The German authorities used propaganda to control opinion among the populations of Germany and the conquered territories.  Simultaneously, they conducted a masterful program of disinformation to the outside world.  By carefully concealing their campaigns of persecution and murder, the Germans were able to limit interference from the international community as well as resistance from their targeted victims.  Much of this work was conducted by little more than a strategic use of language.  Deportation to concentration camps and death camps was called “relocation for the war effort,” while gas chambers typically had a sign which said “Bath House.”  Communications from camps and ghettos were also carefully controlled.  Prisoners were forced to write cheerful postcards, or, like Paula’s family, were instructed to pose in warm clothes for staged photographs.  These tactics were very effective.

In 1944, as rumors of their atrocities spread to the outside world, the Nazis undertook a major project of disinformation.  The SS arranged for the Red Cross to visit the Theresienstadt ghetto-camp in Czechoslovakia.  In anticipation of this inspection, guards forced the prisoners of the camp to construct fake stores, a café, a bank, kindergartens, a school, and flower gardens.  Then, to conceal the overcrowded living conditions, they “relocated” a large number of Theresienstadt’s prisoners to the gas chambers at Auschwitz.  When the Red Cross arrived on July 23, 1944, they found an acceptable living environment.  After the inspection, the Nazis made a propaganda film, which showed the Jews of Theresienstadt leading a happy and contented life under German rule.  Most of the film’s cast and the majority of Theresienstadt’s children were then deported to the gas chambers at Auschwitz.