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Holocaust museum chronicles WWII Nazi propaganda
2009-02-06
WASHINGTON - Wearing a black hat and a suit bearing the yellow Star of David, a man recoils from a large finger pointing at him from above. "He is to blame for the war," reads the poster caption. Similar images, along with newspapers, speeches and broadcast clips, tell the story of how Nazi Germany's propaganda machine cultivated hatred and suspicion and portrayed Jewish people as the enemy in the new museum exhibit "State of Deception: The Power of Nazi Propaganda." The exhibit opened Jan. 30 at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and runs through December 2011. It documents how propaganda fostered public indifference as the government and its allies went from hostilities to mass atrocities of the Holocaust, when millions of Jews and other groups were killed between 1933 and 1945. Museum officials hope visitors will become more critical of information and more aware of anti-Semitism and intolerance. For instance, the exhibit touches on the 1994 Rwandan genocide and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's call to wipe Israel off the map. "It's to alert people to the fact that hate speech and language like this didn't go away when the Nazis fell," said Steven Luckert, the exhibit's curator. "These are things that we have to be constantly aware of in our own day." Nazi leaders branded Adolf Hitler as a savior. The swastika logo became instantly recognizable in posters and other marketing used to attract votes from women, laborers and students as the Nazis rose from a little-known party. After coming to power in 1933, Hitler established a ministry of "public enlightenment and propaganda." Visitors can use a touchscreen monitor to see and hear examples of the ministry's work, including music they used. Newspaper reports also played a role in gaining support for the Nazi agenda. Curators said many Germans didn't share Hitler's desire to go to war in 1939 so fabricated reports of countries such as Poland threatening the country were printed to make it seem like an invasion was necessary. At its core, the Nazi party promised to unite Germans under a national, Aryan identity regardless of class, religion or region -- but excluded were Jews, the mentally and physically disabled, gays and other groups considered "impure." Anti-Semitic propaganda accused Jews of conspiring to take over the world, describing them as "aliens" and "parasitic." A photo slide depicts a white woman with her arm around a black woman, both smiling, warning: "Racial pride fades" with such friendship. Films and other entertainment mocked those branded as the enemy. A movie poster shows a thick-browed, grimacing Jewish caricature for "The Eternal Jew," a 1940 documentary-like film with footage of Jewish ghettos. The film failed at the box office. But another movie with famous actors and a well-known director, was more subtle in its message. Jews were expelled at the historical drama's end. Nazi propagandists spread radio broadcasts and news reels in dozens of languages across Europe and overseas, including to the U.S., South America and India. At the same time, they banned foreign news broadcasts. Despite the demonizing rhetoric, curators said references to the atrocities that were committed were rare. Officials focused on presenting a positive image of Germany. "I think that represents real danger," Luckert said. "That you could be so swayed by something that seems so positive to you, that you neglect the consequences that it has for somebody else." Following World War II, the Allied forces that toppled the Nazis worked to destroy the party's propaganda. They renamed streets, closed newspapers and banned symbols. A 1945 photo shows an American soldier in Germany searching for Nazi content in a large pile of books. Kerry Overbeck, 19, a sophomore at American University, visited the exhibit as part of her class on Holocaust history. The propaganda targeting the youth especially shook her, she said. "What people always ask is, 'Why learn about the Holocaust still?'" she said. "But there's so much more to teach us, because it's an ongoing cycle of hatred." ___ On the Net: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: http://www.ushmm.org/propaganda/
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