Note 051
by Joachim C. Fest

51 Shirer, Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. Hannah Arendt, Origins of Totalitarianism, considers the combination to be not terror and propaganda but organization and propaganda, which she sees as 'the two sides of the same coin'. But that is a question of means and ends. Organization, which during the period of growth serves totalitarian movements as a means of attaining power, becomes, after the establishment of that power, an end to which terror and propaganda are subject. See also The Goebbels Diaries, entry for 20th September 1943:

'A sharp sword must always stand behind propaganda if it is to be really effective.'

In Picker, 'tischgesprache', entry for 26th July 1942, Hitler says in the same vein:

'If one thinks about the basic rules for conducting the affairs of state ... one can repeatedly recognize that the laws of the Gestapo alone will not suffice. The masses need an idol.'

From Chapter 7, Joseph Goebbels , Part 2 of The Face Of The Third Reich by J.C. Fest -- See further Notes

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