MovieChat Forums > Lore (2012) Discussion > Did the Germans really not know they wer...

Did the Germans really not know they were losing the war?

posted 10 years ago by nighttrumpet
6 replies | jump to latest

The Americans were bombing their cities,the Soviets were capturing entire armies en mass. How could they have been that blind?

[–] lisajohn-4 10 years ago

No simple answer. Some surely knew, some did not. Remember Goebbels controlled the media. But, when a country is under siege, media communication can be erratic at best, even if one dared listen to the BBC. Also remember that we too often consider these things through the lens of 70 years of film and books recounting the history. No one at that time had this benefit. Ask yourself this question....do you know what is happening in another city or state right now? Without TV news, newspapers, the internet or Twitter? How would you know?

[–] schumithecat 10 years ago

some of the people were delusional (from the state-controlled propaganda) and believed in some kind of final victory despite all the setbacks like the older woman they meet, but most did know the war was lost about when the massive reversals happened in eastern front by 1943...they just couldn't do much about it at that point, since you would be jailed or sent to a camp for making defeatist statements or questioning the leadership let alone any kind of more active defiance/rebellion.

[–] Lilthings 10 years ago

some of the people were delusional (from the state-controlled propaganda)

The movie "The Goebbels Experiment" is read directly from Goebbels journal. He was a master propagandist and rather delusional himself.

[–] Cobram 9 years ago

Sources of information were tightly controlled, very few people knew the truth. There is one part of the film (maybe the scene with the wall pictures) that's easily missed, someone off camera is heard saying "I wonder if Hitler knew about this" or something along those lines.

It was actually a common belief this was done behind Hitlers back, and many Jews actually wrote or tried to get the word to Hitler about what was going on. Information was tightly held and the propaganda so well done that the fuhrer, much like "glorious leader" was too good and kind to be associated with these barbarities against his own people. They sincerely believed that if only he knew what was happening he would have put a stop to it.

Man without relatives is man without troubles. Charlie Chan

[–] spookyrat1 9 years ago

As others have noted Goebbels ran a very effective Ministry of Propaganda and after all ... Hitler made sure the trains ran on time.🐭

[–] thivai-1 8 years ago

Some were brainwashed to believe they would win no matter what, others were more realistic but not allowed to discuss this possibility. You could be killed if you doubted the final victory. This probably stuck with the people until they really knew it was safe to say the war was over and lost.