Question

what was the taught tochildren in Nazi Germany

Answer 1

Attitudes toward children in Nazi Germany were derived mainly from Adolf Hitler. Even during his early years as NSDAP leader, when leading the nation was a distant dream, Hitler placed great emphasis on the importance of children. Unlike other political leaders, Hitler did not disregard young people or underestimate their political value. His vision of an enduring Third Reich was based not just on the loyalty and obedience of adults, but also of their offspring. Hitler wanted the National Socialist movement to appeal to all levels of society, including the young. He also wanted to provide children in Nazi Germany with a sense of purpose, achievement and community, something that was conspicuously absent during his own listless childhood. Finally and perhaps most importantly, Hitler’s youth policies aimed at filling the minds of young Germans with ideas about racial purity, Aryan supremacy, German expansion and future military conquests. In 1933 Hitler wrote of Nazi policy:

“My program for educating youth is hard … weakness must be hammered away. In my castles of the Teutonic Order, a new youth will grow up, before which the world will tremble. I want a brutal, domineering, fearless and cruel youth. Youth must be all that. It must bear pain. There must be nothing weak and gentle about it. The free, splendid beast of prey must once again flash from its eyes…That is how I will eradicate thousands of years of human domestication…That is how I will create the New Order.”


Education became a critical tool for the Nazis. The NSDAP government used the state education system to disseminate Nazi ideology, enhance loyalty to Hitler and prepare millions of German boys for military service. During the mid-1930s the Nazis established a party-controlled education system. It began by forming its own teachers’ union, the Nationalsozialistischer Lehrerbund (Nazi Teachers’ League). Teachers of Jewish origin, liberal or socialist political beliefs were bullied and frog-marched out of the profession. Non-Nazi teachers were pressured to join theNationalsozialistischer Lehrerbund or face losing their jobs. As the Nazis infiltrated schools they shaped the curriculum to convey their own values and political beliefs. At the forefront of the Nazi syllabus was racial education, ‘enlightening’ children about Aryan supremacy and the despicable traits of untermensch (sub-human people and races). Perhaps the most important subject in this process was history. Pro-Nazi histories were filled with tales of Germanic heroes and warriors, political leaders and military conquests, reinforcing the myth of Aryan supremacy. In geography German children learned about the unfair Treaty of Versailles, the inequitable re-drawing of European borders and the need for lebensraum (‘living space’) for the German people. Physical education and sport were also priorities in Nazi schools. Other academic subjects, such as mathematics and the sciences, were neglected in contrast.