NAZI PROPAGANDA

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 137, 5 March 1940, Page 6

NAZI PROPAGANDA

Conception Of A “Just Peace” TRE ATI ES COM PA RED A comparison between the treaty of Versailles and the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (1918), when Germany made extortionate demands on Russia, was one of the main features of the 8.8. C. s sixth leview of Nazi war propaganda, broadcast by Daventry last night. The review mentioned the emphasis laid by Herr Hitler on the “injustice" of the Treaty of Versailles, which he claimed was largely responsible for the present war, and left the listener to draw his own conclusions about-the German sense of what was a just peace by presenting the terms of peace inflicted on Russia by Germany at BrestLitovsk.

Herr Hitler’s speech cm January 31 started, as all his speeches did, with an attack on the Treaty of Versailles, and Herr Hitler went on to say that he had led tho German people into war as a protection against British and French attempts to destroy the German nation. There was a number of people outside Germany who thought that the treaty was unjust, and to help them in this thinking Herr Hitler said that the peacemakers had smashed old States to pieces without any regard for the wishes of the population. “That is a lie. The Czechs, the Boles, the Finns and all the Baltic States had proclaimed their independence before the peacemakers met at Versailles, said the broadcaster, who proceeded to show what Germany did when she was in a position to dictate peace. Demands on Russia. This would be recalled by the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, the twenty-second anniversary of which recently occurred. By that treaty, which followed the defeat of Russia by Germany, Germany took 24 per cent, of Russia’s population, 42 per cent, of her agricultural land, 8a per cent, of her sugar-beet land, 54 per cent, of her industrial undertakings, and 89 per cent, of her coalmines. “If now the Germany of Hitler could again dictate terms of peace we can judge to what extent we would share the fate of the Czechs and Poles,” said the broadcaster. In order to whip up hate against Britain Herr Hitler attempted to show that the Allies wanted to destroy Germany. First he called the British hypocrites and then he said that Mr. Churchill wanted the dissolution of Germany. That was another lie. The British war aims had been clearly outlined by the Prime Minister, Mr. Chamberlain, recently. Summed up they were: “We are fighting against German domination of the world. That is the challenge we have taken up, but we do not desire the destruction 01. any people. We are fighting to, secure for small nations the right to live, but we do not want domination ourselves, nor do we covet the territory of anyone else.”

“When we hear those words wo can understand why Herr Hitler uses all his forces to keep them from his people, and why he repeats his grotesque story of the Allies’ desire to destroy Germany for their own selfish ends,” the broadcaster stated. Atrocities in Poland. The broadcaster also dealt with the German attempts to counter the revelations of atrocities in Poland by launching a campaign accusing the .Poles of the atrocities. This, however, was consistent with the Nazi policy of accusing others of their own villany, but, in trying to prove that black was white, the Propaganda Ministry had contradicted Herr Hitler, and then Marshal Goering bad coiv.radicted both. For example, the controlled German Press published vivid accounts of the orgy of violence and destruction by the Poles over the past 20 years; yet only two years ago Herr Hitler said that he had reached an agreement with Poland which: removed all friction and made it possible to work in true amity. Shortly afterward Marshal Goering told German farmers that 1,000,000 Poles would be coming to work for them. But he forgot that the Propaganda Ministry had spent some time persuading everyone that Germany would not. turn the Poles into slaves, one authority even saying: “We are not deporting Polish workers to the Reich.”

Ou January 23 a Danzig newspaper denied that Warsaw was overcrowded with; refugees, or that there were widespread epidemics. Two days previously, however, the official Nazi newspaper in Cracow said: “People speak of widespread famine and epidemics. Do they forget that two months before Warsaw was reduced to dust aud ashes, and that difficulties have arisen from the influx of thousands of refugees.”