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Parole der Woche

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"We all have only one goal... Victory at all costs!" (29 April 1942)
"The Jew Kaufman triumphs!" (19 August 1942)

Parole der Woche( "Slogan of the Week"[1]or "Word of the Week"[2]) was awall newspaperpublished by theReichspropagandaleitung der NSDAP[de](propaganda department of theNazi Party) from 1937 to 1943.[3]HistorianJeffrey HerfdescribesParole der Wocheas "the most ubiquitous and intrusive aspect of Nazism's visual offensive... no form of Nazi visual propaganda made so crucial a contribution to the regime's presentation of ongoing events".[2]

Establishment

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Criticizes thebombing of Germanyas a "criminal act" (18 November 1940)

Herf suggests that the Nazi artistHans Schweitzerwas influential in the establishment ofParole der Woche,which began to publish in October 1937.[4]An article inUnser Wille und Weg,the internal newsletter of the RPL, stated in June 1936:

Parole der Wochemust not be absent anywhere! It is the only official party wall newspaper of the NSDAP. It presents the unified words published by the Reich Propaganda Directorate that refer to the most important prevailing political events...Parole der Wochemust penetrate every last community in the nation.[5]

On 23 September 1939, shortly after the outbreak ofWorld War II,Nazi propaganda ministerJoseph Goebbelsemphasized the importance of posters to Nazi propaganda efforts, "above all"Parole der Woche.[6]

Themes and influence

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"Whoever wears this sign is an enemy of our people", from the 1 July 1942 issue

Parole der Wochecombined multiple styles including those ofeditorials,leaflets,posters,andtabloid journalism.[2]Although antisemitism was marginal inParole der Wocheuntil 1940,[7]it later became a major theme, with one-third of the posters from 1941 to 1943 expressing antisemitism.[6][3][8]Six issues dealt withGermany Must Perish!and the supposed Jewish-Allied intention to exterminate the German population.[8]The posters repeatedly accusedJews of starting the warand intending to exterminate Germans.[9]On the day before theGerman declaration of war against the United States,Parole der Wochepublished an issue with a chart showing the supposed international Jewish conspiracy which connected Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin.[10][11]Herf argues that to Germans who had no other sources of information, "The image and text of the wall newspaper offered a seemingly compelling explanation of how the Jews, so few in number, could have been so successful in plotting against Germany."[12]In this poster and others, antisemitism was combined withanti-Americanism,Anglophobia,and the conspiracy theory ofJewish Bolshevism.[13]

The posters were published at the size of 135 by 54 centimetres (53 in × 21 in),[14]or alternatively 212 by 100 centimetres (83 in × 39 in), in landscape.[7]They were designed to be read by multiple people simultaneously from a distance of a few feet and used colors and graphics to attract, even compel, attention.[15]Along with the posters, the Nazi Party also published miniature versions the size ofplaying cards,which were often attached to official communications.[8]Around 125,000 poster-size copies were printed of each issue and posted in "every imaginable public place", such that, according to Herf, people in Germany "could not avoid" seeing it.[16]In Spring/Summer 1940, the Nazi Party reported that there were 63,121 orders for the poster: 34,635 from theGerman Labor Front,10,940 from doctors' organizations, and 5,960 from the owners of bars, restaurants, and similar businesses.[17]

On May 5, 1943, the Reich Propaganda Directorate in Berlin informed regional propaganda offices that it was ending the Word of the Week due to the demands of war putting pressure on budgets and the calling up of more party members for active duty.

The posters were noted for their heavy use ofexclamation marks,a hallmark ofNS-Deutsch—the form of the German language used by the Nazi regime.[18]

Spoof

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Spoof version "blow upon blow"
"Murderer fromBerchtesgaden!"leaflet

From 1942 to 1945, small-sized spoof versions were produced asblack propagandaby thePolitical Warfare Executiveand dropped by Allied aircraft over Germany.[19]On 11 March 1943, Allied aircraft distributed a leaflet about German victory:

Blow upon blow the German Armed Forces are pounding our enemies on land, on the sea and in the air! Since the beginning of the spring offensives, from the end of the fighting on the Kerch peninsula to the end of the battle for Stalingrad, 960,000 German soldiers have died. From the beginning of the Russian campaign on 22 June 1941, German troops have lost 4,600,000 dead, severely wounded or missing. The graveyard newly conquered by our troops in 1942 in Soviet Russia, is bigger than the British Isles.[19]

Propaganda Warfare Executive managerSefton Delmerwrote that this leaflet was a deliberate parody of a similar genuineParole der Wocheleaflet which spoke of actual German victories.[19]In late 1943, one of these leaflets contained a quote misattributed to Hitler: "If the German people should collapse beneath its present burden, I would shed no tears for it—it would deserve its fate..."[19][20]In 1944, one leaflet stated "We want a leader by thegrace of Godand not a murderer fromBerchtesgaden!"[19][21]This slogan became especially popular with anti-Nazi Germans and those who considered the war hopeless.[19][22]

References

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  1. ^"USHMM Artifact Gallery: Slogan of the Week".ushmm.org.Retrieved9 October2020.
  2. ^abcHerf 2006,p. 14.
  3. ^abBytwerk, Randall L. (2015)."Believing in" Inner Truth ": The Protocols of the Elders of Zion in Nazi Propaganda, 1933–1945".Holocaust and Genocide Studies.29(2): 212–229.doi:10.1093/hgs/dcv024.
  4. ^Herf 2006,p. 29.
  5. ^Herf 2006,pp. 29–30.
  6. ^abHerf 2006,p. 31.
  7. ^abHerf 2006,p. 30.
  8. ^abcBytwerk, Randall L. (2005). "The Argument for Genocide in Nazi Propaganda".Quarterly Journal of Speech.91(1): 37–62.doi:10.1080/00335630500157516.S2CID144116639.
  9. ^Herf 2006,pp. 109–110.
  10. ^Herf 2006,pp. 128–129.
  11. ^"Nazi propaganda poster entitled," Das judische Komplott "(" The Jewish Conspiracy "), issued by the" Parole der Woche, "a wall newspaper (Wandzeitung) published by the National Socialist Party propaganda office in Munich".United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.Retrieved9 October2020.
  12. ^Herf 2006,p. 130.
  13. ^Herf 2006,pp. 142–143.
  14. ^Michel, Lutz P. (1984). "Heyen, Franz-Josef (Hg.): Parole der Woche".Medienwissenschaft: Rezensionen.1(1): 30–32.doi:10.17192/ep1984.1.7416.
  15. ^Herf 2006,pp. 28, 30.
  16. ^Herf 2006,pp. 14, 28.
  17. ^Herf 2006,p. 32.
  18. ^Heine, Matthias (2020)."Kontaminierte Sprache Das Fortleben des NS-Deutsch nach 1945"(PDF).Einsicht: Bulletin des Fritz Bauer Instituts:66–75.ISSN1868-4211.
  19. ^abcdefRichards, Lee (2004)."lack Propaganda – Parole der Woche – WWII Forged German postage stickers".PsyWar.Org.Retrieved31 May2020.
  20. ^Heyen 1983,p. 17.
  21. ^Mitchell, Arthur (2007).Hitler's Mountain: The Führer, Obersalzberg and the American Occupation of Berchtesgaden.McFarland. p. 62.ISBN978-0786424580.
  22. ^Rigden, Denis (8 November 2011).Kill the Fuhrer: Section X and Operation Foxley.The History Press. p. 185.ISBN978-0752475745.

Sources

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