How Did German Propaganda Films Affect American Society
A. Introduction
World War Two was considered as the golden age of propaganda. Both the allies and the German side were producing propaganda films weekly, even using cartoons to manipulate children into buying war bonds. The American society at that time was aimed at keeping the war efforts strong even though people were not overseas fighting with the army, but to what extent did the propaganda movies during World War Two affect the American Society? The German propaganda films focused more on the way to show that Jews were bad people, while American propaganda films focused on the distribution of war bonds and the mockery of the fascist leaders in war. There are also Japanese propaganda films that showed that they were willing to die for …show more content…
German Films
German films were mainly focused on exposing the evil of the Jews. When the movie The Eternal Jew was released in Germany in 1940 there was a big response of positive and negative. American’s demanded to see the film, but did not have the chance till the late 60’s. The German philosophy at that period was based on Hitler‘s Mein Kampf, so anything that was in that book, is reflected. The policies of the Nazi regime wa
Germany, mainly Hitler, was extremely anti-Semitist making the aim of their propaganda films demoting all types of Judaism. His Minister of Enlightenment, Joseph Goebbels, was in charge of spreading the “true” intentions of the Jews. The film The Eternal Jew was aimed at doing that. “Just like rats, the Jews 2000 years ago moved from the Middle East to Egypt, at that time a flourishing land.”(Nazi Propaganda) The American reaction was not heard till 1958 and it seemed to them that the film was “that Der Ewige Jude helped prepare the German people to accept the eventual policy of genocide inflicted upon Jews.” (Cripps) The reaction was mostly negative as the American people saw the depiction of Hitler on the Jewish people. There was one account of an American actually watching the film prior to the release in the US. They said that the German’s saw that the Jews were a “problem.” (Short) More Anti-Semitist films, to the Germans, were successful; to the Americans, it was a disgrace to be put up on the screen. The use of Mein Kampf as a basis for all these films made it easier for the German producers to create films faster and allow them to cover all the policies of
World War Two was considered as the golden age of propaganda. Both the allies and the German side were producing propaganda films weekly, even using cartoons to manipulate children into buying war bonds. The American society at that time was aimed at keeping the war efforts strong even though people were not overseas fighting with the army, but to what extent did the propaganda movies during World War Two affect the American Society? The German propaganda films focused more on the way to show that Jews were bad people, while American propaganda films focused on the distribution of war bonds and the mockery of the fascist leaders in war. There are also Japanese propaganda films that showed that they were willing to die for …show more content…
German Films
German films were mainly focused on exposing the evil of the Jews. When the movie The Eternal Jew was released in Germany in 1940 there was a big response of positive and negative. American’s demanded to see the film, but did not have the chance till the late 60’s. The German philosophy at that period was based on Hitler‘s Mein Kampf, so anything that was in that book, is reflected. The policies of the Nazi regime wa
Germany, mainly Hitler, was extremely anti-Semitist making the aim of their propaganda films demoting all types of Judaism. His Minister of Enlightenment, Joseph Goebbels, was in charge of spreading the “true” intentions of the Jews. The film The Eternal Jew was aimed at doing that. “Just like rats, the Jews 2000 years ago moved from the Middle East to Egypt, at that time a flourishing land.”(Nazi Propaganda) The American reaction was not heard till 1958 and it seemed to them that the film was “that Der Ewige Jude helped prepare the German people to accept the eventual policy of genocide inflicted upon Jews.” (Cripps) The reaction was mostly negative as the American people saw the depiction of Hitler on the Jewish people. There was one account of an American actually watching the film prior to the release in the US. They said that the German’s saw that the Jews were a “problem.” (Short) More Anti-Semitist films, to the Germans, were successful; to the Americans, it was a disgrace to be put up on the screen. The use of Mein Kampf as a basis for all these films made it easier for the German producers to create films faster and allow them to cover all the policies of