Имперское министерство просвещения и пропаганды Германии (г. Берлин)
- Reichsministerium für Volksaufklarung and Propaganda (Berlin); Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda (Berlin)
- Imperskoe ministerstvo prosveshcheniia i propagandy Germanii (Berlin)
Extent and Medium
646 files
Biographical History
The Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda was created after the Nazis came to power in 1933. It presided over radio, the press, and cultural institutions, and controlled the sphere of art. Every department of the ministry engaged in antisemitic propaganda. Works by Jewish authors were banned and destroyed. Antisemitic ideas were espoused in radio broadcasts and in leaflets and pamphlets distributed by the ministry, headed by Joseph Goebbels. Between 1933 and 1937, his closest associate was Walther Funk, Deputy Minister of Propaganda and the Reich government official in charge of the press. Funk was one of the ideologues of German antisemitic policy, and he took part in organizing anti-Jewish pogroms. The ministry ceased to exist in 1945 with the defeat of Nazi Germany.
Scope and Content
The collection's contents are described in seven inventories. The inventories are arranged by document type and contain circulars, instructions, and directives of the Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda; minutes of conferences held by Joseph Goebbels; reports, questionnaires, announcements, staff personnel files, personnel lists, correspondence, texts and overviews of radio broadcasts, articles (including articles by Goebbels), informational bulletins on the "Jewish question," pamphlets, and lists of German-language newspapers published in the occupied eastern territories. There is a geographical index to the collection's files. The collection contains informational bulletins, journals, and articles on the Jewish question, entitled "Jewish Problems and Aspirations after the War," "The Jewish Brigade," "Jewish Terror in Palestine," "The Jewish Committee of National Liberation," "Jews in Chile," "Jews in the Soviet Union," "Jewish Contributions to Universities in the United States," "The Solution of the Jewish Question from the Point of View of Jews," and the like; and newspaper clippings on the persecution of Jews in Germany. There are also documents on hiring personnel for the Nazi Institute for the Study of the Jewish Question.
Finding Aids
Nazi-Looted Jewish Archives in Moscow. A guide to Jewish Historical and Cultural Collections in the Russian State Military Archive, ed. by D. E. Fishman, M. Kupovetsky, V. Kuzelenkov, Scranton - London 2010.
Existence and Location of Copies
Microfilms are held by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives.
Archivist Note
Entry selected by Krzysztof Tyszka from the book “Nazi-Looted Jewish Archives in Moscow. A guide to Jewish Historical and Cultural Collections in the Russian State Military Archive”, ed. by D. E. Fishman, M. Kupovetsky, V. Kuzelenkov
Rules and Conventions
EHRI Guidelines for Description v.1.0