After Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany
in 1933, the Nazis moved quickly to control
education and the schools. They recognized that a new generation of supporters
would be critical to their success. Responsibility for carrying out the
educational goals of the Nazi Party
fell to the National Socialist Teachers League
(the NSLB), the Ministryof Education,
and the Hitler Youth. The NSLB was responsible for indoctrinating
educators in the fundamentals of Nazi ideology.
Teachers were required to attend training camps,
and good teachers could be rewarded for their loyalty
and dedication. Those who refused
risked public humiliation or dismissal.
Jewish teachers in Germany had no such choice
as they were forced from their jobs in public schools
regardless of their abilities and teaching accomplishments.
This was followed several years later by the expulsion of
Jewish students from German public schools.
The Ministry of Education
developed new courses based on what the Third Reich believed students
should learn, especially Race Science.
Simply put, Race Science was the belief that individuals were organized into
races, some inherently superior to others,
and that Germans were members of a superior race
destined to rule all of Europe. The Nazis viewed
Jews as an inferior race that fed off of the superior races like parasites
and needed to be eliminated as parasites.
In spite of the mandate from the Ministry of Education,
teachers could use their own initiative to instruct their students
in this new science. Methods ranged from subjecting students to measurements of
their heads while their classmates watched
to encouraging their students to harass and bully Jews,
whether in their schools or indeed, in their communities.
Text books were revised to reflect Nazi ideology,
from studies on Racial Science to propaganda
targeted at young children.
The Nazis also relied on the Hitler Youth to indoctrinate a new generation.
"I begin with the young,"said Adolf Hitler.
"With them I can make a new world."
Although the Hitler Youth resembled youth clubs that promoted camaraderie
and outdoor activities, the reality was more sinister.
Marching, war games, and pro-Nazi speech
and song made up a larger part of Hitler Youth activities
than did camping or hiking. The primary purpose of
the Hitler Youth was to win over hearts and minds,
mold young people into passionate believers in the Nazi cause.
Action over study, unquestioning obedience
over independent thought,and loyalty to AdolfHitler
above all else. With this shift in Germany's
educational aims, it could be suggested that educators, students and parents
had no choice but to conform to the new order,
but teachers in the Third Reich DID make choices,
whether because or in spite of the pressures they were now facing.
At war's end in 1945,
with the Third Reich overthrown and Germany
under allied occupation, the country's educational system was in shambles.
Denazifying Germany's schools took years to accomplish,
and as with other citizens of postwar Germany,
those who had been teachers and students
during the twelve years of Nazi rule struggled with the burden of
each choice they had made, even when that choice
was to do nothing at all.