Background: This page is part of a larger project to trace the history of World War II as reflected in the headlines of the Völkischer Beobachter, the Nazi Party’s daily newspaper.
January 1944 had no good military news for Germany. Headlines reported other matters, often focusing on difficulties in the Allied camp. Elsewhere on the front page people could read between the lines to see that the war was going poorly on the Eastern Front, but the overall theme was that Adolf Hitler and German soldiers would win in the end.
Völkischer Beobachter: January 1944
1 /2 January 1944
“Only One Task: To Ruin the Devilish Plans of the Jewish World Arsonists”
The Führer’s Appeal to the German People for the New Year
3 January 1944
Major Defensive Battles in the New Year
Undiminished Touch Winter Battles between Witebsk and the Black Sea
4 January 1944
Just Like the English in France Before....
US-American Troops Demoralize the British Island People
Scandalous Incidents Intensity Tensions between USA-Troops and the Locals
5 January 1944
Fiction and Truth in Anglo-America
Raw Reality Drives Away Officially Promoted Optimism
The Man in the Street Should Not Learn the Truth about the Course of the War
6 January 1944
How they Lied to and Betrayed the Italian People
The Lying Scoundrels of 1918 Have Not Changed
7 January 1944
Stalin Scolds Wilkie
Moscow Rejects Any USA Meddling in Eastern Europe
Pravda Insolently Rejects even a Modest Question from New York
8 January 1944
We Will Give the Appropriate Answer
This Is How They Would Like to Treat Us
75 Years of Jewish-Bolshevist “Oversight”
German Schools under Jewish Supervision
Note: The article deals with Allied plans for postwar Germany.
9 January 1944
Western Powers as Vanguards of Bolshevism
North Africa in Moscow’s Hands
From Giraus and de Gaulle to Bogonolov and Wyschenksi — An Exemplary Path
Note: The article’s argument is that the Bolshevists will be taking over North Africa.
10 January 1944
English Newspaper Proposes:
German Children for Forced Labor in the USSR
A Devilish New “Educational Plan” Should the Plutocratic-Bolshevist Alliance Win
11 January 1944
The Eastern Front in the Third Winter
Toughest Defensive Battle between Witebsk and the Black Sea
12 January 1944
An Historic Crime Punished
Death Penalty for Traitors to the Italian People
Ciano, de Bono, Gottardi, Marinelli, and Pareschi Executed
13 January 1944
The Biggest Aerial Battle of This War
136 Terror Bombers Destroyed
The Gangsters Paid for a Day Attack on Central Germany with the Heaviest Losses of “Four-Motored” Planes
14 January 1944
The Thieving Powers Proclaim:
Harshest Conditions for Betrayed Italy
The Laughing Third Party — Bolshevism
15 January 1944
New Deceitful Maneuver by the USA President
Roosevelt Makes Promises That He Has Not Fulfilled for Ten Years
16 January 1944
An Englishman on England’s Social Conditions
“Half the Population is Undernourished”
New Variant of the Theme “Freedom from Want”
Note: The shadowy figure to the right was part of a propaganda campaign urging people to keep quiet, since spies might be anywhere.
17 January 1944
Rosenberg Speaks at a Worldview Ceremony in Prague
German and European Intellectual Freedom
Reckoning with the Enemies of the Reich and Europe
18 January 1944
The Swindle of Tehran Revealed
Stalin Will Not Negotiate about Poland
A Painful Slap for London’s Poles and Their Former Protectors
19 January 1944
The Results of the Strong Rebuff of Poland
A Free Hand for Stalin in Eastern Europe
Washington Says: Serious Loss of Prestige for the USA and England
20 January 1944
The British Admit War Guilt
Too Late Amidst Hopeless Resignation
21 January 1944
The Western Powers in Full Retreat
Admit Complete Capitulation to Stalin
Plutocratic Foreign Policy is Bound by the Betrayal at Tehran
22 January 1944
Pound Meeting in the Japanese Parliament
All Prerequisites for the Victory of Germany and Japan
“The German People Offers one of the Most Splendid Perspectives on World History”
23 January 1944
Our Obligation for the Coming Decision
We Want to Produce More than Before!
Gauleiter Sauckel’s Appeal to the German People
24 January 1944
The Criminals Search for an Alibi
England Wants to Deny Its Guilt for Terror
Even Air Minister Sinclair Must Admit:
Germany’s Fighting Morale is Unbroken
25 January 1944
Surrendering Europe’s North Confirmed
After Poland, Finland is Next
Moscow: “If Soviet Troops March against Karelia, We Will Not Listen to Offers of Negotiation”
26 January 1944
British Intelligence Makes a Rare Admission
The Soviets Had Already Decided on War against the Reich in 1939
They Signed the Treaty with Us to Win Time for Armaments
27 January 1944
An Eye Witness from North Africa
American Occupation Troops Even Worse Than the British
In the Land of “Liberated” French There is Hardly a Frenchman to Be Seen
28 January 1944
Attlee Is Sent This Time
England Vainly Tries to Deny Its Terror Blood Guilt
Churchill’s Subordinate Insolently Speaks of “Protecting People and Property”
29 January 1944
The Dominion at Risk
London Attempts to Halt the Decline of the Empire
Washington’s Further Penetration Is to be Hindered by a Conference
30 January 1944
The Dangerous Example
by Alfred Rosenberg
30 January was a major day on the Nazi calendar: the anniversary of the 1933 takeover of power. Rosenberg claims that just as the Nazis won in 1933, so they will win the war. The caption below the image: “Only one way! Straight ahead! To Victory!
31 January 1944