Read and reflect

“A revolutionist must be able to do everything to arouse outbreaks of fury, to get masses of men on the march, to organise hate and suspicion with ice-cold calculation.” – Joseph Goebbels, Der Angriff, 18th February 1929

“The use of the propaganda weapon shows the complete contempt in which the rulers of Germany hold the people over whom they rule. They regard them not as reasoning human beings whose needs and desires it is the purpose of government to satisfy, but as a docile and unreasoning herd whose instincts and emotions are to be played upon by all the devices of propaganda.” – Nazi Lies, published by the British Ministry of Information, 1939

“The receptive powers of the masses are very restricted and their understanding feeble…Propaganda must appeal to the feelings of the public rather than to their reasoning powers.” – Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, 1925

“In the big lie, there is always a certain force of credibility, because the broad masses of the nation…more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie….By skillful and sustained use of propaganda, the people can be made to see even Heaven as Hell, or the most wretched life as Paradise.” – Joseph Goebbels, 17th November 1938

“It is the mark of a leader of genius to be able to make different opponents appear as if they belong to one category; for weak and wavering natures among a leader’s following may easily begin to doubt the justice of their own cause if they have to face different enemies.” – Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, 1925

“Silence proved itself a particularly effective weapon in the handling of these questions…The German Wireless and the Press had to bear in mind tactical considerations and the necessities of the state…and to refrain from endangering the foreign policy of the Reich by premature disclosures or thoughtless statements.” – Joseph Goebbels, 17th November 1938

“The freedom of the Press and of public speech, which in democratic countries would ensure the showing up of such falsehoods, has been destroyed. The Press, in the words of Goebbels, is merely ‘a piano on which the government can play’ (1933). Moreover, for historical reasons, the German people have never come to possess the political insight needed for responsible criticism of their rulers, and are therefore easily amenable to such methods. ‘In Germany,’ boasted Goebbels in 1934, ‘we have reached the degree of efficiency in the art of dominating the masses which makes similar efforts in other countries look like the work of amateurs.'” – reported in the Manchester Guardian, 7th September 1934