German Propaganda of Anti-Semitism in the Occupied Soviet Territory (on the Example of the General District of Belarus)

Abstract

This article examines anti-Semitic propaganda of German authorities in the occupied Soviet territory in the General District of Belarus. The author identifies the main directions of anti-Semitic propaganda, analyzes its content, determines the effectiveness of the ideological influence of the German occupation authorities on the Belarusian population, and proves that the occupiers tried to appeal to national feelings of Belarusians using anti-Semitism. The author concludes that the odious, false, anti-Semitic propaganda did not find a response among the Belarusian population of the district. Belarusians practically did not participate in the organization of the “new order”; in contrast to Ukraine and the Baltic States, it was difficult to create police battalions and a national administration. Mass actions of extermination of Belarusian Jews could not arouse any feelings among the witnesses, except horror and fear for their own lives. Together with the SS punitive expeditions against partisans and civilians, the genocide of the Jews leveled all the efforts of German propagandists and reduced the effectiveness of enemy propaganda to zero. A major role in exposing the content of Nazi propaganda and the true plans of the occupiers was played by partisan counter-propaganda and the very existence of a mass partisan movement. The occupiers’ calculations to incite hatred of Belarusians against Jews did not justify themselves: Belarusian and Jewish partisans fought shoulder to shoulder for the freedom of their common homeland — Soviet Belarus.