Little Opposition to Hitler Due to Propaganda Essay

After eliminating the previous government, he discovered that he could tap into basic human nature. Human nature, namely herd mentality, can be used as a foundation because of its natural occurrence. (Jowett 42). Humans will always inevitably revert back to their basic nature. Therefore, basing his efforts on such a stable foundation provided him an anchor. Not only that, but he could easily and efficiently persuade a large group of people, knowing that once he had enough support the other citizens would follow suit. In time, societal standards grew to accommodate the new Nazi mindset. Whether people supported these news ideals or not, many lacked the audacity to revolt against the government and demand change (“Causes” 1). Hitler silenced opposing views through societal pressure; people’s need to conform prohibited them from harboring different ideals, which would cause them to stand out. The citizens of Germany were left with the choice to conform or to stand up against the government. Many people ended up conforming, therefore lending Hitler the power and support he needed to further his

Hitler wanted more control of the government and to do this he appointed a significant man in the face of propaganda, Joseph Goebbels. (Hemsley). Consequently, through Goebbels, he began to instrument propaganda to maintain his support from the people.

All media was controlled by the Nazis. Newspapers, radio stations, films obeyed and said what the Nazis told them to. A number of rallies were put on to emphasise just how strong Nazi Germany was. Goebbels was in charge of this and was also very successful. He was able to persuade people into believing that Hitler and the Nazis were right. All Nazi view points on everything were always emphasized. Groups opposing the Nazis such as socialist, communists, liberals, democrats, Jews and other group were targeted by the Nazis. All books were censored, over 2500 authors banned and many books burnt on the streets. Propaganda manipulated Hitler’s image very carefully so that he would be portrayed as a kind, hardworking man with simple tasks.

Boys were taught about military service and girls about housekeeping. Both did camping and other activities to unite with others and serve Germany together. Parents were encouraged to have many children such that more youths could join this scheme. Secondly Germans were also brainwashed into discrimination against Jews and other minorities via the media such that the atrocities against them were justified. They also, through broadcasts and newspapers (heavily censored by Nazis), rallies and march parties like the annual Nuremberg rally, developed pro-Nazi sentiments. Joseph Goebbels, Minister for Enlightenment & Propaganda, placed loudspeakers everywhere such that Germans all heard Hitler's speeches and controlled all forms of art. Hitler also promised law and order unlike in Bolshevism, economic expansion and a ‘Greater Germany' instead of one undermined by the Treaty of Versailles (he tore it up). Germans also took pride in the latest technological advancements in Germany and their state-of-the-art stadium for the 1936 Olympics, where they enjoyed a sterling performance, which Goebbels used to prove the notion of Aryan superiority. Thirdly religion was also controlled with all churches branching out from one central Reich Church that revered Nazi policies. Priests and nuns who disagreed were imprisoned. Hitler even had the audacity to suggest an alternative

Adolf Hitler was born to Alois and Klara Hitler on April 20th, 1889. His childhood was unhappy, but not totally miserable. His father wanted him to be a civil servant, but Adolf wanted to become a painter. Hitler did well in Elementary school, but later on he failed miserably, which he blamed his teachers for. His father died in 1903, and Adolf dropped out of school two years later. In "Mein Kampf" (My Struggle), the autobiography Hitler dictated while in Landsberg prison in 1924, he says the period in his life from 1905 to 1908 as "…the happiest days of my life…almost a dream." In those years he becamse obsessed with politics and developed his hatred for the Hapsburg monarchy. He applied to the Vienna Academy of Fine

On the other hand, the opposition faced by the Nazi regime is evidence that the Nazi Regime was not a consented one. In Source 5 it mentions the political opponents being detained in the concentration camps but even with this sort of mass terror of demolishing the left there was signs of opposition against the regime. The fact that there were low-level resistance jokes around shows the Nazis were unpopular. People were trying to pick holes in the system rather than just accept it. People were trying to spread the word. This also indicated the fear people had of Hitler and it was this fear that forced the people to conform. The Church although having an agreement with Hitler called the concordat had stood against the regime a number of times. For example, Bishop von Galen of Munster had stood against the euthanasia programmes. There was also opposition from the youth, an example the swing kids, they expressed their individuality by wearing their hair long and listened to jazz. But most opposition and resistance was only involved

The anti-Semitic propaganda led the minority Nazi party into the place of superiority so they could influence the public that Jews were subhuman. Various forms of propaganda ranged from posters, radio broadcasts, marches and more. These helped influence those or pressured those had opposing views of those of the Nazi party. Sheldon Kishner mentions in his article Nazi propaganda shaped German opinion, “No sooner had Hitler been appointed chancellor than he embarked on a quest to destroy the free press and thus shape popular opinion” (6) This limited the information the public was to intake in daily life and shaped their opinions of what was going wrong in the country. Since

Epstein writes that only a small minority of Germans resisted Hitler’s dictatorship, but that is not necessarily to say that they actually supported it. Though most Germans did approve of the core values and goals of the Nazis, racism, anti-Marxism, and German national renewal, there was also an element of coercion that may have stifled any public dissatisfaction anyone had for the regime (pp. 97-98). Displaying resistance did not offer much benefit to those who disapproved, as opposition was typically met with arrest and/or death sentences. Further, the Nazis targeted those that were largely disliked by ordinary Germans to begin with, which would explain why there are not records of large scale resistance (pp. 110-111). Epstein further remarks that the support of the Third Reich, is not truly meaningful if the support comes because there is no other option. The Nazis censored the press, outlawed any other political party besides their own, and banned strikes and absenteeism (p. 112). To the outside observer, it appears that the Nazis had the support of the German people, but it is imperative to look below the surface at what was happening to ordinary people.

Hitler had used his power and influence to hire Josef Goebbels as his Minister of Propaganda. Goebbels was able to influence Germany as a whole by controlling the mass media. He had books burned that didn’t agree with Hitler’s messages and had Anti-Semitic books produced and promoted to “educate” the public on what they should be thinking and feeling. They sent out daily instructions to the newspapers on what to publish to shine up Hitler’s image and make the people agree with his views. His campaign was successful due to all this and therefore is what put him in power and started the genocide of 11 million people. The media’s high dependency of the government restricted our country from being informed and helping sooner and brainwashed a whole country into worshipping a racist, Anti-Semitic murderer. If the media had been free to express themselves without restrictions, who knows what might have happened and how many would have

The Nazi’s arguably faced a lot of opposition between the years 1939-45 and not only from the army; who had the power of keeping up the morale of the citizens due to their military strengths and integrating part of the Nazi regime. However Hitler and the Nazi’s also faced other oppositions, such as the church which again was a source of opposition based on morale. The threats from the left and the right continued, as an on-going conflict of extremist behaviour. The youth of the country also posed a threat to Hitler and the Nazi’s due to boycotting and

Hitler was able to influence the media in Germany so assigned Nazi members to broadcast and report to the public. But they would then only feed stories and news to the people about matters that showed the Nazi regime in a positive and biased way to give the false pretence to the German people the regime is effective and the best thing for the country to improve. Opposition however couldn’t compete with the broad scale that the Nazis were able to report on, so they lacked having the proper resources to reach the public audience and to educate them on different political matters that would allow them to be able to form and develop their own opinions. People also wouldn’t take any physical items that explained their views and opinions because if they were caught with anything that opposes the Nazi party or regime they could be arrested and taken to a concentration camp. That meant that they had to rely on reaching people verbally and being able to express themselves in a way that’s effective for people to be interested by and has an impact that it’ll stay in their

Additionally, when Hitler was elected chancellor in 1932, Germany was a democracy with many of the same civil liberties enjoyed in America. Slowly over the next several years, those liberties were stripped from the people. The Nazi regime outlawed freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and dissent. They “took control of all forms of communication in Germany: newspapers, magazines, books, public meetings, and rallies, art, music, movies, and radio.” (USHMM) While criticism of the Weimar Republic under President Hindenburg was common, once Hitler came to power, people might be sent to a concentration camp for speaking out against Hitler. This shouldn’t have surprised the people of Germany. Before Hitler was elected to office, he was a very vocal critic of freedom of speech and democracy. It is unfortunate that the German people were not more careful when it came to

During World War Two when Hitler came into power he had strong opinions and took many vicious actions that resulted in innocent deaths. Knowing the outcome of his actions it is incomprehensible why anyone would have wanted to support him. Although there are many justifications that people had in vouching for him at this time, propaganda seemed to be one of the biggest. During this time the idea of propaganda was not new to society. People had seen propaganda in World War One. When created, its current news and makes a person believe in what it says because of its confidence and persuasive qualities. Hitler at this time knew the power of propaganda and the importance it would play in gaining support by the German people. When leading, Hitler

Acquaintance with the mass of opinion reports surviving from the Nazi state, complex and difficult though these sources are, allows little scope for sweeping generalisations about attitudes and behaviour of the German people during the Third Reich. There is too much evidence of daily dissent and even manifestations of limited, opposition and protest – limited in significance, certainly, but noteworthy just the same - to support notions of a society terrorised by a totalitarian state into meek submission and automaton-like obedience and compliance. The opposite generalisation, of a consensus holding to the end, of a society which never seriously deviated from its backing for Hitler and the regime, seems equally flawed. A survey of the

a) Neville Chamberlain was the British Prime Minister during the 1930’s and was known as an “appeaser” in regards to Hitler’s foreign policy. In September 1938, during the Czechoslovakian crisis, the appeasers appeased to Hitler’s taking of the Sudetenland due to the threat of war. On October first 1938 in the Daily Herald Newspaper, the headline stated that Mr. Chamberlain declared that “It is peace for our time”. Some people say that the appeasers, such as Neville Chamberlain, were the indirect cause of World War two.