NAZI PROPAGANDA CAMPAIGN

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20956, 8 November 1939, Page 6

NAZI PROPAGANDA CAMPAIGN

Dr. Goebbels admits frankly that he is not “shy” in the matter of using propaganda, “even tendentious propaganda, which is a dangerous weapon only when it is directed against the people.” But he has proved himself a poor propagandist by making such a statement at the moment when Germany is launching a great propaganda campaign in neutral countries designed to turn sentiment and trade away from ..the Allies and into the arms of Nazi Germany. Neutral sympathy is apparently to be sought with Nazi money, and it may be fortunate that Germany’s foreign exchange is strictly limited. The technique is to advertise in neutral newspapers in proportion to the pro-German sentiments expressed by the publications concerned. While no respectable publication would consciously betray the cause of humanity for Nazi gold, it must be remembered that some of the neutral countries do not look upon the war from the same viewpoint as Britain and France. In such cases it may appear to them perfectly honourable to advance the German cause even as a commercial proposition. And then there are the few unscrupulous ones who may permit themselves to be bought. Goebbels has given them all warning, however, that he would not hestitate to use even tendentious propaganda, and it may be hoped the response will be diminished accordingly. The campaign has been begun in Denmark, where the leading advertising organisation has decided to ban the propaganda, and the scheme is being extended to America and European neutral countries.

So Goebbels will attempt to flood neutral countries with Nazi poison to the extent that the German Finance Ministry can make funds available. But the campaign is being launched under the handicap of Goebbels’ own personal unpopularity. There is probably no less respected figure in the whole of Europe. And fortunately his methods, as well as being unscrupulous, are exceedingly clumsy and irrational. He ridicules the idea that any other propaganda than Germany’s has any effect. “Nobody listens to the voices from enemy camps,” he says. “Whereas during the Great War British propaganda was a bogey to the German people and the Army Command, today it is nothing but a laughing-stock. There is no need to counter lies with lies. We give only the naked truth.” That may sound well in Germany, but in Allied or even neutral countries Goebbels cannot expect it to carry the same weight.