human rights. Films portrayed Germans as powerful and mighty while showing the Jews to be “subhuman creatures” (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum 1). German newspapers portrayed Jews in their cartoons as anti semitic caricatures while radios played Hitler’s manipulative speeches all over Germany. By dehumanizing Jewish people through propaganda, Hitler was able to encourage Germans to support the Nazis and look down on the Jews. Without propaganda, less people would have been motivated to support Hitler.

“All propaganda has to be popular and has to accommodate itself to the comprehension of the least intelligent of those whom it seeks to reach,” Adolf Hitler (The National World War Museum). The German Nazi dictator utilized his power over the people using propaganda, eventually creating a sense of hatred towards Jews. After World War 1, the punishments of the League of Nations caused Germany to suffer. The Nazi party came to blame the Jews in order to have a nation-wide “scapegoat”. This hatred and prejudice towards Jews is known as anti-semitism. According to the Breman Museum, “the Nazi Party was one of the first political movements to take full advantage of mass communications technologies: radio, recorded sound, film, and the printed

Have you ever wondered what Nazi youth was like during World War 2? During the Holocaust? Or simply even what they were taught in school. Nazi children had certain requirements, were taught differently in school than most kids now in 2017, and had a different homelife.

In order for Adolf Hitler to become successful, he knew that he had to spread Nazism to the far corners of the world. He accomplished this to some extent by using propaganda. “Following the Nazi seizure of power in 1933, Hitler established a Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda headed by Joseph Goebbels” (“Nazi Propaganda”). Goebbels was the master propagandist and orator to whom Hitler gave the responsibility of spreading the favorable image of the Nazi regime. The Nazis took control of all means of entertainment in order to spread their beliefs. “The ministry’s aim was to ensure that the Nazi message was successfully communicated through art, music, theater, films, books, radio, educational materials, and the press” (“Nazi Propaganda). The main target of the propaganda was the Jewish race. Goebbels’ “propaganda campaigns created

Hitler was determined to influence the youth to support the Nazi movement and all the ethics and ideas that the party stood for. He was aware that it was crucial to encourage children and teenagers to be involved in order for the Nazi party to maintain their power for years to come. The Hitler-Jugend (Hitler Youth) was considered vital and became the sole Nazi youth group after it was eventually enforced it in 1936. Hitler realised the importance of adolescent innocence and vulnerability and exploited this to take advantage and bring all of the German youth under his authority. As supported by Historian William Shirer who argues that no other country had ever seen such a powerful youth movement to the extent of republican Germany. The Hitler-Jugend were engrossed on emphasizing physical activity, teaching self discipline and were expected to know Nazi songs as well as swearing their loyalty to the Fuhrer. The German youth were effectively used to play their crucial part of the Nazism takeover in the Third Reich.

The world today might think that today’s youth is only getting worse by generations. What they don’t know is that the Nazi Youth was only worse. Many people today are uninformed about the Nazi Youth and who they were. It was is a topic that was practiced during World War II.

Young people were very paramount to Nazi Germany in order to preserve Hitler’s ideals to the posterity. Hans Schemm, the leader of the Nazi Teachers’ League, stated, ‘those who have youth on their side control the future’. Therefore, Nazi Germany went to many lengths by utilizing youth programs and controlling education in order to achieve the loyalty of the youth. Nazi youth organizations were governed by two basic intentions: to train boys for war and girls for motherhood. The most recognized youth organization was known as Hitler Youth. Hitler Youth was created to educate and train male youth in Nazi principles. According to Britannica.com, on a German male’s 10th birthday, he was registered and investigated (especially for “racial purity”) and, if qualified, inducted into the Deutsches Jungvolk (“German Young People”). At age 13 the youth became eligible for the Hitler Youth, from which he was graduated at age 18. Throughout these years he lived a Spartan life of dedication, fellowship, and Nazi conformity, generally with minimum parental guidance. From age 18 he was a member of the Nazi Party and served in the state labor service and the armed forces until at least the age of 21. Furthermore, in these youth organizations there was persistent activity and competition; through this,

The Nazi party taught children to be obedience and to be able to make any sacrifice to save the country.