Showing Hitler's propaganda machine by Ward Rutherford

Paul Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's Minister of Propaganda and Public Enlightenment, refined the use of what he called the Big Lie to a fine art. Democracy was portrayed as evil, dictatorship as good. Books which did not conform with Nazi ideology were burned; radio broadcasts were made with the intention of cowing the German populace and frightening the peoples of the world. Mass rallies were staged in Berlin, Nuremberg and elsewhere to whip up enthusiasm for the military expansion of Germany and hysteria for the Third Reich and its Fuhrer. There were many propaganda techniques and they were all master-minded by Goebbels, whose genius in orchestrating propaganda in the mass media was acknowledged even by his enemies. In films, magazines, posters, rallies and speeches by Hitler and his followers, Goebbels developed a propaganda mechanism that has been copied by dozens of dictators since but never equaled in its cynicism and fury. This book is portrayed vividly and dramatically through the use of hundreds of photographs and posters as well as original magazines and newspapers of the Nazi era. It is a unique collection which brilliantly illustrates, along with the text, the fascination and horror of the Nazi years.