136 | Mass Media and Historical Change
soldiers were occasionally applauded and cheered; yet moments of resistance
are also recorded, such as giggles at the sight of Nazi minister Hermann
Göring or, in another instance, the silence in the audience that followed
upon on-screen applause for Hitler. After the outbreak of the war, some
reports noted ‘loud laughter’ at staged scenes, and signs of boredom at news-
reel repeats (Stahr 2001: 168–82).
On the whole, however, media propaganda met with acceptance, as shown
by the viewing figures of a number of high-grossing propaganda films as well
as the high circulation of NSDAP newspapers. Yet one cannot necessarily
deduce a direct influence from the numbers of viewers and readers. After all,
the NS dictatorship neither succeeded in arousing widespread enthusiasm for
the outbreak of the war in 1939, nor was it able to prevent the change in
sentiment that occurred in 1943. The strongest impact of NS propaganda was
doubtless generated in the mid-1930s when political, social and economic suc-
cesses were implied, and around 1940 in justifying the wars of aggression. Its
long-term effects became evident in the decades after 1945, in which images
and clichés of NS propaganda continued to circulate, such as the notion that
National Socialism was responsible for eliminating laziness, corruption and
criminality, and that it systematically tackled problems. The fact that historical
films and documentaries once more showed this film and photo material after
1945 enabled these ideas to be passed on, leading some to speak of the ‘belated
triumph of Joseph Goebbels’ (see Paul 2004: 247).