How Hitler's Nazi propaganda machine tried to take Christ out of Christmas

Nazi Germany celebrated Christmas without Christ with the help of swastika tree baubles, 'Germanic' cookies and a host of manufactured traditions, a new exhibition has shown.
The way the celebration was gradually taken over and exploited for propaganda purposes by Hitler's Nazis is detailed in a new exhibition.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1228630/How-Hitlers-Nazi-propaganda-machine-tried-Christ-Christmas.html#ixzz0X8Z6F2SR

 

How Hitler's Nazi propaganda machine tried to take Christ out of Christmas | Mail Online

 

thanks Gordon for the reminder. Well it sure didn't work. A brief story really, friend and veteran H. Reichert serving in rgt. 43 in the 1st Infantrie Div. told me som time ago that they would get these little care packages from home already tampered with by German intel and well wished cards were substituted sometimes with these little drolls, at Weihnacht seit the typical was a cold German Landser wrapped up in his field grey woolies standing by an almost put out fire with a nice all green fir tree in the middle of a lonely snow covered wasteland, well wishes were broadcasted over the top of the card and instead of an angelic angel at the top of the tree was placed a swastika. H. told me the guys would gather around craving for news from back home as they were stationed on the Ost front and after reading the cards would throw them into their own fire pile .............

E ~ and that is how it was in the winter of 43-44

 

What a fascinating exhibition, it should tour.

More info here:
NS-Dokumentationszentrum - Sonderausstellung
And looks like there's extracts from an exhibition guide here:
http://www.museenkoeln.de/ns-dok/download/Postkarten und Weihnachtsschmuck Kaiserreich u. NS.pdf
Both in German.

 

Interesting, but why would they remove St. Nicholas? Traditionally, is he not seen as a German figure? The only thing that comes to mind is the Christianity references since Catholicism was favored by the party to a certain extent?

This reminded me of a somewhat similar story about the R.A.F. where they would do Christmas time air drops in German occupied territory, the drops would also have post cards with them that would replace instances of "Santa Clause" with "R.A.F.".

I've always been fascinated by the Vikings so I find the Norse stuff kind of cool. At the same time, I don't think it's particularity fair to remove everything else but such is the Nazi Party.

A few questions though,

How adopted were these changes? Were they things that only those hardcore into the Nazi movement did? Was it used as a front by people? Were underground movements established to make things "traditional"?

What about in the army/front lines? I know Christmas day would represent a day of cease fire in some cases and even celebration? Those who have seen Band of Brothers may also remember the seen where the Germans are singing Noel from their fox holes?

 

I am not sure ,but I think that St Nicholas was only celebrated in minor parts of Germany .The celebration of StNicholas in Belgium,the Netherlands and the North of France is a big feast (in certain flemish regions,a.o. Ypres he is replaced by St Maarten,and celebrated on 11 november )and the children are singing that St Nicholas is arriving from SPAIN on a steam-ship (btw,but you know this probably,Dutch colonist took the celebration of St Nicholas to the US,where he became Santa Claus )

 

Well as you hint it was an opportunity for people to show just how much they were dedicated to the party although some of the festive hijacking was so complete one had little choice but to comply to some degree. Probably the best example is the "Winter Aid" scheme*, originally a national charitable event to raise a few pfennings for every poor household in the form of tokens which could be used to purchase food, fuel or clothing. The NSDAP took over this pretty early, changed the tokens to feature a whopping big swastika as well as brow-beating folk into donating more than they might. The increase in donations was then held up as an example of how much better run things were under Nazi control.



*Ref: "The Third Reich" Michael Burleigh

 

Yea, I put it in quotes for that but just no realized RAF was also put in quotes which could lead to some confusion. My bad but thanks for the clarification!

Good point, I guess after a few years original goods may have become pretty hard to come by. The original article should have gone into this a bit more, it gives the impression that the changes were adopted by all lovingly.

The image you linked to isn't working, but the donations thing is a great example that helps give a glimpse at how some of these changes became "accepted".

 

It was a link to an early Winter Aid poster... which can be viewed here; Nazi Posters: 1933-1945

 

Just to add there's a well written piece on this over at Spiegel Online: Swastikas and Tinsel: How the Nazis Stole Christmas - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International