Propaganda
During the war period, if we believed what was said about the Germans, they attacked French priests, cut off the hands of their prisoners, raped women and killed children. They were pure fabrications, and that is called propaganda.
The propaganda against the Germans, which appeared a lot on postcards, served to arouse hatred among the French, so that they would want to go to fight and become soldiers . Moreover, they still had the memory of Alsace and Lorraine…
As far as the propaganda of French soldiers was concerned, they were described as "delighted to go to war" and to kill enemies by risking their lives for the country. Many heroic stories were told to children, at least to young teenagers, so that they too would seek to enlist in the army, determined to defend their country. The school actively participated in this propaganda.
Censorship
Although we suspected it before, it was especially after the war that we knew what was really going on at the front. The information the soldiers sent was dampened by censorship. Each letter was read and, depending on its content, it was decided whether or not to send it, while the mail was a moral and psychological support for the soldiers and their families. The example of censorship is given in the film Merry Christmas by Christian Carion, who recounts Christmas 1914, when we see that the mail of the soldiers is read, to check that they do not tell about the fraternization which took place during this holiday. It was an event that had to be concealed; the Germans were to remain the enemies to fight.
The newspapers were constantly censored, deprived of telling the truth on the front lines. In the end, they were just telling the same thing as the propaganda, and the rear didn't know anything. When the soldiers returned thanks to a hard-won permission, they were surprised to find that their family knew nothing about the hell of the trenches.