Life For Young People Flashcards
What were Hitler’s main ways of indoctrinating young people into the Nazi regime?
Education
Youth movements
Propaganda and censorship
He used perks and promises as well as threats and fear
How did the Nazis use eduction to their advantage?
Indoctrinate young people into racial ideas of Nazism & make children loyal to Hitler - form of brainwashing
Train girls to be good Aryan wives & mothers
Prepare boys to be effective soldiers
Make young people “swift as a greyhound, as tough as leather, & as hard as Krupp steel”
How did Nazis control teachers?
All teachers had to join Nazi Teachers’ Association, which vetted them for political & racial suitability
By 1939, 97% of teachers belonged to it
Jewish teachers were sacked
Teachers had to go to summer school so they could teach Nazi ideas effectively
Pupils encouraged to inform authorities if teachers did not teach & support Nazi ideas.
How were textbooks nazified?
Textbooks rewritten, especially in history & biology, to promote Germany’s ‘greatness’, Aryan ‘supremacy’ & anti-Semitism
How was the curriculum nazified?
Academic subjects downgraded
Importance put on subjects like chemistry & mathematics reduced
By end of 1930s, religious education was banned
Fitness vital so children had at least five one-hour sessions of physical education (PE) every week, often for two hours per day
Eugenics added to curriculum
Boys mostly studied history, eugenics & PE
Boxing was compulsory - girls primarily studied home economics, eugenics & PE
How did the Nazis create new Party leaders?
Boys with potential to be future leaders sent to special Adolf Hitler Schools (Adolf-Hitler-Schulen or AHS in German). These were free boarding schools, run on military lines, for boys aged 12 to 18 years.
Castles of Order (or Order Castles, Ordensburgen in German) set up for young men of talent, usually in mid-twenties. There they completed their military & leadership training
Boys 11-18 could go to National Political Institutions of Education - trained to be soldiers in SS
What were the aims of Hitler Youth? (Hitler Jungend)
Control activities of young people outside classroom
Make them loyal to Hitler
Train boys to be soldiers & prepare girls to be wives & mothers
What were the main reasons young people joined HJ?
Initially membership was voluntary, but made compulsory in 1936
Peer pressure
Attracted by the novel activities, such as camping
Chance to reject authority & values of parents
Membership would help them get university places & better job in future
Many joined hoping that by showing loyalty to Nazis, their families would be safe from SS
