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[Music]
the image of adolf hitler the fuhrer
leader of the nazi party
casts a long shadow over the second half
of the 20th century
a vision of incomprehensible evil that
endures today
but behind this figure was an ordinary
man
a master manipulator whose talent for
public speaking
and deep understanding of how to
effectively use propaganda
propelled him to ultimate power
in power hitler and the nazi party would
build a propaganda and terror machine to
persuade
coerce and ultimately mobilize the
population of germany
defining the nazi state through the
notion of strength through unity
one people one reich one fuhrer
[Music]
hitler's appointment as chancellor of
germany on the 30th of january 1933
was celebrated that night by thousands
of party members marching through the
streets
an instant and overt display of nazi
party power
and influence
[Music]
but in reality he was the head of a
coalition government
with only two other members of the nazi
party in his cabinet
hermann goling and the lawyer wilhelm
frick
hitler's first radio address as
chancellor on the 1st of february 1933
had to be approved by his cabinet and
revealed the new role he would play
that of the moderate politician
for a time after after hitler became
chancellor he seemed to tone down his
rhetoric a little
there was very much a sense of okay now
we're in power we'll do things more
by the book in this speech hitler
avoided anything that wouldn't appeal to
a broad base
carefully chosen language conveying a
positive outlook
conspicuously absent from this speech
was any sign of anti-semitism
two days later his speech to german navy
and army commanders
had a markedly different focus
in it hitler declared that only battle
can save us
and everything else must be subordinated
to this thought
what hitler did was really not present
a consistent image but a whole number of
images
depending on the audience there was a
civic hitler for the civic minded there
was a revolutionary hitler for the
revolutionaries
there was a holy hitler for the church
implied at least so everyone could in
other words
read into hitler what they wanted to see
what followed was a year of considerable
change
in which hitler would establish absolute
power through propaganda of persuasion
and terror
compelling germans to flee comply or
convert to their cause
exerting control over every aspect of
german culture
and ideology
on the night of the 27th of february
1933
hitler would be given his first major
propaganda opportunity
as chancellor when a fire broke out in
the reichstag
germany's parliament building a young
communist was arrested at the scene
the fire fed neatly into hitler's
narrative of anarchy
his promise to restore order and the
communist as
enemy saboteur
hitler capitalized on this by issuing a
decree on the protection of the people
and the state
suspending the right to assembly freedom
of speech
and freedom of the press it gave his
regime the power to suppress
publications
and arrest political opponents without
specific charges
they made it clear that anybody who
resisted them
was going to have a nasty time and
that very quickly established their
authority
never underestimate weapons in the hands
of the state
that can be used to dominate a
population and control the population
less than a month after the fire hitler
stood under the looming presence of the
swastika
and presented his enabling act to
parliament
the bill would allow the nazi party to
bypass the usual parliamentary due
process
the country's constitution and the
president to pass their own unilateral
laws
the enabling act was passed by the
majority of the reichstag
while armed members of the nazi party's
own police and military forces
along with right-wing paramilitary group
the steel helmets
stood at every door and surrounded the
building
hitler had finally gained legislative
control of germany
aided by the nazi party's intimidation
tactics
basically he took over the engines of
power
so the police the administration
everything which gives the state
the power to exercise power
and he used it very ruthlessly
using the enabling act hitler would
enact a range of legislation aimed at
marginalizing
disempowering and removing the jewish
population of germany
on the street his intimidation apparatus
was trading off the persuasive power of
fear
groups like the sa who had merged with
the steel helmets in june 1933
the gestapo the nazi secret police
headed by hermann goering
founded to monitor and quash political
activity dangerous to the regime
and hitler's personal bodyguard the
shutstaffel or ss
which had grown by 1933 into an elite
group of 52
000 men led by heinrich himmler the role
the ss
the sa and the gestapo played as far as
hitler's attempt to create a kind of
image
of the reich was of strength but also
violence
and this element of violence or the
threat of violence was very much
part of hitler's politics the sass
and gestapo were an extension of the
nazi propaganda machine
agents of control and chaos instigators
of violence and protests in the streets
enforcers and security men marching in
unison at rallies and demonstrations
[Music]
[Applause]
foreign
for weeks after hitler was made
chancellor the sa
and nazi party members had been
assaulting and imprisoning jewish people
targeting their businesses for raids and
violent attacks
on the first of april 1933 goebbels
formalized this
into an organized campaign orchestrating
a boycott of jewish businesses across
germany using his resources as head of
the new ministry for public
enlightenment and propaganda
hitler realized that he had a real asset
there somebody who understood
modern communication who understood
modern media
who was very much thoughtful in the way
in which he was organizing things so he
gave him quite a lot of power in
organizing the party propaganda machines
in 1933 when the nazis
ceased power anti-semitism
became the doctrine of the state the
state ideology
and the anti-semitic regulations
were immediately put into reality
crucially the core element was the
notion that
whilst not all jews represented some
kind of criminal
threat to germany nevertheless there was
in a sense some abstract collective
jewish threat to germany
some germans didn't comply with the
boycott but it was considered a
political act to walk into one of these
shops
a stand many weren't willing to make
so in a sense there was both genuine
persuasion going on here
about this notion that the jews were a
genuine threat at the same time there
were huge
incentives to go along and support this
kind of propaganda
whether one really believed in it or not
because it was the propaganda that
showed what the regime believed and how
the regime was operating
while it was only one day it served its
purpose as a statement of propaganda and
policy
fear in the nazi regime became one of
their most potent persuaders
i sometimes think that fear is
underestimated not in a direct sense i
mean for most people
if you kept your nose clean then you
could get on with your life
you'd have to make the regular gestures
you'd have to raise your arm
you know when you went into state
offices and that kind of thing
otherwise the regime you know on the
whole
wouldn't bother you but at the back of
your mind it seems to me if i'd been
living in that regime
i would have been aware that if i did
step out of line
then nasty things could happen to me
the party perpetrated the idea that if
you stepped out of line if you were seen
to not be a good
german they would come for you
and come they did the first
concentration camp
near the town of dhaka was opened on the
22nd of march
1933.
the first inmates of the camps which
opened as soon as he took part
were communists they were liberals they
were conservatives
so he literally defended the opposition
by
physically eliminating it many of course
fled into exile they were
clever ones by july of that
year dachau and other hastily
established camps around germany
held almost 27 000 people
many had been denounced by friends and
neighbors
none had been indicted or convicted at
trial
at odds with this reality was the
pervasive myth of the benevolent
concentration camp rehabilitating its
inhabitants
a stark example of how the nazi party
used propaganda to make their policies
palatable
masking their true intent behind a
facade of righteousness
hitler was also fixated on unifying nazi
ideology and german identity
using carefully managed plebiscites to
legitimize his policies and actions
now these figures can be challenged but
in so far as they are a measurement of
public opinion they are worth
considering manipulating public
perception
using one of the pillars of democracy as
a propaganda tool
the first of these referendums would
seek endorsement for hitler's foreign
policy
the referendum asked germans to
literally internalize hitler's rhetoric
do you a german man and german woman
approve of this policy of your reich
government
and are you prepared to declare it to be
your own view and your own will to
solemnly profess your belief in it
of the 45 million germans who voted over
95 percent
said yes the question and the response
were both products of estate
for every poster picture and slogan
reminded you to conform to the notion
of one people one reich one fiora
there is one particular poster which i
think encapsulates
adolf hitler's imagery and that's a
famous poster in which he's painted
it's not a photograph he's standing
there in full colour in his brown
uniform
and the slogan is one volck one reich
one fuhrer one people one
empire one leader and nowhere on that
is mentioned the government or the party
it's
linking those three key elements of nazi
propaganda the people the volk
the reich the empire and the fuhrer of
the leader it's a remarkable example of
how the fuhrer is betrayed as
almost god-like bestriding germany
beyond the concerns of day-to-day
bureaucracy
behind the propaganda the nazi party
were taking steps to align the realities
of government
with this vision a revolution of power
that involved intimidating coercing and
otherwise persuading germany's remaining
political parties
to disband
within a matter of months hitler and the
nazi party had completely dismantled
germany's democratic multi-party system
while hitler's power and influence grew
so too did the nazi party's own
paramilitary forces
but germany's army viewed this privately
controlled force that by mid-1934 was
four times their size
with unease army leadership saw the sa
as a potential barrier to their own
expansion
hitler didn't want that at all he wanted
it to be subordinate to the party simply
a strong arm sort of movement for the
party to basically
beat up opponents and march
through turns and generally give an
impression an image of strength and
determination
and action and so on but he didn't want
them being military
it was a problem hitler would have to
resolve
on the 29th of may 1934 he ordered the
essay to cease military exercises
this was followed over june and july by
a violent bloodletting of the essays
command
including ernst rome one of hitler's
closest allies
since the early years of the party rome
was very useful at a bully boy a tough
guy on the street led the sa
but his belief was you wanted violent
revolution you seize power you repeat
the coup
and for hitler this was dated this was
out of fashion it wouldn't work
largely orchestrated by hitler goring
and himmler
this period would later be known as the
night of the long knives
at least 70 party members were killed
but the figure was possibly as high as
400.
so after that the sa was totally tamed
and
became really unimportant it was
replaced by the ss
they took over as the main sort of
enforces
the main terror organization of the
regime from then onwards
presented to the public as the quelling
of a threatened revolt
it was widely supported as restoring
order to an organization viewed as
difficult to manage
what the depiction of an event does is
give us the regime's view of it uh
it doesn't tell us the truth of the
event
the depiction of the event can be
changed by the alchemy of propaganda
into something entirely different
the interesting thing is that the german
people were not prepared to interrogate
these
very uh pastiche justifications they
looked the other way they just
accepted this fate accompli of something
absolutely appallingly degenerate the
random murder
of a lot of key figures in their
political civilization
hitler capitalized on the narrative
value of these events
declaring certain deaths for anyone who
threatened the regime
himmler benefited greatly from the coup
already in control of the gestapo
the nazi secret police his inimitable ss
force was made its own
independent organization making him
second only
to hitler hitler's path to absolute
power
was completely cleared when on the 2nd
of august 1934
president hindenburg died
two weeks later hitler held another
referendum to gain support for combining
his position as chancellor of germany
with the now vacated role of president
while turnout was low almost 90 percent
of voters agreed with his proposal
hitler was now head of state and head of
the government
in response the nazi party generated a
cacophony of celebratory propaganda
in images radio and print
posters were distributed with such
slogans as yes
fura we will follow you
[Music]
the nazi propaganda narrative of one
people one reich
one fiora was finally reflected in
germany's power structure
[Applause]
while hitler was consolidating power
goebbels was using his propaganda
ministry
to gain control of german art culture
and education the nazi's control of art
and culture was
a fundamental part of their propaganda
art has traditionally been
a way in which dissent is expressed
whether that's in the form of poetry
music or in deep painting but the
nazis are very quick to take full
control of art abolishing some or
banning it on the grounds that it was
decadent
on the 12th of april school
organizations declared a period of
cleansing
that would end in a ritualized burning
of blacklisted books on the 10th of may
1933.
bonfires were set up in berlin munich
frankfurt
dresden and breslau and lines of torch
wielding students
and sa members flung books onto the pyre
goebbels and other key party members
watched as these ungerman works
were burned in front of the berlin opera
house
he declared to the crowd that out of
these ashes the phoenix of a new age
will rise
these ritualized ceremonies held by
torchlight with singing
chanting and oaths made were broadcast
by radio
around germany
the nazis targeted education as an
important facet of their propaganda
machine
education was used to shape
the nation and what the nazis call the
national community
so it was about fostering a sense of
creation and belonging to the nation and
this
took the form of all kinds of different
changes to the curriculum and to school
textbooks
the national socialist idea of the
national community was in fact an
exclusive club meant only for strong
healthy aryans
[Music]
educational content produced by the
nazis provided a framework for
justifying this
textbooks began to incorporate
anti-semitism disguised as objective
biological or anthropological fact one
of them was called the poisonous
mushroom
and again it was just about really
trying to show
a whole gamut of allegations
so the jew as a communist the jew
as a financier
classrooms became an important frontier
for perpetuating nazi ideology
disguised as education
the way that german was taught was also
important too so that there was a focus
in education in german lessons
not just on the language but on the
literature as well
and on folk tales and german myths and
legends
as well as on components of the blood
and soil
ideology that meant that people were
bound up to the nation and to the land
[Music]
germany's youth were considered
incredibly important to the national
socialist movement
their exposure to nazi propaganda took
place in and out of the classroom
the nazis had a concept of total
education
and this meant a combination of
formal education in the school system
complemented by
informal socialization we could say
membership in the hitler youth grew from
around 100
000 members in 1932 to over 7 million
in 1939. groups like hitler youth and
the league of german girls
indoctrinated children through exposure
to nazi publications
and participation in nazi party rallies
summer camps
and almost militarized games it was the
idea of each
german girl or boy playing their part in
the nation
almost as building blocks to create an
organic hole
and this organic whole would be the
foundation of the future so the youth
were absolutely
essential to everything that the nazis
did
[Applause]
in late 1933 goebbels expanded his
control over german culture
by establishing the reich culture
chamber or rkk
through his propaganda ministry
the rkk was made up of seven chambers
literature film theater music
visual arts press and radio
you can see this is a pretty ambitious
program
goebbels again brought his
characteristic energy to this and
had um you know the help of thousands of
employees and uh or
all manner of resources
in an attempt to control public
discourse goebbels mandated that every
artist
or journalist who wanted to practice in
germany had to apply to the rkk
goebbels was particularly aware of the
power of mass media
he required all films produced in
germany to be reviewed and approved
by the rkk and he identified radio as
the most modern and important instrument
of mass influence that exists
anywhere by 1932
there was a radio in one out of every
four german homes
goebbels sought to improve on that
figure
the nazi regime introduced a new radio
set
called the fox amp feng or the people's
receiver and this was a very cheap radio
set which practically anyone could
afford so what this meant was that when
there were nazi
speeches or hitler speaking or one of
the other key leaders or different
messages
that they wanted to get across they
could use the radio
when goebbels took control of the reich
broadcasting company
it gave the nazi party unfettered access
to the airwaves
for blatant propaganda programming
[Music]
goebbels also targeted german publishing
taking control of the assets of rival
political parties
and jewish companies
those still allowed to practice chose
self-censorship
following daily directives from the
press chamber
gerbils though was very careful not to
drum propaganda you know and
ideology into people he very quickly
told the press that they should
bore people he very quickly realized
that
what people wanted was basically
what they had before and with the sort
of judicious doses of propaganda but
carefully
calibrated so that it didn't appear like
propaganda
if you disobeyed directives at best you
would be fired
at worst sent to a concentration camp
in response to the nazis tightening grip
hundreds of scientists and artists fled
germany
figures who had greeted the rise of
national socialism with deep hostility
and concern
over the course of the 1930s three
hundred thousand germans would leave
their country
among them was albert einstein
[Music]
the rkk sought to define what works
expressed the narrow nazi view
of german culture in 1937
they used their control over museums and
theater to run
an anti-semitic exhibition called the
eternal jew
in munich supported by a similarly
themed play
run by the bavarian state theatre
[Music]
they wanted a very wholesome german art
that emphasized
myths like blood and soil people's
connection to
literally to the german earth and to
their german heredity as well
and how that could be portrayed in art
over 400 000 people attended the
exhibition
but even more attended their exhibition
of degenerate art
that targeted anything abstract or
interpretive which was visited by
two million people turnout that
reinforced the reach that art could have
the other thing that's quite important
is the way that hitler was portrayed in
art as well
the artistic portraits that were made of
him were also quite evocative
whether as the military leader in his
uniform or as the
as a kind of teutonic messianic leader
that was going to lead the nation to
greatness again
[Music]
hitler and his supporters used every
aspect of their control over german
culture
to perpetuate his cult of personality
the way hitler created and staged
managed his own
image is a remarkably instructive into
how the nazi party actually saw hitler
too
hitler actually separated himself in
some ways from the nazi party itself
he was portrayed almost as a king-like
figure beyond the
minor concerns of party squabbles
unimpeachable
unapproachable and yet also the
embodiment of german strength
the pinnacle of nazi propaganda
depicting hitler the messianic leader
was the 1935 film triumphed as villains
or triumph of the will
filmed as a documentary of the 1934
reich party congress at nuremberg can
also relearn this
and these areas engage
thunder and yield and attack
nor to thinking and touch land
and fight
c it really represents the kind of
edited quintessence of the party its
image of itself its projection to the
world
of what it was it is truly disturbing
because it's a kind of
militarized ballet in which it elevates
certain human virtues like
discipline and others it entirely
not merely neglects but throws into the
rubbish
bag you know you have to have a pointy
blonde aryan face and be athletic
disciplined and obey
disciplined forces stand to attention in
rows
cheering masses with arms raised as they
hail in unison
children with blonde curls greeted by
their fuhrer
the film also showcases the
neo-classical architecture of the rally
grounds
designed in part by albert speer
architecture that sphere built for it is
in itself
a kind of filmic architecture so it's
that kind of austere neoclassicism that
we associate with nazi and fascist
official architecture today but it's
also something that's specifically
designed to look good for a camera it's
almost like a kind of grand
hollywood stage set enhanced at the time
by special lighting shows
triumph of the will like the wagnerian
operas hitler was known to love
used staging lighting and music to
amplify the emotional power of the story
[Music]
seeking to create and perpetuate an
enduring mythology
of the third rank
the nazis were always conscious of
propaganda not just affecting people in
the moment but also
about how it would affect the way future
generations would remember
and recall their achievements so not
just adopting a neoclassical style
all official buildings of state but
they're also anticipating what these
buildings would look like
in the future including in the very
distant future so what they're gonna
look like in a thousand or two thousand
years time
will these buildings still be
awe-inspiring once they're in a ruined
state as the acropolis is today
the rally itself was an expression of
nazi symbols
power unity cohesion an artifact of
party propaganda
titled reich party rally of unity and
strength
the 1934 rally was the first since
hitler had successfully combined the
position of chancellor
and president taking comprehensive
control of germany
and only months after the night of the
long knives had resulted in a bloody
upheaval of sa leadership
the rally and the film were also a work
of propaganda turned inwards
aimed at the party itself calling on all
to come together
[Applause]
does the area
[Applause]
it's the moment that hitler becomes a
god
he is no longer immortal and this is
what crime for the world
is really doing it's about the supremacy
the super heroism of hitler but also his
superhumanity
is no longer human
long after hitler had gained power he
continued to hold these rallies
aimed at mobilizing the german people
and generating a kind of self-actualized
acclaim for the nazi party
displaying their own power and the
rapturous celebrations of rally
participants
in 1935 the rally became the site
for the passing of hitler's nuremberg
laws
laws that severely limited civil rights
of anyone the nazis deemed undesirable
particularly for jews in germany
the nuremberg laws paved the way
for all subsequent laws and regulation
and there were more than one thousand
anti-jewish laws
they all went back to the nuremberg laws
and these legal process more or less
also paved the way for the final aim of
the nazis to
exterminate the jews
the nuremberg laws only heightened the
importance of the rally in the nazi
state
they would be held each year at
nuremberg until the outbreak of world
war ii
each rally promoted through posters
filled with nazi iconography
the nuremberg rallies were only one of
many methods the party had
for generating symbols of nazi power and
german strength rebuilt
one of the nazi's greatest propaganda
successes was the 1936
berlin olympics the 1936
olympics is dripping with nazi
propaganda this is
in some ways the opportunity for nazi
germany to show its
public face to the world there'll be
cameras there there'll be reporters
there
for the first time since the nazis took
over the government in 1933 there's
a large-scale foreign visit to germany
and they want to portray nazi germany in
the very best possible light
this was a chance to present a sanitized
version of nazi germany
to the international community
that it be managed at every level
gypsies
had been removed to concentration camps
most of the signs saying jews forbidden
were removed
it was a fantasy of germany to present
to the world hitler funneled massive
resources into realizing this potential
spending more to host the games than any
previous olympian
this included a new stadium designed by
albert speer and the neoclassical style
that hitler favoured for nazi
architecture
built to hold 250 000 spectators
the berlin games were also treated as an
opportunity for the nazis to showcase
the strength
and efficiency of this new germany
rebuilt from the ruins of world war one
and the great depression he's not really
satisfied with portraying the image of
berlin as a fabulous modern and vibrant
city
he also wants to show that the german
race is on a higher level
than those of others who are visiting
the place and it's actually a very
effective propaganda tool
a narrative that was disrupted by the
success of african american athletes
like long jumper jesse owens
who beats german lutzle
over 45 countries including the us great
britain
and france participated in the games a
fact that acknowledged the legitimacy of
hitler's regime
both within germany and overseas
remember that this happens after the
nuremberg laws
after the opening of the concentration
camps there's an awful lot
leaking out to the international uh
community
about how truly wicked nazi germany was
but germany produced this brilliant pr
campaign it really was
effectively bribing journalists with
marvelous facilities
nothing like it had ever been done
before in all of history
the olympics in berlin became another
opportunity to generate propaganda
artifacts
and harness new technologies the berlin
olympics
were the first sporting event to ever be
broadcast live on television
another display of the technical
proficiency and superiority
of nazi germany
nazi propaganda often reflected hitler's
focus on the idea of building a modern
innovative germany soon after becoming
chancellor
hitler took control of the fledgling
autobahn program
a plan to build a network of intercity
freeways across germany
breaking ground on construction became
another ritual
columns of marching figures with shovels
replacing flags or weapons
so there's the sort of physical side of
the propaganda and so the autobahn and
the
motorways talked about putting the
people back to work and being very
important in
turning around the economy entirely
hitler dedicated the new roads to the
german people
and specifically the german worker
[Applause]
commencement of works of building a new
germany in the nazi image
became another facet of the propaganda
machine
two years later hitler was starting to
open sections of the network
to great adulation so what these
successes were doing was distracting
from the
apparatus of terror and use of force
and intimidation it wasn't completely
out of view but
people weren't focusing on it in those
first five or so years
of the third reich once hitler was in
power for a time it
seemed as if he was a very effective
leader he he brought back a lot of
public works german economy at least for
a time looked like it was booming
but it was a paper tiger it was an
economy
that was only going to operate if they
could bring in enough
raw materials for from abroad and they
could only do that if they could get
territorial
conquests either by negotiation or by
war
hitler converted this need to expand
into neighboring territories
into a new propaganda narrative the
urgent need for lebensraum
or living space for the german people
the idea of levan's realm was was very
much the
hidden agenda minecamp has a lot to say
about it
and it had always been the big theme in
nazi policy was
to create an empire to the east where
you would settle german ncos as farmers
and you'd have a servile semi-slave
surf population carved out of the slavic
peoples
the way to achieve it for hitler was
through military power
and the rearmament of germany as a
priority
rearmament was sold as a way to return
germany to its former glory
it was also a valuable propaganda tool a
new industrial program
that would be a way to get germans back
to work
this growing military power was paraded
at party rallies
and in marches through the streets
symbols of new german strength and unity
[Music]
but liebentrum wouldn't be achieved
through military strength alone
each new territorial gain was lubricated
by the nazi propaganda machine
their first test came in 1935 when the
population of the shah land in southwest
germany
were given the chance to vote for their
fate
stay under league of nations control or
become part of either france
or germany the nazi propaganda ministry
ran an intensive campaign handing out
cheap radios
to make sure their message was heard in
as many homes as possible
using those radios to spread false
claims about their opponents
and calling for the tsar to return home
to the reich
over 90 of the population voted to
return to germany
to join the third reich
in march 1936 hitler flaunted the treaty
of versailles
by moving 30 000 troops into the
rhineland
a move justified through a mass media
campaign that suggested germany was
under threat from france and russia
when his actions drew little reaction
from the international community
hitler would tell a crowd in munich i go
with the certainty of a sleepwalker
along the path laid out for me by
providence
bolstered by these successes hitler
continued his programme of expansion
his first major target of 1938
was austria
the incorporation or an slush of austria
into the reich
was an orchestrated affair hitler's
chance to demonstrate the new military
power of his regime
and a prime propaganda opportunity the
angelus
the return of austria to the great
german fatherland
was a natural move for him because he
was austrian
and as he said after taking over after
the angelus um
your son has returned to his homeland
hitler used nazi symbols and military
strength
to reinforce the idea that austria was
returning to the fold
the swastika flag hung on the facade of
austrian buildings
hitler surveyed german tanks as they
rolled through the streets of vienna
cheering crowds lying streets there to
welcome the nazi takeover
well the angelus was another of those
masterpieces
of propaganda that the austrian people
were univocal
in wanting hitler the regime was quick
to spread nazi-controlled information
approved german newspapers replacing
austrian publications on newsstands
hitler would also personally brief 400
media representatives
on how the angelus should be presented
then in october 1938 hitler took another
step towards expanding his new empire
when he successfully negotiated to bring
the sudetenland region of czechoslovakia
into greater germany i think what it
changes
is is czechoslovakia
because this is something you can
justify with a good
narrative built around some facts and
ideas
so yes what do you have in
czechoslovakia you have a new state that
was carved at the end of the first world
war
but you've got a little bit of a problem
because you've got
quite a sizable german minority in that
area called
sudetenla so of course that becomes part
of
an agenda of irredentism of trying to
redeem certain territories in germany
at the time almost one in four people
living in czechoslovakia were german
yet only eight percent of czech
broadcast were in german
so instead they were tuning in to nazi
broadcasts
fed on a diet of nazi propaganda
hitler went beyond the standard issues
associated with
versailles revisionism rhineland austria
tsar reparations re-militarization and
so on
into i would like to break up the
boundaries of another state and annex
bits of territory
that had been awarded to another state
against the will was a change of
attack completely it was stepping up the
gears
quite substantially
many would welcome their return to the
german fold
not the jewish population
if they had any doubt about the terrible
threat they faced the events
over one night in november 1938 would
cast those aside
in response to the murder of a german
diplomat in paris by a young jew
goebbels made an impassioned speech
calling for retaliation
it was the embodiment of nazi rhetoric
that all jews were responsible for the
sin
of one on the night of the 8th of
november
7 500 jewish businesses across germany
and austria
were damaged or destroyed
for jews it has a deep impact
on their consciousness and their memory
because most
jews realize experiencing the burning of
their synagogues of the
prayer houses the destruction of their
homes
the arrest of thirty thousand males
the murder of jews and the terror in
straits
it symbolized the end of a german jewish
relationship the whole event was framed
and contextualized by nazi propaganda
dictating how the pressure could cover
what had happened
crystal nacht the night of broken glass
named in reference to the broken shop
windows
led to a spike not only in jewish
emigration
but also suicides
the world was shocked by this fresh
brutality and acted against jews by the
nazi regime
but you see that was part of the plan to
actually inject fear into the global
community
and in the brutality was also part of
the propaganda because they wanted
people to fear them
they wanted people to be terrified of
them
which they were
[Music]
despite the horrors of events like
kristallnacht the international
community
remained unwilling to stop hitler
no one wanted another war as the
negotiations to hand over the
sudetenland had shown
the allies were willing to put up with a
lot to avoid one
and so 1939 began with time magazine
naming hitler 1938's man of the year
his influence on world events considered
more significant
more comprehensive than any other figure
[Music]
german conquests of other nations had so
far been relatively bloodless
and the general sentiment among the
german people remained opposed to the
idea of all-out war
hitler was faced with a propaganda
challenge
there's no question that germans didn't
want what they wanted
was said to be what hitler gained
and i think they'd been very happy if
he'd stopped you know this way
despite everything that had happened
since he came to power
hitler still needed to mobilize the
nation to make them feel like there was
no choice but to fight
hitler needed the propaganda ministry to
introduce
a new angle up until 38
he had spoken of peace a lot his p
in his speeches but
after munich he hauled the
various editors of newspapers in to a
big meeting
and said right from now on once we've
been talking peace
now we've got to prepare the german
population for war
within this narrative hitler was
positioned as wanting nothing but peace
a notion he would play to repeatedly
each time he made a show of sincere
peace offerings
but on the 1st of september 1939
hitler would confirm once again that the
very opposite was true
marching germany towards the goal he had
set out to achieve when he came to power
the ultimate nazi narrative device
conquest through military supremacy