Iconic Photographs

A Nazi DJ spins records at a radio exhibition in Berlin, 1932.

The booth was designed as propaganda of the Nazi gramophone plate industry.




Adolf Hitler devoted three chapters of his 1925/26 book Mein Kampf to the study and practice of propaganda. Assessing his audience, Hitler writes in chapter VI:

Mein Kampf contains the blueprint of later Nazi propaganda efforts. A”Propaganda must always address itself to the broad masses of the people. (…) All propaganda must be presented in a popular form and must fix its intellectual level so as not to be above the heads of the least intellectual of those to whom it is directed. (…) The art of propaganda consists precisely in being able to awaken the imagination of the public through an appeal to their feelings, in finding the appropriate psychological form that will arrest the attention and appeal to the hearts of the national masses.

The broad masses of the people are not made up of diplomats or professors of public jurisprudence nor simply of persons who are able to form reasoned judgment in given cases, but a vacillating crowd of human children who are constantly wavering between one idea and another. (…) The great majority of a nation is so feminine in its character and outlook that its thought and conduct are ruled by sentiment rather than by sober reasoning. This sentiment, however, is not complex, but simple and consistent. It is not highly differentiated, but has only the negative and positive notions of love and hatred, right and wrong, truth and falsehood.

That last paragraph of Hitler's is bang on. You see it every day on Facebook whenever Trump or anything controversial is mentioned...

Feck off...

See!

Hitler reacts to kiss from excited American woman at the Berlin Olympics, 1936.
Shortly before the finish of the men’s 1500 meters free-style swimming, a woman in a red hat, whom Black Guards repeatedly prevented from photographing Hitler at close range, broke the cordon during the excitement of the finish of the race, shook Hitler by the hand and then kissed him, while the crowd of 20,000 rocked with laughter. Hitler, who was in high spirits, joined in the fun, clapping his hands as the woman returned triumphantly to her seat.

The woman, Carla De Vries, was a 40-year old American traveling in Europe. Her brother-in-law was quoted in that “She wanted to meet Hitler but I’m surprised at the way she did it”. Her rationale from her own words? “Why? I simply embraced him because he appeared so friendly and gracious. People sitting near Der Fuehrer’s box began to cheer and applaud so loudly that I ran back to my husband and told him we had better leave. I don’t know why I did it. Certainly I hadn’t planned such a thing. It’s just that I’m a woman of impulses, I guess. It happened when I went down to take Hitler’s picture with my small movie camera. Hitler was leaning forward, smiling, and he seemed so friendly that I just stepped up and asked for his autograph, which he wrote on my swimming ticket. He kept on smiling and so I kissed him”.



Youtube film of it...

Looks like the other is about to mount her

Trust you ,that made me chuckle   x

A Jewish woman who is concealing her face sits on a park bench marked "Only for Jews", 1938.
This photograph was taken in Austria days after the Nazi annexation, March 1938.

The Holocaust was a gradual process. The Nazis didn’t start mass extermination when they got into power. But gradually prepared the population by dehumanizing the Jewish people. Segregation, as shown in this photo, was part of this. The point was not to provide a bench for Jews, it was to segregate the benches so that non-Jewish Germans would not have to sit on a “contaminated” bench. Being treated like below human life for years before hand was terrifying and probably emotionally exhausting. This photograph was taken in Austria days after the Nazi annexation (March 1938). Also it should be für instead of fur. But probably the low resolution makes difficult to see the umlaut.

After January 1933, the Jews became the “Untermenschen” – the sub-humans. Jews were no longer allowed to visit restaurants, theaters, concerts, exhibits, movies, or swimming pools. They were not allowed to sit on park benches unless they were willing to sit on a few benches painted yellow and reserved for them. By 1934, all Jewish shops were marked with the yellow Star of David or had the word “Juden” written on the window.

Himmler with his daughter, 1938.

Heinrich Himmler adored his daughter and had her regularly flown to his offices in Berlin from Munich where she lived with her mother. When she was at home he telephoned her most days and wrote to her every week. He continued to call her by her childhood nickname “Püppi” throughout his life. She accompanied her father on some official duties. In 1941 he took her with him when he visited Dachau Concentration Camp.

Gudrun Himmler, the daughter of Heinrich Himmler and Margarete Himmler, was born on 8th August, 1929. Although separated from his wife, Himmler remained close to his daughter. Her father had one of the most powerful roles during the Holocaust, but Gudrun refused to see it. Her love and respect for her father kept her alive and constantly fighting for her name. “At fourteen… she cut out every picture of him from the newspapers and glued them into a large scrapbook”. After they were captured, Gudrun and her mother were put in jail after jail and left with nothing. Even through the ruthless interrogations at the Nuremberg trials: “She vowed herself to him. She did not weep, but went on hunger strikes. She lost weight, fell sick, and stopped developing”.

When Gudrun found out that her father had committed suicide, “the fifteen-year-old suffered a psychological and medical breakdown. Shivering…day and night she lay delirious on the bed in her cell”. Ever since she has refused to believe that Himmler committed suicide, claiming instead the British killed him.



Himmler and Gudrun visiting Dachau concentration camp.



Even after the trials were over, Gudrun and her mother were forced to live in a protestant nursing home at Bethel under an alias, because they did not have any money or valuables. Due to the fact that she refused to take on another name, she constantly had “to start from scratch, introduce herself, say her name, her father’ s name”. Even through her adulthood, Gudrun stayed faithful to her father. In a 1999 interview she talked about trying to save enough money to go to America and examine the evidence that would help her compare her childhood memories with the documents stating her father’s views, and the orders he gave. Ultimately, her goal is to write a book called “simply Heinrich Himmler…to clear my father’s name”.

Gudrun Himmler married the journalist and author Wulf Dieter Burwitz and had two children. She also became a member of Stille Hilfe (Silent Help), an organization providing support to arrested, condemned or fugitive former SS-members. According to journalist Andrea Roepke: “The Silent Help is not only about former National Socialists. It collects money, too, for the neo-Nazi movement”. Over the years she has given help to people like Anton Malloth, a supervisor of Theresienstadt. She arranged his stay at an expensive nursing home in Pullach, until he was sentenced to life in prison. She also provided help to Klaas Carel Faber, a convicted Dutch Nazi. Gudrun retains her father’s fascist views and has been described by Oliver Schröm as a “flamboyant Nazi princess”.

thats disturbing

Reichserntedankfest rally (Thanksgiving Celebration of the Reich), 1934. (Puts Trump in the shade!)

This is the Reichserntedankfest of 1934 in Buckeberg. That year, 700,000 people participated. Even those who did not support Nazis were totally blown away and emotionally shaken. They had never experienced anything even remotely like this, there was no rock concerts back then. It created spiritual feeling of sublime and unity among people who were participating. When they were marching back to their tents in the night, they could still see the huge spotlights piercing the sky in the Buckeberg. They were totally pumped up and fell that things are really going to change better.

The official purpose of the festival was the recognition of the achievements of the German farmers, whom the Nazis called the Reichsnährstand (the Reich’s Food Estate). The celebration was also used by the Nazis as a propaganda tool to showcase the connection between Adolf Hitler and the German people. The festival was part of a cycle of Nazi celebrations which included the annual party rally at Nuremberg, Hitler’s birthday celebrations and other important events on the Nazi calendar.

In addition to its agricultural theme, the festival was used by the Nazis to increase the contact of the Führer with the masses and to demonstrate the Reich’s military prowess. From 1935, Wehrmacht staged mock battles at the festival with the participation of up to 10,000 soldiers, airplanes and panzers.

Havnt seen a crowd that big since my last birthday

3rdforum wrote:thats disturbing

Brainwashed and radicalised...

Don't talk about 3rd like that...

Campbell Brodie wrote:Reichserntedankfest rally (Thanksgiving Celebration of the Reich), 1934. (Puts Trump in the shade!)

This is the Reichserntedankfest of 1934 in Buckeberg. That year, 700,000 people participated. Even those who did not support Nazis were totally blown away and emotionally shaken. They had never experienced anything even remotely like this, there was no rock concerts back then. It created spiritual feeling of sublime and unity among people who were participating. When they were marching back to their tents in the night, they could still see the huge spotlights piercing the sky in the Buckeberg. They were totally pumped up and fell that things are really going to change better.

The official purpose of the festival was the recognition of the achievements of the German farmers, whom the Nazis called the Reichsnährstand (the Reich’s Food Estate). The celebration was also used by the Nazis as a propaganda tool to showcase the connection between Adolf Hitler and the German people. The festival was part of a cycle of Nazi celebrations which included the annual party rally at Nuremberg, Hitler’s birthday celebrations and other important events on the Nazi calendar.

In addition to its agricultural theme, the festival was used by the Nazis to increase the contact of the Führer with the masses and to demonstrate the Reich’s military prowess. From 1935, Wehrmacht staged mock battles at the festival with the participation of up to 10,000 soldiers, airplanes and panzers.

A modern day Republican Party meeting innit.

German SS men resting on the south lawn of the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, Germany, August 1936.

These troops are members of Leibstandarte SS “Adolf Hitler”, at this time the regiment acted as Hitler’s personal bodyguard and guard of honor in public ceremonies. Later it would grow to form the Elite 1st SS Division LAH. They were assigned with the task of being Hitler’s personal bodyguards, a massive legion of SS soldiers would follow the Fuhrer wherever he went. They were also deployed in combat and were one of the most competent units in the war.

Bit ocd with all the helmets neatly arranged

Looks like the majority of them are in the beer keller!

Helmets, though they were the SS formation tortoise team...

What is this, the anti-German propaganda thread? Dont think any of us were about in WW2. Time to move on I think Cam.

Grigori Rasputin, Bishop Hermogenes and Hieromonk Iliodor in Tsaritsyn, 1906.

Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin was a Russian peasant, mystical faith healer, and trusted friend of the family of Nicholas II, the last Tsar of Russia. He became an influential figure in Saint Petersburg, especially after August 1915, when Nicholas took command of the army fighting in World War I.

Hermogenes was a prominent Russian Orthodox religious figure and a monarchist with extreme right ideas, supporting the Union of the Russian People and Black Hundreds. In 1917, he was appointed as Hermogenes, Bishop of Tobolsk and Siberia.

Hieromonk Iliodor (Sergei Trufanov) was a lapsed hieromonk, a charismatic churchman, an enfant terrible of the Orthodox church, and panslavist. He is known primarily for his book, semi-autobiographical, and biographical on Rasputin. In this work, he was supported by Maxim Gorky, who hoped that Trufanoff’s story on Rasputin would discredit the Tsar’s family and eventually contribute to the revolutionary propaganda. Death of Rasputin

Perfectspecimen wrote:What is this, the anti-German propaganda thread? Dont think any of us were about in WW2. Time to move on I think Cam.

Stuck a wee Russian bit in there Vince for multi-culturism. Now here's a Messersschmitt being tested in a wind tunnel...

Germans testing a Messerschmitt Bf 109 E3, 1940'

The facility is the Luftfahrtforschungsanstalt Hermann Goering. It was located in Volkenrode, a suburb of Braunschweig and it was the most advanced wind tunnel test facility in the world at the time, though they were never able to fully calibrate most of the equipment due to the war.

The motto on the eagle behind the plane says: “Das deutsche Volk wird sich durch die Eroberung der Luft seinen ihm gebührenden Platz in der Welt erzwingen”. Translated, it would be: “The German people will, though conquest of the sky, force its duly place in the world“.

The Messerschmitt Bf 109 E3 was designed by Willy Messerschmitt and Walter Rethel and had its first test flight in 1935. The all-metal aircraft had a closed cockpit and a retractable under-carriage. Powered by a Rolls-Royce Kestrel V engine, it had a maximum speed of 342 mph (550 km) and had a range of 410 miles (660 km). It was 28 ft 4 in (8.65 m) long with a wingspan of 32 ft 4 in (9.87 m). The aircraft was armed with 2 machine-guns and 2 20 mm cannons.



Hmmm. Rolls-Royce engines. I wonder if they were still selling them to the Germans during the war?

But these fockers were Messerschmitts...

Sportsmen’s Parade in Moscow, 1956. The best looking ones were put in the front for obvious reasons.

Reminds me of me when I wore a younger man's clothes...

The Russian word used in the original title, “физкультурники“, is now usually translated as “gym teachers”, but at the moment of the parades meant “sportsmen/bodybuilders or athletes”. This is a legacy of Stalin era propaganda parades to promote physical fitness, mainly to make the people ready for heavy labor, possible wars and improve health of the nation.

Ready for Labour and Defence of the USSR, abbreviated as GTO (Russian: ГТО), was the All-Union physical culture training programme, introduced in the Soviet Union on March 11, 1931 on the initiative of the Komsomol. The programme’s purpose was to “enhance the physical education and readiness for mobilization of the Soviet people, primarily the younger generation” and it was designed for Soviet educational, professional and sports organizations, and covered people ages 10–60.

The GTO program included gymnastics, long- and middle-distance running, high jump, long jump, throwing (discus and javelin throwing, shot putting, etc.), swimming, ski racing and shooting. Those who passed the tests were honored with special gold or silver GTO badges, depending on the performance. For a 25 –year-old male to earn a GTO badge, for instance, he had to run the 100 meters (328 feet) in 13 seconds and swim 100 meters in 1.5 minutes