Propaganda In In The Garden Of Beasts

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To persuade one is a challenge in itself, but to sway the minds of everyone is something unfathomable. The infection of ideals was one of many tools used during World War II. The methods differ for propaganda but they share the same purpose, to saturate your view with anomalous thoughts. By reading In the Garden of Beasts, we can deduce that propaganda played a huge role during World War II. It prolonged the United States intervention of the war and allowed Hitler to prolong his exposure of his master plan, genocide of millions. “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.” (Hitler, p. Chapter 5). Propaganda does more than just affect the minds of its own people; it alters the perception of the world. The gruesome conflict between the powers of the world, World War II, officially started in 1939. The United States decided to intervene in 1941 due to the attack on Pearl Harbor, but something was inhibiting the resolute mind-set during those two years of neutrality. German propaganda is what planted the seed of indecisiveness into the minds of Americans. “I didn’t believe all her stories; I thought she was exaggerating and a bit hysterical.” (Larson, p. 54) In the Garden of Beasts Schultz tells Martha, Dodd’s daughter, of what is actually occurring in Germany; the Nazis are mistreating and having genocidal actions toward Jews which was well concealed behind Hitler’s speeches and morale-boosting words. She has the misconception of a serene Germany a beautiful and peaceful country compiled with nothing but polite people an... ... middle of paper ... ...this disgusting feel. He associated the word with millions of deaths and crucial torture, producing a new definition to the word at least to the public ear. Now when we contemplate the word propaganda it is covered with shame and is remembered by its use for the Holocaust. It unwillingly clinches to a quondam that was never supposed to be. Propaganda was a very manipulative tool twisting the mindset of nations. It caused millions to support a war that they should not have been fighting, on both sides of the war. It is unbelievable how simplistic biased posters, and movies, exploiting the insight that they wanted you to acquire, were forced upon you as if you were unconscious in hypnosis being receptive to anything. Propaganda was the deadliest weapon in World War II because of it a war of nations began, and it was responsible for genocides, the death of millions.

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