During the time of Adolph Hitler's reign, also known as the Third Reich, music had a huge a huge role to play. Music containing propaganda could persuade people to believe certain things, but could also be used as a revolution against the Nazis. For example, while the Nazis brainwashed the German people to believe that Hitler was doing what was for the greater good on the radio, the undesirables knew that Jazz music was denounced by the Nazis, so they cranked up the orchestras as loud as they could. It was an ally for both sides of the war, and the reason for that being the propaganda it contained.
To continue, Hitler was a persuasive man, that being one of the factors why he was so popular, but a way he was very persuasive was that he used propaganda in music to brainwash the German people to believe certain things, and from stopping them to believe other certain things. Hitler would speak his words of hate towards the Jews and homosexuals through the songs, and the people, especially the youth, would agree and sing along. Especially the youth because young people are the only reason why Hitler's plan worked. Music was probably a big form of entertainment in this time, and the youth are a very reliable audience, that won't just listen, but they will what they are told.Even in a
video to show how “great” the concentration camps were, an
American Jazz band, The Ghetto Swingers, was invited to play to the
Jewish. But the band was then just rewarded to be sent to death at
Auschwitz. But the video still fooled the public.
But the Nazis did not like the Jazz music. They saw it as degrading and anyone who listened or played Jazz was a subhuman, or a someone that is lower than a human. Then in 1938, a popular painting was made, called the Entartete Musik, which translates to Degenerate Music. It showed an ape, playing the saxophone with a Jewish star pinned on his shirt. This was used to express how, whether Jewish or American Jazz was not up to par to what German composers and musicians had to offer. But the Jewish used as their revolution, and the war of music started.
The Jewish knew the Germans did not want Jazz, so that just ignited the Jews' passion for it. Almost... backwards propaganda. When the Germans did not allow American tunes, the musicians just renamed the songs. The musicians played their instruments until their fingers blistered and throats bled. It was a symphony to a revolution. Ghettos would fill with choirs, lifting peoples' spirits. Even Jutta Hipp, a German Jazz pianists explained how the music and the propaganda hidden in it to be free led her and her friends to satisfaction. “You won't be able to understand this because you were born [in America], but to us, jazz is some kind of religion. We really had to fight for it, and I remember nights when we didn't go down to the bomb shelter because we listened to [jazz] records. We just had the feeling that you were not our enemies, and even though the bombs crashed around us ... we felt safe."
All in all, the propaganda located in music helped both sides of Hitler's reign. With Hitler, it helped him influence the people that what he was doing was right. And while he was doing that and the rest of Adolph's followers preached that Jazz was not to be heard of, the Jewish found freedom in it. Either the music itself, or just the rebellion that they were doing caused them to do it, but they sang and played until their bodies went numb. Propaganda in music during this time period helped both Hitler trying rid of Jews, and Jews trying to rid of the hatred towards themselves.
This is a picture of a poster degrading Jazz music. Aimed towards the Jews and the blacks.
This picture shows a Jewish Jazz band called the Ghetto Swingers, which played in a video of a concentration camp to make it seem fun, but then get killed at Auschwitz anyways.
This is a picture of Jutta Hipp, a German Jazz pianist who made a statement on Jazz.