School children Teachers Teachers who were known to be critical of the Nazi Party were dismissed and the rest were sent away to be trained for a month in National Socialist principles. As a further precaution schools could only use textbooks that have been approved by the party.
By 1936 32 per cent of all teachers were members of the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP). This was twice as many as in most other professions. Curriculum Bernard Rust introduced a new curriculum, a Nazi curriculum. Considerable emphasis was made on Physical education/training and history. New courses included racial sciences and origins on the Nazi Party. Religious studies were reduced and ceased to be an exam subject and attendance at prayers were made optional.
Prayers written by Baldur von Schirach, the head of the Hitler Youth, that praised Adolf Hitler, were introduced and had to be said before eating school meals. One of the most important changes made by Rust was the establishment of elite schools called Nationalpolitische Erziehungsanstalten (Napolas). To enter you had to have racial origin, physical fitness and you had to be a member of Hitler youth. These schools were run by the SS and there main objective was to create the next generation of Nazis, preferably high ranking Nazis.
After leaving school at the age of eighteen students joined the German Labour Service where they worked for the government for six months. Some young people then went on to university. Bernhard Rust claimed that the new education system would benefit the children of the working-class that made up 45 per cent of Germany’s population. This promise was never fulfilled and after six years in office, only 3 per cent of university students came from working-class backgrounds.
This was the same percentage as it was before Adolf Hitler came to power. The Nazi government was more successful in reducing the percentage of women in German universities. In the year before the Nazis came to power there were 18, 315 women students in Germany’s universities. By 1939 this number had fallen to 5, 447. Bernhard Rust also purged the universities of Jews and those with left-wing views. Over a thousand people lost their jobs.
Rust justified his actions by claiming that: “ We must have a new Aryan generation at the universities, or else we will lose the future. “ Indoctrination of Nazi ideas through school books. Everything seemed to relate to Germanys past[the Peace Treaty of Versailles], war[maths problems]. The education was teaching them how to think like Hitler and Nazis as they were all to be future Nazis. They were brainwashing them through education. Children and young people at leisure.
In 1926, Kurt Gruber formed the first group of young members of the NSDAP. Rudolph Hess suggested the name of Hitler Youth[Hitlerjugend] and later on that year, leadership of the youngsters went on to a member of the SA, Franz von Pfeffer. Pfeffer’s main intention was to train young men to fight against members of left-wing youth groups. The Hitler Youth (HJ) were taken over by Ernst Rohm in 1930 and remained as a adjunct to the SA.
After Rohm was murdered during the Night of the Long Knives the group came under the control of Baldur von Schirach, the Reich youth leader. Schirach asked Adolf Hitler to allow him to create an independent youth movement. Hitler agreed and Schirach now made several important changes to the way it was organized. In 1936 membership of the HJ was made compulsory for all boys aged 15 and 18. At the same time all other youth organizations were banned.
In 1938 there were 8, 000 full-time leaders of the HJ. There were also 720, 000 part-time HJ leaders, often schoolteachers, who had been trained in National Socialist principles. For younger boys, aged 10-14, Baldur von Schirach set up the Jungvolk. These youngsters were taught semaphore, arms drill, and take part in two-day cross-country hikes. They also had to learn Nazi dogma and once they passed the necessary tests they were given a special dagger marked “ Blood and Honour”. The main objective of the organization was to provide Adolf Hitler with loyal supporters.
Once girls reached the age of they could join the Jungmadel. At 14 they entered the Bund Deutscher Madel. (German Girls’ League). This included a year of farm or domestic service. They were trained by female guardians and their overall leader was Gertrud Scholtz-Klink.
The Hitler Youth published a series of magazines including Youth and Homeland, The Young World, The German Girl and Girls Your World. Another magazine, Will and Power, was produced for HJ leaders and female guardians. At 14 they entered the Bund Deutscher Madel. (German Girls’ League).
This included a year of farm or domestic service. They were trained by female guardians and their overall leader was Gertrud Scholtz-Klink. Young girls from the age of ten onward were taken into organizations where they were taught only two things: to take care of their bodies so they could bear as many children as the state needed and to be loyal to National Socialism. Though the Nazis have been forced to recognize, through the lack of men, that not all women can get married.
Huge marriage loans are floated every year whereby the contracting parties can borrow substantial sums from the government to be repaid slowly or to be cancelled entirely upon the birth of enough children. Birth control information is frowned on and practically forbidden. Girls would go on to get married and have more children-hence the reason why they were taught how to remain healthy for a baby. Women and wives The view that women should remain at home was reinforced when a third of male workers lost their jobs and became unemployed during the depression in the 1930s. Nazis argued that men were being replaced by female workers who, on average, only received 66% of men’s wages. When Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933 he appointed Gertrud Scholtz-Klink as Reich Women’s Leader and head of the Nazi Women’s League.
A good orator, Scholtz-Klink’s main task was to promote male superiority and the importance of child-bearing. In one speech she pointed out that “ the mission of woman is to minister in the home and in her profession to the needs of life from the first to last moment of man’s existence. In July 1934 Scholtz-Klink was appointed as head of the Women’s Bureau in the German Labour Front. She now had responsibility for persuading women to work for the good of the Nazi government. In 1938 she argued that “ the German woman must work and work, physically and mentally she must renounce luxury and pleasure. ” Once girls reached the age of 10 they could join the Jungmadel, one of the sections of the Hitler Youth.
At 14 they entered the Bund Deutscher Madel. (German Girls’ League). This included a year of farm or domestic service. They were trained by female guardians and their overall leader was Gertrud Scholtz-Klink.
Remember you are a German. Remain pure in mind and spirit! Keep your body pure! If hereditarily fit, do not remain single! Marry only for love. Being a German, only choose a spouse or similar or related blood! When choosing your spouse, inquire into his or her forebears! Health is essential to outward beauty as well! Seek a companion in marriage, not a playmate. Hope for as many children as possible! Your duty is to produce at least four offspring in order to ensure the future of the national stock.
