Pegah Ghassemi English 1 12/11/00 Propaganda in Nazi Germany In the period of time around the Second World War, the German people's heads were infiltered with Nazi Propaganda. Little by little the German population was stripped away of their judgement and morality by being brainwashed by Hitler and the Nazi party with propaganda. Propaganda played a very big role in controlling and dictating the German population during the Second World War. Hitler used it "to control the press as well as all other means of expression-radio, film, art, and literature"(Rhodes 11). He also used propaganda to hypnotize the German people into believing he and his party were what was best for Germany's future. "Hitler's use of propaganda was his most sinister weapon, for it aimed at, and succeeded in persuading the Germans that the Nazi system would restore their country's greatness"(Rhodes 11). Propaganda was used so much to influence the German masses that "in Nazi Germany it [was] considered worthy of an entire government department"(Rhodes 11). They made propaganda its own section in the government to regulate and monitor what the German people would be hearing for the next several years to come. "On March 13, the Ministry for Popular Enlightenment was founded under the direction of Dr.Josef Goebbels"(Rhodes 11). "Hitler met [Goebbels] in 1926 and quickly appreciating his oratorical power of persuasion, made him head the Party Propaganda department "(Rhodes 13). Goebbels knew exactly how to influence a crowd. He knew what made the masses tick. He also had a great sense for what the German people were looking for in a leader, and so he showed them just that with Hitler through Ghassemi 2 Propaganda. "[He] was to become one of history's greatest political propagandists"(Rhodes 12). Hitler and Goebbels knew that Propaganda would work best with those less educated. Educated individuals question and interrogate what they hear.
