Had Adolf Hitler not been such a big fan of Mickey Mouse he probably would have barred American films from Nazi Germany.
Their popularity in German movie houses complicated life for propagandist Joseph Goebbels who disdained all things foreign as he manipulated the power of mass media to march the people to war against border nations and their own Jewish neighbors.
Foreign films, especially from the United States, displayed a fanciful world to which humans aspired in the late 1920s, although by the time the Olympic Games were held in Berlin in 1936, featuring Jesse Owens’ remarkable feats, America was still in the grip of a terrible depression.
Hitler had summoned young Goebbels to Berlin in 1924 to bolster public support for his floundering political movement. Later, Reich President von Hindenburg, at Hitler’s urging, named Goebbels, a former journalist, failed author and playwright, Minister for the People’s Enlightenment and Propaganda.
One is stunned the people did not rise up when they heard the title.
He was 36 years old; immoral, ambitious, not brilliant, but very discerning. Fear, he knew, could unite a beleaguered people discouraged by years of inflation and personal sacrifice, hungry for a bold leader who promised a bright future for the “master race.”
Eugen Hadamovsky, head of German radio, said Goebbels had made political propaganda an art form and hailed him as a master of manipulation. The master con man was praised for his deception.
Every aspect of German society was infiltrated quietly, deftly, especially the arts. Goebbels spoke for Hitler. No one dared to ignore him. He did not ban popular performers and authors. He coerced them. Praise and wealth were rewards for cooperation. Dissenters suddenly had no work. Those who asked hard questions were charged with disloyalty. Publishers, editors, authors, playwrights, musicians, singers and film-makers became tools of Goebbels’ propaganda. Those who would not comply fled their homeland.
Happy stories extolling the lives of happy people were the rule. Jews were declared the enemy of the Third Reich, not for anything they had done or failed to do, but simply for who they were. Goebbels trumped up charges, inspired rallies, burned Jewish books, banned Jewish performers. Socialists were outcasts. Fascism infiltrated every aspect of society, soon controlling every discipline and industry.
Popular artists and performers were enlisted as heads of particular Reich Chambers to assure the people that Germany’s new leadership respected their esteemed place in German society. No painter could exhibit, no singer could broadcast, no critic could comment, unless they were a member of the particular Reich Chamber that supervised their activities.
The ugly truth was they’d been recruited and compromised. Even the beloved Richard Strauss was enlisted as head of the Reich Music Chamber.
Big salaries were paid for cooperation. Goebbels’ prize oxymoron praised the Third Reich as savior and benefactor of the arts. In fact, membership in the various Reich Chambers demanded subservience. Discerning citizens who raised questions were ostracized.
Everything was to be done for the good of the Fatherland: retribution for ills suffered during and after World War I; support for measures that might help stabilize the economy after a period of paralyzing run-a-way inflation; even the murder of thousands of disabled persons, called “useless eaters,” and later, mass murder of Jews to purify the “master race.”
Goebbels was the author of Kristallnacht – the night of broken glass – killing more than 2000 Jews, destroying Jewish-owned businesses and synagogues and sending 30,000 Jews to concentration camps. Millions were to follow them to their deaths. Many were victims of cruel medical experiments.
How could such an extraordinary people, gifted in music, science, medicine and the arts succumb to blatant propaganda and acquiesce to depravity and pursuit of a “master race”?
It did not happen swiftly. Goebbels had his enemies within the Third Reich and he sometimes displeased Hitler with his publicized amorous affairs. But Hitler valued him highly because he blunted the natural discernment of the German people under a blanket of fear, false promises and illusions. His cunning had steadily, relentlessly stripped independence from men and women who previously spoke freely, making them partners in his deception.
Blind obedience, Hitler knew, would silence objective discussion.
And discernment, Goebbels knew, depended on the freedom of people to ask hard questions, and the support of fellow citizens to challenge government policy.
Hitler died by his own hand in a bunker as American troops neared in 1945. In the decades since World War II, dozens of dictators in various countries of the world have mirrored his cruelty, but few have exceeded it. All have been concomitantly feared and hated. Every one stifled discernment.
Former senator Bob Dole, and the late Hugh Gregory Gallagher, author of, By Trust Betrayed, that chronicled the German medical profession’s complicity with the Third Reich, warned that Hitler and Goebbels provided lessons for today that should be heeded.
The world needs a refresher course on discernment. Schools must teach objectivity and pursuit of truth. A thing should be called by its real name. Facts must not be twisted to suit ideology. Science must not be sacrificed for political expediency. People must be free to express opposition; to reject propaganda.
To do that they must first discern the truth, demand authentic rationales for political adventures, and hold elected officials accountable.
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Carlton E. Spitzer
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