Evening Post. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1934. GOEBBELS AND ROSENBERG

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 94, 18 October 1934, Page 12

Evening Post.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1934.

GOEBBELS AND ROSENBERG

Addressing a meeting of the propaganda officers of the Nazi Party on September 7, Dr. Goebbels, the head of the Department, is reported to have "freely admitted," though it would have been equally true to say that he "freely boasted," the part that propaganda had played in the reconstruction of Germany.

We have turned propaganda into a really creative art* he said. Propaganda was our sharpest weapon in the conquest of tho State, and will be made use of in future in order not to lose our hold on the nation. Propaganda must present the most complicated political problem to tho man in tho street in a way he understands. It is not merely a matter of doing tho right thing, but of doing it so that the people know that the right thing is being done rightly.

That last sentence, at any rate, conveys a warning, neatly and forcibly expressed, which it is just as important for a democratic statesman as for a despot to bear in mind. It is probable that the wrong things the Coates Government did contributed less to its defeat at the General Election than the wrong ways in which it did right things. It is certain that an analogous clumsiness has contributed materially to the .unpopularity of the Coalition Government. It was inevitable that its exchange policy should cause widespread sufferings in the towns, but there was no need to convey the impression that they did not count, or to aggravate them by the clumsy sarcasm that the rate might be reduced 1 per cent.

Dr. Goebbels went on to say that "the successful propagandist must use the Press, the film,' and the radio," and here he indicates the three chief instruments of propaganda, in each of which the despot has the democratic Government at a hopeless disadvantage. In Germany, as in Russia and Italy, nothing can appear in the Press or on the screen or be transmitted by radio that has not been authorised by the Government. Dr. Goebbels does not mention the platform, which was abolished long ago, nor the pulpit whose obstinate freedom may at last succumb, not to the spiritual authority of the Nazi Primate, but to the police whose aid he has now invoked. The suppression or absolute control of every organ of opinion means a delightful simplification of the problem of , government, as long as the people are willing to stand it, and in this respect there seems to be no limit to the German powers of endurance. The whip or the axe, the prison or the concentration camp in which he may be induced to commit suicide or may be shot "while trying to escape," is the lot of anybody who is foolish enough to assert his freedom. Freedom is driven, underground or across the frontier.

Under these conditions official propaganda may seem to have a fairly easy task, but it must be admitted in Dr. Goebbels's favour both that he has made a magnificent use of his opportunity and that his skill had a very large share in the making of it.

Propaganda, he continues, is the link between Government and people. It need not and must not lie. All it must do is to tell the people the truth in a manner familiar to tho masses. Such propaganda works without anybody noticing it—its purpose must be hidden, and beeauso it is hidden its effect is so much tho. greater.

There is more excellent advice here. That "art consists in concealing art" is a saying which has just as obvious applications to the art of propaganda as much as to any olher, but it is surprising that in public Dr. Goebbels should speak so openly of the secrets of his craft. It is, however, possible that this part of an address which was directed primarily to his staff Avas not allowed to appear in the German Press, or that what to the foreign reader is its one jarring note was considered to be a sufficient antidote.

"It need not and must not lie." That is indeed what would be colloquially described as "a very large one." Strike out the "nols," and it hits the mark exactly. German propaganda needs to lie, and must and does lie, and must be congratulated on the faithfulness with which it has discharged a painful duty. "Minister of Enlightenment and Propaganda" is the official title of Dr. Goebbels. If he is not called the Minister of Enlightenment and Propaganda and Mendacity, one reason is that even in Germany that title would- have had an unpleasant sound, and would to some extent have tended to defeat its own object. But it was certainly not intended that in so far as it would serve the purposes of enlightenment and propaganda, mendacity was not to be resorted to, nor has Dr. Goebbels been so foolish as to narrow his jurisdiction by such a pedantic inlerpreta-

tion. Had he done so his Department would certainly have failed to achieve the brilliant success which has made it one of the main pillars of the Nazi power.

But it is not only with the present and the future and the recent past |of Versailles and the "War guilt | lie" that German propaganda is concerned. All history must be falsified in order to make it square with the Aryan and Nordic mania ;of the Nazi regime. How far the i falsification of sacred history is to be carried, and, how much of the Bible will survive its completion, is yet to be seen. A promising start has been already made, and Primate Mueller may be expected to quicken the pace of reform when the police have cleared the obstructionists out of the way. Less has been heard of the rewriting of the nation's history, but an important announcement has been recently made on the subject by the proper authority. On the last day of the Nuremberg Congress of the Nazi Party (September 10) Herr Alfred Rosenberg, who early in the year was made the philosophical and cultural adviser of the party, said that the history of Germany was to be rewritten.

Four reliable' and specially-selected ; party members have been ordered to write a new history of the German people, he said. It will recount the events of the past according to their merits, but in a remodelled form. The spirit of the old parties must not be allowed to continue to influence from the grave the mentality of tho people. A nation which professes to glorify its ancestors but will not let them tell their own story is in a queer position. It glorifies itself so much more that it proposes to rewrite the national history in order to make their ancestors less unworthy of their immaculate descendants. There will be plenty of old books to burn when the Nazi revisers have completed their, task.