Nazi board games

Nazi board games were an important element of Adolf Hitler’s extensive propaganda campaign within Nazi Germany. Hitler’s Propaganda Minister, Joseph Goebbels, understood that “To be perceived, propaganda must evoke the interest of an audience and must be transmitted through an attention-getting communications medium.”^[1] The Nazi Party used board games as such a medium to infiltrate the subtleties of everyday life and indoctrinate children with the National Socialist ideology.

Examples

Juden Raus! (1936)

Juden Raus (“Jews out") was a Parchesi-style game published in Germany by Günther & Co. in 1936, just one year after the Nuremberg Laws were put into effect. The game was advertised as "entertaining, instructive and solidly constructed."^[2] The game's equipment includes a pair of dice, a game board, and several game piece figurines with large pointed hats meant to represent Jews.^[3]

Players take turns rolling the dice and moving their "Jews" across the map toward "collection points" outside the city walls for deportation to Mandate Palestine.^[4] Written on the game board, it says “If you manage to see off 6 Jews, you’ve won a clear victory!”^[3]

Juden Raus was not an official Nazi propaganda effort but an unsuccessful commercial product. The game was criticized by an SS journal that felt it trivialized anti-Semitic policies.^[5]

Bomber über England (1940)

Bomber über England (“Bombers over England") was a bagatelle (or pinball) style game that featured a map of England and part of Northern Europe. The map contained holes in the location of key cities such as London, Liverpool, and Newcastle, as well as various points representing targets in the North Sea.^[6]

Players shot spring-driven balls representing "bombs" at these targets and were awarded various points for hitting the enemy targets. “Players were awarded a maximum 100 points for landing on London, while Liverpool was worth 40.”^[7] If players bombed locations under the control of Nazi Germany such as Brussels and Amsterdam, players would be deducted points.

Jagd auf Kohlenklau (1944)

Jagd auf Kohlenklau ("Hunt the Coal Thief") was a roll-and-move board game produced by Lepthian-Schiffers in Nazi Germany during the later years of World War II.^[8] The game was part a Nazi propaganda campaign that was launched on June 23, 1942, under the slogan "Kampf dem Kohlenklau" or "fight the coal thief." ^[9] This campaign sought to promote energy conservation as a means to save the country's dwindling resources for the war effort. The visual representation of the Kohlenklau, or "coal thief," became an iconic image of Nazi Germany and was often featured in newspapers, magazines, posters, and films.^[10][11] At the height of its popularity, there were over four million games of Jagd auf Kohlenklau in circulation.^[12]

The game board itself was made from flimsy cardboard and required players to travel 50 spaces in order to be declared the winner. The youngest player starts by rolling a dice and moving their game piece that many spaces. If the player lands on one of the 12 red spaces, they are penalized for committing an action that wastes energy by losing a turn or being set back a number of spaces. If the player lands on one of the 15 black spaces, they are rewarded for actions that conserve energy. If the player lands on a white "neutral" space, they would not receive any extra reward or punishment for their turn. Players take turns until one finally reaches the end and is declared the winner.^[12]

References

1. ^ Doob, Leonard W. (Autumn, 1950). "Goebbels' Principles of Propaganda". The Public Opinion Quarterly (American Association for Public Opinion Research) 14 (3): 426. JSTOR 2745999. 
2. ^ "Games". Time. 1939-01-30. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,760673,00.html?promoid=googlep. Retrieved 2009-05-07. 
3. ^ ^{a b} Bruchfeld, Stephane; Paul A. Levine (1998). "Tell ye your children . . . A book about the Holocaust in Europe 1933-1945" (PDF). Regeringskansleit. http://www.levandehistoria.se/files/engelska.pdf. Retrieved 2009-05-14. 
4. ^ Allers, Jeff (2008-12-09). "Postcards From Berlin #34: Gaming and the Third Reich". Boardgame News. http://www.boardgamenews.com/index.php/boardgamenews/comments/postcards_from_berlin_34_gaming_and_the_third_reich/. Retrieved 2009-05-07. 
5. ^ Morris-Friedman, Andrew; Ulrich Schädler (2003). ""Juden Raus!" (Jews Out!) – History’s most infamous board game" (PDF). http://www.boardgamestudies.info/pdf/aux/BGS6FriedmanSchaedler.pdf. Retrieved 2011-06-26. 
6. ^ "Nazi board games under the hammer". BBC News. 2007-08-20. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6955249.stm. Retrieved 2009-05-07. 
7. ^ Dolan, Andy (2007-08-20). "German children played with 'Bombers over England' boardgames during WWII". The Daily Mail. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-476361/German-children-played-Bombers-England-boardgames-WWII.html. Retrieved 2009-05-07. 
8. ^ "Jagd auf Kohlenklau (Hunt the Coal Thief)". The British Museum. http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/search_the_collection_database/search_object_details.aspx?objectid=1491411&partid=1&output=Terms%2f!!%2fOR%2f!!%2f24358%2f!%2f%2f!%2fpropaganda%2f!%2f%2f!!%2f%2f!!!%2f&orig=%2fresearch%2fsearch_the_collection_database%2fadvanced_search.aspx&currentPage=4&numpages=10. Retrieved 2009-05-14. 
9. ^ "Kohlenklau". Wikipedia. http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kohlenklau. Retrieved 2009-05-07.  (GERMAN)
10. ^ Klemperer, Victor; Martin Brady (2006). The language of the Third Reich: LTI, Lingua Tertii Imperii : a philologist's notebook. London: Continuum International Publishing Group. pp. 81. ISBN 0826491308. http://books.google.com/?id=kwsleqxx_SMC. 
11. ^ "Der Kohlenklau". Bund der Energieverbraucher. http://www.energienetz.de/de/Umwelt-Politik/Energiespar-Museum/Der-Kohlenklau__1446/. Retrieved 2009-05-07.  (GERMAN)
12. ^ ^{a b} "Jagd auf Kohlenklau". Bund der Energieverbraucher. http://www.energieverbraucher.de/de/Umwelt-Politik/Energiespar-Museum/Energiespar-Spiele/Jagd-auf-Kohlenklau__1412/. Retrieved 2009-05-07.  (GERMAN)