Has the Democratic Party made the phrase "Strength Through Joy," which is associated with the Nazi Party, its slogan in 2024, as a video on Instagram said? No, that's not true: There is no evidence that the Democratic Party has used the phrase as its slogan. Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for the 2024 presidential election, has mentioned the words "strength" and "joy" in public statements but has never publicly used the phrase as a slogan.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on Instagram on August 16, 2024. The person in the video began by saying:
Good day my dear fellow Americans. I want to bring attention to something. I don't know if you know it, or some of you know it, or any of you know it. But it's something that I recently found out: as a matter of fact, about an hour ago.
How many of you knew that Nazi Germany, the slogan that they used in German, was called 'Strength Through Joy'? You hear what I'm saying? 'Strength Through Joy' was a Nazi slogan: from 1933 all the way through the whole World War II. Think about that, read about it. I'm giving you the Wiki post, it says some information about it. 'Strength Through Joy': the Democratic Party's slogan.
This is what the post looked like on Instagram at the time of writing:
(Source: Instagram screenshot taken on Wed Aug 28 15:14:55 2024 UTC)
'Strength Through Joy' and the Nazi Party in Germany
Although the English phrase "Strength Through Joy" is associated with the World War II-era Nazi Party, the phrase's German equivalent ("Kraft durch Freude") was not the party's slogan. Rather, it was the name of a program established under the Nazi Party. "Strength Through Joy" encouraged German citizens to engage in cultural and physical activities that would ultimately strengthen Nazism (archived here).
Rather than "Kraft durch Freude," the German phrase "Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Fuhrer!" (English: "One People, One Country, One Leader!") is considered one of the most recognizable Nazi Party slogans, which the party attached to popular propaganda (archived here).
'Strength Through Joy' is not a phrase used by the Democratic Party
The Democratic Party has not used "Strength Through Joy" as a rallying call at its events. The Democratic Party's 2024 platform does not include the phrase (archived here).
Harris has emphasized "joy" while on the presidential campaign trail. For example, she called supporters "joyful warriors" during a campaign event in Michigan (archived here), and the press has noted her reliance on joyful themes in her campaign. However, she has not used the phrase "Strength Through Joy" as a campaign slogan.
Lead Stories performed searches of "Strength Through Joy" on the Democratic Party's website and Harris' campaign website (both through Google), visible here and here. The searches found no results to corroborate the claim. We also searched the Democratic Party's X account and Harris' official X accounts as vice president and as a candidate. We found no statements supporting the claim.
Lead Stories contacted the Democratic National Committee and Harris' campaign for comment on the claim. We will update this story with any relevant responses.
More fact checks
Other fact check agencies have reviewed a similar version of this claim, including PolitiFact, Reuters and Snopes.
Lead Stories has debunked other claims about the 2024 presidential election, which can be found here.
