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The Effects of Nazi Propaganda

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Submitted By caldeirajose
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When thinking about nazi portrayal in films today there is an immediate connection to terror, violence, fear and world domination led by a ruthless inhuman leader and his vast army of followers as deceptively represented. We also now know that through incredibly well though and complex film aesthetics the Nazis manage to trick if not even hypnotize their nation into their leader's plans of hyper segregation, world domination and power generated by fear and intimidation. The german cineast Wim Wenders even stated that "never before and in no other country have images and language been abused so unscrupulously as here, never before and nowhere else have they been debased so deeply as vehicles to transmit lies". (Rentschler, 1996 pg 1). it is then clear to us that the national socialist cinema is today considered one, if not the biggest atrocity in cinemas history. But if such is so obvious today, how was it possible for such movies to appeal to such vast number of people ?

The most obvious one would be the incredible shocking and emotionally charged portrayal of the families which lived in great poverty and led immensely degrading lives due to the economic and political situation at the time. After having been defeated in the World War 1, a socialist revolution took place which led to the creation of the Weimar republic. They were also forced to pay an incredible amount of money due to damages and saw parts of its territory being distributed away between other nations. Such turn of events ruined the countries stability and the German people felt injusticed. Naturally the Nazi party generated their propaganda around such thematics, and film proved by far the most effective one. Joseph Goebbels was the Reich Minister of Propaganda and the ultimate responsible for whatever was shown to the German people. He "sought to transform the film apparatus into a tool of

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