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Semiotics of Nazi Propaganda

Symbols of the Nazi Party

The German Nationalists, later to become the Nazi Party, adopted the swastika as their official symbol in 1920. (US Holocaust Memorial Museum 2016) The official Nazi flag became a black swastika placed on a white disk centered upon a red background. The choice of colors was no accident. The red, white and black were the colors of the German Empire. In Mein Kampf Hitler states, “As National Socialists, we see our program in our flag. In red, we see the social idea of the movement; in white, the nationalistic idea; in the swastika, the mission of the struggle for the victory of the Aryan man, and, by the same token, the victory of the idea of creative work.” The swastika was chosen by the party because they believed it represented the German race at its very earliest and purest roots, and through that, the Aryan race. The flag, and the swastika itself was used not only to promote the Nazi party, but it was also a major element in anti-Semitic propaganda. The mission of the swastika, “was to unite a racist (anti-Semitic) image with an Aryan racial identity… The Swastika was the sign in which a modern mass was encouraged to see itself as an ancient community, a Volkgemeinschaft… The swastika made German nobodies into Aryo-Germanic somebodies in much the same way as the commodity sign continues to set standards for judgements of value, class, and gender.” (Quinn 1994) The unification under the Nazi symbol played perfectly in to an, “us” versus “them” mentality.

The swastika was synonymous with Hitler, which was synonymous with the Nazi party–any part of this synecdoche could be substituted for any other without a dilution of the overall message. The same can be said for the Jewish Badge. The Star of David, which has always represented the Jewish religion, was used against its people to define them as evil, corrupt, dirty, and sinister.



Illustrated in the semiotic triangle, we see how the swastika (signifier), the Aryan race (signified), and the sign (blond hair, blue eyes, light skin) combine to make up the meaning of the Nazi ideology. The swastika’s original denotation—a symbol of good fortune—originally had nothing to do with the fair-haired, light-skinned ideal of the Aryan race. The relationship between the Swastika and the Aryan race was a Nazi construct that became so strong that one element could be substituted with another seamlessly.

The Symbols of the Jewish “Other”

The concept behind the yellow badge is nothing new. Dating back to medieval times, the Jewish people have been forced to identify themselves as, “other” by wearing a symbol of their Judaism. In 1939, after the German invasion of Poland, the German government mandated that all Jewish business were distinctively marked as such. (Shoah Resource Center, The International School for Holocaust Studies) Different countries had different variations of the badge. Some had a white background with the blue Star of David, others were just the native word for “Jew” scrawled on a patch. In Nazi Germany the garish yellow patch, with the Star of David and the letter “J” on it was formally adopted as the symbol the Jews were forced to wear. On September 1, 1941 Reinhard Hydrich decrees that all Jews over the age of 6 wear the Jewish badge. (US Holocaust Museum Memorial 2016) The original denotation of the Star of David was a simple, religious icon. Hitler took a deeply significant symbol of the Jewish people and used it against them. The yellow badge (signifier), connected to the Jewish race (signified), combined with the racial stereotype of the Jewish people created by Nazi propaganda—big nose, swarthy skin, dark hair and eyes (sign)—cast the Jewish people in direct opposition of the Nazi ideal. It was easy to see by their appearance that they were outsiders, not part of the fair-haired, blue-eyed, fair-skinned ideal nation that Hitler was trying to create. Analysis via Semiotic Squares

There is merit in looking at the Nazi propaganda in two different ways. First, a semiotic square as dictated by the Nazi propaganda. This would illustrate the Nazis as the victims of Jewish greed and corruption. Then, the true semiotic square with the Nazi party as the dominant culture. In the first square the dominant term (S1) will be the Jews and subjugate term (S2) will be the Aryan peoples. Aryan peoples will be used instead of the term Nazi because in the Nazi propaganda, the Nazi political party set themselves up as protectors of the Aryan bloodline. Hitler portrays the Jews as a people who will stomp out the pure bloodline with their parasitic ways. This positioning makes the Aryan race the victim entity which needs protection. From a psychological standpoint, when you view yourself as the victim, you do not hold yourself accountable for your actions because they are viewed as self-protection measures.

''“In claiming the status of victim and by assigning all blame to others, a person can achieve moral superiority while simultaneously disowning any responsibility for one's behavior and its outcome. The victims 'merely' seek justice and fairness. If they become violent, it is only as a last resort, in self-defense. The victim stance is a powerful one. The victim is always morally right, neither responsible nor accountable, and forever entitled to sympathy.”(Zur 1995) ( ''

In the first square the situation is viewed as it was portrayed by Hitler and the Nazi party, to the citizens of Germany. This perspective is important when understanding how Hitler successfully transitioned from a prisoner writing Mein Kampf, to the architect of history’s most horrific genocide.

So, again, interpreting the first semiotic square from the perspective of what Nazi propaganda told the citizens of Germany:



This interpretation tells us that Jewish people should be feared (S1). The Jews want to bleed the German people dry. The Jews want to interbreed with the citizens of Germany (~S1) to gain more control and further integrate their foreign DNA into pure Aryan bloodlines. Interbreeding will dilute the bloodlines and endanger the purity of the Aryan Race (S2). The weakening of the bloodlines will create a nation of mix-blooded people (~S2).

By uniting class, socioeconomic, and even politically diverse ideologies into “Jew” (S1) and “non-Jew” (~S1) the Nazi propaganda machine has united a cohesive group and created an “us” versus “them” mentality. The Aryans (S2) are as easy to identify as the non-Aryans (~S2). By teaching people that the Aryan race is special, and that the Jews want to destroy them, they give the German natives something to protect. The Jews (S1) will weaken society. They want to profit off the sweat of the German people (~S1). They have no home of their own, so they will interbreed with the pure-blooded Aryans (S2) and weaken the genetics of our historical race—the one true race. We must protect the Aryan blood (S2) or it will be lost and Germany will become a nation of Mischling (mixed blood) people (~S2).

If Jews (S1) are bad, does that mean that all non-Jews (~S1) are good? This can’t be true, because the Roma-gypsies, Negroes, and other non-Jews were also persecuted. The mentally and physically handicapped were sterilized, and towards the end of the Third Reich, put to death in gas chambers similar to the chambers found in concentration camps. All of this was done in order to strengthen and protect the purity of the Aryan (S2) bloodline.

The second semiotic square is from the perspective of Jewish persecution by the Nazi party.



In this square we see the Nazi party in the S1, or dominant culture, position. This is the place of privilege. Now the term “Nazi” is used, rather than “Aryan” because the Nazi party was the persecutor of the Jews. They set-up the Aryan race as ideal, but it’s not as if the Aryans had a racial uprising and tried to destroy all other races. All of the violence upon the Jews (and the Negros, Roma-gypsies, mentally and physically handicapped, etc.) was perpetrated by the Nazi Party. So we have the Nazi’s as S1. And in opposition to that, the Jews as S2. The non-S1 position would logically be non-Nazis. This could include the Jewish people, but also contained many people that were not Jewish. The French and Dutch resistance, the German citizens who quietly objected to the Nazi policies, or the few who helped the Jewish people hide or escape. This would make them enemies of the Nazi party, but perhaps not as at risk of immediate death as people that were Jewish. The closer to the center of the Reich you were located the more dangerous this non-Jew, non-Nazi (~S1) position would be. The non-S2 term would be the non-Jewish people. By default, it’s assumed that no one within the Nazi party is Jewish. But are all non-Jewish people Nazis? As mentioned above, there were many people sympathetic to the Jewish cause that were not Jewish, and not Nazis. On the other hand, just because you were not Jewish did not mean that you were safe. By 1933 more than 400,000 German citizens were killed for being mentally or physically handicapped. (US Holocaust Memorial Museum) 2016)

Hitler, and his Nazi Party may be the world’s most powerful case study in using signs and symbols to tap into cultural metanarratives and advance a specific political agenda. The Nazi propaganda was bold, unyielding, and pervasive.