Whilst reading an article on genocide, I came across a description of a typical anti-semitic poster from World War 2. The poster was said to depict a Jewish man, in a fairly grotesque and inhuman manner, he was portrayed as being quite overweight and evil looking. A quick search with google found some good examples of the sort of propaganda that the Nazis used to ignite hatred and fear of the Jews.
Hatred and fear both seem to be very important tools in making one group turn against another group, such as what happened during the Holocaust and the Genocide in Rwanda.
Here are a few links (hope these work, this is my first attempt at putting hyperlinks in) to some anti-Jewish pictures. The latter two were from posters as far as I can tell.
This one appears to be fairly recent, as I believe it depicts the former Prime Minister of Israel, Ariel Sharon, and George W. Bush. Notice how Ariel is portrayed as a monster.
I am not sure when this one is from, but notice how much the Jewish man looks like the general idea of Satan. He looks quite evil.
This one is particularly good (or bad, in the evil sense). It seems to portray an overweight Jewish man, grinding up people (presumably good, hardworking Aryans) and making lots of money from this.
I could add more, but I think these give a pretty good idea of how some typical propaganda portrays the "evil" others. That is, the people who belong to the "outgroup". If this is the sort of portrayal of Jewish people that you saw during WW2, no wonder it would have lead to fear of the Jewish people. I mean, looking at some of those posters, you would be lead to believe that Jews were indeed very greedy and scary.
If you want to find similar pictures, I suggest typing "anti jew propaganda" or similar search term into google.
About Me
- Bretstar
- i'm 23 and in my third year of a psychology degree. because i have been studying part time (2 units) for the majority of my time, i still have a little while longer to go (probably a few more years). i am currently studying fulltime, as i have taken a year off from work with leave without pay. i work at the department of education, science and training and have worked there since march 2002.
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2 comments:
Nice one, BK. These examples make the fictional but powerful manipulations resonate with our other examples e.g., hate propaganda in Rwanda and depiction of Muslisms as terrorists.
I heard on Late Night Live a few weeks ago of a campaign to boycott Israeli universities, which is causing some debate - it is anti-semitic - or is it a reasonable move to highlight the treatment of Palestians and Palestinian universities?
Academics back Israeli boycotts vs. Don't Boycott Israeli Universities: Academics Sign Letter of Protest
On the face of it, many people think how could the holocaust happen and no one stop it. But maybe, it appears that there are so many factors that people are not aware of such as that propoganda.
It's interesting how the Nazis capitalised on stigmas that had already been attached to the Jews in the past, as Jews had been seen as greedy and scary, e.g. characters: Shylock in Merchant of Venice etc to create hatred. They used the fact that the Jews were successful, being good in business and with money etc to segregate them as being greedy, not belonging and taking away the wealth of the Aryans. Then this outgroup mentality would have led to hatred and fear.
It just makes you feel so helpless sometimes, to these automatic social behaviours such as outgroup mentalities etc. Maybe that's how awful things happen- not being aware of what's hapening to your own self in these social environments with such strong social influences and constructs??
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