Joseph Goebbels and Winston Churchill

You would expect Joseph Goebbels and Winston Churchill to be totally opposite since one man was for Nazi Germany and the other was opposing them. However, when it comes to the idea of gaining and retaining power they aren’t that different at all. Both of them knew with the war going that retaining power is crucial if you want to win.

            Even though the men took very different approaches to retain power and gain support, their strategies had the same effect. Churchill had built his listeners up with strategies on what he was going to do and the circumstances of the war. He did this so the people he was speaking to could trust him. Another thing he did was being honest, and during a war of this nature, people value honesty because then they feel that this man is truthful and could lead them to victory. Churchill reeled the people in to get his support. Goebbels also reeled the people in; however, it was to make them go along with his demands at the end of his speech. He jumps right in by calling Bolshevism evil and how Jewry is the work of the devil. He follows with explaining that they need to fight this evil and try and save Europe. He then starts to quickly gain support and cheers from his “followers.”

            They also know that this concept of adding the “devil” into the speeches will make the crowd go wild. The “devil” was always associated with evil, torture, and terror, even if you aren’t religious. And this is why both men either implied about the devil or explicitly say it. They did this because it’s a trigger. When a person hears words like monster, devil, and torturer pertaining to the people that they’re fighting, they’re going to want to fight them back to try and restore “goodness” and “peace.” Both of the men used this strategy because they knew it would have that effect on the people. However, Goebbels used this strategy a lot, which he knew he had to because he knew the crazy things that Hitler and him were doing. He made it seem like Jewry was a contagious, infectious, evil disease that’s going to spread throughout the world. So he said to his people that we are going to fight the evil and save the world, more specifically England. This made the crowd go wild because who doesn’t want to be the superhero? While Churchill was a little more subtle and clear, he made it clear that Germany was the devil and they had to protect themselves. Even though Goebbels used a lot of false statements and Churchill did not, they both had a tremendous effect on the people. This is because they both knew they had to do anything to gain and retain the power they had to try and win the war.