NAZI POLICIES TOWARDS THE YOUNG

• NAZI EDUCATION

  • Alongside attendance of one of the Nazi youth groups, children were still required to attend school for education
  • Hitler knew that control of children’s education would allow him to create a generation of Nazis loyal to him 
  • Bernhard Rust was made Education Minister in 1934 and made a number of changes to teachers and schools
• TEACHERS

  • Those not loyal to the Nazi regime were sacked
  • Rust sacked over 180 teachers in Prussia
  • They swore an oath of loyalty to Hitler and joined the Nazi Teachers’ League
  • Membership of the Nazi Party was also compulsory
  • They attended political education courses outlining key Nazi ideas
  • Around 200,000 teachers had attended courses by 1939
  • Teachers had a number of responsibilities at school:
  • Taught students the Nazi salute
  • Began and ended each lesson with ‘Heil Hitler’
  • Posters, Nazi flags and a picture of Hitler to be placed in each classroom
• CURRICULUM

  • Boys and girls were educated separately:
  • Maths: war and society incorporated in the learning
  • History: Blamed Jewish people for Germany's problems
  • P.E: Number of lessons was doubled to create strong children
  • Domestic science: Girls learned to sew, cook and organise their home
  • Eugenics: Classified races and learnt about superiority of Aryans
  • All books contained pictures of Hitler and Mein Kampf became a compulsory text
  • Napolas were schools for the most ‘gifted’ and racially pure children. Emphasis was on sport and physical training. By 1939, there were 16 Napolas schools
• LEAGUE OF GERMAN MAIDENS (BDM)

  • Activities focused on Kinder, Kirche, Küche 
  • A sub-group of the BDM called the ‘Faith and Beauty Society’ was created in 1938 for girls aged 17-21:
  • The ‘Faith and Beauty Society’ served as a way for women to receive further education until they were old enough to join the National Socialist Women's League
  • WHAT DID THEY DO? Childcare, cookery, housework, taught about 'racial hygiene', hiking and camping, marches and rallies, singing patriotic songs
• HITLER YOUTH

  • Leader - Schirach
  • Boys were able to join at 14
  • At 18, boys joined the Nazi Party and worked or joined the army
  • MILITARY TRAINING - map-reading and signalling, small-arms shooting, different areas of the army(flying, motor and naval etc)
  • CHARACTER TRAINING - Must be willing to give up their life to protect Hitler, embrace competition and be ruthless, built up resilience
  • PHYSICAL TRAINING - sport events, camping and hiking expeditions
  • POLITICAL TRAINING - Oath of loyalty to Hitler, learnt about Nazi ideas, reported disloyal Germans
• NAZI YOUTH GROUPS AND BELIEFS TOWARDS THE YOUNG

  • Hitler was aware that adults in Nazi Germany had mixed opinions of the Nazi Party
  • Adults were more difficult to influence and change than the young
  • Control of the youth and future generations would ensure that the Nazi Party would always be supported
  • 1932 - 100,000 members - Nazi Youth groups were far smaller than non-Nazi groups
  • 1939 - 9,000,000 members - All young Germans had to join a Nazi Youth group from the age of 10