(This extract takes three minutes to read.)
As can be seen from Edmondson’s pamphlet and from the theme of Lindbergh’s words, the America First Committee combined American nationalism and anti-semitism to push the organization’s message of non-interventionism. This surely served the German state, which argued that the claims of the Third Reich’s inhumane treatment of Jews were simply lies and slander from these same Jews and individuals who sought to pander to and build anti-German sentiment.
[…]
While presenting the Third Reich as a bulwark of Christianity, [Fascist] propagandists often presented the [Fascists] as saviors of the German state and the German people.
Much as the [Fascists] sought to blame and associate the Jews and Bolsheviks with threats against Christianity in Germany — a threat that only the [Fascists] stopped — these same propagandists presented Hitler as the only figure who saved Germany and the Germans, from eradication by Jews and Bolsheviks. This was a tactic that many [Fascist] propagandists implemented in order to foster sympathy for the régime, to get the American people to fall for more [Fascist] propaganda.
The [Fascists] presented any dissenting claims of [Fascist] atrocities or the ruthlessness of the [Third Reich] as simple anti-German bias, and as such, [Fascist] propagandists aggrandized the image of the party and Adolf Hitler.
[…]
Schotte also blames the negative coverage the [Third Reich] on the influence of the Jews, claiming that they are working on a multi-national scale to slander and influence anti-German sentiment. […] Overall, Schotte used the letter as a way to disparage the claims against the Third Reich and Hitler as well, presenting them as unfounded and based on anti-German sentiment.
[…]
Within the article, Daluege makes the claim that the world press focuses on the topic of Jewish persecution within the German state by the Nazi party, because the international press is run by hostile Jewish actors and sought to unfairly portray the Third Reich to bolster anti-German sentiment amongst the world.
[…]
The pro-[Fascist] groups within the United States, such as the German American Bund and the Friends of New Germany, ultimately inflated the image of Hitler and the Third Reich within the United States, but at the same time, hoped to spread the ideals of Fascism […] within the nation as well, often intertwining the two within patriotism and Americanism, to make the ideas more attractive to sympathetic Americans.
The Bund and The Friends of New Germany also often worked to discredit and denounce what the organizations called propaganda against the Third Reich and Hitler, decrying information that accused the Reich and Hitler of being anti-German sentiment and fueled by those who sought to foster anti-German sentiment.
The Friends of New Germany released a pamphlet entitled Lifting the Pall: Germany and Hitler in Their True Light by R. C. Dasher. The pamphlet, published in December of 1935, was an extremely incendiary piece of pro-[Fascist] propaganda. For instance, the first page asks the reader, in large bold letters, “Do You Want Reliable Information or Be Treated as a Moron by the Promoters of Anti-German Propaganda?”⁶⁷
The pamphlet then goes on to list several pieces of [Fascist] propaganda and literature that one should read to not be considered a moron, including My Battle by Adolf Hitler.
The pamphlet aims to present what the Friends of New Germany claim is the true version of Adolf Hitler that is distorted by the American press to spread anti-German sentiment. […] This is a pamphlet by the Friends of New Germany, and pushes pro-[Fascist] propaganda, however Dasher seeks to assure American readers of the opposite, Dasher insists that his organization is not a propaganda outlet for the Third Reich, but are just an organization of Germans and German Americans concerned with anti-German sentiment.
[…]
In the German American Bund pamphlet entitled Purpose and Aims of the German American Bund, the Bund describes the goals of its organization as to “unite all honorable, courageous and loyal Citizens and Aspirants to Citizenship of the United States of America, of the Germanic Race, proud of their blood, traditions, language and ideas of freedom, justice, duty and absolute honesty.”⁷⁷ […] the [German American] Bund concealed its sympathy for, and dissemination of, [Fascist] propaganda within the United States as simple goodwill and cultural unity, a group of Germans and German Americans who simply wished to dispel what they claimed was anti-German bias.
(Emphasis added. Click here for more.)
Winrod’s propaganda for the Third Reich leaned heavily on the religious aspect of the [Fascist] state, overinflating the virtues of Hitler and the [Fascist] leaders as perfect Christians in order to disregard arguments against the [Fascists] as simple anti-Christian propaganda, and even compared Hitler to a new Martin Luther.³⁸
[…]
Priwer ends her article in The Menorah Journal by reflecting on Noelle as a tool of [Fascist] propaganda in the United States remarking that, as a professor on campus has noted, “there had been a tremendous increase in anti-German sentiment during the school year” she continues “he would not contribute it all to the over-enthusiastic tactics of the German exchange student, but thought her to be responsible for at least part of it.”¹²²
Dasher insists that his organization is not a propaganda outlet for the Third Reich, but are just an organization of Germans and German Americans concerned with anti-German sentiment.
Not at all relatable in our days.
