NAZI BROADCASTS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20060, 5 October 1939, Page 16

NAZI BROADCASTS

METHODS OF HITLER PROPAGANDA EXPOSED PURE INVENTIONS Nazi propaganda in the first month of the war has run consistently true to the ideas expressed by Herr Hitier in “Mein Kampf,” in which he said that most people fall victims to a big lie more easily than to a little one. This observation was made in a Daventry broadcast which reviewed Nazi propaganda and gave instances of extraordinary contradictions which are consistent only with the “big lie" theory. Nazi propaganda claimed that German submarines had sunk three British battleships, including the Repulse. though these ships were known .0 be at their station, the commentator said. On September 28 the Nazis announced that the aircraftcarrier Ark Royal had been sunk, but they altered this the following day to the Glorious after the British Admiralty had given the incident an emphatic denial. The method adopted was one of. pure invention, and it .vould probably not be long before the Nazis would be saying that they su'd" sunk- other •aircraft-carriers ' before they had left the stocks.' • No German submarines had sunk he Ark Royal, nor had their bombers, but one German submarine had uink the Athenia. The Germans, however, attributed this sinking to Mr. Churchill. It was from this type if wild statement that had originated he German invention that Mr. Chur;bill was also responsible for the murder of the Rumanian. Prime fillister. Raid on Kiel On September, 4 British planes had 'Tombed German warships in the Kiel Canal. In spite of the fact that >.e raid in a speech on September 10, rrman broadcasts in English denied hat there had been any raid. This was followed by two extraordinary Nazi broadcasts. One in "‘erman, Portuguese and English related that, there had been no raid n the Kiel Canal, and a quarter of an hour later another broadcast "rom Germany in Spanish claimed the "raid by German planes on the British fleet in the North Sea had been far more successful than, that m the Kiel Canal. • , This, incidentally, Daventry commented. was the .raid in which no British ships were hit, but in. which hree German planes were brought down. ... Daventry pointed out that Fritz Kuhn, the leader of the German American Bund, had unwisely repeated the German story that Mr. had been responsible for ‘he sinking of the Athenia, and that he New York Herald-Tribune had ’mmediately commented: Kuhn has only to open his mouth - again like ‘Ms and millions of Americans who are forced to remain neutral will ‘urn more than ever against Germany. Daventry drew attention- to an other statement by Hitler that “most people were not capable of taking in •■ouch.” and therefore could easily be o-suaded that a lie, no matter how big, was right. Most people, however, did not forget as quickly as German propaganda hoped.—By radio.