13. Hitler and Goebbels create the myth of the Nazi rise to power
As Hitler consolidated his political power and Goebbels continued to shape the minds of the German people, the party created the myth of the Nazi’s rise to power, in which they were forced to wrest control of Germany’s destiny from the treacherous hands of the Jews and communists. Anti-Jewish propaganda was relentless, presented continuously to the German people in schools and universities, from church pulpits, in radio broadcasts, films, posters, newspapers, magazines, and literature. During Hitler’s rise to power several newspapers and magazines warned against the excesses of the Nazi Party and its aims, and when Hitler achieved control of the government he moved quickly and ruthlessly to eliminate their voices, which he referred to collectively as the “poison kitchen”.
Chief among these political enemies was the Munich newspaper Munchener Post, which had been the subject of numerous legal actions by the Nazis for libel in the 1920s, and less than legal actions by the SA against their delivery vehicles, reporters, and editorial staff. In 1933, immediately after becoming Chancellor, Hitler had the SA seize the paper’s offices and destroy its files and records. Its staff was arrested and sent to concentration camps, a new entity created by the Nazis for the suppression of opposition. The street address of the Post was eliminated from Munich directories and never restored. The Post was just one of the many news outlets destroyed by the Nazis, replaced with the myth creating propagandists which were soon the only voice heard within Germany, other than those who met in secret, for the time being unable to stem the Nazi tide.
