“Propaganda is a truly terrible weapon in the hands of an expert.” — Adolf Hitler, “Mein Kampf,” 1924

I attended a press preview this week for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museums Exhibition “State of Deception: The Power of Nazi Propaganda,” which opened to the public Tuesday at the National Archives at Kansas City. The exhibition is presented by the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education, one of the jewels of our Jewish community. 

MCHE was founded in 1993 by Holocaust survivors and Jean Zeldin has been the agency’s only executive director.  She said MCHE waited three years to get this exhibit and it was “well worth the wait.”

That’s an understatement. The exhibition, which is not a typical Holocaust exhibition as it doesn’t focus on the graphic horrors of the Holocaust, is very enlightening. Before we started the tour, Zeldin said this exhibit explains the path to the Holocaust. It is indeed a very interesting path.

“We hope people will think more critically about what they see and hear after they see this exhibition,” Zeldin said.

The prepared press release for the exhibition states that “the Nazi Party developed a sophisticated propaganda machine that deftly spread lies about its political opponents, Jews and the need to justify war. But Nazi propaganda was much more complex than that. For the Nazis to achieve power and pursue their racial policies and expansionist war efforts, a much more nuanced picture had to be painted — one that would appeal to broad swaths of the population, not just a fanatical extreme.”

Local curator Dee Harris said the exhibit takes about an hour to go through. I plan to see it again so I have more time to really read the various panels, watch the movies and listen to the audio recordings.

Kansas City is only the third city to host the traveling exhibit and just the second to feature rarely seen artifacts. I think that’s quite an accomplishment for a community of this size and it’s a testament to how hard Zeldin and the staff at MCHE have worked to produce quality programming, events and survivor testimonies over the years.

The artifacts in the exhibition include three copies of “Mein Kampf.” Of course they are in cases so they can’t be touched. 

I’m fairly sure I was the only Jewish journalist taking the tour. I saw, toward the end of the exhibition, a yellow star encased in a box.  I was struck by that star and stood and just looked at it while the others moved on. It’s much smaller than and not nearly as conspicuous as the many brightly colored propaganda posters, yet seeing it made just as much of an impact on me as the bigger, bolder pieces showcased in the exhibit.

The exhibition shows very clearly that Adolf Hitler was an expert at propaganda. Getting his, and the Nazi, message across was so important that he had a whole group of propaganda experts handling various aspects of the campaign.

The exhibition’s Washington curator, Steven Luckert, was in town to speak to an over-capacity crowd at Monday night’s pre-opening patron party. We were lucky that he stepped in and shared his expertise on the subject on the press tour. I’m sure the guests that were fortunate enough to hear him speak and meet him were equally as impressed.

“Adolf Hitler was an avid student of propaganda and borrowed techniques from the Allies in World War I, his Socialist and Communist rivals, the Italian Fascist Party, as well as modern advertising,” said Luckert. “Drawing upon these models, he successfully marketed the Nazi Party, its ideology and himself to the German people.” 

The exhibition reveals how shortly after World War I, the Nazi Party began to transform itself from an obscure, extremist group into the largest political party in democratic Germany. Early on Hitler recognized how propaganda, combined with the use of terror, could help his radical party gain mass support and votes. He personally adapted the ancient symbol of the swastika and the emotive colors of red, black and white to create the movement’s flag. In doing so, Hitler established a potent visual identity that has branded the Nazi Party ever since.

Luckert even told us that Hitler used propaganda to sell war to the German people, who were very reluctant to enter another war after World War I. Nazi propaganda rationalized Germany’s territorial expansion as self-defense. Jews were depicted as agents of disease and corruption. The Nazis’ actions against them, in German and occupied countries, were promoted as necessary measures to protect the population at large.

One part I found particularly interesting as a journalist was the fact that freedom of the press was virtually non-existent during the Nazi regime.

“Freedom of the press, expression in general, freedom of conscience, personal dignity, intellectual freedom, etc., all the liberal fundamental rights have been eliminated, without even a single expression of outrage,” states Robert Musil, Austrian writer, Berlin, March 1933, on one of the exhibition panels.

Local Curator Harris added, “They controlled the message in a very finite way.”

One part of the exhibit focuses on radio broadcasts during this time period. Luckert said Hitler made it possible for Germans to purchase relatively inexpensive radios, making the people feel indebted to that government for making such entertainment possible. Hitler did that as another way of getting his propaganda out to the people.

“Seventy percent of what was on the radio was light entertainment, making people more receptive to the message after hearing the music,” said Luckert, noting that practice is still used today.

As Zeldin said in the beginning of the tour the purpose of the exhibition is to get people to really think about what they hear and read. We know propaganda can still make a difference today, based on what we’ve learned about the man accused of killing three people in the Kansas City Jewish community on April 13.

“Exhibits like this are a great teaching tool to educate young audiences about the dangers of hate messages,” Luckert said.

As an employee of the U.S Holocaust Memorial Museum, he too, knows what it’s like to lose a friend and colleague after a white supremacist shot and killed a security guard inside the museum in 2009. 

“The shooting showed us ways hate can influence our thinking and cause one to commit heinous crimes against innocent people,” said Luckert. “Exhibitions like this help educate how dangerous this kind of hate can be.”

It’s not a light and happy exhibit, but it’s certainly a good one. It’s also absolutely free, as is the speaker’s series MCHE is sponsoring along with the exhibition. There’s even a parking lot right next to the National Archives; it’s free also. If that’s full, Union Station’s parking lot, where there is a parking fee, is just a short walk away.

At the end of the exhibit there’s a big sign that says “Imagine www.thirdreich.com.” That’s a very frightening thought. But it’s one we should all have. All of this is yet another way we need to educate ourselves, so that we can “never forget.”

Exhibition quick facts

“State of Deception: The Power of Nazi Propaganda,” the exhibition produced by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museums Exhibition opened this week and continues through Oct. 25. The free exhibition, produced by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, is at the National Archives at Kansas City, located at 400 W. Pershing Road in Kansas City, Mo., just west of Union Station. 

“State of Deception” is open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday for exhibits viewing and research. It is recommended for those middle-school age and older. Free parking is available for National Archives visitors. Group tours may be arranged by calling 816-268-8010 or emailing .

Previous Chronicle stories about “State of Deception,” published in the June 5 edition, may be found at www.kcjc.com.