State of Deception: The Power of Nazi Propaganda

Propaganda is a truly terrible weapon in the hands of an expert.

—Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf (1924)

During a span of two decades, Nazi leaders showed the world bold new ways to use the weapon of propaganda. The Nazi Party’s advanced techniques influenced millions of Germans and other Europeans. Party members presented appealing visions of a New Order: a prosperous Europe led by Germany. At the same time, they demonized enemies, presenting them as threats to German society or western civilization.

Nazi Germany, pursuing a racist and antisemitic agenda, ultimately drove the world into a war that cost the lives of 55 million people, including six million Jewish men, women, and children.

This exhibition encourages us to think about what propaganda is, how it works, and how to respond when it aims to divide people and promote violence.

German propaganda poster promoting the unification of annexed Austria and Germany in April 1938. It urges all citizens to say “Yes (Ja)” to a “Greater Germany.”

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

What Is Propaganda?

Propaganda is biased information designed to shape public opinion and behavior.

Its power depends on the following:

  • message

  • technique

  • means of communication

  • environment

  • audience receptivity

This Nazi propaganda poster for the 1928 German parliamentary elections plays on voter anger and frustration. It denounces “international high finance” and pledges to smash it. For the Nazis, “international high finance” symbolized both Jewish economic control and western bankers’s efforts to force Germany to pay war reparations.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

How Does Propaganda Work?

Propaganda involves one or a combination of the following activities:

  • uses truths, half-truths, or lies

  • omits information selectively

  • simplifies complex issues or ideas

  • plays on emotions

  • advertises a cause

  • attacks opponents

  • targets desired audiences