POISONOUS WORDS: LORD HAW HAW THE NAZI PROPAGANDA TOOL

06/30/23 • 32 min

13 Listeners

During World War II, a new medium gave people on the homefront the kind of insight into the frontlines they had lacked during World War I: Radio. This relatively new technology enabled political figures such as Winston Churchill to warn of the dangers on Nazism even before the war.

But radiowaves are not confined by national boundaries and the British were not the only ones to see the usefulness of this technology during war time. In 1939, listeners in the UK began hearing seemingly British yet unwelcome messages over the radio.

In this episode I explore, Lord Haw Haw and the Nazi’s radio propaganda machine.

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This episode is sponsored by World History Encyclopedia, one of top history websites on the internet. I love the fact that they’re not a Wiki: Every article they publish is reviewed by their editorial team, not only for being accurate, but also for being interesting to read. The website is run as a non-profit organization, so you won’t be bombarded by annoying ads and it’s completely free. It’s a great site; and don’t just take my word for it they’ve been recommended by many academic institutions including Oxford University. Go check them out at WorldHistory.org or follow this link: World History Encyclopedia

Music: Pixabay

Sound: Public domain speeches from Winston Churchill, King Edward VIII and William Joyce AKA Lord Haw Haw

Während des Zweiten Weltkriegs gab ein neues Medium den Menschen an der Heimatfront den Einblick in die Frontlinien, der ihnen während des Ersten Weltkriegs gefehlt hatte: das Radio. Diese relativ neue Technologie ermöglichte es Politikern wie Winston Churchill, bereits vor dem Krieg vor den Gefahren des Nationalsozialismus zu warnen.

Aber Radiowellen sind nicht an nationale Grenzen gebunden und die Briten waren nicht die Einzigen, die den Nutzen dieser Technologie während des Krieges erkannten. Im Jahr 1939 begannen Hörer im Vereinigten Königreich, scheinbar britische, aber unwillkommene Botschaften über das Radio zu hören.

In this episode I explore, Lord Haw Haw and the Nazi’s radio propaganda machine.

Related episodes:

Music: Pixabay

Sound: Public domain speeches from Winston Churchill, King Edward VIII and William Joyce AKA Lord Haw Haw

Previous Episode

Solidarność: Solidarity and the End of Communism in Poland

3 Recommendations

In 1981, American journalist David Ost attended an extraordinary meeting in the Polish city of Bydgoszcz. Just decades earlier, it had been a majority German city, in the German empire and had a German name: Bromberg. Two world wars, the Holocaust, mass movement of people and two border realignments had seen it end up behind the proverbial iron curtain in 1945.

The meeting was organized by a group named Solidarity which became the first legally sanctioned trade union in the Warsaw pact. It was a remarkable concession by a communist regime whose authority was based on the fact the country was controlled by the workers, to acknowledge there was even a need for such a group.

This minor freedom had been hard fought but it was short lived. Within months, Solidarity had been banned and the whole of Poland was subjected to martial law. In this episode I talk to David Ost, Hobart and William Smith professor of politics about Solidarity and Poland’s arduous journey from communism to today.

David Ost Professor of Politics at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Ph.D., University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1986 B.A., SUNY Stony Brook, 1976.

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This episode is sponsored by World History Encyclopedia, one of top history websites on the internet. I love the fact that they’re not a Wiki: Every article they publish is reviewed by their editorial team, not only for being accurate, but also for being interesting to read. The website is run as a non-profit organization, so you won’t be bombarded by annoying ads and it’s completely free. It’s a great site; and don’t just take my word for it they’ve been recommended by many academic institutions including Oxford University. Go check them out at WorldHistory.org or follow this link: World History Encyclopedia

Music: Pixabay

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