Signal (Berlin, 1940-1945), Em Guarda (Washington, 1941-1945), Victory (Washington, 1943-1945): a paper's war

Abstract

This project aims to analyze the relations between the press and political propaganda from three illustrated magazines, published for sale in foreign countries during World War II. On the German side, Signal (Berlin, 1940-1945) was created by the Wehrmacht Propaganda Department in conjunction with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and was printed in 25 different languages. The magazine quickly became an editorial success, with almost 2.5 million copies per issue, sold throughout occupied Europe and in neutral countries. The North American magazine Em Guarda (Washington, 1941-1945) was created by the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs, headed by3Nelson Rockfeller, and had editions in Portuguese, Spanish and French, even selling, by edition in 1943, close to 550,000 copies on the American continent alone. Victory (Washington, 1943-1945) was created by the Office of War Information (OWI) as a counterpoint to Signal and was also edited in several languages. It is intended to take these publications as sources and objects of research, without losing sight of the fact that they were part of a propaganda system, through texts and images, in order to convince international readers to support their struggle and worldview. What did Signal, Em Guarda and Victory offer? How did the USA and Germany present themselves and how did they attack or extol allies and enemies? Did they address issues other than the war itself? What clashes did these publications have in neutral and occupied territories? Through magazines, it is possible to verify the functioning of the various propaganda apparatus mobilized by the three publications during the war. (AU)