_1. Professed Peaceful Intentions as a Cloak for Imperialistic
Designs_
The falsity of Nazi propaganda has been demonstrated repeatedly during
the past decade. That its keynote was set by Hitler himself becomes
evident upon an examination of his statements on foreign policy over a
period of years. Not only has his policy been marked by a series of
shifts and turns, so that the policy of one year was frequently
canceled by the policy of the next, but a comparison of his words with
his subsequent deeds makes it evident that he deliberately sought to
lull other countries into a feeling of security until he was ready to
move against them. On May 17, 1933 he asserted:
_No fresh European war is capable of putting something
better in the place of unsatisfactory conditions which exist
to-day ..._ The outbreak of such madness without end would
lead to the collapse of existing social order in Europe ...
The German Government are convinced that to-day there can be
only one great task, and that is to assure the peace of the
world ... _The German Government wish to settle all
difficult questions with other Governments by peaceful
methods._ They know that any military action in Europe, even
if completely successful, would, in view of the sacrifice,
bear no relation to the profit to be obtained ...
Germany will tread no other path than that laid down by the
Treaties. The German Government will discuss all political
and economic questions only within the framework of, and
through, the Treaties.
_The German people have no thought of invading any
country._[106]
(Document 14, _post_ pp. 282-233.)
And on March 7, 1936 he stated:
After three years I believe that I can regard the struggle
for German equality as concluded to-day. I believe,
moreover, that thereby the first and foremost reason for our
withdrawal from European collective collaboration has ceased
to exist. _We have no territorial demands to make in
Europe._[107] (Document 14, _post_ p. 237.)
Moreover, he did not shrink from giving specific assurances of
Germany's peaceful intentions toward his subsequent victims:
There are Germans and Poles in Europe, and they ought to
live together in agreement. The Poles cannot think, of
Europe without the Germans and the Germans cannot think of
Europe without the Poles. (Oct. 24, 1933)
_Germans and Poles must reconcile themselves as to the fact
of each others' existence._ It has seemed to me necessary to
demonstrate by an example that it is possible for two
nations to talk over their differences without giving the
task to a third or a fourth ...
_The assertion that the German Reich plans to coerce the
Austrian State is absurd and cannot be substantiated or
proved_ ... The assertion of the Austrian Government that
from the side of the Reich an attack would be undertaken or
planned I must emphatically reject ... The German Reich is
always ready to hold out a hand for a real understanding,
with full respect for the free will of Austrian Germans ...
(Jan. 13, 1934)
_The lie goes forth again that Germany to-morrow or the day
after will fall upon Austria or Czecho-Slovakia_. I ask
myself always: Who can these elements be who will have no
peace, who incite continually, who must so distrust, and
want no understanding? Who are they? I know they are not the
millions who, if these inciters had their way, would have to
take up arms. (May 1, 1936)
Germany and Poland are two nations, and these nations will
live, and neither of them will be able to do away with the
other. I recognized all of this, and we all must recognize
that a people of 33,000,000 will always strive for an outlet
to the sea ... _We have assured all our immediate neighbors
of the integrity of their territory as far as Germany is
concerned. That is no hollow phrase; it is our sacred will_
...
(Sept. 26, 1938)[108]
(Document 14, _post_ pp. 233, 234, 238, 240-241.)
Yugoslavia is a State that has increasingly attracted the
attention of our people since the war. The high regard that
the German soldiers then felt for this brave people has
since been deepened and developed into genuine friendship.
Our economic relations with this country are undergoing
constant development and expansion, just as is the case with
the friendly countries of Bulgaria, Greece, Rumania, Turkey,
Switzerland, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden,
Finland, and the Baltic States. (Jan. 30, 1939)[109]
In Hitler's Reichstag speech of April 28, 1939, in which he replied to
President Roosevelt's telegraphic message inviting him and Mussolini
to pledge themselves not to attack 31 countries mentioned by name, he
stated:
_... All states bordering on Germany have received much more
binding assurances, and above all suggestions, than Mr.
Roosevelt asked from me in his curious telegram ..._
The German Government is nevertheless prepared to give each
of the States named an assurance of the kind desired by Mr.
Roosevelt on the condition of absolute reciprocity, provided
that the State wishes it and itself addresses to Germany a
request for such an assurance together with appropriate
proposals.[110]
And on September 1, 1939, with reference to the recently concluded
pact between Germany and Russia, he said:
You know that Russia and Germany are governed by two
different doctrines. There was only one question that had to
be cleared up. Germany has no intention of exporting its
doctrine. Given the fact that Soviet Russia has no intention
of exporting its doctrine to Germany, I no longer see any
reason why we should still oppose one another. On both sides
we are clear on that. Any struggle between our people would
only be of advantage to others. We have, therefore, resolved
to conclude a pact which rules out forever any use of
violence between us.[111]
Additional assurances of this nature are quoted in a series of
extracts from Hitler's speeches, dating from February 10, 1933 to
September 1, 1939, which was printed in the _London Times_ of
September 26, 1939 (document 14, _post_ p. 232).
_2. Internal Propaganda_
Within Germany the notorious propaganda machine of Dr. Goebbels,
together with a systematic terrorization of oppositionist elements,
has been the principle support of the rise and triumph of the Nazi
movement. In his _Legal Organization and Legal Functions of the
Movement_ (document 8, _post_ p. 204), Gauweiler gives an idea of the
permeation of all phases of national life with a propaganda designed
to make Nazi "legal principles" acceptable to the masses. He makes it
clear that all of the Nazi propaganda machinery is in the service of
this program; political lecturers, the press, the radio, and the films
all play a part in helping the people to understand and appreciate the
new legal code. The schools and Hitler Youth groups provide
instruction for all young people in the fundamentals of National
Socialist law, and pupils in those schools which train the carefully
selected future leaders are given an especially strong dose of Nazi
legal theory and practice.
In order to appeal to the broadest audience, Nazi propaganda has
always sought to present all questions in the simplest possible terms.
Goebbels himself, in his _Nature and Form of National Socialism_
(document 2, _post_ p. 170), wrote as follows:
National Socialism has simplified the thinking of the German
people and led it back to its original primitive formulas.
It has presented the complicated processes of political and
economic life in their simplest terms. This was done with
the well-considered intention of leading the broad masses of
the people once again to take part in political life. In
order to find understanding among the masses, we consciously
practiced a popular [_volksgebundene_] propaganda. We have
taken complexes of facts which were formerly accessible only
to a few specialists and experts, carried them to the
streets, and hammered them into the brain of the little man.
All things were presented so simply that even the most
primitive mind could grasp them. We refused to work with
unclear or insubstantial concepts but we gave all things a
clearly defined sense. Here lay the secret of our
success.[112]
The character and quality of Nazi propaganda was fully presaged in
_Mein Kampf_. Here Hitler paid a striking tribute to the power of
lies, commenting on--
the very correct principle that the size of the lie always
involves a certain factor of credibility, since the great
mass of a people will be more spoiled in the innermost
depths of its heart, rather than consciously and
deliberately bad. Consequently, in view of the primitive
simplicity of its mind it is more readily captivated by a
big lie than by a small one, since it itself often uses
small lies but would be, nevertheless, too ashamed to make
use of big lies. Such an untruth will not even occur to it,
and it will not even believe that others are capable of the
enormous insolence of the most vile distortions. Why, even
when enlightened, it will still vacillate and be in doubt
about the matter and will nevertheless accept as true at
least some cause or other. Consequently, even from the most
impudent lie something will always stick ...[113]
A number of other passages display Hitler's low opinion of the
intellectual capacities and critical faculties of the masses:
All propaganda has to appeal to the people and its
intellectual level has to be set in accordance with the
receptive capacities of the most-limited persons among those
to whom it intends to address itself. The larger the mass
of men to be reached, the lower its purely intellectual
level will have to be set.[114]
The receptive capacity of the great masses is very
restricted, its understanding small. On the other hand,
however, its forgetfulness is great. On account of these
facts all effective propaganda must restrict itself to very
few points and impress these by slogans, until even the last
person is able to bring to mind what is meant by such a
word.[115]
The task of propaganda is, for instance, not to evaluate
diverse rights but to emphasize exclusively the single right
of that which it is representing. It does not have to
investigate objectively the truth, so far as this is
favorable to the others, in order then to present it to the
masses in strict honesty, but rather to serve its own side
ceaselessly.[116]
If one's own propaganda even once accords just the shimmer
of right to the other side, then the basis is therewith laid
for doubt regarding one's own cause. The masses are not able
to distinguish where the error of the other side ends and
the error of one's own side begins.[117]
But all talent in presentation of propaganda will lead to no
success if a fundamental principle is not always strictly
followed. Propaganda has to restrict itself to a few matters
and to repeat these eternally. Persistence is here, as with
so many other things in the world, the first and most
important presupposition for success.[118]
In view of their slowness of mind, they [the masses] require
always, however, a certain period before they are ready even
to take cognizance of a matter, and only after a
thousandfold repetition of the most simple concept will they
finally retain it.[119]
_In all cases in which there is a question of the fulfilment
of apparently impossible demands or tasks, the entire
attention of a people must be concentrated only on this one
question, in such a way as if being or non-being actually
depends on its solution_ ...
...The great mass of the people can never see the entire way
before them, without tiring and doubting the task.[120]
In general the art of all truly great popular leaders at all
times consists primarily in not scattering the attention of
a people but rather in concentrating it always on one single
opponent. The more unified this use of the fighting will of
a people, the greater will be the magnetic attractive force
of a movement and the more powerful the force of its push.
It is a part of the genius of a great leader to make even
quite different opponents appear as if they belonged only to
one category, because the recognition of different enemies
leads weak and unsure persons only too readily to begin
doubting their own cause.
When the vacillating masses see themselves fighting against
too many enemies, objectivity at once sets in and raises the
question whether really all the others are wrong and only
one's own people or one's own movement is right.[121]
(Document 13-II, _post_ pp. 229-231.)
It has been the aim of Nazi propaganda, then, to unite the masses of
the people in hatred of certain enemies, designated by such
conveniently broad and simple terms as "Jews," "democrats,"
"plutocrats," "bolshevists," or "Anglo-Saxons," which so far as
possible were to be identified with one another in the public mind.
The Germans were represented to themselves, on the other hand, as a
racial folk of industrious workers. It then became possible to plunge
the people into a war on a wave of emotional hatred against those
nations which were pictured as combining to keep Germany from
attaining her rightful place in the sun.
The important role which propaganda would have to play in the coming
war was fully recognized by Ewald Banse, an ardent Nazi military
theorist of the geopolitical school and professor of military science
at Brunswick Military College. In his book _Raum und Volk im
Weltkrieg_ (_Space and People in the World War_) which appeared in
1932 (an English translation by Alan Harris was published under the
title _Germany Prepares for War_ (New York, Harcourt, Brace and Co.,
1934)), he stated:
Preparation for future wars must not stop at the creation,
equipment and training of an efficient army, but must go on
to train the minds of the whole people for the war and must
employ all the resources of science to master the conditions
governing the war itself and the possibility of endurance.
In 1914 we had a first-class army, but our scientific
mobilization was bad, and the mobilization of men's minds a
thing undreamed of. The unveiling of war memorials, parades
of war veterans, flag-waggings, fiery speeches and
guard-mounting are not of themselves enough to prepare a
nation's mind for the dangers that threaten. Conviction is
always more lasting than enthusiasm.
... Such teaching is necessary at a time and in a world in
which countries are no longer represented by monarchs or a
small aristocracy or by a specialist army, but in which the
whole nation, from the commander-in-chief to the man in the
ranks, from the loftiest thought to the simplest wish, from
corn to coal, from the treasury vaults to the last
trouser-button, must be permeated through and through with
the idea of national defense, if it is to preserve its
national identity and political independence. The science of
national defense is not the same as military science; it
does not teach generals how to win battles or company
commanders how to train recruits. Its lessons are addressed
first and foremost to the whole people. It seeks to train
the popular mind to heroism and war and to implant in it an
understanding of the nature and prerequisite conditions of
modern warfare. It teaches us about countries and peoples,
especially our own country and its neighbors, their
territories and economic capacity, their communications and
their mentality--all for the purpose of creating the best
possible conditions for waging future wars in defense of the
national existence.[122]