'Propaganda: Power And Persuasion'

[Leon]

I saw this today on the news and thought it was worth popping up here.  With our games being all about what we can get on the table, it's interesting sometimes to see the less direct tactics that go on during a war.  I've heard of both sides dropping counterfeit currency over each other in an attempt to crash the opposition economy as well.


"The battle to influence the minds of citizens will take centre stage at the British Library later this year in an exhibition titled 'Propaganda: Power And Persuasion'.  It will showcase leaflets, radio broadcasts and films from the past 100 years, including literature dropped over Nazi Germany by Allied Forces. Many of the leaflets used in World War II have never been seen before.

The display sets out to show visitors how countries have used propaganda during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries to influence their citizens."


Allied Forces produced this set of anti-Nazi images in 1941, but the sticky labels were never disseminated in Germany. Pictures show a worker defying his Nazi boss, a worker about to hack a giant swastika with the slogan 'The day is coming!', as well as the Nazi emblem being hanged repeating the same slogan.





This leaflet dropped in Italy uses the infamous Roman gladitorial slogan, 'Those about to die salute you'. The cartoon shows Hitler as the puppet master controlling Mussolini, as Italian soldiers march to their deaths in Russia and Libya.





Written in French, there were plans to drop this message from U.S, President Roosevelt over France, but it was never disseminated. The poster proclaims that 'Fascists offer nothing to young people... but death'. To reinforce the point a mask of Hitler reveals a skeleton in uniform.





This leaflet was a form of 'interactive' propaganda. It says at the bottom 'Pull' and as different sections are pulled out they say to German U-Boat volunteers: 'Short time in service!'...'We travel'...'Down'...'Into an icy grave'. The final image being of a dead sailor.





This Allied Forces message, put out in 1941, shows an autumnal leaf, with a German newspaper on top. The poster proclaims that 'The leaves have fallen - but there is still no German victory', mocking the Nazi proclamation that 1941 would see the end of the war.





This image shows a fat, grinning Nazi sitting in a limousine while below a young couple asleep in their bed can only dream of one day owning a car. The leaflet aims to press home that the Nazis are profiteering from the war.





The exhibition will show how the use of propaganda is not restricted to war time. This image shows the cover of a Bert the Turtle's 'Duck and Cover record' which in the 1950s told US youngsters how to prepare for a nuclear attack.





The propaganda display showcases leaflets, radio broadcasts and films. This dramatic image, used on a French publication, shows the RAF 617 Squadron's 'Dambusters' bombing of the Mohne Dam in 1943.





The propaganda leaflets were dropped all over Europe during World War II to affect the mindset of both soldiers and citizens. This French periodical, 'Courier de l'Air', was air dropped over France in 1942.





This image, sent out across in France in 1941, shows a mocked-up 50 Franc note with a number of messages written into it. On the right, a grinning Hitler clutches a heart leaving a hole in the note and to the left is an image of Pierre Laval. He headed the government working with the Nazis. The note also says 'Traitor: Laval' while the central figure looks at the huge daily bill of France being occupied by the German Army.





'De Wervelwind' (The Whirlwind), was a magazine made for the Dutch and disseminated in 1942. Around 22 issues of the magazine were made during the war, and it was the only source of information for many Dutch citizens. Curator Ian Cooke said the German regarded British war propaganda as a 'very credible threat'.

[petercooman]

Great stuff!! I have the combined works of 'signaal' in my bookcase, a german propaganda magazine, and it's crazy what they made the people believe!!

[Steve J]

Some great images there Leon .

[Hertsblue]

It's always difficult to measure in any tangible sense how effective propaganda is or was. Some of the images pictured above are particularly hard-hitting - but for how long? I think it's true to say that propaganda on its own never won a war.

[J.S.]

Interessting stuff here. I've been working in the Bavarian National Archive for a while and we have a huge collection of WW2 leaflets there and I also waded through seemingly endless files and records of pro- and anti-NS Propaganda. The whole range went from impressively subtile and efficient pictures (for all countries under German occupation during the war; e.g. you wont find any anti-semitic propaganda bound for Italy, whereas the pamphlets for Poland burst with them) and texts to outright ridiculous stuff like this here:


Actually, I wasn't allowed to take pics, but I simply couln't resist when seeing this one. My inital reaction was like this:


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[Serotonin]

A really interesting book on this topic is Killing Hope by William Blum

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_Hope

Its about CIA operations against socialist countries during the Cold War and the covert and overt propaganda that they used. Amazing stuff, although pretty anger inducing in some parts.