Postal Propaganda of the Third Reich

Book excerpt: Nearly sixty years after the end of World War II the Third Reich continues to fascinate both authors and readers. Nazi propaganda, in particular, has been the topic of countless books, as have the personalities involved in the German propaganda machine. Yet, despite all of the efforts in this regard, one aspect of that propaganda study has remained largely unexamined. It is the regimes use of postal materials as a tool for expressing its propaganda message. In this new, profusely illustrated book, Albert L. Moore offers readers an overview of the images and messages that filled the mailboxes of Hitlers subjects and victims. As official documents of Nazi Germany, the stamps, postcards, and even postmarks used during the time provide the reader with an explicit picture of the types of propaganda messages every German was expected to see and act upon on a daily basis. Moores groundbreaking work helps us to better understand this powerful, yet heretofore unrecognized, weapon in Hitlers propaganda arsenal. This is not merely a book for those interested in stamps or postcards as collectibles, it is a book for those who desire to better understand what it was like to live inside the Third Reich!