Horwitz-Wasserman Holocaust Memorial Plaza: Propaganda & Antisemitism

Propaganda and Genocidal Violence

While propaganda was not the only mechanism used to perpetrate the Holocaust, it played a main role in preparing the Nazi state to reach that level of violence.

The Nazis established about 1,000 ghettos in Nazi-occupied Europe. Many non-Jews saw the ghettos as a welcome development; antisemitic propaganda portrayed Jews as being dirty, disease carrying foreign invaders. When Jews were deported to ghettos (and later concentration camps), few of their non-Jewish neighbors, even those they lived with for generations, spoke up.

One of these ghettos was Theresienstadt. The Nazis used propaganda to deceive the public and heads of state by describing it as a spa town and retirement community.


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