The Brainwashing of Propaganda and Power
Who has the right to determine human worth? It was easy for the Nazis to determine the worth of the Jews when the Nazis did not see the Jews as human. For the darkest period of modern history, Art Spiegelman shares his father’s account of his survival during the Holocaust by way of a graphic novel in The Complete Maus. Even though the characters are replaced by symbolic animals such as mice and cats, the actions that the survivors took in the story are real. The chance of survival was very low. The type of person to survive a traumatic experience such as the Holocaust would have to be willing to trust and doubt the right people, use what he or she had in a resourceful manner, and persistently keep …show more content…
While plotting his rise to power, Adolf Hitler claimed that propaganda was the most important factor in winning a war and that the Germans lost World War I due to its lacking. According to Hitler’s Mein Kampf, effective propaganda never gives the negative side the benefit of the doubt and it should be simple enough for anybody to understand what point it is trying to get across, “The receptivity of the great masses is very limited, their intelligence is small, but their power of forgetting is enormous.” (Hitler on Propaganda). As soon as the Nazi Party came into power of Germany in 1933, Hitler founded the Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda headed by Joseph Goebbels.The department’s goal was to art, music and radio, theater and film, literature, school education and press into a tool to show the Jews in a negative manner, dehumanizing them. A year before the beginning of World War II in 1938, films by the name of Festival of the Nations and Festival of Beauty glorified the Aryan race for their success at the 1936 Olympics (Nazi Propaganda).The films induced a sense of pride and nationalism that made Aryan and non-Jewish Germans feel above everyone else. In 1940 The Eternal Jew was released before the Jews were forced to live in ghettos, portraying Jews as “wandering cultural parasites, consumed by sex and money.” …show more content…
Almost immediately after Hitler was voted in as chancellor, the Nazi Party was able to limit the rights of the citizens. In 1933, a Dutch man set fire to the Reichstag parliament building. Under pretenses of a Communist uprising, Hitler placed Germany in a state of emergency(Nazi Terror Begins). What was known as the Reichstag Fire Decree limited the press, speech and assembly, allowed invasion in private life, and allowed no cause arrests with no limits. By searching and censoring mail, wire tapping on phone lines, and unwarranted searching of homes, Hitler was able to stop those who opposed him. So the people who disagreed with the actions of the Nazis were either arrested and killed or they remained quiet to avoid the repercussions. Intimidation encouraged boycotts of Jewish businesses once the Nazis came into power and the Sturmabteilungen and Schutzstaffel had protection to intimidate(Nazi Terror Begins). After people became familiar with those two paramilitary groups, the Nazis formed the non-uniformed Gestapo to identify and arrest those that were unwilling to join the Nazis, “they arrested Socialists, Communists, trade union leaders, and others who had spoken out against the Nazi party.”(Nazi Terror Begins). After the Nazis created a web of knowledge and control, it was almost impossible to stop their actions. With no opposition, the Nazis passed laws to dehumanize
Who has the right to determine human worth? It was easy for the Nazis to determine the worth of the Jews when the Nazis did not see the Jews as human. For the darkest period of modern history, Art Spiegelman shares his father’s account of his survival during the Holocaust by way of a graphic novel in The Complete Maus. Even though the characters are replaced by symbolic animals such as mice and cats, the actions that the survivors took in the story are real. The chance of survival was very low. The type of person to survive a traumatic experience such as the Holocaust would have to be willing to trust and doubt the right people, use what he or she had in a resourceful manner, and persistently keep …show more content…
While plotting his rise to power, Adolf Hitler claimed that propaganda was the most important factor in winning a war and that the Germans lost World War I due to its lacking. According to Hitler’s Mein Kampf, effective propaganda never gives the negative side the benefit of the doubt and it should be simple enough for anybody to understand what point it is trying to get across, “The receptivity of the great masses is very limited, their intelligence is small, but their power of forgetting is enormous.” (Hitler on Propaganda). As soon as the Nazi Party came into power of Germany in 1933, Hitler founded the Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda headed by Joseph Goebbels.The department’s goal was to art, music and radio, theater and film, literature, school education and press into a tool to show the Jews in a negative manner, dehumanizing them. A year before the beginning of World War II in 1938, films by the name of Festival of the Nations and Festival of Beauty glorified the Aryan race for their success at the 1936 Olympics (Nazi Propaganda).The films induced a sense of pride and nationalism that made Aryan and non-Jewish Germans feel above everyone else. In 1940 The Eternal Jew was released before the Jews were forced to live in ghettos, portraying Jews as “wandering cultural parasites, consumed by sex and money.” …show more content…
Almost immediately after Hitler was voted in as chancellor, the Nazi Party was able to limit the rights of the citizens. In 1933, a Dutch man set fire to the Reichstag parliament building. Under pretenses of a Communist uprising, Hitler placed Germany in a state of emergency(Nazi Terror Begins). What was known as the Reichstag Fire Decree limited the press, speech and assembly, allowed invasion in private life, and allowed no cause arrests with no limits. By searching and censoring mail, wire tapping on phone lines, and unwarranted searching of homes, Hitler was able to stop those who opposed him. So the people who disagreed with the actions of the Nazis were either arrested and killed or they remained quiet to avoid the repercussions. Intimidation encouraged boycotts of Jewish businesses once the Nazis came into power and the Sturmabteilungen and Schutzstaffel had protection to intimidate(Nazi Terror Begins). After people became familiar with those two paramilitary groups, the Nazis formed the non-uniformed Gestapo to identify and arrest those that were unwilling to join the Nazis, “they arrested Socialists, Communists, trade union leaders, and others who had spoken out against the Nazi party.”(Nazi Terror Begins). After the Nazis created a web of knowledge and control, it was almost impossible to stop their actions. With no opposition, the Nazis passed laws to dehumanize