CYIL vol. 15 (2024)

AVITUS A. AGBOR A veritable and accomplished journalist beyond question, he possessed the skills and expertise that the Nazi regime needed in effectively delivering its deceptive messages. Concerned about the ineffectiveness of the Propaganda Ministry as an apparatus in fulfilling this mission, Fritzsche established a new instrument aimed at improving the effectiveness of the Nazi propaganda. He established within the German Press Division a section called the “Speed Service.” 22 At inception, it had the duty to check the correctness of news items from different countries. By Fall 1939, the Speed Service was charged with the elaboration of news materials and putting them to the entire German press. 23 As it analysed speeches, political tribulations, economic troubles and social unrests in different countries; these materials became the cornerstone of political polemics in the German press, which, in the long run, helped unify the German press against a common front. 24 As occupant of this position, Fritzsche made regular radio broadcasts to the German people. He anchored “Political Newspaper Review”; “Political and Radio Show”; and finally, “Hans Fritzsche Speaks”. 25 The contents of his broadcasts reflected distortions of facts, fabrication of lies, intimidation, which were all part of the wider conspiracy plan. He gained the status of the most eminent actor on the Goebbels’ propaganda team, and substantially facilitated the realisation of the conspirators’ plans for aggressive war across the globe. 26 Fritzsche’s use of propaganda was quite extensive in its reach, percolating almost every corner of German society on a frequent basis. Beyond making the case for aggressive war, he incited atrocities against humanity and their possessions, and encouraged a ruthless policy to be implemented in occupied territories. The results of his propaganda were apparent: many ordinary Germans would neither have participated in, nor endured the unconscionable acts that the Nazi regime inflicted across Europe had they not been conditioned or goaded by the Nazi propaganda machinery. The callousness, obduracy, hardheartedness and zeal of the German people who partook in the commission of these atrocities were largely a result of the constant, divisive, negative, dehumanizing, misleading and erosive propaganda masterminded by Fritzsche and his peers. This machinery was very effective in selling its case against the Jews. Within the Ministry of Propaganda was a special branch created for the “Enlightenment of the German people and of the world as to the Jewish question; fighting with propagandistic weapons against enemies of the State and hostile ideologies.” 27 In regular broadcasts, Fritzsche actively participated in this “enlightenment” relating to the question of the Jews. Saturated with provocative libels against the Jews, it inflamed anti-Jewish feelings in the German people, resulting in gruesome crimes against the Jewish people. Unparalleled in his anti-Jewish broadcasts, they were monitored, recorded and translated by the British Broadcasting Corporation. Between 1941 and 1945, anti-Jewish feelings filled the bloodstream of Fritzsche. This was reflected in inflammatory broadcasts, which had the effect of pitting Germans against the Jewish people. On March 18, 1941, Fritzsche echoed the following:

22 SPRECHER, Drexel, A. Inside the Nuremberg Trial: A prosecutor’s comprehensive account (University Press of America 1999) 517.

23 Ibid 517. 24 Ibid 517. 25 Ibid 517. 26 Ibid 517. 27 Ibid 517.

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