Air for the New Order

This week, while Britain was busy heckling Germany with its V for Victory campaign, Dr. Goebbels & Co. counterattacked furiously on all radio propaganda fronts. From 54 stations, including powerful Zeesen in Germany and half a hundred servile transmitters scattered throughout occupied Europe from the North Cape to Athens, pliable local radiocasters were busy blatting Nazi propaganda.

Most of the Nazi-controlled European stations are hooked up with Grossdeutscher Rundfunk so that propaganda of the New Order can flow smoothly out of Berlin. Each week the Nazis spray Germany, Yugoslavia, Poland, Hungary, Belgium and Bulgaria with 187 network newscasts, 363 pep talks in German. To the rest of the world, in 31 other languages (including Arabic, Frisian, Gaelic and Esperanto) they air a weekly total of 1,266 news bulletins, 303 Goebbelsian reports.

Typical of the use to which the Nazis have put radio transmitters of occupied countries is their reorganization of French stations. Radio Luxemburg, popular in England before the war because of its light music, is now heavy with Wagner and lesser Teutonic gutturals, relieved occasionally by newscasts to Britain. Allouis (Radio-Paris) not only relays news in German for Nazi troops in France, but also spoonfeeds propaganda to the Spaniards.

The Nazis permit Poland only two newscasts a day, broadcast from Berlin. No longer does Goebbels bother to write local programs for stations in Norway, Belgium and Occupied France. Local Quislings do that for him.

Now able to reach any country in Europe on medium waves, the Nazis provide good medium-wave "People's"' sets to Rumania, Greece, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Portugal and Hungary. Recently Britain muscled into this Nazi preserve, using the most powerful transmitting station in Europe to bring English propaganda on medium wave to every set in Europe.

Biggest of all possible Nazi hookups, including French, Norwegian, Dutch and Belgian stations, is reserved for the Fuehrer, and there is a special decree forbidding such coverage for anybody but him.

Not so long ago, gimpy little Dr. Goebbels re-outlined his idea of the purpose of all propaganda. Said he: "[We want] to arouse outbursts of fury; to get masses of men on the march; to organize hatred and suspicion--all with ice-cold calculation."

To accomplish this end the Nazis have used four familiar techniques: 1) for wearied and worried captive masses, the Nazis provide programs that emphasize their woes, carefully bypassing any German responsibility; 2) for gullible listeners, they furnish scapegoats such as the Jews for troubles of every kind; 3) to wear opponents, they endlessly reiterate unhappy news, such as the fictitious sinking of the Ark Royal; 4) to break down confidence in harassed enemy governments the Nazis quote and misquote important local sources: for example, in one recent week, they misquoted the Manchester Guardian criticizing Churchill, misquoted the august Times discussing supply policies. They evidently felt sure that no average listener would bother to check up on their accuracy.

While the Nazis and the British jolt the ether waves with their propaganda, Joe Stalin takes no chances on this front. He has ordered the few private radio sets in the U.S.S.R. to be surrendered to the Government. He disseminates his news via public loudspeakers, which can pick up only Russian stations.

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