{"id":23132,"date":"2010-05-11T11:59:06","date_gmt":"2010-05-11T16:59:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/?p=23132"},"modified":"2013-12-15T03:14:22","modified_gmt":"2013-12-15T08:14:22","slug":"nazi-jazz-propaganda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2010\/05\/11\/nazi-jazz-propaganda\/","title":{"rendered":"Nazi Jazz Propaganda"},"content":{"rendered":"

After reading my recent post on how Gypsy jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt survived World War II<\/a> (hint: rank-and-file Nazis loved jazz!), Dmitriy T.M. sent me a link to a fascinating account<\/a> of a German jazz band, called Charlie and His Orchestra, that was put together by Joseph Goebbels, a Nazi propaganda guy.<\/p>\n

To recap, jazz music was labeled \u201cNeggernmusik<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 Attributed (rightly) to blacks and Jews, it was considered pollution to German sensibilities.\u00a0 Jazz lovers, jazz musicians, and swing dancers were all sent to concentration camps.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Nevertheless, Undercover Black Man<\/a> describes how Goebbels saw potential in the music and, so, “weaponized” it to “screw with British and American minds.”<\/p>\n

Charlie and His Orchestra recorded jazz standards, but changed the lyrics to “anti-British, anti-American, anti-Communist or antisemitic messages.”<\/p>\n

The songs were broadcast via medium-wave and short-wave radio to Great Britain and North America. It was all about taunting and demoralizing the Allies… and trash-talking Winston Churchill and F.D.R. by name.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In this clip, the Orchestra, covering Goody Goody, is accompanied by WWII photographs. The propaganda starts at 1:04:<\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n

For more, check out the Charlie and His Orchestra versions of You Can’t Stop Me From Dreaming<\/a>, You’re Driving Me Crazy<\/a>, and Makin’ Whoopee<\/a>.<\/p>\nLisa Wade, PhD<\/a> is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of <\/em>American Hookup<\/a>, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender<\/a>; and a forthcoming introductory text: <\/em>Terrible Magnificent Sociology<\/a>.\u00a0You can follow her on Twitter<\/a> and Instagram<\/a>.<\/em><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After reading my recent post on how Gypsy jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt survived World War II (hint: rank-and-file Nazis loved jazz!), Dmitriy T.M. sent me a link to a fascinating account of a German jazz band, called Charlie and His Orchestra, that was put together by Joseph Goebbels, a Nazi propaganda guy. To recap, jazz […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[253,1777,85,285,1760,3875,42,309],"class_list":["post-23132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-history","tag-nation-germany","tag-politics","tag-raceethnicity","tag-raceethnicity-blacksafricans","tag-raceethnicity-jews","tag-religion","tag-warmilitary"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23132"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23132\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60238,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23132\/revisions\/60238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}