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Ministry of Information

The Ministry of Information (MoI), headed by the Minister of Information, was a British government department created briefly at the end of World War I and again during World War II. Located in Senate House at the University of London during World War II, it was the central government department responsible for publicity and propaganda.

During World War II, the Ministry was responsible for information policy and the output of propaganda material in Allied and neutral countries, with overseas publicity organised geographically. American and Empire Divisions continued throughout the war, other areas being covered by a succession of different divisions. The MOI was not, in general, responsible for propaganda in enemy and enemy-occupied countries, but it did liaise directly with the Foreign Office.

Sidney Bernstein was attached to the Ministry's Film Division and persuaded director Alfred Hitchcock to contribute to several American and British projects, including:

In June 1945, Bernstein enlisted Hitchcock's help assembling a documentary about the Nazi concentration camps. Although it was initially shelved, the documentary was eventually released as "Memory of the Camps" in 1985.

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