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  • Plays On Emotions

    Propaganda plays on human emotions—fear, hope, anger, frustration, sympathy—to direct audiences toward the desired goal. Hitler argued that the successful propagandist had to understand how to psychologically tailor messages to the public's emotions in order to win people over.

    Attacks Opponents

    Propaganda can serve as a form of political and social warfare to identify and vilify opponents. It can call into question the legitimacy, credibility, accuracy, and even the character of one’s opponents and their ideas. Nazi propagandists contributed to the implementation of the regime’s policies by publicly identifying groups for exclusion, justifying their outsider status, and inciting hatred or cultivating indifference.

    Advertises a Cause

    Adolf Hitler likened propaganda to political advertising: it had to distinguish the party, cause, or individual from their competitors. The Nazis branded themselves and their leader as young, patriotic, political outsiders who alone were capable of reforming Germany. They painted other political parties as special interest groups while portraying the Nazi Party as an inclusive movement representing all non-Jewish Germans, regardless of class, religion, or region.

    Targets Desired Audiences

    Effective propaganda often times conveys messages, themes, and language that appeal directly, and many times exclusively, to specific and distinct segments—and even sub-segments—of the population. Propagandists create messages that appeal directly to the needs, hopes, and fears of the targeted groups. The Nazi Party promoted itself as an inclusive political movement that represented all non-Jewish Germans, regardless of class, gender, religion, or region.

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BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

Nazi propagandists developed a keen appreciation for technology, including the gramophone. With it, recordings of Nazi speeches and entertaining martial music could be played at local meetings for group listening or in the streets through loudspeakers mounted on trucks. The record shown here is titled "Adolf Hitler—Our Leader! Address by Party Comrade Hinkel, Member of the Reichstag." [Source: USHMM Collection, Gift of the Robert M.W. Kempner Estate]

THIS IS AN EXAMPLE OF:

Advertises a cause

THIS IS PROPAGANDA BECAUSE:

Visually, Adolf Hitler is portrayed as “larger than life” and a strong leader of the masses. The Nazis skillfully exploited the most current mass communication technology to advertise their cause to the German people. In 1932, the Nazis distributed some 50,000 records of Nazi speeches and music throughout the Germany in an attempt to influence popular opinion and win support.

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