Background: The Parole der Woche was a weekly Nazi propaganda poster issued between 1936 and 1943. Its primary form was as a “wall newspaper” that was posted in public places throughout Germany, but a smaller version (playing card size) was also issued, which could be pasted to the back of correspondence. On this page, I provide partial or full translations of nineteen examples, along with the smaller version in some cases. The images are thumbnails. The party magazine for propagandists, Unser Wille und Weg, carried an article in 1940 encouraging greater use of the Parole der Woche. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has a large collection online.
Click for larger images.
There is a note in the party files (National Archives Series T-81, reel 24, dated 5.5.1943) that publication was suspended for the duration of the war.
Parole der Woche
#1/1936
This is the first issue. Later issues were more graphically interesting. The text proclaims Germany’s love of peace.
#23/1936
This issue is for the period 3-9 September 1936, during the Nuremberg Party Rally that focused on Bolshevism.
[Frame 1] “The world enemy threatens! The violent Bolshevist regiment has been trying to extend its reach for 15 years. For 15 years communist agitational propaganda has been the scourge of the world’s peoples.
Now Red militarism believes that its hour has come. — Supported by alliances and pacts with other states, it wants to use force to carry out what its unscrupulous class struggle and civil war agitation has been preparing for. — A huge army with vast quantities of war material — a terrible threat for all peoples — is ready to throw the world into bloodshed and fire.
More impudently than ever before, Red militarism lifts its head!
He who is not prepared will be destroyed!
Germany wants to live! German wants peace!
The German people stands united against the world danger of Bolshevism!”
[Frame 2] A quotation from Hitler on the Bolshevist threat.
[Frame 3]: Hitler has reintroduced compulsory military service. “Germany is on guard! Germany will not be caught by surprise! Germany will not become a second Spain!
The Führer and his movement won domestic peace for the German people in hard battle, freeing it from the terror of Belshevist arsonists and murderers. The Wehrmacht of National Socialist Germany assures external peace. It is the guardian of our culture! It is the protector of our peaceful labor! It protects the borders of our Reich!
The German Wehrmacht is a guarantee of Germany’s future!”
#36/1936
This issue is for the period 3-9 December 1936. The poster promotes the Winterhilfswerk, the party’s program to assist the poor during the winter. The text:
[Frame 1] “The entire nation stands together as one! A few hours after the Führer announced the beginning of the WHW campaign for 1936/37, Kreis Melle (Gau Weser-Ems) announced:
...11,000 kg. of fruit and vegetables are on their way to Gau Köln-Aachen. Women of the NS-Frauenschaft and others sacrificed their free time to collect and pack the fruits.
Their slogan was: There are still many who are poorer than we are, and we want to help them!
[Frame 2] Day of National Solidarity.
[Frame 3] “This socialism in action inspires all German Gaue not only in October and November, but also in the coming months of winter until the battle against hunger and cold is over on 31 March 1937. Our greatest and holiest task is to support the people. No German woman and no German man is outside the great community achievement of the WHW. No sacrifice is too great!
The greatest glory of your gift is that it is a sacrifice.”
#39/1939 [17 July]
“Rudolf Heß to the Encirclers:
We have become hard and alert through poverty and troubles. We have become particularly watchful against our most cunning enemy: World Jewry and World Freemasonry!
World Jewry and World Freemasonry should know: They have finally and completely lost their game with us! All their efforts to encircle us once again will change nothing!
If people in England today are worried that nations could ‘become slaves of stronger states,’ we say: If only they had had this concern 20 years ago! Germany was the slave of stronger states for 15 years and would still be so today if the Führer and his National Socialist movement had not appeared. We do not believe that such a sudden awaking of tender feelings on the part of England would have freed us.
Germany knows what it means to be the slave of stronger states. Therefore, its National Socialist leadership has taken care, and will continue to take care, that Germany will never again become such a slave — despite any encirclement.
They will never beat us down!”
#8/1941 [19 February]
Clear but Untimely!!
The white box has a quotation from a British periodical: “The European order that should result from this war must be one that makes a strong, armed, and united Germany forever impossible.” The rest of the text suggests that, under current conditions, the British are not going to be able to realize their wishes.
#8/1941 [Small]
The small version includes the quotation, followed by this text: “That is what the English magazine The Nineteenth Century and After recently wrote. We, however, think that the plutocratic war criminals in England should stop thinking about what will happen after the war that they unleashed is over. A strong, armed, and united Germany will ensure that the plutocratic warmongers on the Thames will never again be able to conduct their bloody business at the cost of Europe’s peoples.”
#10/1941 [5 March]
...No Compromise!
The poster cites the British newspaper News Chronicle as follows: “If the Nazi regime is not completely destroyed, we will be responsible as God’s agents, because we did not take revenge on the greatest enemies of God that the world has ever known. Take the Bible in one hand, the sword in the other, and make no compromises! In Cromwell’s spirit!” The text suggests that England has done evil things to peoples all over the world, and that they will never again be able to get away with the claim of divine support. The final words: “An end will be made of them — and without compromise!!!”
#10/1941 [Small]
The small version omits the graphic, but gets in most of the text.
#13/1941 [26 March]
Churchill’s War Goal:
“Churchill has been remarkably silent recently, especially when the English want to learn from him what the plutocratic war goals are. He refuses to make that clear. In view of impending British defeat, that is his best policy.” It goes on to note that Germany knows what those goals are, and cites an interview Churchill gave in World War I: “One must not only wipe Germany from the map, we English must above all extinguish any spark of German life everywhere in the world. We must make German women commit suicide because their children are starving in their wombs. We must lead the Germans to tear themselves apart until they lack any ability to resist. Then we will gag Germany’s mouth. Germany is like a living body. The gag will make its heart beat weaker and weaker, until is finally ceases to beat. Then we will chop the dead body of Germany into countless little pieces and distribute them to Germany’s neighbors. They will then ensure that no danger threatens us any longer.” It continues: “Mr. Churchill, we will never forget these words from your own mouth until the day of reckoning — and given the certainty of British defeat, you have good reason to keep silent.”
#15/1941 [23 April]
In the Name of Freedom!!!
The poster begins by citing President Roosevelt, who had recently said Germany was the enemy of freedom, whereas England was its defender. It refers to the picture showing the British torture of Indians, and mentions other British misdeeds as well. It concludes: “Put this picture in your album, Mr. Roosevelt, and show it to your Americans in the name of freedom, show them this picture in the name of humanity as an example of the democratic methods of your friends in London, and do not forget to mention the phrase: ‘By their deeds you shall know them’ — not by their words!!!”
#16/1941 [30 April]
...In Short, We Have to Bluff!
The left side cites a British spokesman who in a radio talk said that Britain had to bluff, to create the impression that military preparations were being made. The bottom of the right side says: “Bluff here, bluff there — the day will come when there is a bitter awakening on the British Isles. This time, it will not be the desperate lies of Churchill and his comrades that determine the outcome, but rather the hard and pitiless facts created by German weapons!!”
#16/1941 [Small]
The small version gets most of the text in, using smaller print.
#19/1941 [7 May]
This poster appeared after the British withdrawal from Greece in April 1941. It mocks the British claim that: “English soldiers are physically and spiritually better and have — when compared to the Germans — exemplary fighting qualities.”
The cartoon, dated 1918, has a British officer stating that sandbags are not needed to protect the trenches — that is why the French are there.
It concludes by noting that this time, British plutocrats will have to fight their own battles.
#19/1941 [Small]
The small version. The claims that the British have always let others bleed for them, but that it will not work this time.
#36/1941 [3 September]
A Rotten Trick!
Roosevelt and Churchill had just met and agreed on the “Atlantic Charter.” This poster responds: “Churchill and Roosevelt met on a yacht in the Atlantic. Their subordinates prophesied a turning point in human history. What was the result? A diluted new edition of Wilson’s Fourteen Points, in which the two plutocratic warmongers and Jewish lackeys presented themselves as future determiners of peace....” The points of the “Atlantic Charter” are then listed, with sarcastic commentary.
It concludes by claiming that Germany will not fall for that trick again.
#36/1941 [Small]
The small version.
#37/1941 [10 September]
One Who Should Know...
The text cites the former Soviet ambassador to Bulgaria, who accuses Stalin of every manner of crime. It concludes: “The warmongers and Jewish lackeys Roosevelt and Churchill have shamelessly promised all of Europe to this ‘organizer of starvation,’ this inhuman oppressor, who has on his hands the blood of millions who have starved or been brutally butchered!! The German military will put an end to Stalin. And it will not forget his plutocratic patrons and pimps!”
#39/1941 [24 September]
13 Million Tons
“That is the amount of British, or British controlled, shipping that the German navy and Luftwaffe have sunk during two years of this plutocratic war. These figures do not include shipping damaged by German mines, or other damage that cannot be proven.
During the World War, the German navy destroyed a total of 12,242,990 BRT of enemy shipping over four years.
#39/1941
Then, England’s supply routes to Europe were open.
Then British shipyards could work undisturbed to make up for the losses.
Then England could use the ships and shipyards of France, Holland, Norway, and other neutrals or allies throughout the world.
Then the fleets and bases of its countless allies were available to protect its convoys.
Then England had only one battleground and had to supply only its own island.
Then Germany was blockaded from the English Channel to Skagerrak.
That was then — What about today?
Today England is an island surrounded on all sides.
Today England has been driven from the entire European continent.
Today the German Luftwaffe prevents any attempt to rebuild destroyed British shipyards.
Today the German navy and Luftwaffe have bases from the north of Norway to the Bay of Biscay at their disposal.
Today England must spread its warships across the globe and must protect its convoys across vast detours.
Today it has essentially used up the loaned American shipping reserves!
#39/1941
Mr. Churchill consoles the British with references to the World War, as if everything today is the same as it was back then. But how was it in reality back then? Four weeks after the end of the World War, that vain chatterer admitted to the Sunday Pictorial:
“We only narrowly got through! Our success hung on a tiny, thin, weak thread. Only a little more, and submarine warfare would have forced us to surrender because of starvation.”
Mr. Churchill, this time that thin thread will break, depend on it! Your desperate boasting about Britain’s command of the seas cannot change that.
The page has turned. The facts prove it. And this time, these facts alone will determine the outcome!
#39/1941 [Small]
13 Million Tons
“That is the amount of British, or British controlled, shipping that the German navy and Luftwaffe have sunk during two years of this plutocratic war. These figures do not include shipping damaged by German mines, or other damage that cannot be proven.
During the World War, the German navy destroyed a total of 12,242,990 BRT of enemy shipping over four years.
Mr. Churchill consoles the British with references to the World War, as if everything today is the same as it was back then. But how was it in reality back then? Four weeks after the end of the World War, that vain chatterer admitted to the Sunday Pictorial:
“We only narrowly got through! Our success hung on a tiny, thin, weak thread. Only a little more, and submarine warfare would have forced us to surrender because of starvation.”
Mr. Churchill, this time that thin thread will break, depend on it! Your desperate boasting about Britain’s command of the seas cannot change that.
The page has turned. The facts prove it. And this time, these facts alone will determine the outcome!
Image courtesy of Moonwheel, a Danish site. He has over 100 more of these on one of his pages.
#40/1941 [1 October]
Always the Same Goal!
There was a propaganda campaign at this claiming that the Allies planned to utterly destroy Germany. It cites the London Daily Mail as follows: “We are at war with Germany, not only with the National Socialists. The war against the German people will be fought without regard to its leadership. Germany’s military strength must be broken, regardless of whether Germany is National Socialist, conservative, democratic, or socialist; otherwise we fight in vain. Germany must be rendered incapable of ever asserting itself militarily, regardless of the governmental system it has.” It then cites “the Jew Kaufmann”: “The present war is not a war against Adolf Hitler. It is also not a war against the Nazis. "Germany must forever perish!”
It concludes: “Germany knows how to give the appropriate response to the plutocratic-Jewish warmongers and their Bolshevist allies. Not their cries of hatred, but rather the hard language of German weapons will determine who will forever perish!
#40/1941 [Small]
The small version.
#41/1941 [8 October]
Army Communiqué: No Comment Necessary!
The text includes German and Soviet military communiqués for the same two days. The Germans report great victories, the Soviets minor successes. The text of the right half:
German: “In close cooperation between the army and the Luftwaffe, 665,000 prisoners were captured, and 885 tanks, 3,719 pieces of artillery, and huge masses of other war material were captured or destroyed. The enemy’s bloody losses are very high.”
Soviet: “On 27 September, our troops fought (!!) the enemy along the entire front.”
#41/1941 [Small]
The smaller version provides the comparison for one of the two dates contained in the large version.
#45/1941 [5 November]
“Translation into German Expressly Prohibited!”
This takes up the case of Theodore Kaufman again, an insignificant American Jew who had self-published a book proposing the sterilization of all Germans. The Nazis claimed he was one of Roosevelt’s closest advisers.
For full details, see my translation of the pamphlet the Nazis issued in late September 1941 titled The War Goal of World Plutocracy.
#48/1941 [26 November]
That Was the Reason!
The text cites Hitler’s 8 November 1941 speech claiming that England had been depending on rescue from the Soviet Union, explaining its earlier otherwise inexplicable confidence. It also cites the Manchester Guardian that England could never defeat Germany without an ally on the Continent.
“In plain German: Bolshevism was the last hope of the plutocratic warmongers in London! Its fall also seals the fate of the war criminals on the British Isles!!”
#11/1942 [11 March]
The Admission of an Insider
“Stalin’s ambassador for the Bolshevization of England, Stafford Cripps, recently gave a speech in Bristol in which this warmonger said:
#11/1942
‘The Soviet Union will be the greatest European power if England and the United States win the war, since the war will probably end with the seat of government in Berlin. If the British do not have friendly relations with the Soviets, the Soviet Union will determine Europe’s future alone.’
That is clear proof that Churchill and Roosevelt have given the mass murderer Stalin a ‘free hand in Europe’ — in the event that they win with his assistance.
#11/1942
Besides that revelation of the infamous British-American war aims, the talkative Cripps said the following with cynical shamelessness:
‘Stalin signed the 1939 treaty with Germany, but immediately began war production to prepare for the moment in which he could successfully attack Germany.’
This statement, by one who should know, proves Stalin’s treacherousness. Mr. Cripps’s comments further prove to the whole world that the Führer had to strike at the last moment to save Germany and all of Europe from destruction by the Bolshevist hordes. Germany and the awakened peoples of Europe know what is necessary in this battle against the plutocratic-Jewish conspiracy and its Jewish-Bolshevist executioners:
A bitter struggle until victory!
#11/1942 [Small]
The Admission of an Insider:
“Churchill’s former ambassador in Moscow, Lord Privy Seal Cripps, recently stated:
‘Stalin signed the 1939 treaty with Germany, but immediately began war production to prepare for the moment in which he could successfully attack Germany.’
The warmonger Cripps also proves that the Führer