World War II Propaganda: Citizens Rights and the Responsibilities of the Press

Jason Bowen Cathryn Seibert

Group Website Senior Division

There are many choices when thinking of topics to research for History Day. Starting off the History Day topic selection process was a multifaceted situation. At first, we were unsure of what topic to do, but eventually we came up with two distinctive ideas. One was John Peter Zenger and the freedom of the press, while the other was the Holocaust and World War II in Germany. Both of these topic ideas were interesting to us, but we had to narrow it down. The project idea that we came up with was an effort to put the two separate ideas into one cohesive topic. With the help of our librarian, we chose press and propaganda in World War II as our topic. To begin our research, we consulted with our school librarian. She recommended a list of books pertaining to our topic, and we checked out the suggested material. Scanning through books such as Selling the War: Art and Propaganda in World War II, The Art of Psychological Warfare, 1914-1945, and World War II: A History in Documents, we narrowed down the pertinent and applicable information. We then found many propaganda posters and images within the books, which showed us a vivid picture of the information people were fed during the time period. Some examples of what they were fed included that careless talk would kill your comrades and that supporting your country would help end the war quicker. We scanned the pictures onto the computer in order to use them on our final project. After we derived the needed information from the books, we turned to the internet to gather more information. We used our school databases to find reliable and correct information as well. We selected our category because of its dynamics and overall flexibility. Websites allow for more words and images than a display, and completing a website with a partner allows for collaboration and even work distribution. Websites are also incorporative of creative freedom, something that we value much in schoolwork and projects. The various preset

templates of the website gave some structure to the process as well. When beginning the steps of forming the website, we decided on a template, and then we added pictures. This allowed us to convey our information visually, making the concepts easy to understand. We then added the information, which tied all of the visual aspects together and formed a cohesive project. Our project relates to Rights and Responsibilties for many reasons. Citizens of all countries involved in World War II had a right to be informed thoroughly and through unbiased sources. Their rights could be infringed upon by influential propaganda either supporting a country or defaming it, which caused citizens to not be able to be proactive in choosing a side to support. The press had a responsibility to tell truthful unbiased information. Propaganda services or ministers in each country including the propaganda minister of Germany, Joseph Goebbels, and the Office of War Information in the United States endorsed their own countries and made opposing countries appear to be evil, which violated their responsibilities.