Page 105 - Wish Stream Year of 2016

Arthur Ponsonby in his 1928 book “Falsehood in Wartime: Propaganda Lies of the First World War” describes. One of the more controversial stories was that of the Corpse Factory. The rst English language accounts appeared in the Daily Mail and The Times (both owned by Lord North- cliffe) on 17 April 1917, reporting on a veri able location for the Kadaververwertungsanstalt; ren- dering the corpses of German soldiers for soap. The story had appeared in the American press as early as 1915, with the French paper Le Gaulios reporting it in February 1916. In reality, the fac- tory rendered horses, the German word Kadaver not being relevant to human corpses. Although Masterman produced a pamphlet on the Corpse factory, it wasn’t used. Recent research has argued that the rumour was started by local Bel- gians and the British knowingly allowed the mis- translation to stand for their own
over the attack on her. From a propaganda view, she was an unarmed American ship who was sunk by a German U boat, killing 1198 people and 128 American citizens. This was an opportu- nity that Wellington House was waiting to exploit. The public outrage in the US was apparent, with the President making it clear, in a series of notes to the German government, that any further sinkings would be considered “unfriendly”. How- ever, at this point public opinion wasn’t enough for the US to join the war on Britain’s side despite Britain believing that the sinking must force the US President’s hand. Schwieger, the U boat Captain, was described in the Allied press as a war criminal to little avail, but there was a more effective propaganda effort to come. Karl Goetz created a series of commemorative medals throughout the war, one of which was a memo-
bene t. A side note to this story is that when stories about German concentration camps in the Sec- ond World War came to light, they were dismissed as being similar to the stories surrounding the Corpse Factory.
In reality, the factory rendered horses, the German word Kadaver not being relevant to human corpses.
rial medal for the sinking of the RMS Lusitania. Only 500 were struck, but Goetz had made an error based on incorrect press coverage and dated the medal as the 5 May rather than 7 May. The British Foreign Of ce man- aged to obtain a copy of the medal and decided to reproduce it for propa- ganda purposes. It was claimed that the medal was awarded to the U-boat crew and that the incorrect date meant that the attack had been pre- meditated. This lead to the conspiracy
After the war it was found that none
of the atrocities reported were true,
but this did not stop the propagan-
dists from using such stories for
their bene t. They were also good at refocusing actual occurrences in order to put the Germans in a bad light and shift public opinion against them. Two of the most effective and most writ- ten about are the sinking of the Lusitania and the execution of Nurse Edith Cavell. Cavell was a nurse in Brussels who used her position to help allied soldiers escape. She was captured and tried for treason and on 12 October 1915 she was executed by ring squad. Reports stated that she had refused to wear a blindfold, but had fainted. A German of cer shot her with his pistol as she lay on the ground. Such accounts were ctitious, but were published widely, fuel- ling the public outcry of the inhumanness of the Germans. In fact Cavell was tried fairly and pleaded guilty to the charge of treason. The Ger- mans were justi ed in her execution and the Ger- man propaganda machine refused to exploit the French Execution of two German nurses in the same circumstances; but this did not stop Wel- lington house using the story widely.
Much has been written about the sinking of the RMS Lusitania, and there is a lot of controversy
theory being advanced in a letter by Emile Henry Lacombe to the New York Times, on 22 October 1917; by this point the US had joined the War and the focus moved to the Germans both in Berlin and the trenches.
The British propaganda effort aimed at the US during the Great War was effective and well considered. It was planned as part of the wider diplomatic and political effort. Control of the ow of information, which would be unattainable in modern con ict, was vital in controlling the mes- sage that the British wanted to be heard in the US. It was part of a wider effort across the Allies, who were aware of the importance of US mate- rial, men and nancial support in the war effort. The aim was to turn US public and political opin- ion towards supporting the Allies, using what- ever propaganda tools were necessary. It can be argued that Wellington House was success- ful in its goals; however, the team at Wellington House was short-lived. By the end of 1918, with the Armistice signed, the bureau for propaganda was wound down with control of propaganda returned to the Foreign Of ce.
ACADEMICS 103