Background:This widely distributed Nazi pamphlet first appeared in 1929. I am working from a 1932 copy, and have not compared it with the first version, but it does not look as if significant changes were made as it was reissued. The title, loosely translated, is “Those Damned Nazis.” Literally, it translates as something like “those cursed swastika lads,” but that does not really work in English. At least several hundred thousand copies were printed. It is a good summary of the basic lines of Nazi propaganda just before Hitlers takeover in 1933. The booklet included five cartoons by Mjölnir, Goebbels’ cartoonist, three of which I include here. Mjölnir also produced some of the most familiar Nazi posters. The source: Joseph Goebbels and Mjölnir,Die verfluchten Hakenkreuzler. Etwas zum Nachdenken (Munich: Verlag Frz. Eher, 1932).
by Joseph Goebbels
We arenationalists because we see thenation as the only way to bring all the forces of the nation together to preserve and improve our existence and the conditions under which we live. Thenation is the organic union of a people to protect its life. To be national is to affirm this unionin word and deed. To be national has nothing to do with a form of government or a symbol. It is an affirmation ofthings, not forms. Forms can change, theircontentremains. If form and content agree, then the nationalist affirms both. If they conflict, the nationalist fightsfor the content andagainst the form. One may not put the symbol above the content. If that happens, the battle is on the wrong field and ones strength is lost in formalism. The realaim of nationalism, the nation,is lost. That is how things are today inGermany. Nationalism has turned into bourgeois patriotism and its defenders are battling windmills. One saysGermany and means the monarchy. Another proclaimsfreedom and meansBlack-White-Red. Would our situation today be any different if we replaced the republic with a monarchy and flew the black-white-red flag? Thecolony would have different wallpaper, but its nature, its content, would stay the same. Indeed, things would be even worse, fora facade that conceals the facts dissipates the forces today fighting against slavery. 
Bourgeois patriotism isthe privilege of a class. It is the real reason for its decline. When 30 million arefor something and 30 million areagainst it,things balance out and nothing happens. That is how things are with us. We are the worlds Pariah not because we do not have the courage to resist, but rather because out entire national energy iswasted in eternal and unproductivesquabbling between the right and the left. Our way only goes downward, and today one can already predict when we will fall into the abyss. Nationalism is more wide-reaching thaninternationalism. It sees things as they are.Only he who respects himself can respect others. If as aGermannationalist I affirm Germany, how can I hold it against aFrench nationalist who affirmsFrance? Only when these affirmations conflict in vital ways will there be apower-political struggle. Internationalism cannot undo this reality. Its attempts at proof fail completely. And even when the facts seem to have some validity,nature, blood, the will to life, and the struggle for existence on this hard earth prove the falsity of fine theories. The sin of bourgeois patriotism was to confound a certain economic form with the national. It connected two things that are entirely different.Forms of the economy,however firm they may seem, are changeable.The national is eternal. If I mix the eternal and the temporal, the eternal will necessarily collapse when the temporal collapses. This was the real cause for the collapse of liberal society. It was rootednot in the eternal, but inthe temporal, and when the temporal declined it took the eternal down with it. Today it is only an excuse for a system that brings growing economic misery. That is the only reason whyinternational Jewry organizes the battle of the proletarian forces against both powers, the economy and the nation, and defeat them. From this understanding, the young nationalism draws its absolute demand.The faith in the nation is a matter for everyone, never a group, a class or an economic clique. The eternal must be distinguished from the temporal. Maintaining a rotten economic system has nothing to do with nationalism, which is an affirmation of the Fatherland. I can love Germany and hate capitalism. Not onlycan I, Imust. Onlythe annihilation of a system of exploitation carries with it the core of the rebirth of our people. We are nationalists because as Germans, we love Germany. Because we love Germany, we want to preserve it and fight against those who would destroy it. If a Communist shouts “Down with nationalism!”, he means the hypocritical bourgeois patriotism that sees the economy only as asystem of slavery. If we make clear to the man of the left that nationalism and capitalism, that is the affirmation of the Fatherland and the misuse of its resources, have nothing to do with each other, indeed that they go together like fire and water, then evenas a socialist he will come to affirm the nation, which he will want to conquer. That is our real task as National Socialists. We were the first to recognize the connections, and the first to begin the struggle.Because we are socialists we have felt the deepest blessings of the nation, and because we are nationalists we want to promote socialist justice in a new Germany. A young fatherland will rise when the socialist front is firm. Socialism will become reality when the Fatherland is free.
We aresocialists because we see insocialism,that is the union of all citizens, the only chance to maintain our racial inheritance and to regain our political freedom and renew our German state. Socialism is the doctrine of liberation for the working class. It promotes the rise of the fourth class and its incorporation in the political organism of our Fatherland, and is inextricably bound to breaking the present slavery and regaining German freedom.Socialism, therefore, is not merely a matter of the oppressed class, but a matter for everyone, for freeing the German people from slavery is the goal of contemporary policy. Socialism gains its true form only through a total fighting brotherhood with the forward-striving energies of a newly awakened nationalism. Without nationalism it is nothing, a phantom, a mere theory, a castle in the sky, a book. With it it is everything,the future, freedom, the fatherland! The sin of liberal thinking was to overlooksocialisms nation-building strengths, thereby allowing its energies to go in anti-national directions. The sin ofMarxism was to degradesocialism into a question ofwages and the stomach, putting it in conflict with the state and its national existence. An understanding of both these facts leads us to a new sense of socialism, which seesits nature as nationalistic, state-building, liberating and constructive. The bourgeois is about to leave the historical stage. In its place will come theclass of productive workers, the working class, that has been up until today oppressed. It is beginning to fulfill its political mission. It is involved in a hard and bitter struggle for political power as it seeks to become part of the national organism. The battle began in theeconomic realm; it will finish in thepolitical. It is not merely a matter of wages, not only a matter of the number of hours worked in a day — though we may never forget that these are an essential, perhaps even the most significant part of the socialist platform — but it is much more a matter of incorporating a powerful and responsible class in the state, perhaps even to make it thedominantforce in the future politics of the fatherland. Thebourgeoisie does not want to recognize the strength of theworking class. Marxism has forced it into a straitjacket that will ruin it. While theworking class gradually disintegrates in theMarxist front, bleeding itself dry,the bourgeoisie and Marxism have agreed on thegeneral lines of capitalism, and see their task now to protect and defend it in various ways, often concealed. We aresocialists because we seethe social question as a matter of necessity and justice for thevery existence of a state for our people, not a question of cheap pity or insulting sentimentality. The worker has aclaim to a living standard that corresponds to what heproduces. We have no intention ofbegging for that right. Incorporating him in the state organism is not only a critical matter for him, butfor the whole nation. The question is larger than the eight-hour day. It is a matter of forming anew state consciousness that includes every productive citizen. Since the political powers of the day are neither willing nor able to create such a situation,socialism must be fought for. It is afighting slogan both inwardly and outwardly. It is aimed domestically at the bourgeois parties and Marxism at the same time, because both are sworn enemies of the coming workers’ state. It is directed abroad at all powers that threaten our national existence and thereby the possibility of the comingsocialist national state. 
Socialism is possible only in a state that is united domestically and free internationally.The bourgeoisie and Marxism are responsible for failing to reach both goals, domestic unity and international freedom. No matter how national and social these two forces present themselves, they are the sworn enemies of a socialist national state. We must thereforebreak both groups politically. The lines of German socialism are sharp, and our path is clear. We are against the political bourgeoisie, and for genuine nationalism! We are against Marxism, but for true socialism! We are for the first German national state of a socialist nature! We are for the National Socialist German Workers Party!
Workis not mankinds curse, but hisblessing. A man becomes a man through labor. It elevates him, makes him great and aware, raises him above all other creatures. It is in the deepest sensecreative, productive, and culture-producing. Without labor, no food. Without food, no life. The idea that the dirtier ones hands get, the more degrading the work, is aJewish, not a German, idea. As in every other area, the German first askshow, thenwhat. It is less a question of the position I fill, and more a question ofhow well I do the duty that God has given me. We call ourselves aworkers’ party because we want to rescue the wordwork from its current definition and give it back its original meaning.Anyone who creates value is a creator, that is, a worker. We refuse to distinguishkinds of work. Our only standard iswhether the work serves the whole, or at least does not harm it, or if it is harmful. Work is service. If it works against the general welfare, then it istreason against the fatherland. Marxist nonsense claimed to free labor, yet it degraded the work of its members and saw it as a curse and disgrace. It can hardly be our goal to abolish labor, but rather to givenew meaning and content. The worker in acapitalist state — and that is his deepest misfortune — isno longer a living human being, a creator, a maker. He has become amachine. Anumber, acog in the machine without sense or understanding. He is alienated from what he produces. Labor is for him only a wayto survive,not a path to higher blessings, not a joy, not something in which to take pride, or satisfaction, or encouragement, or a way to build character. We are aworkers’ party because we see in the coming battle betweenfinance and labor the beginning and the end of the structure of the twentieth century. We areon the side of labor andagainst finance.Money is the measuring rod of liberalism, work and accomplishment that of thesocialist state. Theliberalasks:What are you? Thesocialist asks:Who are you? Worlds lie between. We do not want tomake everyone the same.Nor do we want levels in the population, high and low, above and below. The aristocracy of the coming state will be determined not bypossessions or money, but only on thequality of ones accomplishments.One earnsmerit throughservice. Men are distinguished by the results of their labor. That is the sure sign of the character and value of a person. Thevalue of labor under socialism will be determined by its value to thestate, to the whole community. Labor means creating value, not haggling over things. Thesoldier is a worker when he bears the sword to protect the national economy. Thestatesman also is a worker when he gives the nation a form and a will that help it to produce what it needs for life and freedom. Afurrowed brow is as much asign of labor as a powerful fist. A white collar worker should not be ashamed to claim with pride that of which the manual laborer boasts:labor. The relations between these two groups determine their mutual fate. Neither can survive without the other, for both are members ofan organism that they must together maintain if they are to defend and expand their right to exist. We call ourselves aworkers’ party because we want to free labor from the chains ofcapitalism and Marxism. In battling for Germanys future, we freely admit to it, and accept the odium from the liberal bourgeoisie that results. We know that we will succeed inbringing new blessings out of their curses. God gave the nations territory to grow grain. The seed becomes grain and the grain becomes bread. The middleman of it all islabor. He who despises labor but accepts its benefits is a hypocrite. That is the deepest meaning of our movement: it gives things back their original significance, unconcerned that today they may be in danger of sinking into the swamp of a collapsing worldview. He who creates value works, and is a worker. A movement that wants to free labor is a workers’ party. Therefore we National Socialists call ourselves aworkers party. When our victorious flags fly before us, we sing: - “We are the army of the swastika,
- Raise high the red flags!
- We want toclear the way to freedom
- For German Labor!”
Weoppose the Jews because we are defending the freedom of the German people. TheJewisthe cause and beneficiary of our slavery He has misused the social misery of the broad masses to deepen the dreadful split between the right and left of our people, to divideGermany into two halves thereby concealing the true reason for the loss of the Great War and falsifying the nature of the revolution. 
The Jew has no interest in solving the German question. Hecannot have such an interest.He depends on it remaining unsolved. If the German people formed a united community and won back its freedom, there would be no place any longer for the Jew. His hand is strongest when a people lives in domestic and international slavery, not when it is free, industrious, self-aware and determined.The Jew caused our problems, and lives from them. That is why we oppose the Jew asnationalists and associalists. He hasruined our race, corrupted our morals, hollowed out our customs and broken our strength. We owe it to him that we today are the Pariah of the world. He was the leper among as long as we were German. When we forgot our German nature, he triumphed over us and our future. The Jew is the plastic demon of decomposition. Where he finds filth and decay, he surfaces and begins his butchers work among the nations. He hides behind a mask and presents himself as a friend to his victims, and before they know it he has broken their neck. The Jew is uncreative. He produces nothing, he onlyhaggles with products. With rags, clothing, pictures, jewels, grain, stocks, cures, peoples and states. He has somehowstoleneverything he deals in. When heattacks a state he is arevolutionary. As soon ashe holds power, he preachespeace and order so that he can devour his conquests in comfort. What doesanti-Semitism have to do withsocialism? I would put the question this way: What does theJew have to do withsocialism?Socialismhas to do withlabor. When did one ever see him working instead of plundering, stealing and living from the sweat of others?As socialists we are opponents of the Jews because we see in theHebrews the incarnation of capitalism, of the misuse of the nations goods. What doesanti-Semitismhave to do withnationalism? I would put the question this way: What does theJew have to do withnationalism?Nationalism has to do with blood and race. The Jew is the enemy and destroyer of the purity of blood, the conscious destroyer of our race.As nationalists we oppose the Jews because we see theHebrews as the eternal enemy of our national honor and of our national freedom. But theJew, after all, is also ahuman being. Certainly, none of us doubts that. We only doubt that he is adecent human being. He does not get along with us. He lives by other laws than we do. The fact that he is ahuman being is not sufficient reason for us to allow him to subject us ininhumane ways. He may be a human being —but what kind of a human being is he!If someone slaps your mother in the face, do you say: “Thank you!He is after all a human being!” That is not a human being, it is amonster. Yet how much worse has the Jew done toour mother Germany, and is still doing today! There are alsowhite Jews. True, there are scoundrels among us, even though they are Germans, who act in immoral ways against their own racial and blood comrades. But why do we call them whiteJews? You use the term to describe something inferior and contemptible. Just as we do. Why do you ask us why weoppose the Jews when you without knowing it are one too? Anti-Semitism is not Christian. That means that it is Christian to allow the Jews to go on as they are, stripping the skin from our bodies and mocking us.To be a Christian means to love ones neighbor as oneself! My neighbor is my racial and blood brother. If I love him, I have to hate his enemies. He who thinks German must despise the Jews. The one requires the other. Christ himself saw that love did not always work. When he found the moneychangers in the temple, he did not say: “Children, love one another!”He took up a whip and drove them out. We oppose the Jews because we affirm the German people. The Jew is our greatest misfortune. It is not true that we eat Jews for breakfast. It is true thatslowly but surely, he is stealing all that we have. Things would be different if we behaved as Germans.
We do not enter parliament to useparliamentary methods. We know that thefate of peoples is determined by personalities, never by parliamentary majorities. The essence of parliamentary democracy is themajority, which destroys personal responsibility andglorifies the masses. A few dozen rogues and crooks run things behind the scenes.Aristocracy depends onaccomplishment, the rule of the most able, and the subordination of the less capable to the will of the leadership.Any form of government — no matter how democratic or aristocratic it may outwardly appear — rests on compulsion. The difference is only whether the compulsion is a blessing or a curse for the community. What we demand isnew, decisive,andradical, revolutionaryin the truest sense of the word. That has nothing to do with rioting and barricades. It may be that that happens here or there. But it is not an inherent part of the process.Revolutions are spiritual acts. They appear firstin people, then in politics and the economy. New people form new structures. The transformation we want isfirst of all spiritual; that will necessarily change the waythings are. This revolutionary act is beginning to be visible in us. The result is a new type of person visible to the knowing eye: theNational Socialist. Consistent with his spiritual attitude, theNational Socialist makes uncompromising demandsin politics. There is noif and when for him, only aneither — or. He demands: Thereturn of German honor. Without honor, one has no right to life.A nation that has pawned itshonor has pawned its bread.Honor is thefoundation of any peoples community.Losing our honor is the true cause of theloss of our freedom. In place of aslave colony, we want a restoredGerman national state. Thestate is not an end in itself for us, but rather ameans to an end. The true end is therace, the sum of all the living, creative forces of the people. The structure that today calls itself theGerman republic is not a way to maintain our racial inheritance. It has becomean end in itself with no real connection to the people and their needs. We want to abolish theslave colony and replace it with apeoples state in freedom. Want work and bread for every productive national and blood comrade.Pay should be according toaccomplishment. That meansmore pay for German workers! That will stop the senseless fighting in which we engage today. First provide housing and food for the people,then pay reparations! No democrat, no republican, has the right to complain about this demand, for it was first raised by a banner carrier of November Germany. We only want to makethe slogan a reality. Provide essentials first! First we must meet the critical needs of the people, then we can produce luxury goods. Providework for those willing to work! Give the farmersland! The German foreign policy that today sells what we have at below-market rates must be completely transformed and must focus radically on the Germanneed for space, drawing the necessary power-politicalconclusions. Peace among productive workers! Each should do his duty for thegood of the whole community.The state then has the responsibility of protecting the individual, guaranteeing him the fruits of his labor.The peoples community must not be a mere phrase, but a revolutionary achievement following from the radical carrying out of the basic life needs of the working class. A ruthlessbattle against corruption!Awar against exploitation, freedom for the workers! The elimination of all economic-capitalist influences on national policy. A solution to the Jewish question!We call for the systematic elimination of foreign racial elements from public life in every area. There must be a sanitaryseparation between Germans and non-Germans on racial grounds exclusively, not on nationality or even religious belief. Down with democratic parliamentarianism!Establish a parliament based on occupations which determines production.Policies will be determined by apolitical body that earns is place by thelaws of strength and selection. The return of loyalty and faith in economic life. The completereversal of the injusticethat has robbed millions of Germans of their possessions. The right of personality before that of the mob. Germans always will have preference before foreigners and Jews. Abattle against the destructive poison of international Jewish culture! A strengthening of German forces and German customs. The elimination of corrupt Semitic principles and racial decay. The death penalty for crimes against the people! The gallows for profiteers and usurers! An uncompromising program implemented bymen who will implement it passionately. No slogans, only living energy. That is what we demand!
the pre-1933 Page. the German Propaganda Home Page. | 
