Figure 1.--These NAZI Stormtroopers are preparing to march this couple through the streets of a German city to publically humiliate them, a common tactic in the early years. The placards reads, "At this place I am the greatest swine: I take Jews to make them mine." and "As a Jewish bouy I always take German girls up to my room." The man was probably beaten marching around town. |
Any understanding of the experience of German children during the NAZI era can not escape a basic understanding of the regimes racial policies. As the boys in the images posted in HBC can not speak to us, such background is needed to understand what was hoing through their heads and the experiences they had. The NAZI attitude toward the Jews is best known, but other groups were also affected. Then there was the complication of children who were of mixed ancestry--"Mischlinge". Racial background affected one legal status and standing in the society. For boys a primary consideration was membership in the Hitler Youth and the right to wear the uniform--a uniform that even many children from anti-NAZI or non-Aryan families often desired to wear.
The NAZIs gave particularly attention to education and control of the German educational system. They were well aware that it would be difficult to convert many adults and only a minority of Germand had ever voted for the NAZIs in democratic elections. The children were a different matter. They were thus determined to mold the new generation to accept NAZI pinciples. As the leader of the NAZI Teacher's League, Hans Schemm, put it: "Those who have the youth on their side control the future." As a result, after the NAZIs seized power in 1933, they quickly began applying totalitarian principles to all aspects of the German education system. Private schools were taken over or closed. Great emphasis was attached to racial "science", often termed "racial hygine", in NAZI education and this was quickly introduced into the curiculum. NAZI idelogy and physical-military training became other important aspects of the school program. Many teachers embraced the new Germany, but others were fired or left teaching. It is difficult to assess the relative importance of the two groups. It is known that many teachers were fired or replaced with political hacks during 1933-35, but HBC has no details on the numbers. Some of the best educators fled abroad. The quality of German education, once the leading system in Europe, declined. Again, however, it is difficult to assess this in quantitative terms.
The conerstone of NAZI laws and regulations against the Jews were the Nuremberg Laws of 1935. Many other laws and regulations preceeded and followed the Nuremberg Laws which provided the legal basis for the isolation of the Jews, seizing their property, and finally expelling them--in most cases to the Polish death camps, or more correctly German death camps in occupied Poland, where they were murdered.
Geman Führer Adolf Hitler at the Nuremberg Party Congress on September 15, 1935 announced three new laws that were to be cornerstones of German racist policies and the supression of Jews and other non-Aryans. These decrees became known as the Nuremberg Laws. They were decrees which in NAZI gErmany had the force of law
forbidding contacts between Aryan Germans and Jews, espcecially marriage and srtipping Jewsof German citizenship. The first 1935 decree established the swastika as the official emblem of the German state. The second established special conditions for German citizenship that exclided all Jews. The third titled "The Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor" prohibited marrige between German citizens and Jews. Marriages violating this law were voided and extra-marital relations prohibited. Jews were prohibuted from hiring female Germans under 45 years of age. Jews were also prohibuted from flying the national flag. The first three Nuremberg Laws were subsequently supplemented with 13 further decrees, the last issued as late as 1943, as the NAZIs constantly refined the supression of non-Aryans. These laws affected millions of Germans, the exact number depending n precisely how a Jew was defined. That definition was published November 14, 1935. The NAZIs defined a Jew as anyone who either 1) had three or four racially full Jewish grandparents, 2) belonged to a Jewish religious community or joined one after September 15 when the Nuremberg Laws came into force. Also regarded as Jews was anyone married to a Jew or the children of Jewish parents. This included illegtimate children of even the non-Jewish partner. There appears to have been no serious public objection to these laws. [Davidson, p. 161.]
Many futher decrees followed and were based on the Nurenberg Laws. Jews were forced to wear a yellow Star of David on their clothes at all times so that they could be easily identified and more effectively excluded. Jews were forced to follow a strict curfew at
night. Violations of these restrictiomns could be arrested and sent to concentration camps where they were brutalized and forced to work in inhumane conditions. [Hoyt, p. 132.]
Hitler's hatred was directly especially at the Jews. Gypsies were also eventually targeted for death. Blacks in Germany were not killed, but mulatto children were ostricized and sterilized.
The attitude toward the Jews is best known, but other groups were also affected.
Less know than the NAZI war against the Jews and gypsies is the NAZI actions against blacks. Less well publicized is the actions aginst blacks. The NAZIs had a special dislike of blacks because the French had used African soldiers for occupation duty in the Saar which thy occupied after World War. The result was thousands of German children with African fathers left behind when the French withdrew from the Saar. Most readers are aware of Hitler's reaction toward American black athelete Jessie Ownens at the 1936 Olympic Games. Interestingly, Ownens was very popular among spectators at the Olympic games.
Then there was the complication of children who were of mixed ancestry--"Mischlinge". There were degrees of Mischlinge which were codified in law. Mischlinge first degree was anyone with two Jewish granparents. If the person was a practicing Jew or married to a Jew they would be classified a Jew rather than a Mischlinge. Mischlinge second degree was anyone with one Jewish grandparent.
Germans were required to obtain Bescheinigungen (certificates) demonstarting their pure Aryan descent. These certificates, especially if they showed racial "impurities" had a great impact on schooling and potenial jobs. In the case of certain groups and the degree of "impurity" it could lead to sterlization and eventually the death camps.
We do not know what kind of registration and identification system was in place in the Weimar Republic. We do know that there was no system based on race. This was the system that the the NAZIs inherited when they seized power (1933). We are not sure at this time as to just how the NAZIs went about identifying and registering Jews in Germany. Here the Nuremberg laws (1935) were critical as they defined who legally was a Jew. The law classified many Germans as Jewish, including many who did not think of themselves as Jews. What we are not sure about is the identification and registration process. We know that local NAZIs collected information, but we do not know if there was a national registry or to what extent national registry were coordinated. Nor do we know what documents adults were required to carry on their persons. Nor or we sure at what age children were involved in this process. Many government activities such as munivcipal records, schools, and other functions as in America were carried out by state (Landen) and local government. Thus there may have been differences in various areas of Germany.
Membership in the Hitler Youth was only open to Aryan boys. At first membership was nominally voluntary, but later made mandatory. In fact most German boys wanted to join. Racial background thus affected membership and the right to wear the uniform--a uniform that many children from anti-NAZI or non-Aryan families often desired to wear. Especially important to many boys was the Hitler Youth dagger, famously engraved with Blut und Ehre ("Blood and Honor"). The Hitler Youth became an important part of a boy's life by the mid-1930s. The uniform may have affected boys' clothing in general. Black shorts and white kneesocks notably were styles worn by the Hitler Youth and these styles became increasingly common in the 1930s. The NAZI promotion of health and outdoor activity may have have created an increased demand for casual and outdoor clothes.
The process of separating the Jews from German society and stealin their property was begun in ernest with the Nuremberg Law. These laws served as the basis for the stream of new laws and regulations that followed the vicious NAZI pogrom called Kristallnacht on November 8, 1938.
Davidson, Eugene. The Unmaking of Adolf Hitler (Univesity of Missouri: Columbia, 1996), 519p.
Hoyt, Carolyn. "Stolen childhood. how one woman survived the Holocaust" McCallÌs August 1994, pp. 100-01, 132, and 134.
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