Propaganda-information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view. You may think propaganda is just something in North Korea, that doesn’t affect many people, and never will. But, only 70 years ago, propaganda fueled a nation to do one of the most evil things humans have ever done. This is why I think it is important to understand propaganda and how it was used against an entire nation.
The purpose of propaganda is to force a doctrine on an entire group of people and to create an atmosphere which tolerates violence against certain people. Nazis used propaganda extensively during World War II. Their three main reasons were to make an atmosphere which tolerates violence and oppression against groups of people. The second, and possibly most important, reason was to mislead foreign governments and people. During the early 1930s, most foreign governments had no clue about the oppression and widespread hatred that went on in Germany at the time. The last reason
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Almost every act of oppression the Jews endured was in some way affected by propaganda. But the most influential belief that allowed the oppression of Jews was the notion that they were inferior. The belief of the Jews inferiority is directly because of propaganda. Other consequences propaganda caused was the exploiting of stereotypes and crude caricatures which mocked Jews. This further alienated them as outsiders. Because of propaganda, and stereotypes caused by it, Jews were seen as parasites by the German population. This belief largely stems from the defeat of World War I. After losing the first World War, many Germans falsely blamed the defeat on Jews, communists, and socialists. Although almost 100,000 Jews fought in the first World War. Even more shocking is the fact that more than 12,000 Jews received Iron Cross medals during World War I. (“Why Adolf Hitler Hated Jews,”