The basic method of the Nazi propagandistic activity lay in the false presentation of facts. This is stated quite frankly in Hitler’s Mein Kampf: “With the help of a skilful and continuous application of propaganda it is possible to make the people conceive even of heaven as hell and also make them consider heavenly the most miserly existence” (USA-276).
The dissemination of provocative lies and the systematic deception of public opinion were as necessary to the Hitlerites for the realization of their plans as were the production of armaments and the drafting of military plans. Without propaganda, founded on the total eclipse of the freedom of press and of speech, it would not have been possible for German fascism to realize its aggressive intentions, to lay the groundwork and then to put to practice the War Crimes and the Crimes against Humanity.
In the propaganda system of the Hitler State it was the daily press and the radio that were the most important weapons.
In his court testimony, Defendant Göring named three factors as essential in the successful conduct of modern war according to the Nazi concept, namely, (1) the military operations of the armed forces, (2) economic warfare, (3) propaganda. With reference to the latter he said:
“For what great importance the war of propaganda had, enemy propaganda which extended by way of radio far into the hinterland, no one has experienced more strongly than Germany” (Transcript, Afternoon Session, 15 March 1946).
With such concepts in ascendance it is impossible to suppose that the supreme rulers of the Reich would appoint to the post of the Director of Radio Propaganda who supervised radio activity of all the broadcasting companies and directed their propagandistic content—a man they considered a secondary figure.
The point of view of the verdict contradicts both the evidence submitted and the actual state of affairs.
Beginning with 1942 and into 1945 Fritzsche was not only Chief of the Radio Department of the Reich Ministry of Propaganda but also “Plenipotentiary for the Political Organization of Radio in Greater Germany”. This circumstance is fully proven by the sworn affidavit of Fritzsche himself (PS-3469, USA-721). It thus follows that not at all was Fritzsche merely “one of the 12 departmental chiefs in the Ministry of Propaganda” who acquired responsibility for all radio propaganda only toward the end of the war, as the verdict asserts.
Fritzsche was the political director of the German radio up and into 1945, i. e., up to the moment of German defeat and capitulation. For this reason it is Fritzsche who bears responsibility for the false and provocative broadcasts of the German radio during the years of the war.
As Chief of the Press Section inside Germany it was also Fritzsche who was responsible for the activity of the German daily press consisting of 2,300 newspapers. It was Fritzsche who created and perfected the Information Section winning from the Reich Government for the purpose an increase in the subsidy granted the newspapers from 400,000 to 4,000,000 marks. Subsequently Fritzsche participated energetically in the development of the propaganda campaigns preparatory to the acts of aggression against Czechoslovakia and Poland. (Transcript, Morning Session, 23 January 1946). A similar active propaganda campaign was conducted by the defendant prior to the attack on Yugoslavia as he himself admitted on oath in Court (Transcript, Morning Session, 23 January 1946).