A sharp decline in the circulation of the Nazi press in Germany is reported from Berlin. Emphasis is revealed that even the Voelkischer Beobachter, official organ of the Nazi Party, is losing thousands of readers.
This decline comes as no surprise. The entire press in Germany today is nothing but one official organ of the Ministry of Propaganda. There is little difference between one paper and another. They are all dictated to by the same Dr. Goebbels.
Under these circumstances, it is no wonder that the Berliner Tageblatt, once the most popular newspaper in Europe, now has a circulation much less than the circulation of the Juedische Rundschau, a Jewish newspaper appearing in Berlin. The Vossische Zeitung, another much-read German daily, was compelled to liquidate altogether. Even Der Angriff, the paper published by Dr. Goebbels, was about to be liquidated because of the lack of readers.
THE ANGRIFF SEEKS JEWS
It sounds like a myth, but it is an actual fact, that it is due to the Jews that Der Angriff still appears. Seeing that the circulation of his paper had dwindled down from 70,000 to 8,000, Dr. Goebbels came to the conclusion that the paper could be saved only if Jews were to become interested in reading it.
Reaching this conclusion, Goebbels decided on a plan to send one of his best reporters to Palestine and to advertise that his observations would soon begin to appear in the Angriff.
With the huge interest which Jews now show in migration to Palestine, Goebbels was certain that the circulation of his paper would definitely rise as soon as the first articles on Palestine were published. As a result, of this, Der Angriff started its famous series of articles, “A Nazi Goes to Palestine.”
Two weeks before the first article appeared, much advertising was done by Goebbels to attract attention of Jewish readers. Special placards in the form of a huge Mogen Dovid were posted all over Germany. Thousands of young Nazis distributed in the streets of Berlin imitation coins containing the inscription: “A Nazi Goes to Palestine and Will Tell His Impressions in Der Angriff.” A maximum of publicity was given to the articles prior to their appearance.
FROM 8,000 TO 65,000
The articles began to appear, and strangely enough, they seemed to be very sympathetic to Jewish achievements in Palestine. The Jews in Germany began to read them with the greatest of interest. The non-Jews in Germany also seemed to become interested in them.
To make the story short: within the two weeks Der Angriff published the series the circulation of the paper leaped from 8,000 to 65,000. Now it has reached a quarter of a million. The paper, which was to be defunct, is now safe.
But not every paper in Germany can obtain the privilege ### praising Jewish achievements, which was given Der Angriff.
What Dr. Goebbels permits in his own paper he will not allo## in the other newspapers. The sharp drop in the circulation o# the general press is therefore not surprising. No reader, not even a Nazi member, likes to read newspapers which conta## only propaganda and give n## news.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
