For the average German, anti-Semitic propaganda offered a way of making sense, or as historian Jeffrey Herf said yesterday in Filene Auditorium, "making nonsense" of World War II. Herf, who is still in the process of researching the topic, used the personal journals of Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels as well as the information ministry's press directives to support his arguments.
According to Herf, Goebbels' narrative presents Jews as furious with the Germans who "unmasked" them. Goebbels' propaganda eventually contributed to the belief that Jewish "marionette regimes" in the United States, England and the Soviet Union came together to wage war on Germany and the fear that after the war was over, the international Jewry would wipe out the German people.
At first, nobody except Goebbels believed this, Herf said, but eventually this "Nazi war narrative" became widely accepted.
The government-controlled press was "a detailed exercise in dictatorial control," Herf said, indicating that the Goebbels press-machine engendered a feeling of victimization in the German people and portrayed the war as a heroic effort to save themselves.
Herf illustrated his point with a series of information ministry posters. In one poster, which Herf presented as the quintessential image of the Nazi war narrative, a hand points to a Jewish caricature, and the headline reads, "He is guilty of the war."
Two other posters aimed to show how the United States was ruled by Jews. Their headlines were "American Radio is 90 percent Jewish!" and "American Finance is 98 percent Jewish!"
Another poster showed pictures of American President Franklin Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet Premier Josef Stalin with the caption: "Behind them stands the Jew." Along the same lines, another poster showed a caricature of a Jew veiled behind the American, English and Soviet flags.
After concluding his lecture, Herf took questions from the diverse crowd, composed largely of participants in this week's Jewish studies conference.
Audience members questioned Goebbels' belief in his own propaganda, as they asked if Goebbels and his ministry actually believed their propaganda or if they simply used it to rationalize their behavior. Questions of methodology were also raised. Some audience members expressed concerns that Herf had relied too heavily on Goebbels' journals to understand his beliefs.
Herf is a history professor at the University of Maryland. His work focuses on the political culture of Europe and Germany during the 20th century.
Herf's lecture, titled "Goebbels, 'The Jewish War' and Berlin: 1930-1946," was the keynote address of this week's conference on Nazi Berlin, organized by the Jewish Studies Program.