GOEBBELS MACHINE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 October 1940, Page 3

GOEBBELS MACHINE

LYING AS A SCIENCE NAZI RADIO PROPAGANDA. METHODS EXPOSED. (By “Knob-Turner.”) Why does the German-controlled radio persist in broadcasting lies after they have been exposed? This question occurs to many who listen to; Dr. Goebbels’ workers. Repetition is one of the methods recommended by Hitler as a means, of gaining acceptance of a lie. Nazi radio propaganda follows this advice, and though to British minds the advice may sound absurd, successes gained by Dr. Goebbels in the past show that the method can be effective. Nazi radio propaganda is dangerous to people who do not know what it is and how it operates. Once the technique is appreciated the great part of its effectiveness is lost, but the method is constantly changing and so an alert skepticism is essential to protect oneself against the Goebbels poison. Three forms of lying are used by the Nazi radio propagandists: (a) the lie; (b) the semi-lie; (c) the lying truth. In the first case we have simple statements which are not true; in the second, a mixture of one or two true statements to assist in carrying over a mass of untrue ones; in the third, statements which in themselves are true, but which are used to convey an untrue impression. The first class of simple lies will be found in the German news, but the other two occur most frequently in broadcast talks. As an example of the first class the sinking of the “Ark Royal" and the “Hood'’ may be cited, or the reversal of the British figures giving the aeroplane losses. An illustration of the second form was a Nazi reference to concentration camps in the Boer War claiming that' concentration camps were a British institution and that the British have no right to talk of the Nazi concentration camps. It is true that there were camps which were called “concentration camps” established in the latter part of the South African War, but they were not places of punishment. There was some mismanagement and a number of deaths occurred as a result of epidemics of diseases new to South Africa, as a British enquiry disclosed. But those people who were in them stayed of their own free will. There were none of the factors for which the Nazi concentration camps have been condemned. There was no deliberate cruelty or deliberate illtreatment, no punishment or premeditated murder. Both camps bore the same name in the English language. This was the principal truth. Otherwise they were entirely different, but the Nazi plan was to convey to the uninformed that they were similar. Reference to concentration camps in Palestine before the war was made by the Nazis and the Italians; but it was not stated that those who were in the camps were armed terrorists and that there was none of the cruelty and inhuman treatment which marked the Nazi camps. For the third group the Nazi uses some quotation from an accepted historical work, divorced from its context, to suggest that some set of conditions which "were atrocious according to modern standards existed in Britain alone. Historical records make it clear that they did occur in Britain; but they and even worse conditions were found almost everywhere at the same time. If the listener has a good acquaintance with history he is not deceived: but if he is not so equipped he may be caught easily by this misuse of truth. Part of the Nazi plan is to discredit the 8.8. C. The Nazis have lost all reputation for truth, but the 8.8. C. possesses this reputation to a high degree. One of the tricks used is to start some false report of an allied success, to produce it in a neutral country and if the 8.8. C. uses it (sometimes when it does not) to reveal the inaccuracy of the report and accuse the 8.8. C. of lying. A classic case occurred during the operations on Norway. Soon after the Allied forces landed, the Goebbels machine “planted” in Sweden a report that the British had captured Narvik. This was duly transmitted to Britain and appeared in a 8.8. C. broadens; properly as an unconfirmed report from Sweden. It was given no official countenance. This careful qualification did not trouble the Nazis. Their stations revealed that the Germans still held Narvik and charged with British official service with lying. This particular effort deceived many people. After the Battle of the River Plate, the Goebbels machine broadcast a story that British sailors spat on the coffins of the “Graf Spee’s” dead and threw a dead dog on the grave. It was included in the programmes sent everywhere. the "dog” being changed to a “cat” for countries where the cat was more offensive. When this story was officially refuted by the British radio, the German radio calmly denied that it had issued it and accused the 8.8. C. of making a lying charge to insult the German nation. Unfortunately for Dr. Goebbels there existed on the records a message to Buenos Aires asking that this particular item “from Berlin on radio” should be killed. This message was despatched after an Argentine newspaper had furiously repudiated the story. The Goebbels Machine suffered from the River Plate battle nearly as much damage as the “Graf Spec.” But the setback merely drove it scuttling to new industry and new ingenuity.