During Adolf Hitlers reign over the Third Reich, Germany was virtually

monopolized by a propaganda machine. Propaganda was the tool by which nearly

every facet of German life was dictated. While Hitlers party, the Nazis, directed
everything from politics to military, and education to the economy, their most
successful sphere of influence was in promotion of anti-Semitism. That being said,
the idea of using propaganda was not a concept invented by the Nazis. This method
of reaching out to large groups of people has been used all throughout history. In
the First World War European nations utilized propaganda to sell the idea of a
great and glorious war to appeal to citizens unwilling to participate in battle, and
from 1949-1976 China used it to encourage and spread Mao Zedongs communist
policies (Lansen). It was the fact that Hitlers party was successful in creating such
effective propaganda that nearly an entire population was moved to hatred of a
whole group of people, the Jews, that is so astounding. The animosity cultivated
and intensified by this propaganda even helped spark and carry out genocide of 6
million of these Jews, what would come to be known as the Holocaust. An
investigation into how certain images like rats, greed, and large noses came to be
chosen to represent the Jews will help illustrate, how this propaganda effected
Jewish peoples perception of themselves.
Explosion of Propaganda in Germany
Hitler gained control of Germany for the first time in 1934, with his appointment
of Fuhrer, or leader. In order to ensure the power of his party, and the control he
had over the country, Hitler laid out a plan termed, Gleichschaltung, or the
coordination of society. This was the idea that all things German would be turned
Nationalist Socialist, the political ideology of Nazis, transforming the country into
a totalitarian state (OShaughnessy). This streamlining of German society was
based on three core factors, 1) Creation of Nationalist Socialist organizations for
every aspect of life and outlawing of the alternatives, 2) Control through
elimination by secret services and police forces of all things not Nazi, and 3)
Propaganda to promote Nazi ideals. The last factor was the means by which the
other two factors, and coordination of German society as a whole, would be
accomplished.

Making Effective Propaganda

The first crucial element of creating propaganda that would move people to agree

with Nazism was simplifying; this meant creating a sort of language of the
masses (Lansen). In order to do this, propaganda was marked by simple diction,
and straightforward messages that would be easily received by the people
(Nicholas OShaughnessy). This simple message also had to be an agreeable one.
The agreeable message was compromised of basically telling people what they
wanted to hear, and conjuring up lies so outlandish and extreme, that a whole new
reality would be created (Lansen). Also important was the concept of repetition.
The more an issue or idea was reiterated, the more likely it was to become a new
reality. The last, and most important part of propaganda was that the messages
create subconscious action (Lansen). If citizens saw and heard propaganda but
were not moved to change something, or actively respond, their efforts were in
vain. Propaganda is only truly effective when it moves audiences to subconscious
actions, for that is when transformations occur, and coordination of society is
actually realized.

German Expansion: Blut and Boden

Blut and Boden was one of the Nazi ideologies, which focused on race/ethnicity.
Blut and Boden literally means blood and soil, in German. Bloden went along
with what Hitler phrased, lebensraum or living space, the idea that Germany
needed to expand its empire, which meant they needed more space to live. This
contributed to dislike for the Jews, because they needed to be pushed out in order
to make room for more Aryan people so that Germany could once again be
restored to its former glory. Blut, was the distinction between the Ubermenschen
and Untermenschen, the superior and inferior race. Hitlers definition of the
superior race was Nordic or Aryan, meaning blonde hair, blue eyes, and fair skin.
His definition of the inferior race was all non-Aryans, like Slavs, gypsies, and
Jews, as well as people like those with genetic defects or handicaps, homosexuals,
and Jehovah witnesses. Though many groups were labeled inferior, the primary
group targeted was the Jews.

Origins of Anti-Semitism in Germany

Jewish people were singled out as the main recipients of Nazi discrimination for
religious, economic, political, and racial reasons. Jews were hated for their
religious beliefs, because they were labeled Christ killers, blamed for the

crucifixion of Jesus Christ in the Bible, and many myths circulated about their
religious practice. One of these myths was that Jews carried out so-called, blood
libel, or ritual killings where they would use blood from innocent children at
Passover to bake bread in order to live another year (Lansen). The economic
based hate came from the accusation that they Jews were stealing money from
hard-working citizens. This belief was grounded in the fact that despite the
depression followed by recession in the early 1930s that crippled the German
economy, Jews were relatively well off financially. Because of this, Jews were seen
as greedy money mongers who were obtaining their wealth illegally, even though
their fortune came from the practice of money lending. Politically based antiSemitism was more or less an outlandish accusation that Jews were trying to
destroy Germany. This included claims that Jews were trying to take over the
world, they were all communists and responsible for the Bolshevik Revolution, and
they were even to blame for Germanys loss of the First World War. All of these
affirmations had little to no truth behind them, but were rather elaborate myths
created to single out a group of people that were seen as a threat. Jews became the
scapegoat through which Hitler could blame all of Germanys misfortunes. All of
these misconceptions of Jews were portrayed in Propaganda in order to rally the
German people against the Jews.

Propaganda: Anti-Semitism in Action

Figure 1 is one of many in the book, Der Giftpilz, by

Ernst Heimer. The title of the book literally means the toadstool in German, and
is a childrens book released in 1938 by Julius Streicher. The book was aimed at
educating Aryan children about their sub-human Jewish counterparts. This was
propaganda that preyed on the young, and encouraged German citizens, from a

very young age, to develop a deep hatred for the Jews. With this specific picture,
Money is the God of Jews one of the most widespread stereotypes of Jews being
money hungry thieves and crooks is being illustrated. A male figure, who is rather
large is sitting on top of an overstuffed bag of money. The caption below the image
reads, The God of the Jews is money. To earn money, he commits the greatest
crimes. He will not rest until he can sit on a huge money sack, until he has become
the king of money. This is just one example of Nazi efforts, through propaganda,
to turn German citizens completely against Jewish people.
Figure 2 piece also from Der Giftpilz, reads, How to Tell a Jew:

"The Jewish nose is bent. It looks like the number six.... This is one example of
the propaganda playing off the prominence of some Jews noses, and suggesting a
universal truth that all Jewish people have distinguished noses.
What Christ Said about the Jews: "When you see a

cross, remember the gruesome murder of the Jews on Golgotha... is below in

Figure 3, an image in Der Giftpilz. Images like this reinforced the idea that Jews
were Christ-killers, and deserved all the hate that Nazis were encouraging.

What About the Jews?

Propaganda basically brainwashed citizens into believing that Jews were the reason
for all of their problems, which is obviously the reason the plan was so successful.
Theres another side to look at though, the Jewish perspective. How did all of this
affect the way that Jews saw themselves? Thinking about the question made me
reflect back to my two years of psychology in high school. I remembered talking
about the term, self-fulfilling prophecy, which says basically that negative beliefs
predict negative behaviors. For weeks in my psychology classes we discussed how
science has shown that group expectations are perhaps the strongest predictor of
the future. That being said, a self-fulfilling prophecy is a valid explanation for how
negative thoughts culminate to create a reality (Myers 238-240). This is the very
thing that happened to Jews subjected to the stereotyping of Nazi propaganda.
Last year my high school participated in district wide discussion on the Holocaust
where we had the opportunity to speak with a survivor and her daughter. During
our Question and Answer session of the event two questions were asked about
propaganda. The first one was how the anti-Semitic slander made the survivor feel,
and the second was if and how the legacy of the propaganda affected the daughter.
The survivor began by saying, Do you know how it feels to be portrayed as
something less than human, worthless, better off dead? She went on to relay the
horrors of being stereotyped as all these negative, evil, and vile things and how
eventually even against your better judgment, your psyche begins to transform into
all the labels one has tried so desperately to create distance from. She talked about
the sinking feeling she started to have every time she saw an anti-Semitic poster, or
speech, or image, the little part of her that began to believe that what the Nazis said
about her and her people was true. As for the daughter, she said that even being the
descendent of a Jew who personally experienced the propaganda, affected her. She
expressed a sort of syndrome in which the pain that her mother experienced firsthand, was passed on to her and became a burden. She saw how her mothers selfesteem dropped, and the way she saw Jews as a people was transformed from
positive to negative. This is the self-fulfilling prophecy that psychology says is so
eminent.

A Two-Sided Stereotype
From all of the inquiring done for this paper, I have attained a much greater
understanding for why Jews were represented with the specific prejudice images
that they were, how the mass of German people were coerced into believing these

lies, and even more importantly how these images changed the lives of those who
were misrepresented. Before, when I saw these heinous Nazi brainwashing
methods I thought only of how it altered the mindset of Germans being taught hate
for Jews, but now there is a whole new discovery of the side of propaganda that is
less often discussed, the ways in which Jews psyches were reconstructed.

Works Cited
1. Bytwerk, Randall. "The Argument for Genocide in Nazi
Propaganda." Quarterly Journal of Speech 91.1 (2005): 37-62.
Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 11 Nov. 2010.
2. Lansen, Oscar. Child of Hitler. LBST 2102. University of North
Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, NC. 05 Oct. 2010. Lecture.
3. Money Is the God of Jews. Der Giftpilz. Web. 15 Nov. 2010.
<http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/thumb.htm>.
4. O'Shaughnessy, Nicholas. "Selling Hitler: Propaganda and the Nazi
Brand." Journal of Public Affairs. Academic Search Premier.
EBSCO. Web. 11 Nov. 2010.
5. Rothstein, Edward. "Nazis' 'Terrible Weapon,' Aimed at Minds and
Hearts." New York Times 4 Nov. 2009. Academic Search Premier.
EBSCO. Web. 11 Nov. 2010.

Reflection
For the Inquiry Assignment I decided to go with the topic of Nazi propaganda.
Starting with the very first day when Mrs. Presnell introduced the assignment I was
overwhelmed and confused. I thought to myself, Okay, stereotypes, what about
them. I was so discouraged by the fact that there are so many stereotypes to
choose from and yet I still felt like I had no sense of direction or purpose for
writing my paper. After about a week of contemplating what I was going to do for

the paper, I was about to give up when I remembered something we had covered a
few months earlier in my History class- Nazi propaganda. Still not knowing what I
was going to really discuss in my paper or what path my research would lead me
down, I went with it and wrote my proposal. In the proposal I wrote that I would
perhaps consider discussing topics like what role propaganda played in the Nazi
mission in Germany, who the key players in the development of propaganda were,
what psychological effects the propaganda had on Jews of the time, and how
effective the propaganda was, in terms of reaching the Nazis goals. To be
completely honest, I was all over the place in my proposal, because I was so
unconfident in my topic and how I was going to produce a paper in it, there were
no real developed thoughts, just random blips of ideas.
I moved toward maybe doing a more in depth look at the psychological effects the
propaganda had on Jews. This changed when I started talking to Mrs. Presnell, and
doing some preliminary research because I realized that it would be extremely
difficult, if not impossible to come up with a well-written, and cohesive paper
based on nothing more than opinions. There would be no real conclusion to the
paper or any new universal truths to write in my paper, and I saw myself getting
even more overwhelmed if I went in that direction. Moving on from that, I pushed
toward focusing on the history of Nazi propaganda, but just like the word history
suggests my Inquiry Assignment started to sound like a boring history report of
spilling out facts and happenings of the past, which is not the objective I was trying
to achieve. To fix the problem I came up with an idea to incorporate a little bit of
both extremes, history and psychology. This is where my final draft began to take
shape.
When I started my research the first place I looked was ARTstor. I thought it would
be the perfect place to find images to look at and include in my paper. I presumed
that this source especially would be beneficial because it stores a lot of great
images from history, but I was wrong. My search for Nazi propaganda resulted in
three images, none of which were really relevant at all. Perhaps the reason for the
lack of images from ARTstor is that the database holds more art than images, if that
makes any sense. Part of my mistake comes from the mindset that I went in with
thinking that this specific database would have so many images, but thinking more
about it that was rather nave. Propaganda, while it can be considered an art form,
is not a very traditional medium. For my image collection I relied on Google
images, which ended up working just fine. Newsbank also came up with very few
results useful to me. This is likely because my topic is not a current news subject, it

happened in the 1930s and 1940s. My most useful source was by far Academic
Search Premier. It had over two hundred articles from scholarly journals and other
trusted avenues of information. This database was helpful because it brought up
articles for me to read that covered many different sides of the stereotype. Though
I did not use them in my paper, I read some articles on the German perspective of
anti-Semitic Nazi propaganda, which was extremely fascinating. Finding out about
different things like that helped me stay interested in the topic and fresh with my
ideas. Lastly, the Academic Search Premier allowed me to choose options that
would ensure I had legitimate and trustworthy articles, strengthening the validity of
the research in my paper.
As I said earlier, at one point in my writing process I was focusing more on the
psychological impact that the anti-Semitic propaganda had on Jews, but through
researching I changed that. I could find very little information or articles on how
the propaganda actually made Jews feel. I thought that I was going to be able to
read direct quotes or personal accounts of how the propaganda personally impacted
Jewish people living during that time, but I couldnt. What I did find was some
basic overviews of how the attitude of some Jews shifted from very confident to
almost self-loathing resulting from the brainwashing propaganda. When I found
this information I was drawn more toward incorporating the general consensus of
how the propaganda made Jews feel, into my paper. Nearly all of the articles I used
talked about the methods that made Nazi propaganda, in particular, so successful,
so I spent a large chunk of my paper discussing the methodologies. Before writing
the paper, I wondered about how and why the specific images were used to
represent Jews. Of course I knew that Jews were portrayed as things like greedy
money mongers and rats but I didnt know why. I found that those images were not
chosen randomly, but rather with great thought and history. Through my research I
discovered that anti-Semitism stemmed from many negative myths and beliefs that
would later be supported and explained through images. For instance the portrayal
of Jews in propaganda through a fat man sitting on loads of money originated form
the belief that Jews were thieves because they were some of the only financially
stable citizens in a broken Germany after WWI. This wasnt because they stole and
looted; it was because they practiced money- lending, which kept them afloat
during the hard economic times.
Taking a look at the way in which I actually wrote my essay, two things stick out to
me- the talking headers, and the style. Initially, when we went over talking headers
in class I was slightly confused. Not about what an actual talking header is, but

rather why it matters. Reading over the example we were given in class, and then
trying to implement them in my paper, made me realize just how advantageous
they can be. A good talking header can do two things, 1) Make a reader interested
in something they normally wouldnt normally find appealing, 2) Help the writer
with organization and brainstorm new ideas. My paper was very scattered and all
over the place, before my talking headers. Coming up with mini titles aided me
in my process of narrowing and focusing my work. Now as far as the reader goes, I
know that a catchy talking header can really turn my opinion from thinking an
essay is going to be boring, to being excited to read about a topic. This comes in
hand for a writer especially when dealing with the possibility of having a tough
reader, or harsh grader. Talking headers aside, the style of my paper is somewhat
jumbled. It seems like the very beginning is rather stuffy and proper, mostly fact
based, while the ending is more relaxed and contemplative because of the personal
element to the argument. I thought that that was a bad thing, but now Im not so
sure. I kind of like how the paper is not static, it changes, it keeps momentum, and
doesnt set a monotone style for the reader. This style came about mostly because a
recurring them during the process of writing this paper, confusion. I was struggling
between a dry historical account, and an emotional, structure lacking opinion
peace, so there is a juxtaposition of the two, which contributed to the style being so
too.
The critique group was the first set of eyes other than my own who had seen the
paper. Because of that, I thought I was going hear some things that were profound
and in a way like revelations. This didnt happen and the main reason is because of
the lack of time. We had some very lengthy papers in my group, and we werent
the most focused. When I read my paper to the group I was not very confident,
which ended up making me sound like I wasnt taking the opportunity to receive
the critique very seriously. The biggest thing that I did learn is that a critique group
is what you make of it. If you genuinely want to get critical feedback on your work
and you take it seriously, you will more than likely walk away with some great
ideas on how to improve your paper. The opposite is true as well; if you dont take
it seriously and you are not prepared with work to be critiqued, your time is going
to be wasted and feedback will be sub-par at best. From my other experiences with
critique groups on earlier assignments I really have seen just how beneficial this
type of assessment can be. I know that some of my greatest ideas, and some of my
proudest work in this class have come about as a result of something someone in
one of my critique groups has brought up or suggested. For this assignment though,
I did not reap the full benefits of this type of group evaluation, which is at least

partially my fault. If I want to go even farther back, my critique group was

ineffective in offering feedback for my very first images. No one really had much
to say, but they may have been because I didnt really either. I brought in images,
but had no real grasp on what I wanted to do or what I wanted to say in my paper.
This brings me to the very personal side of the project-- how my life as both a
researcher and writer/learner changed. I will start by saying that I have always
hated the phrase research paper with a passion. It evokes an emotion inside of
me that is sad, depressed, and angrywell maybe not that intense but nonetheless
still negative. That phrase, to me, means restrictive, boring, dry, and just plain hard.
This paper was different because we didnt have that many constraints, allowing
me to go about research in a whole new way. Before this paper I had honestly no
real idea of how to even start a proper search. The tutorial in the library was so
beneficial! Without it I would have been completely lost and unmotivated to do the
paper. Learning how to properly and efficiently use our schools resources was what
really made my paper great. I felt prepared and equipped while researching so I
was calmer and could focus more on what I was reading and what I could pull out
and use in my assignment. This Inquiry assignment was unlike any type of research
project I have ever done before. This was the type of thing we had almost complete
and total authority over, which was scary but liberating at the same time; I was
actually excited to start this paper. As a writer, I have uncovered, through much
thought and reflection, that I am such a worrier. I worry about things before they
even happen, as they happen, and after they happen. This is detectable in my
writing, so now that I have recognized that I do this, I am trying to have a more
go with the flow attitude, which I think comes across in my style in this paper.
The most drastic transformation has been in the area of my life as a learner. Ive
seen that not everything that I chose to do academically has to be motivated by a
grade or a specific reward. While doing my research I came across so many articles
and journals that didnt necessarily have to do with my topic, but I read them
anyway, just because they sounded interesting. I have also come to better
understand that learning is like a journey or adventure. When you set out, you may
not necessarily know where you are going to end up, or how youre going to get
there, but the things that happen along the way are often just as important as the
outcome.