THE GOEBBELS MACHINE

Opotiki News, Volume III, Issue 324, 22 October 1940, Page 4

THE GOEBBELS MACHINE

LYING AS A SCIENCE (By “Knob-Turner”) . Why uoes the German-controiled radio persist in broadcasting hes after tliey have been exposed i This question occurs to many who listen to Dr. Goebbels’ workers.

llepetit.on is one qf the methods recommended by Hitler as a means of gaining acceptance of a lie. Nazi radio propaganda follows this advice, and though to British minds the advice may sound absurd, successes gained by Dr. Goebbels in the past show that the method can be effective. Nazi radio propaganda is dangerous to people who do not know what it is and how it operates. Once the technique is appreciated the great part of its effectiveness isi lost, but the method is constantly changing and so an alert skepticism is essential to protect oneself against the Goebbcls poison.

Three, forms of lying arc used by the Nazi radio propagandists: (a), the Lie; (b). the semi-lie; (c). the lying truth. In the first case we have simple statements which are not true; in the second, a mixture of one or two true statements to assist in carrying over a mass of untrue ones ; in the third, statements which in themselves are true, but which arc used to convey an untrue impression. • - •*-*»-'* •*■*■*-

ivmuU -.ii cuy Jionu, xmt Llib OUIU' IIID L/OViUX Jlxooli J.X 4>ii Ui. uwvV.lt-.ctOL LclllVfc. XA.O till Ui LiiC lixfcjt Clclbo LuO ai..xving Ui mo liuj CU auu me ixoua nmj mo emeu, mi uiC 10 lUDill Ml LHC U1U.0.l UgurCo g.MUg mo uciopiaue luascs. j.j.11 u.uotiauon mi me second form u ,l,j u i\ azi xcici once to cuiicenijalj.mii camps m me iimci 1 uur ciUimmg Uiui coiieeiiU'Ution camps wmo a ui'itisn institution auu mat Uic ur.usii nave no right to tailc oi me azi concentration camps. it is true that Uieie were camps which- were called •‘•concentration camps” established. in the latter part oi tile south African War, but they were not places of punishment. There was 'some mismanagement and a number of deaths occurred as a result of epidemics of diseases new to South Africa, as a Br.tish enquiry disclosed. But those people who were, in them stayed of their own free will. There were none of the factors for which the Nazi concentration camps have been condemned. There was no deliberate cruelty or deliberate ill-treatment, no punishment or premeditated murder. Both camps bore the same, name in Uic hiiiglisii language. Tins was uic principal truth. Otherwise they were entirely different, but the Kazi plan was to convey to the uninformed that they were similar.

Reference to coneeutratou camps in Palestine before the war was iiiatle bv the Nazis and the Italians ; but it was not stated that those who were m the camps were armed terrorists and that there was none of the cruelty and inhuman treatment which marked the Nazi camps. For the third group the Nazi uses some quotation from an accepted

historical work, divorced from its context, to suggest that some set of conditions winch were atrocious accoiding to modern standards existed iu Britain alone. Historical records make it clear that tho\ did occur ill Britain; but they and even worse conditions were found almost everywhere at the same time. If the listener ha a a good acquaintance with history he is not deceived ; but if he is not so equipped he may be caught easily by this misuse of truth. Part of tho Nazi plan is to discredit the 8.8. C, The Nazis have lost all reputation for truth, but the 8.8. C. possesses this reputation to a high degree. One of the tricks used is. to start some false report of an Ailed success, to produce it in a neutral country and if the 8.8. C. uses it (sometimes when it does not) to reveal the inaccuracy of tho report and accuse the 8.8. C. of lying. A classic case occurred during the operations in Norway. Soon after the Allied forces landed, the Goebbels machine “planted” in Sweden a report that the British had captured Narvik. This wa s duly transmitted to Britain and appeared in a 8.8. C. broadcast properly as an unconfirmed report from Sweden. It was given no official counterancc. This careful qualification did not trouble the Nazis. Their stations revealed that the Germans still held Narvik and- charged the British official service with lying. This particular effort deceived many people.

After the Battle of the River Plate, the Goebbels machine broadcast «t®story that British sailors spat on the coffins of the “Graf Spec’s” dead and threw a dead dog on the grave. It was included in the programmes sent everywhere, the “dog” being changed to a “cat” for countries where the cat was more offensive. When this story was officially refuted by the British radio, the German radio calmly denied that it had issued it and accused the- 8.8. C. of making a lying charge to insult the ' German nation.

Unfortunately for Dr. Goebbels

•there existed on the records a message to Buenos Aires asking that this particular item from “Berlin on radio” should be killed. Ihis message was despatched after an Argentine newspaper had furiously repudiated the story. Tho Goebbels Machine suffered from tho River Plate battle nearly as much damage as the “Graf Spec.” But the setback merely drove it scuttling to new industry and new ingenuity.