![]() According to its opening lines, the aim was “to reconstruct, if possible, what was in Hitler’s mind when he composed and delivered the speech. This analysis was one such exercise, covering a radio speech Hitler had given on April 26, 1942. By 1942, this highly successful technique was feeding directly into the work of Allied counter-propagandists. In an interview with his grandson, recorded in the 1980s and also included in the materials Anthony has helped the university acquire, he explained that doing so could reveal “latent content” – hidden, and almost subconscious insights into the enemy’s state of mind. Each week, its staff produced an analysis of all overseas broadcasts in Germany and occupied Europe.Ībrams, already a world-renowned expert in the analysis of public opinion, believed that transcripts of the broadcasts could be close-read for propaganda and intelligence purposes. Overseas Propaganda Analysis began in 1939 and was later linked to the Psychological Warfare Division. Given that we now know that the Final Solution was commencing, this makes for poignant reading.” MacCurdy recognised that, faced with external failure, the Nazi leader was focusing on a perceived ‘enemy within’ instead – namely the Jews. “This document shows that British Intelligence sensed this happening. “In response Hitler began to turn his attentions to the German home front.” “At the time that it was written, the tide was starting to turn against Germany,” Anthony said. Anthony has spoken to experts on both Nazi Germany and the history of psychology, but nobody appears to have known about this report until now. MacCurdy, a Cambridge academic working alongside him. Marked “Secret”, the analysis was commissioned by Abrams at a time when his analytical talents were needed for the war effort. ![]() ![]() He was the man responsible for the ABC1 classification system, famously predicted the rise of the teenager in 1959 and was a key figure in Harold Wilson’s modernisation of the Labour Party. Abrams, who died in 1994, was a pioneer of market research and opinion polling. The paper came to light after Dr Scott Anthony, who is working on the history of public relations at the University of Cambridge, began tracking down Abrams’ peers and relatives. Written just as the war was starting to turn against Hitler, it shows that British analysts had noticed signs of developing paranoia in his speechmaking and – chillingly – a growing preoccupation with what he called “the Jewish poison”. The document was found among a collection of papers belonging to the family of Mark Abrams, a social scientist who worked with the BBC’s Overseas Propaganda Analysis Unit and the Psychological Warfare Branch, during World War II. A secret analysis of Adolf Hitler’s mental state which was drawn up by British Intelligence in April 1942 has been uncovered by a researcher, having apparently lain unread since the war.
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