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Propaganda tn Mussolini's ltaly and Hitler's Germany

Fascism in ltaly and Germany promised.many.things to many people. fulussolini's rhetoric focused, on the id.eas of national greatness in the aftermath of the First World War, and the need to counter imperialism oi other powers when tiey threatened ltalian interests. The Nazis blended anti-semitism, racial nationalbm, vaguely defined (and anti-Marxist) socialism, and disgust with the state of German culture and politics in their propagaiaoi otih, do)rr*rnt by Joseph Goebbels shows. Goebbels, one of the early members of the Nazi party, later becaite head of the National ilinistry t'or Public Enlightenment and propaganda.

Benito Mussolini, My Rise and Fall

II t was at this time, right after the spirit of exhila- ration of victory, that I observed strange ten- dencies in the ltalian

political world. Evil activity was at hand. It needed to be exposed and suppressed. It was cloaked under the appearance of humanitarianism. lt was planning to give a series of national rights to peoples who never had the consciousness and the dig- nity of nations-to peoples who had been for more than a century instruments of oppressing the ltalian elements under Austria, under the instigation of the des- potic empire. The sun of our victory was rising, but to be a complete victory, a vic- tory that would carry our soldiers on the road to Vienna, it must not falter through false sentimentality. . . .

I felt that we were left without any cohesive force, any suggestive heroism, any remembrance, any political philoso- phy, sufficient to overcome and stop the factors of dissolution. I sensed the chills and heats of decay and destruction. . . .

I knew those who whipped up our degeneration. They were German and Austrian spies, Russian agitators, myste- rious subventions. ln a few months they had led the ltalian people into a state of marasmus. The economic crisis existing in every corner of the world could not

be expected to spare ltaly. The soldiers, like myself, returning from the war, rushed to their families. Who can describe our feelings? Such an imposing phenomenon as the demobilization of millions of men took place in the dark, without noise, in an atmosphere of throwing discipline to the winds. There were, for us, the troubles of winter and the difficulties of finding new garments and adjustments for peace. . . .

Those who came to the meeting for the constitution of the ltalian Fascisti of Combat used few words. They did not exhaust themselves by laying out dreams. Their aim seemed clear and straight-lined. lt was to defend the vic- tory at any price, to maintain intact the sacred memory of the dead, and the

-admiration not only for those who fell

and for the families of those who were dead but for the mutilated, for the inva- lids, for all those who had fought. The prevalent note, however, was of anti- socialist character, and as a political aspi- ration, it was hoped a new ltaly would be created that would know how to give value to the victory and to fight with all its strength against treason and corrup- tion, against decay within and intrigue and avarice from without

I was certain at the time that it was necessary to fix, without any possibility

of equivocation, the essential brand of the new movement. For this reason I made three planks for our platform. The first was the following:

The meeting of the twenty-third of March sends its first greeting and rever- ent thought to the sons of ltaly who died for the greatness of their country for the freedom of the world; to the mutilated and to the invalids, to all th who fought, to the ex-prisoners who ful. filled their duty. lt declares itself ready uphold with all its energy the material and moral claims that will be put for ward by the associations of those fought.

The second declaration pledged Fascisti of Combat to oppose to the imperialism of any other damaging to ltaly. lt accepted supreme postulates of the League Nations regarding ltaly. lt affirmed necessity to complete the stability of frontiers between the Alps and the. atic with the claim of annexation F and of Dalmatia.

The third declaration spoke of elections that were announced for near future. ln this motion the Fasci Combattimento pledged themselves fight with all their means the that were milk-and-water ltalians, whatever party they belonged.

876 CHAPIER 25 Turmoil between the Wars

nalyzi irnary Sources

Finally we talked of organization-the organization that would be adapted to the new movement. I did not favor any bureaucratic cut-and-dried organ ization. It was thought wise that in every big

town the correspondent of the Popolo d'ltalia should be the organizer of a sec- tion of the Fasci di Combattimento, with the idea that each group should become a centre of Fascist ideas, work and action.

Source: Benito Mussolini, lr,4y Rise and Fall (New York: 1998), pp. 54,60-61,71-12

Joseph Goebbels, "Why Are We Enemies of the Jews?"

E ATC NATIONALISTS because we see in the NAroN the only possi- bility for the protection

.an d the furtherance of our existence.

The NnrroN is the organic bond of a people for the protection and defense of their lives. He is nationally minded who understands this tN woRD AND tN DEED. . ..

Young nationalism has its uncondi- tional demands, BELTEF rn rHr ruetrot is a matter of all the people, not for individu-

als of rank, a class, or an industrial clique. The eternal must be separated from the

contemporary. The maintenance of a rotten industrial system has nothing to do with nationalism. I can love Germany and hate capitalism; not only cnN I do it, lalso r'ausr do it. The germ of the rebirth

of our people LIES oNLy rN THE DESTRUC-

TION OF THE SYSTEM OF PLUNDERING THE

HEALTHY POWER OF THE PEOPLE.

wE ARE NATTONALTSTS BECAUSE WE, AS

GERrurAr.ts, LovE GERMANy. And because we love Germany, we demand the pro- tection of its national spirit and we bat- tle against its destroyers.

WHY ARE WE SOCIALISTS?

We are sooAlrsrs because we see in

rsM the only possibility for main-

it the reconquest of our political free- dom and the rebirth of the German state. socrALrsr'a has its peculiar form first of all through its comradeship in arms with the forward-driving energy of a newly awakened nationalism. Without nationalism it is nothing, a phantom, a theory, a vision of air, a book. With it, it is everything, THE FUTURE, FREEDoM, FATHERLAND! . . .

wHY Do wE opposE THE JEws?

We are ENEMTES or rHr Jews, because we are fighters for the freedom of the German people. rsr Jrw ls rHE cAUSE AND THE BENEFtctARy oF ouR ursrny, He has used the social difficulties of the broad masses of our people to deepen the unholy split between Right and Left among our people. He has made two halves of Germany. He is the real cause for our loss of the Great War.

The Jew has no interest in the solu- tion of Germany's fateful problems. He cANNor have any. FoR HE LtvEs oN THE FACT THAT THERE HAS BEEN NO SOLUTION.

lf we would make the German people a unified community and give them free- dom before the world, then the Jew can

have no place among us. He has the best trumps in his hands when a people lives

in inner and outer slavery. THE JEw rs RESPONSIBLE FOR OUR MISERY AND HE LIVES ON IT,

That is the reason why we, AS NAIoN- nlrsrs and AS soctALtsrs, oppose the Jew. HE HAS CORRUPTED OUR RACE/ FOULED OUR MORALS, UNDERMINED OUR CUS- TOMS/ AND BROKEN OUR POWER.

Source: Anton Kaes, Martin Jay, and Edward Dimendberg, The Weimar Republic Sourcebooh (Los Angeles: 199\, pp. 137 -38, 142

Questions for Analysis 1. How did Mussolini and Goebbels use

metaphors of good and evil, illness and health, growth and degeneration? Do the metaphors by Goebbels sug- gest what the Nazis would try to do to cure the ills of Germany if they took power? .

2. Mussolini and Goebbels both empha- size their nationalism, but their atti- tudes toward socialism are different. How do you explain this difference?

3. Where does Goebbels place anti- Semitism in his version of German nationalism? Whom does Mussolini identify as the enemies of fascism?

ilM

taining our racial existence and through

Hitler and the National Socialists 877

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