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Propaganda and EducationI442087042735500n Education for Death, American educator Gregor Ziemer described schooling in Nazi Germany. As part of his research, he studied curriculum materials used in German schools. He noted the following: A teacher is not spoken of as a teacher (Lehrer) but an Erzieher. The word suggests an iron disciplinarian who does not instructs but commands, and whose orders are backed up with force if necessary. Matters of the spirit are frankly and energetically belittled. Physical education, education for action, is alone worthy of the Nazi teacher’s education. All else can be dismissed as non-essential. Nazi education transcends old-fashioned pedagogy. Education in Hitler schools was not the result of a gradual evolution, but of revolution. It stemmed from political conflict and political victory. The Nazi schools were no place for weaklings. All children had to finish primary school before they reached the age of 10. After that all schools were proving-grounds for the (Nazi) Party. Students who showed any weakness of body or did not have the capacities for absolute obedience and submission were expelled. Students who were unable to produce required results or who displayed any weakness were kept out of the secondary schools. The (Nazi) regime drew a sharp distinction between girls who were viewed as inherently weak, and boys, who were natural exponents of strength. Boys and girls had nothing in common. Their aims, their purposes in life, were fundamentally different. Boys would become soldiers; girls would become breeders. Co-educational schools were forbidden. Dr. Bernhard Rust, the Nazi Minister of Education, stated that physical education would be of upmost importance. After that, German, biology, science, mathematics and history would be taught to the boys; eugenics (race “science”) and home economics would be taught to the girls. Other subjects were permissible if they were taught to promote Nazi ideals. Spiritual education (religion) was considered unimportant. Racial InstructionSoon after Hitler took power, a new course was added to the curriculum in every German school. The Nazi Minster of Education outlined the objectives of the course: Give pupils an insight into the relationship, causes and effects of all basic facts having to do with the science of heredity and race. Impress the pupils with the importance of the science of heredity and race for the future of the nation and the purposes of the government. Awaken in the pupils a sense of responsibility toward the nation, as represented by both its ancestry and its posterity; imbue the pupils with pride in the fact that the German people are the most important exponent of the Nordic race, and to influence them in favor of complete (Nordification) of the German people. 319151028829000This is to be accomplished early enough so that no child shall leave school without a conviction of the necessity of pure blood. As homework for the new “race science” classes, students were to: Collect from illustrated magazines, newspapers, etc., pictures of great scholars, statesmen, artists and others who distinguish themselves by their special accomplishments (for example, in economic life, politics, sports). Repeat this exercise with the pictures of great men of all nations and times…Observe the Jew: his way of walking, his bearing, gestures, and movements when talking. Racial instruction was not limited to a single course. It was included in all classes, even arithmetic. One book entitled Germany’s Fall and Rise-Illustrations Taken from Arithmetic Instruction in the Higher Grades of Elementary School, asks, “The Jews are aliens in Germany-In 1933 there were 66,060,000 inhabitants of the German Reich…of whom 499,682 were Jews. What is the percentage of aliens?” 95250027940000Schools for GirlsGerman girls attended school until the age of fourteen. Although they went to school Monday through Saturday, they had no textbooks and no homework. Their education was minimal except in matters relating to childbirth. After a visit to a girls’ school, Gregor Ziemer wrote: According to the teacher there was no such thing as a problem of morals in Hitler’s Germany. The Fuehrer wanted every woman, every girl to bear children because those children would grow to be soldiers. (Women) were willing to have children even if they were not married. The State (Germany) would raise and educate it. Hitler and his school authorities urged women to have babies. But they did not permit girls to be educated in the same schools with boys. Girls did not require the same sort of education that was essential for boys. The schools for boys taught military science, military geography, and military ideology. One of Minister Rust’s officials, Herr Geheimrat Becker, discussed the problem of co-education (with Ziemer). He knew something about American schools. It was his contention that the system of trying to put women on the same plan with men, even in matters of the mind, was a wasted of time. He admitted there were women who could think as well as men in their field. But the German schools had one aim-prepare women for motherhood. Youth OrganizationsThe Hitler Youth and the League of German Girls were the primary tools that the Nazis used to shape the beliefs, thinking and actions of German youth. Youth leaders used tightly controlled group activities and staged propaganda events such as mass rallies full of ritual and spectacle to create the illusion of one national community reaching across class and religious divisions that characterized Germany before 1933.-10668017843500Founded in 1926, the original purpose of the Hitler Youth was to train boys to enter the SA (Storm Troopers), a Nazi Party paramilitary formation. After 1933, however, youth?leaders sought to integrate boys into the Nazi national community and to prepare them for service as soldiers in the armed forces or, later, in the SS.In 1936, membership in Nazi youth groups became mandatory for all boys and girls between the ages of ten and seventeen. After-school meetings and weekend camping trips sponsored by the Hitler Youth and the League of German Girls trained children to become faithful to the Nazi Party and the future leaders of the National Socialist state. By September 1939, over 765,000 young people served in leadership roles in Nazi youth organizations which prepared them for such roles in the military and the German occupation bureaucracy.The Hitler Youth combined sports and outdoor activities with ideology. Similarly, the League of German Girls emphasized collective athletics, such as rhythmic gymnastics, which German health authorities deemed less strenuous to the female body and better geared to preparing them for motherhood. Their public displays of these values encouraged young men and women to abandon their individuality in favor of the goals of the Aryan collective. Military ServiceUpon reaching age eighteen, boys were required to enlist immediately in the armed forces or into the Reich Labor Service, for which their activities in the Hitler Youth had prepared them. Propaganda materials called for ever more fanatic devotion to Nazi ideology, even as the German military suffered from defeat after defeat.In the autumn of 1944, as Allied armies crossed the borders into Germany, the Nazi regime conscripted German youths under sixteen to defend the Reich, alongside seniors over the age of 60, in the units of the “Volkssturm” (People's Assault).152400158813500After the unconditional surrender of the German armed forces in May 1945, some German boys continued to fight in guerilla groups known as “Werewolves”. During the following year, Allied occupation authorities required young Germans to undergo a “de-Nazification” process and training in democracy designed to counter the effects of twelve years of Nazi propaganda.Nazi Propaganda and Education ActivityUse the documents posted around the room to answer the following questions: Propaganda and Education: Describe how a teacher was supposed to be viewed by his/her students: ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________What was the most essential part of Nazi education? _______________________________________________________________Why were co-educational schools forbidden? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Besides physical education, what other subjects were taught in boys in Nazi schools? What subjects were taught to girls? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________The document states that spiritual education is not important. Why do you think that was the case in Nazi Germany? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Racial InstructionDescribe the new course that was added to the curriculum in German schools after Hitler became the dictator of Germany. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________What were teachers trying to teach their students in this new course? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________What was the purpose of the homework assignment that students had in this new course? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________How effective do you think such assignments were? Explain why you feel this way. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Why do you think racial instruction was included in all classes in German schools? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Schools for GirlsDescribe a typical week of school for German girls. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Why did schools for girls encourage their students to have children, even if they weren’t married? Who would raise the child if the girl was not married? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Why were girls not allowed to go to the same school as boys? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Youth OrganizationsWhat was the name of the youth organization for boys? _______________________________________________________________What was the name of the youth organization for girls? _______________________________________________________________What was the original purpose of the Hitler Youth? What became the purpose of the Hitler Youth after 1933? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________In what year did membership in Nazi youth organizations become mandatory? How many young people were serving in leadership positions in these types of organizations by 1939? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Explain what types of activities boys and girls participated in within the Nazi youth organizations. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Military ServiceOnce boys turned 18, they had two options for employment…what were they? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________When the Allies moved closer and closer to the German capital of Berlin, what did the Nazis do to try to slow down their advances? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Who were the “werewolves?” What happened once these groups were captured by the Allied forces? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ................
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