Background: The Nazi Party depended heavily on speakers to get its message across. Those speakers needed to be informed. This directive was issued after the defeat at Stalingrad (2 February 1943) but before Goebbels’s “total war speech” of 18 February 1943. It was part of the overall propaganda campaign to mobilize German resources.
The source: Redner-Schnellinformation, Sonderlieferung 51, February 1943.
Special editions of Redner-Schnellinformation will appear monthly in the future and give speakers brief summaries of the key ideas to be used in current propaganda for the public. More detailed information on the themes will be provided in other issues of the Redner-Schnellinformation and the Sonderdienst der Reichspropagandaleitung.
The special editions will be organized in this way:
I. The propaganda line,
II. Propaganda guidelines,
III. Language guidelines.
Speakers are instructed to hold strictly to these directives and rules.
I. The propaganda line
a) Anti-Bolshevist propaganda is at the center of our work.
1. Meetings are to make clear Bolshevism’s great danger. These points should be made:
a) Its murderous methods within the Soviet Union;
b) Its systematic enslavement of workers;
c) Its complete lack of culture.2. Furthermore, include proof of the Soviet Union’s plans clear plans for conquest and world revolution, which are above all directed against Europe. The Jewish origins of this drive for power should be shown, since Bolshevism is nothing other than the perfected form of Jewish ideas of government and world domination. The commonalities between the Jewish will for power in Anglo-American plutocracy and Bolshevism should be stressed strongly.
3. Finally, provide proof of the English betrayal of Europe and the anti-European spirit of the USA, showing that our continent can be saved only through German victory.
Roosevelt and Churchill and the whole of Anglo-American plutocracy are to be attacked not as themselves, but as servants of Bolshevism.
(Further information on these themes will follow.)
b) All commentary on the current military situation must end in ways that support, strengthen, and encourage:
1. The strongest appeal to readiness and hard work of our people,
2. Blind confidence in and absolute willingness to follow the Führer.
All statements are to be supported with appropriate examples that prove the victorious battle of our movement in many more difficult and often hopeless-appearing situations, but which were resolved by the Führer’s correct decisions and his unswerving conclusions and actions.
(See Official Instructions — Redner-Schnellinformation of 30 January.)
II. Propaganda guidelines
a) Attacks on Bolshevism are to be directed only at the system, not against the peoples of the East. These peoples, above all those people who are working in the Reich, should not feel insulted by our propaganda against Bolshevism, which could reduce their will to work.
b) “Last Reserves?”
In dealing with the regulations on total use of the nation’s workforce, never use phrases like “last reserves,” “last resources,” etc. The new measures should be presented as “mobilizing previously unused capacities.” These measures should be seem as obvious measures demanded by the German people itself, as the exploitation of existing reserves.
c) Friendly acceptance of mobilized reserves in factories.
In all public and factory meetings, stress as strongly as possible that the “new people” who coming to work in the factories should be met with friendly helpfulness. Mockery, disparaging remarks, or other comments that could reduce their willingness to work are to be condemned in the strongest way possible.
d) “German dignity” and foreign workers.
In meetings with German workers, in the public and in factories, particular attention should be given to “German dignity” with respect to foreign workers.
Factories will have a German face as long as German men and women are representatives of German nature, German being, and National Socialist thinking. They should provide a model of German accomplishment, German industry, and German faithfulness to all foreigners. Treating foreigners correctly, treating them fairly, and keeping an obvious distance from them are guarantees of smooth production of war material for the fighting front and the best guarantee against sabotage and enemy hostility.
e) No military predictions.
Say nothing about the question of Soviet troops and armaments capacity with regards to German offensives that are to be expected in several weeks, whether in the East or on other fronts.
It is also false to term Soviet resources “inexhaustible,” in phrases like the “last desperate efforts.”
With respect to German countermeasures, say only that they are coming and that they will prove our unbroken strength and indomitable will to victory. Details, predictions about territory, goals, etc., are to be entirely avoided.
f) Enemy agitation.
Lately, isolated circles have been increasingly listening to foreign radio stations. In all parts of the Reich, therefore, drastic sentences are being imposed.
Speakers should refer to local cases of such events, attacking them in the strongest possible way, and using reports in the press as examples to warn against such behavior.
II. Language guidelines
a) Expressions like “Human material” and “human raw material” are typical liberal-Marxist phrases. National Socialism is based on the racial value of our German people’s comrades. Therefore, all phrases that suggest that our people are somehow a subject for Jewish materialist lust for profits are to be absolutely avoided.
b) The phrases “Fortress Europe” is politically undesirable. It suggests a defensive attitude to our opponents, which we cannot allow. We do not feel besieged, but rather as before are engaged in an offensive battle to free our continent from all Jewish-Bolshevist threats. In this sense, our battle in the East, despite its offensive character, is a defensive war that we have to wage for the life and future of our people and our part of the world.
c) “Large territory (Großraum) and large territory economy (Großraumwirtschaft)
Any use of these terms is not helpful and undesired. Future large territorial policy depends on the outcome of the war, and its details (social, economic, cultural, and social) will be determined by the Führer. Therefore, all such topics are currently prohibited.
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