NAZI PROPAGANDIST

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20049, 22 September 1939, Page 3

NAZI PROPAGANDIST

HATED BY DOERING REPELLENT INDIVIDUAL Behind the noisy gun of German propaganda is a man who has been described as “the most dangerous ol the Nazis.” He is Dr. Goebbels, Minister of Propaganda and Public Enlightenment, and he has been as busy as a bee “enlightening” as much of the world as his radio stations and so-called official dispatches can reach. Goebbels has a nickname in Germany—if there now be anyone who dares to utter it. The word is “Jupkin,” an unflattering diminutive. He is 42 years of age and a man in whom the physical disability of a club foot appears to have bred a hatred of the normal, happy-go-lucky world. Bernard Lansing, writing recently in an American magazine, had these blunt words to say of the Nazi pro-

pagandist: “Lecherous, shrewd, suave, ambitious, vindictive, he stands to-day at the head of Germany’s smoothestfunctioning organisation, and is largely responsible for the nadir to which German prestige has sunk in the rest of the world. . . . Hitler regards him as a necessary evil, and is also bound to him for reasons of loyalty because Goebbels bled for the cause of National Socialism, invading and conquering Berlin, the stronghold of German Communism, when more stalwart Nazis were content to remain in lethargic Bavaria. “Goering hates him openly. Himmler, the omnipotent police chief, regards him as a useful accomplice and front when there is dirty work to be done. And the lesser fry fear and distrust him because few of the Nazi scutcheons are without blots, and the Goebbels organisation possesses sufficient information to place many a sinecured neck on the execution block.” Fascination as Orator Yet this repellent individual, with his dubious reputation in private life, is capable of exercising great fascination. As a speaker he influences discriminating audiences as well as the masses. When he speaks to large audiences he uses all the elaborate modem theatricals, but in the case' of smaller groups it is said that he fixes his hearers with wide-open, candid eyes and uses excellent-constructed phraseology in a fine, well-modulated voice, with perfect control of gesture. “Temperamentally," said another recent writer, "Goebbels is undoubtedly an intellectual revolutionary demagogue—spiritually much more

akin to the Russian Revolution than to the German—-and as such the intellectual leader of Nazi Radicalism; a National Bolshevik rather than a National Socialist. “The moral lesion in his nature, coupled with his undoubted genius for mass-hypnosis and violently bigoted outlook, makes him exceedingly dangerous. At the same time, although exercising great influence at times on individuals —e.g., Hitler —he has virtually no friends or following: whereas at one time the great issue of the future was the rivalry between Goering and Goebbels, now this no longer is so,, simply because Goebbels is alone. Therefore, if lie were to disappear, this would not mean necessarily that the moderates had triumphed, or that the radical element had suffered an irreparable loss.” A Policy of Lying

Beside keeping a firm control on the German press as a whole, Goebbels has his own personal organ,

“Der Angriff.” Referring to his journalistic methods, Bernard Lansing says:—

“With him the lie is a point of policy and the spoken word or promise is often no more than a ruse or trap to catch any unwary opponent. Foreign correspondents, after spending an entire morning counting broken Jewish heads, had the odd experience of hearing the doctor declare that ‘not a single hair on any Jewish head had been harmed.’ “During the six years of his regime, he has built up a definite psychosis in the German nation —that of being constantly attacked and having to retaliate through counter-attack. The German man in the street is either convinced that Germany is surrounded by enemies, or if be is of the more reasoning type, wonders why everyone should be against Germany. “I-iis exploitation of the film as well as the literary, music and art fields for propagandists purposes has killed all original production in Germany, but that does not worry him because he contends that when the artists, poets, musicians and dramatists have learned their Nazi A B C’s they will develop an entirely new world of creative art within the framework designed by Goebbels.”