Military 1940 Radio Speech

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What is a mole hill to a man but a bump in the grass; to an ant a snowless Mount Everest? The mole hill itself has done no growing, yet it has been interpreted in two alternate and dissimilar ways. Like the mole hill analogy, the Second World War was perceived contrastively by its participants. However, it is apparent in French Premier Eduoardo Daladier’s January 1940 radio address to the French people, and the Reich Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels’s December 1939 New Years Address that the opposing sides use the strategy of unification to lure the audience and persuade them of their respective views of the enemy’s actions. This is accomplished through devices such as familiar language, repetition, religious allusions, and appeals to…show more content…
For example when Daladier says, “He orders their massacre and their migration. He compels them to make room for their conquerors” (Daladier 1), he uses a simple sentence structure to unify a diverse audience. French citizens of all intellectual standards were able to follow Daladier, whether that was middle class shopkeeper, working class father, or wealthy business owner; Daladier was able to spread his ideas to a vaster group of people, unifying them through comprehension, and ultimately persuading them of his beliefs. Goebbels, like Daladier, is simple and straight forward in the way he presents his information to his audience. Goebbels states, “The result was that German troops marched into Poland on 1 September. The Fuhrer spoke to the Reichstag and announced that force would be met with force. The same day, Danzig proclaimed its union with the Reich” (Goebbels 3), and like the rest of his New Years Address is factually centered. His straight-forwardness in his information is mirrored by his simply structured sentences. Like Daladier, Goebbels can express his views to a broader audience without discriminating against those of an insufficient education. To the same effect as Daladier’s radio address, Goebbels’s speech incorporates everyday speak in order to better unite their

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