German propaganda exposed

Title

Language

English

Source

Panorama 4 (7) July 1939

Year

1939

Subject

Propaganda, German

Germany -- Politics and government

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Abstract

[The organization of foreign propaganda by the German Government is so vast, so intricate, and so widely ramified, that it almost baffles description. There is not just one agency for the purpose, but a variety of bodies, each subdivided into departments and sections, linked up with the other main organs of Government such as the Foreign Office, the War Office, and the Gestapo ( Secret State Police), and sending out their multitudinous tentacles to the remotest corners of the universe, yet all controlled by a central authority. This article illustrates how German spies work.]

Fulltext

~How German spies work. GERMAN PROPAGANDA EXPOSED THE organization of foreign propaganda by the German Government is so vast, so intricate, and so widely ramified, that it almost baffies description. There is not just one agency for the purpose, but a variety of bodies, each subdivided into departments and sections, linked up with the other main organs of Government, such as the Foreign Office, the War Office, and the Gestapo ( Secret State Police), and sending out their multitudinous tentacles to the remotest corners of the universe, yet all controlled by a central authority. The Ministry of Propaganda, under the direction of Dr. Goebbels, is primarily concerned with the influencing of opinion at home, but it also commands an army of press correspondents in all parts of the world, who are virtually Government officials. It controls over three hundred German newspapers in various foreign countries ; it has its own news agencies that feed the press in places as far apart as South America and the Far East; it directs several wireJULY, 1939 less stations which specialise in transrmttmg news as far as the Dutch East Indies; and it utilises a multitude of travel agencies and all the steamships of the Reich. It exercises strict control over the press and propaganda attaches, who are important adjuncts of all German Embassies and Legations. Of the seven departments of the Ministry, the seventh, called "Abwehr" or "Defence," and consisting of twelve sections, is charged with the special function of counteracting "atrocity propaganda," winning over foreign journalists, and watching the foreign press, so that if any papers contain undesirable matter they may be confiscated immediately on their arrival in Germany. Secret instructions to the press are issued by the Ministry daily, and any disclosure, by virtue of a law enacted on July 2nd, 1936, is punishable as an act of treason. But the more important agencies of international propaganda are the Foreign Organisation (Auslands-Organisation) of the National Socialist Party, the For19 eign Organisations of the Labour Front, and the Foreign Political Office of the Party. The first of these directs the activities of all Nazi organisations and other German societies in all parts of the world, which are estimated to number about 30,000. It is under the control of Ernst Wilhelm Bohle, a native of Bradford, who spent his boyhood in South Africa and did not arrive in Germany until he was a youth of sixteen in 1920. Germans living in foreign countries are subjected to pressure by their Embassy or Consulate to join the local Nazi society, through which they come under the control of their Government; and failure to comply entails the risk of the non-renewal of a passport, withdrawal of nationality, or reprisals against a relative in Germany. There are special institutions for the training of those who are to carry on propaganda in foreign countries: a school in Berlin under the control of Dr. Rosenberg, and the "Deutsche Akademie" in Munich under the direction of Professor Karl Haushofer, a retired general. Every German professor or teacher who accepts a foreign ap20 pointment must undergo a course of instruction at the "Akademie" and every student who goes abroad must register as a member of the "Kreis Ausland der Deutschen Studentenschaft" (German Students' Foreign District). The technique of Nazi propaganda outside Germany consists in impregnating not only Germans, but also the nations in whose midst they live with a belief in the virtues of National Socialism: it proclaims the blessings of totalitarianism, the evils of democracy, the superiority of the "Aryan" race, the saving grace of the Nordic myth, the sanctity of the "blood and soil" dogma, the infallibility of the Fuehrer, and, above all, the wickedness of the Jews. The fomenting of Jew-hatred is an essential and dominating factor in the scheme of operations; it is an indispensable prelude to conversion to Nazism. The Jews are vilified as the cause not only of local political discontent and economic distress, but of all the world's major troubles, as, for example, of the civil war in Spain ; they are denounced alternatively as bloodsucking capitalists or subversive Bolshevists, according to prevailing circumstances or passing crises; and persistent agitation invarPANOllAMA iably generates a certain response, which is then subtly cultivated in favour of Nazism itself. The German Government thus does not confine its persecution of the Jews within its own frontiers, but pursues them with relentless vindictiveness to all parts of the world. It carries on this mission of Nordic Kultur through the medium of such creations of the Propaganda Ministry as the "Anti-Jewish World League," the "Aryan-Christian Alliance," and the "Anti-Comintern League," and with the co-operation of the "Fichte Bund" of Hamburg, the "Welt Dienst" (World Service) of Erfurt, and the "Institute for the Study of the Jewish Question" in Berlin. The "Fichte Bund" ships from Hamburg every year over 5 million leaflets and over 1 oo tons of books and pamphlets in many languages. The "World Service" and the Berlin Institute both issue fortnightly bulletins of news and articles, in which the foulest and most lying charges are levelled against the Jews. The publisher of the "World Service," which appears in a dozen languages, is Lieutenant-Colonel Ulrich Fleischhauer. JULY, 1939 The persistence with which Nazi agents have distributed their poisonous literature, reeking with race-hatred and incitement, has resulted in campaigns of abuse against the Jews in most of the countries in which they live. They have transplanted Anti-Semitism to many parts of the world where it had never existed before. Their battle-cry "Juda verrecke ! " has found currency in a multiplicity of languages, and the English equivalent, "Perish Judea!" has even been smeared on the house of a Jewish member of the British Government. The Nazi Propaganda Ministry does not restrict its methods to the circulation of slanders. It interferes with the freedom of publication in other countries. It insisted upon the withdrawal of the unabridged French edition of Mein Kampf because it exposed Hitler's rancour and hostile aims against France. Nor do its myrmidons limit their operations to the cultural sphere; they are constantly active also in the economic and political domains. Pressure is brought to bear upon German firms abroad, or even non-German firms having 21 connections with Germany, to discharge their Jewish employees. Espionage is conducted in foreign banks to obtain information about the suspected wealth of Jews still in the Reich. Letters that pass through Germany on their way to other countries are liable to be opened by Nazi officials. The kidnapping of opponents is an officially authorised practice, and has taken place from Holland and Switzerland, from Austria and Czechoslovakia. The bestknown case was that of the Jewish journalist Berthold Jacob, wbo was lured from Strassbourg to Basie and thence abducted to Germany in 1935 by the Gestapo agent Hans Wesemann, whose difficult exploit necessitated the co-operation of several departments of the German Government. Murders, too, have been committed for the benefit of the Reich beyond its borders, in which the victims have been not only former German opponents of National Socialism, such as Professor Theodor Lessing, who was shot in Marienbad, but also foreign statesmen who had no sympathy with its policy, such as the Rumanian Premier M. Duca and the Austrian Chancellor Dr. Dollfuss.-Condensed from The Nazi International, London. * * * 22 THREE REMARKABLE BROTHERS A SCOTSMAN met an American, and both began to relate and boast about their respective countries, adventures, and relations. The American said: "I have three brothers. One's a baker, one's a bucket-raker, and the other's a thief. That is, one bakes, one rakes, and one takes." Sandy replied: "I, too, have three brothers. One's in a coal mine, one's unemployed, and the other's in the asylum. That is, one brings up coal, one's on the dole, and the other's up the pole."-Parade. PANORAMA

pages

19-22

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