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Media File
Date: German, 1940 - 1945
Biography: The German periodical Signal was published by the Oberkommande der Wehrmacht, the armed forces of Germany, during World War II. First published in April 1940, it was intended as a propaganda tool specifically for readers in the allied, occupied, and neutral countries. It reached a maximum circulation of 2.5 million copies and was translated into 25 different languages. However, the publication was not accessible to everyone. The magazine was not translated for audiences in Czechoslovakia, Poland, Ukraine, or the Baltic countries, for example. According to the publishers, these groups should make the effort to learn the German language. People of these nationalities were considered Untermensch, “inferior people” whose cultures were unimportant. The content and lay-out of Signal were based on popular periodicals such as Life and Picture Post, where political articles alternated with everyday stories, written in a lyrical style and illustrated with full-page color photographs.