Readings on Fascism and National Socialism Part 12

Like Hitler, Rosenberg envisaged the extension of n.a.z.i power far beyond the borders of Germany. In his _Nature, Principles, and Aims of the NSDAP_ he stated, "But National Socialism also believes that, far beyond Germany's borders, its principles and its ideology ... will lead the way in the unavoidable struggles for power in the other countries of Europe and America."[105]

Propaganda

_1. Professed Peaceful Intentions as a Cloak for Imperialistic Designs_

The falsity of n.a.z.i propaganda has been demonstrated repeatedly during the past decade. That its keynote was set by Hitler himself becomes evident upon an examination of his statements on foreign policy over a period of years. Not only has his policy been marked by a series of shifts and turns, so that the policy of one year was frequently canceled by the policy of the next, but a comparison of his words with his subsequent deeds makes it evident that he deliberately sought to lull other countries into a feeling of security until he was ready to move against them. On May 17, 1933 he a.s.serted:

_No fresh European war is capable of putting something better in the place of unsatisfactory conditions which exist to-day ..._ The outbreak of such madness without end would lead to the collapse of existing social order in Europe ...

The German Government are convinced that to-day there can be only one great task, and that is to a.s.sure the peace of the world ... _The German Government wish to settle all difficult questions with other Governments by peaceful methods._ They know that any military action in Europe, even if completely successful, would, in view of the sacrifice, bear no relation to the profit to be obtained ...

Germany will tread no other path than that laid down by the Treaties. The German Government will discuss all political and economic questions only within the framework of, and through, the Treaties.

_The German people have no thought of invading any country._[106]

(Doc.u.ment 14, _post_ pp. 282-233.)

And on March 7, 1936 he stated:

After three years I believe that I can regard the struggle for German equality as concluded to-day. I believe, moreover, that thereby the first and foremost reason for our withdrawal from European collective collaboration has ceased to exist. _We have no territorial demands to make in Europe._[107] (Doc.u.ment 14, _post_ p. 237.)

Moreover, he did not shrink from giving specific a.s.surances of Germany's peaceful intentions toward his subsequent victims:

There are Germans and Poles in Europe, and they ought to live together in agreement. The Poles cannot think, of Europe without the Germans and the Germans cannot think of Europe without the Poles. (Oct. 24, 1933)

_Germans and Poles must reconcile themselves as to the fact of each others' existence._ It has seemed to me necessary to demonstrate by an example that it is possible for two nations to talk over their differences without giving the task to a third or a fourth ...

_The a.s.sertion that the German Reich plans to coerce the Austrian State is absurd and cannot be substantiated or proved_ ... The a.s.sertion of the Austrian Government that from the side of the Reich an attack would be undertaken or planned I must emphatically reject ... The German Reich is always ready to hold out a hand for a real understanding, with full respect for the free will of Austrian Germans ...

(Jan. 13, 1934)

_The lie goes forth again that Germany to-morrow or the day after will fall upon Austria or Czecho-Slovakia_. I ask myself always: Who can these elements be who will have no peace, who incite continually, who must so distrust, and want no understanding? Who are they? I know they are not the millions who, if these inciters had their way, would have to take up arms. (May 1, 1936)

Germany and Poland are two nations, and these nations will live, and neither of them will be able to do away with the other. I recognized all of this, and we all must recognize that a people of 33,000,000 will always strive for an outlet to the sea ... _We have a.s.sured all our immediate neighbors of the integrity of their territory as far as Germany is concerned. That is no hollow phrase; it is our sacred will_ ...

(Sept. 26, 1938)[108]

(Doc.u.ment 14, _post_ pp. 233, 234, 238, 240-241.)

Yugoslavia is a State that has increasingly attracted the attention of our people since the war. The high regard that the German soldiers then felt for this brave people has since been deepened and developed into genuine friendship.

Our economic relations with this country are undergoing constant development and expansion, just as is the case with the friendly countries of Bulgaria, Greece, Rumania, Turkey, Switzerland, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and the Baltic States. (Jan. 30, 1939)[109]

In Hitler's Reichstag speech of April 28, 1939, in which he replied to President Roosevelt's telegraphic message inviting him and Mussolini to pledge themselves not to attack 31 countries mentioned by name, he stated:

_... All states bordering on Germany have received much more binding a.s.surances, and above all suggestions, than Mr.

Roosevelt asked from me in his curious telegram ..._

The German Government is nevertheless prepared to give each of the States named an a.s.surance of the kind desired by Mr.

Roosevelt on the condition of absolute reciprocity, provided that the State wishes it and itself addresses to Germany a request for such an a.s.surance together with appropriate proposals.[110]

And on September 1, 1939, with reference to the recently concluded pact between Germany and Russia, he said:

You know that Russia and Germany are governed by two different doctrines. There was only one question that had to be cleared up. Germany has no intention of exporting its doctrine. Given the fact that Soviet Russia has no intention of exporting its doctrine to Germany, I no longer see any reason why we should still oppose one another. On both sides we are clear on that. Any struggle between our people would only be of advantage to others. We have, therefore, resolved to conclude a pact which rules out forever any use of violence between us.[111]

Additional a.s.surances of this nature are quoted in a series of extracts from Hitler's speeches, dating from February 10, 1933 to September 1, 1939, which was printed in the _London Times_ of September 26, 1939 (doc.u.ment 14, _post_ p. 232).

_2. Internal Propaganda_

Within Germany the notorious propaganda machine of Dr. Goebbels, together with a systematic terrorization of oppositionist elements, has been the principle support of the rise and triumph of the n.a.z.i movement. In his _Legal Organization and Legal Functions of the Movement_ (doc.u.ment 8, _post_ p. 204), Gauweiler gives an idea of the permeation of all phases of national life with a propaganda designed to make n.a.z.i "legal principles" acceptable to the ma.s.ses. He makes it clear that all of the n.a.z.i propaganda machinery is in the service of this program; political lecturers, the press, the radio, and the films all play a part in helping the people to understand and appreciate the new legal code. The schools and Hitler Youth groups provide instruction for all young people in the fundamentals of National Socialist law, and pupils in those schools which train the carefully selected future leaders are given an especially strong dose of n.a.z.i legal theory and practice.

In order to appeal to the broadest audience, n.a.z.i propaganda has always sought to present all questions in the simplest possible terms.

Goebbels himself, in his _Nature and Form of National Socialism_ (doc.u.ment 2, _post_ p. 170), wrote as follows:

National Socialism has simplified the thinking of the German people and led it back to its original primitive formulas.

It has presented the complicated processes of political and economic life in their simplest terms. This was done with the well-considered intention of leading the broad ma.s.ses of the people once again to take part in political life. In order to find understanding among the ma.s.ses, we consciously practiced a popular [_volksgebundene_] propaganda. We have taken complexes of facts which were formerly accessible only to a few specialists and experts, carried them to the streets, and hammered them into the brain of the little man.

All things were presented so simply that even the most primitive mind could grasp them. We refused to work with unclear or insubstantial concepts but we gave all things a clearly defined sense. Here lay the secret of our success.[112]

The character and quality of n.a.z.i propaganda was fully presaged in _Mein Kampf_. Here Hitler paid a striking tribute to the power of lies, commenting on--

the very correct principle that the size of the lie always involves a certain factor of credibility, since the great ma.s.s of a people will be more spoiled in the innermost depths of its heart, rather than consciously and deliberately bad. Consequently, in view of the primitive simplicity of its mind it is more readily captivated by a big lie than by a small one, since it itself often uses small lies but would be, nevertheless, too ashamed to make use of big lies. Such an untruth will not even occur to it, and it will not even believe that others are capable of the enormous insolence of the most vile distortions. Why, even when enlightened, it will still vacillate and be in doubt about the matter and will nevertheless accept as true at least some cause or other. Consequently, even from the most impudent lie something will always stick ...[113]

A number of other pa.s.sages display Hitler's low opinion of the intellectual capacities and critical faculties of the ma.s.ses:

All propaganda has to appeal to the people and its intellectual level has to be set in accordance with the receptive capacities of the most-limited persons among those to whom it intends to address itself. The larger the ma.s.s of men to be reached, the lower its purely intellectual level will have to be set.[114]

The receptive capacity of the great ma.s.ses is very restricted, its understanding small. On the other hand, however, its forgetfulness is great. On account of these facts all effective propaganda must restrict itself to very few points and impress these by slogans, until even the last person is able to bring to mind what is meant by such a word.[115]

The task of propaganda is, for instance, not to evaluate diverse rights but to emphasize exclusively the single right of that which it is representing. It does not have to investigate objectively the truth, so far as this is favorable to the others, in order then to present it to the ma.s.ses in strict honesty, but rather to serve its own side ceaselessly.[116]

If one's own propaganda even once accords just the shimmer of right to the other side, then the basis is therewith laid for doubt regarding one's own cause. The ma.s.ses are not able to distinguish where the error of the other side ends and the error of one's own side begins.[117]

But all talent in presentation of propaganda will lead to no success if a fundamental principle is not always strictly followed. Propaganda has to restrict itself to a few matters and to repeat these eternally. Persistence is here, as with so many other things in the world, the first and most important presupposition for success.[118]

In view of their slowness of mind, they [the ma.s.ses] require always, however, a certain period before they are ready even to take cognizance of a matter, and only after a thousandfold repet.i.tion of the most simple concept will they finally retain it.[119]

_In all cases in which there is a question of the fulfilment of apparently impossible demands or tasks, the entire attention of a people must be concentrated only on this one question, in such a way as if being or non-being actually depends on its solution_ ...

...The great ma.s.s of the people can never see the entire way before them, without tiring and doubting the task.[120]

In general the art of all truly great popular leaders at all times consists primarily in not scattering the attention of a people but rather in concentrating it always on one single opponent. The more unified this use of the fighting will of a people, the greater will be the magnetic attractive force of a movement and the more powerful the force of its push.

It is a part of the genius of a great leader to make even quite different opponents appear as if they belonged only to one category, because the recognition of different enemies leads weak and unsure persons only too readily to begin doubting their own cause.

When the vacillating ma.s.ses see themselves fighting against too many enemies, objectivity at once sets in and raises the question whether really all the others are wrong and only one's own people or one's own movement is right.[121]

(Doc.u.ment 13-II, _post_ pp. 229-231.)

It has been the aim of n.a.z.i propaganda, then, to unite the ma.s.ses of the people in hatred of certain enemies, designated by such conveniently broad and simple terms as "Jews," "democrats,"

"plutocrats," "bolshevists," or "Anglo-Saxons," which so far as possible were to be identified with one another in the public mind.

The Germans were represented to themselves, on the other hand, as a racial folk of industrious workers. It then became possible to plunge the people into a war on a wave of emotional hatred against those nations which were pictured as combining to keep Germany from attaining her rightful place in the sun.

The important role which propaganda would have to play in the coming war was fully recognized by Ewald Banse, an ardent n.a.z.i military theorist of the geopolitical school and professor of military science at Brunswick Military College. In his book _Raum und Volk im Weltkrieg_ (_s.p.a.ce and People in the World War_) which appeared in 1932 (an English translation by Alan Harris was published under the t.i.tle _Germany Prepares for War_ (New York, Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1934)), he stated: