(4) Control of German radio. In addition to continuing as the head of the German Press Division until after the conspirators had begun the last of their aggression, Fritzsche was also the high commander of the entire German radio system. In November 1942 Goebbels created a new position, that of Plenipotentiary for the Political Organization of the Greater German Radio, a position which Fritzsche was the first and the last to hold. In his affidavit, Fritzsche narrates how the entire German Radio and Television System was organized under his supervision:
“My office practically represented the high command of German radio.” (3469-PS)
As special Plenipotentiary for the Political Organization of the Greater German Radio, Fritzsche issued orders to all the Reich propaganda offices by teletype. These were used in conforming the entire radio apparatus of Germany to the desires of the conspirators.
Goebbels customarily held an eleven o’clock conference with his closest collaborators within the Propaganda Ministry. When both Goebbels and his undersecretary, Dr. Naumann, were absent, Goebbels, after 1943, entrusted Fritzsche with the holding of this eleven o’clock press conference.
In Goebbels’ introduction to a book by Fritzsche, called “War to the War Mongers,” he took occasion to praise Fritzsche’s broadcasts in this fashion:
“Nobody knows better than I how much work is involved in those broadcasts, how many times they were dictated within the last minutes to find some minutes later a willing ear by the whole nation.” (3255-PS)
It is clear from Goebbels himself that the entire German nation was prepared to lend willing ears to Fritzsche, after he had made his reputation on the radio.
The rumor passed that Fritzsche was “His Master’s Voice” (Die Stimme seines Herren). This is borne out by Fritzsche’s functions. When Fritzsche spoke on the radio it was plain to the German people that they were listening to the high command of the conspirators in this field.
D. CONCLUSION.
Fritzsche was not the type of conspirator who signed decrees, or who sat in the inner councils planning the overall grand strategy. The function of propaganda is, for the most part, apart from the field of such planning. The function of a propaganda agency is somewhat more analogous to an advertising agency or public relations department, the job of which is to sell the product and to win the market for the enterprise in question. Here the enterprise was the Nazi conspiracy. In a conspiracy which depends upon fraud as a means, the salesmen of the conspiratorial group are quite as essential and culpable as the master planners, even though he may not have contributed substantially to the formulation of all the basic strategy, but rather concentrated on making the execution of this strategy possible. In this case, propaganda was a weapon of tremendous importance to this conspiracy. Furthermore, the leading propagandists were major accomplices in this conspiracy, and Fritzsche was one of them.