GPS June 2020

Image 4. Major Friedrich Albert Kost (1897 –
1947) was a farmer from Westphalia. He was
Obersturmbannführer of the SS and worked
as a so-called “Stoßtruppenredner” (propaganda
lecturer) for the German propaganda
ministry. Since 1941 he commanded the
Propaganda Department W (PAW).
Enough food for the
several hundred thousand
German soldiers operating in
the Soviet Union could only
be provided by confiscating
cattle and grain etc. from the
local farmers. To guarantee the
future provisions for the army,
it was essential that the farmers
would continue farming and
cattle breeding even after being
looted and mistreated by the
Germans. Therefore, a major
task for PAW was to convince
the local population that all the
German cruelties, the deportations
and assassinations of
thousands of people, the plunderings
and destructions were
in the end for the benefit of the
Russians and were directed only
against the “criminal Bolshevik
partisans” and the Jews, which
allegedly were the true enemies
of the Russians, while the Germans were the true liberators of Russia)
(Image 5).
Image 5. Three German propaganda posters of the land reform campaign. They
are inscribed “The new agricultural order for the industrious farmer – the basis for
wealth” (left, 1942), “Germany has relieved you of Bolshevism, now collaborate on
the building of your homeland!” (middle, 1942), and “Achieving an own piece of land
by working hard. The new land reform will be increasingly continued. The capable
farmer has priority” (right, 1943).
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German Postal Specialist