Hitler: Nazi Dictator or Media Guru??

Over the weekend, I was fortuitous enough to travel to Washington, D.C. for a social justice retreat.  One of the first and perhaps the most power stops on our trip was a visit to the Holocaust Museum.  While at the museum, we saw various portrayals of how poorly Jews were treated during that time period. One particular exhibit called Propaganda stood out to me above the rest.  This exhibit talked about Hitler and his regime and how their mastery of modern technology propaganda (use of strong images and simple messages) led them to political prominence.  Prior to seeing the exhibit, I figured that Hitler simply had the support of other "bad people;" not once did I stop to consider the methods Hitler used to get people to adopt a certain mindset.  As I went through the exhibit, I was able to see how Hitler used media propaganda to influence Germans from local fanatics all the way up through national movements.  Hitler recognized how powerful his territory of influence could be if he controlled the media.  He arranged it so that radios could only pick up the channels he had control over.  There were magazines that solely existed to discover anything negative about the Jews and publish it; when nothing significant was available, they fabricated lies.  

It was both sad and interesting to see how much influence the use of media had on Hitler's abilities.  As the exhibit showed young German children being swayed by the posters, television shows, movies and radio stations I thought of product placement.  If an advertisement is put in the right location and viewed by (enough of) the right people, it has the potential to have a major influence.  These young children had no legitimate hatred towards the Jews aside from the fact that "hatred towards the Jews" was all that surrounded them.  Product placement can introduce an element of peer pressure where people are either shunned or frowned upon (even by themselves) for not adopting a certain mindset or possessing a certain product.  

Hitler, though said to be very intelligent, was one man.  No one man can do such damage and cause such hurt to a vast amount of people without assistance.  Hitler understood that he could gain control of those around him by controlling their psyche.  Hitler duped thousands into an altered moral state by displaying propaganda with themes of moral justice, defense, and necessity.  While looking at the exhibit, my attention was torn between empathizing for the Jewish people and families who had been affected by the Nazi Regime and noticing how the media played such a major role as a means for Hitler to gain control.  I think it is important to see examples like this and be reminded of how powerful media effects can be.