British Post-WWII Propaganda

Hidalgo

Hi all.
I'm looking for any books, online journals, articles, posters etc dealing with British propaganda in the immediate post war years.
In particular relating to the de-nazification of Germany.

Was a concerted propaganda effort made by the British to entice German civilians and ex-soldier alike away from defeated Nazism and towards democracy?

Did the British Government or Foreign Office engage in propaganda as a means of 're-education in their German zone aimed at the German population under their control?

Or anything similar to the above questions,

No shortage of material for the war years themselves, but I'm more after 1945-to the founding of the Bonn Republic

(I know this is a WWII thread, but its the closest place I could find to stick it, hope that's ok mods

Stovepipe

Hi there,
Have a look at Ian Kershaw's stuff, especially his most recent work. A lot of books lately about the last year of WW 2 in Germany tend to concentrate on the human cost to Germans, ie, Giles McDonogh's work but they do mention denazification, Nazi hunting, having to use former Nazis in new positions of power and the change in attitude to the Russians and so on.

regards
Stovepipe

Hidalgo

Stovepipe wrote: »

Hi there,
Have a look at Ian Kershaw's stuff, especially his most recent work. A lot of books lately about the last year of WW 2 in Germany tend to concentrate on the human cost to Germans, ie, Giles McDonogh's work but they do mention denazification, Nazi hunting, having to use former Nazis in new positions of power and the change in attitude to the Russians and so on.

regards
Stovepipe

Thanks. i've read some of Giles McDonogh's work on Germany after the 3rd Reich. Gives a very good social insight into life in the 4 zones and how it varied.

So far all I've read from kershaw is Nazism, the rise of Hitler/cult of the leader etc.

Any title in particular from Kershaw that you'd recommend?

Stovepipe

Hi there
Have a look at Robin Neilland, Max Hastings and there was another fairly recent work, who's author's name escapes me, about securing the Reich's technological secrets for the UK and which briefly talked about the morals of using convinced Nazi scientists.

regards
Stovepipe

Thomas_I

Hidalgo wrote: »

Hi all.
I'm looking for any books, online journals, articles, posters etc dealing with British propaganda in the immediate post war years.
In particular relating to the de-nazification of Germany.

Was a concerted propaganda effort made by the British to entice German civilians and ex-soldier alike away from defeated Nazism and towards democracy?

Did the British Government or Foreign Office engage in propaganda as a means of 're-education in their German zone aimed at the German population under their control?

Or anything similar to the above questions,

No shortage of material for the war years themselves, but I'm more after 1945-to the founding of the Bonn Republic

(I know this is a WWII thread, but its the closest place I could find to stick it, hope that's ok mods

I´ve never come across any such propaganda things. The whole de-nazification in Germany lastet for nearly two years. After that (in 1947) it was shifted to German authorities ("Spruchkammer") which was something like a "civil court". Due the development of the cold war and the Soviets blockading the transit routs from the West-Zones to Berlin in 1948 and the efforts of the Western Allies to establish the West-German state, they´ve dropped the whole thing and from 1949 onwards it was left to a German central authority of the prosecution to prosecute Nazi war criminals. This led to the "Auschwitz Trials" in the 1960s as the main trial about Nazi war criminals by the German juristriction itself.

I can´t tell about an appropriate book that deals with that topic. I suppose that you would find something in different writings, something that deals with the times of occupation in West-Germany for instance. I once saw some book about the British Zone in West-Germany, but it is written in German. Maybe there is something to find in UK Archives.

Stovepipe

Hi there,
From the Trent Park secret recordings, the British identified the real or "black" Nazis among the Germans, especially the senior officers. It has been mentioned in several books that prisoners in the US and Canada were divided into black and grey and that denazification was focused on those they believed to be less devoted to Nazism. One book claimed that the black nazis, such as SS, were deliberately kept in harsher camps and given less privileges compared to greys. One book claimed that SS PoWs in the UK conducted unofficial trials, leading to executions, against other prisoners, that they considered had given help to the British as informers or had not fought hard enough. Thomas I has it right when he says that Allied denazification reached a peak after two years. The end result was former Nazis ending up back in positions of power in police, legal, technical and local government areas, much to the documented dismay of German citizens. This is often mentioned in the accounts of Nazi hunters, especially when it came to attempting to extradite Nazis from powerful positions in the Federal Republic.

regards
Stovepipe

thecommietommy

Did the British come out with anything but propaganda and bullshyt after WW2 :rolleyes: Pretending they were on a mission to save the world and trying to hype themselves up with the conceited lies that they alone defeated Germany in WW2 :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

BostonB

thecommietommy wrote: »

Did the British come out with anything but propaganda and bullshyt after WW2 :rolleyes: Pretending they were on a mission to save the world and trying to hype themselves up with the conceited lies that they alone defeated Germany in WW2 :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

What did the Romans ever do for......

BostonB

Hidalgo wrote: »

Hi all.
I'm looking for any books, online journals, articles, posters etc dealing with British propaganda in the immediate post war years.
In particular relating to the de-nazification of Germany....

Curious what started you down this path?

I've only seen oblique references to it in other books.

BostonB

Stovepipe wrote: »

....The end result was former Nazis ending up back in positions of power in police, legal, technical and local government areas, much to the documented dismay of German citizens. This is often mentioned in the accounts of Nazi hunters, especially when it came to attempting to extradite Nazis from powerful positions in the Federal Republic....

Case in point.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Globke

I think all of the Allies were selective in how they treated war criminals and de-nazification in general.

thecommietommy

BostonB wrote: »

What did the Romans ever do for......

So the British or Hitler's empire's were for the good of the natives of the country's they invaded ........ :rolleyes:

BostonB

In that spirit, you should refuse to use anything invented by them, like computers, jet engines, Radar, Radio navigation, radio Landing systems, Microwaves, modern chronometers, ... oh and aquaducts.

Hidalgo

BostonB wrote: »

Curious what started you down this path?

I've only seen oblique references to it in other books.

I'm doing my dissertation on the theme of denazification/reeducation by the British administration in the British zone of occupied Germany.

Ya most of what I've found is only passing comment. Propaganda appeared to lose its importance after the war.

Tony EH

BostonB wrote: »

Case in point.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Globke

I think all of the Allies were selective in how they treated war criminals and de-nazification in general.

That's because there was a huge difference between "War Criminals" and "Nazis". They weren't one and the same.

The vast majority of nazis committed no crime and were just functionaries of the state in a lot of cases or just a party number in others. Many, many party members signed up to further a career, without really believing or even being that aware of what was involved and many others simply paid lip-service in soem form or another.

The hard core of the party, who were actually responsible for, or those who were aware of nazisms worst excesses were the primary targets of war crimes trials and the de-nazification process.

The "nazis" who ended up back in their former positions did so, in a lot of cases, because they were good at their jobs and not that faithful to the party in the cold light of day. Into the bargain, most "nazis" were merely anti-Communist and in the eyes of both Britain and America, that was perfectly OK.

Tony EH

Hidalgo wrote: »

I'm doing my dissertation on the theme of denazification/reeducation by the British administration in the British zone of occupied Germany.

Ya most of what I've found is only passing comment. Propaganda appeared to lose its importance after the war.

A wise man (whose name escapes me) once said that "propaganda is the art of trying to convince one's enemy, while not quite convincing ourselves", or something like that.

In any case, in the large majority of cases propaganda, especially in it's 1940's form, failed to really sway most people.

But, one area where propaganda continued after the war was in cinema. During the war, there were many pictures produced that were purely propaganda pieces designed to instil a particular view of the enemy and after the war this drive continued. In fact, you could say that it has continued to this day.

BostonB

Not sure why you quoted me on that, because that's very little to do with the point I was making. Which was the allies looked the other way as it suited them at the time.

https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/97unclass/naziwar.html

....Separating fact from fiction about the alleged postwar relationships between American intelligence and its former German enemies and collaborators is both difficult and confusing. The General Accounting Office (GAO), at the request of the US Congress, has conducted two major investigations since 1977 to ascertain whether the US Government assisted in the immigration of these individuals to the United States and later concealed Federal involvement. In addition, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) and, later, the Department of Justice's Office of Special Investigations (OSI) have proceeded with independent inquiries since the mid-1970s. OSI, dedicated solely to the investigation, denaturalization, and deportation of individuals who violated US immigration laws by covering up illegal activities during World War II, has stripped 52 people of their citizenship and removed another 44 since 1979. In addition, OSI has conducted nearly 1,500 investigations and placed the names of some 60,000 individuals on a "watch list" that alerts US immigration officials to prevent their entry into the United States.(2)

Tony EH

I was responding to the line "I think all of the Allies were selective in how they treated war criminals and de-nazification in general." Which is something I agree with, but was elaborating on my position.