Propaganda in Occupied France

[Text: Serge was nine years old when Paris fell under Nazi occupation. He describes antisemitism in France and the power of Germany’s propaganda efforts in occupied territories.] 

Serge Vanry: I remember people saying, even though as you said I was only nine years old, you reminded me of that, I remember people saying, you know, “You are really, really very nice people,” us, our family. “You’re different from the others.” They knew us. And because they knew us as people, we were okay. But not the others. The others were what German propaganda was showing them to be, these people believed that, and propaganda was everywhere. There were posters, there were movies, it was on the radio, it was in the papers, everywhere. The propaganda intensified about Jews taking over businesses, Jews depriving people of their rightful living. They were lenders of money, they took over, they grabbed everything. And it was amazing how powerful and how you found that everywhere you went. And I even remember being taken out, and I don’t remember by whom, to see a movie, and then there was some propaganda for about 15–20 minutes before the film was shown. And I can remember seeing that and saying to myself, “Are my people really like that?” You know, am I like that? But it certainly was everywhere.