Nazi Propaganda During The Holocaust

World War II took place between the 1939 and 1945. It was the worst war in human history, with over 60 million people killed, 67% of those were civilians (World-War-2.info, 2015). The National Socialist German Workers ' Party (Nazi Party), led by Adolf Hitler were the perpetrators of a brutal operation now known as The Holocaust. The Holocaust was one of the most catastrophic events in modern history because of the scale of destruction and the amount of people killed. This is because propaganda was used to create an atmosphere that accepted violence against Jews, early Nazi policies reduced the rights of the Jewish population, many were sent to concentration camps where they were treated viciously and finally millions were killed in extermination camps.
Propaganda is a useful tool to persuade public opinion to what the government believes. The Nazi propaganda machine was co-ordinated by Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi Propaganda Minister. He used propaganda to dehumanise the Jewish population of Germany through media such as books, movies and newspapers. He portrayed the Jewish population as money-hungry, lazy, ugly and perverse. The propaganda created an atmosphere tolerant of violence against Jews. The Nazis spread their Anti-Semitic belief to younger generations through children’s stories such as The Poisonous Mushroom. In the story a mother is talking to her son about poisonous mushrooms, she then compares Jews to …show more content…
Just as poisonous mushrooms often lead to the most dreadful calamity, so the Jew is the cause of misery and distress, illness and death. (Julius Streicer, 1938)
Through these methods Goebbels convinced the German public that the Jewish population were parasites that needed to be stopped. He had created an atmosphere in Germany that accepted violence against Jews; the racial tension was so strong that even a slight spark could set off the German