Figure 1.-- |
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Germany at the time Hitler seized power in Germany (1933 had the one of the finest, if not the finest, educational system in the world. Academic standards were very high, although many working-class children could not continue their eduvation beyond primary school. Partly because of the high acdemic standards and the many anti-NAZIs and apolitical teachers, Hitler did not trust the school system. In addition, he did not value scholarship and inteclectuals very highly. He though they undercut his desire to control the message delivered to young people. He wanted answers given to German youth and did not want them trained to ask questions. This is one reason he placed such an emphasis on the Hitler Youth which was heavy on NAZI ideology, physical prowess and devoid of any trace of intelectualism. After seizing power, Hitler moved to purge the educational system. The first step was to dismiss all Jews, but soon after anti-NAZIs and eventiually the apolitical from German schools. Inevitably academic standards suffered as political relability became more important than acadmic credentials. With the outset of the War, German schools were not at first significantly affected, except that many younger teachetrs were called up for milyary srtvice. This only changed as the War began to go against Germany. More male teacgrts were called up for military service. Then as the Allied strategic bombing campaign began to have some impavt, the NAZIs began evacuating children from the cities, although the program was very differen than the British evacuation profram. A reader sent us this blurb about his mother's secondary school. Girls went to Oberlyceums and boys to Gymnasiums. Here she learned fencing, gymnastics and was on the rowing team. The walk to and from school became a terrifying challenge as war reduced much of the city to rubble. By 1943, many schools had to go on split sessions as "Volkschule" children had to be shifted to several "big kids" schools from 8 to 12, and reduced hours for teens from 12 to 4. ... the school board felt getting kids home in daylight, and teens by dusk in winter time in a city of total darkness provided the greatest chance, and parent's relief of getting home alive. A favorite memory was of a biology field trip to learn about edible mushrooms. The teacher said some are poisonous, some are not. Nibble on a corner, if it makes you sick, it probably IS poisonous, spit it out."
Then as the situation becane increaigly worse, schools were closed and unified. Many went on two shift schules. By the end of the war the school system had ceased to exist.
German at the time Hitler seized power in Germany (1933 had the one of the finest, if not the finest, educational system in the world. This was a commitment begun with Luther and the Reformation (16th century). Academic standards were very high, although many working-class children could not continue their eduvation beyond primary school. Partly because of the high acdemic standards and the many anti-NAZIs and apolitical teachers, Hitler did not trust the school system. In addition, he did not value scholarship and inteclectuals very highly. He though they undercut his desire to control the message delivered to young people. He wanted answers given to German youth and did not want them trained to ask questions.
Germany's defeat in World War I (1914-18) brought about the abdication of the Kaiser and formation of the Weimar Republic. The disorders following the war, economic dislaocation, and rampant imflation brought on terrible hardships with the German people. Despite the difficicilties, Germany still had arguably the finest educational system in Europe. German schools after the First World War continued the policy of allowing boys to wear the clothes parents selected for them. Given the horrors of the First World War it is understandable that German parents would have little reason to develop an interest in uniforms for school children, although the War did not affect British opinions on uniforms. Interestingly, sailor suits continued to be a popular style for boys, including older boys than wore sailor suits--both with short and long pants. Many of our images of German school children taken on their first day of school come from the Weimar era. It is a tradition on a child's first day of school in many countries to take a photograph. There was a great deal of diversity in the clothes boys wore to school during the Weimar era. One way of assessing the different clothes is looking at individual classes during the period to see what boys were wearing.
After the NAZIs seized power in 1933, totalitarian principles were applied to all aspects of education. Hitler did not trust the school system. In addition, he did not value scholarship and inteclectuals very highly. He though they undercut his desire to control the message delivered to young people. He wanted answers given to German youth and did not want them trained to ask questions. Private schools were taken over or closed. Great emphasis was attached on racial "science" in NAZI education and this was quickly introduced into the curriculum. NAZI ideology 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.
Hitler's distrust of the German education system is one reason he place such an emphasis on the Hitler Youth which was heavy on NAZI ideology, physical prowess and devoid of any trace of intelectualism. The Hitler Jugend (Hitler Youth), the NAZI party's youth movement, indoctrinated German youth to perpetuate the "1,000 year Reich." The Hitler Youth movement emphasized activism, physical training, NAZI ideology, especially nationalism and racial concepts, and absolute obedience to Hitler and the NAZI Party. Indoctrinating children in National Socialist idelogy was a key goal of the NAZI Party. Once Hitler assumed control over the German state, he used the Goverment to make the Hitler Youth the country's all encompassing youth movement. Hitler and other NAZIs leaders saw the indoctrination of young Germans as of critical importance. In the same year that they took power, the NAZIs organized German youth organizations into two branches of the Hitler Youth (Hitler Jugend), one branch for boys and one for girls. Membership was eventually made compulsory and all boys had to report to a neighborhood office to have his racial background checked and be registered for membership. There was then a typically elaborate introduction ceremony on the Führer's birthday. The Hitler Youth was not just a German version of the Boy Scouts. The Hitler Youth were more similar to the Soviet Young Pioneers, but even with the Pioneers there were major differences. Hitler from the beginning saw the Hitler Youth movement as a tool to hardening boys for their future role of soldiers. He wanted a generation of "victorious active, daring youth, immune to pain." There was to be no "intelectual" training for the boys of the New Order, Hitler saw intelectual pursuits as damaging to German youth. The NAZIs used the Hitler Jugend to educate German Youth " in the spirit of National Socialism " and subjected them to an intensive programme of Nazi propaganda. The NAZIs established the Hitler Jugend as a source of replacements for Nazi Party formations. The Hitler Youth leadership in October, 1938 entered into an agreement with Himmler under which members of the Hitler Jugend who met SS standards would be considered as the primary source of recruitment for the SS. The NAZIs also used the Hitler Jugend for pre-military training. Special units were set up whose primary purpose was training specialists for the various military branches. HBC has compiled the following information on the Hitler Youth movement and the uniforms the boys wore.
Bernhard Rust was born in Hannover 1883). He was awarded a doctorate in German philology and philosophy. Even so he failed the state teaching examination (1908). He became a secondary school teacher at Hannover's Ratsgymnasium. He served in the Army during World War I (1914-18). He wa primoted to lieutenant and was awarded the Iron Cross for bravery. He was an early adherent to the NAZI Party (1922). By this time, Hitler was in firm control pf the Parry. Hitler was apparently impressed with him, presunably because of his loyalty. He appointed him Gauleiter for Süd-Hannover-Braunschweig. Rust was elected to the Reichstag as the NAZI Party scorced huge advances in the Depressuion election (1930). Hitler after becoming Chancellor, Hitler appointed Rust Prussian Minister for Cultural Affairs (1933). The next year he turned German education over to Rust, appointing him Rust Reichserziehungsminister (Minister of Science, Education and National Culture) (1933). Rust held the post throughout the subsequent NAZI era. He thus became both a school administrator and fervebnt NAZI. He issued decrees with little vetting. Many wre considered bizarre by professional educators, especially in the early years before the teaching professiin was thoroughly NAZIfied. It was Rust who ordered that students should greet teachers with the Heil Hutler salutation asnd salute. Hitler fid not trust the schools when he seized power. Rust set out to NAZIfy the educatiion sysrem so it could be used to completely immerse German youth in National Socialist philosophy. Besides NAZI ideology, Rustr had aassiion for orthography (spelling, capitaluization, punctustion, and other elemebts). He doggedly pursued spelling and other orthographic reforms. He met considerable resistance in the academic community, but many of his reforms were adopted after the War. The day after the NAZI surrender, Rust shot himself (May 8, 1945).
After seizing power, Hitler moved to purge the educational system. The first step was to dismiss all Jews, but soon after anti-NAZIs and eventiually the apolitical from German schools. Inevitably academic standards suffered as political relability became more important than academic credentials.
The NAZI Party established secondary schools for carefully children. The were primarily for boys, but a few were also for girls. The schools were to train the Party elite. The major program was the Nationalpolitische Erziehungsanstalt (NPEA or NAPOLA). The other kind of secondary schools created by the NAZIs were called the Adolf Hitler Schulen (AHS--Adolf Hitler Schools). The AHS were founded because the SS essentially seized control of the NAPOLA. Reichsorganisationsleiter Dr. Robert Ley (DAF leader) and Baldur von Schirach (Hitler Youth leader) agreed to set up the new schools in January 1937. The schools as far as we know were very similar. The primary difference was simply who controlled them.
When the NAZIs seized power in 1933, most German Jews attended state schools. Only a small number of students attended Jewish religious schools. Through a varaiety of methods including the introduction of anti-semetic curriculum materials, verbal amd phyical abuse from teachers and other students, Jewish children began withdrawing from the schools. Conditiojs varied, but in some schools it was dangerous for Jewish children to continue attending classes. The Nuremburg Laws in 1935 took away German citizenship from Jews resulting in the expulsion of Jewish children from the state schools. These children enrolled in schools set up for them and staffed by Jewish teachers who had been fired by the NAZIs.
With the outset of the War, German schools were not at first significantly affected, except that many younger teachetrs were called up for milyary srtvice. This only changed as the War began to go against Germany. More male teacgrts were called up for military service.
Then as the Allied strategic bombing campaign began to have some impavt, the NAZIs began evacuating children from the cities, although the program was very differen than the British evacuation program. The German Kinderlandverschickung (Child Land Dispatch -- KLV) functioned during World War II (1939-1945). The children had to go to rural areas on "holiday" but really they should be out of the cities and towns that had difficulties feeding them and were being bombed by the Allies. I believe that both schools and the Hitler Jugend were involved in organizing the KLV. One reader reports that the HJ was especially important in the KLV organization beginning in 1940. About 2.5 million children were sent to 9,000 camps until end of World War II. I believe in many cases their teachers accompanied them. The camps were, however, run by Hitler Youth leaders. They were not very happy places. Strangely, unlike the extensive discussion of the British evacuation of children (1940-41), the German KLA evacuation and camps are little discussed.
A reader sent us this blurb about his mother's secondary school. Girls went to Oberlyceums and boys to Gymnasiums. Here she learned fencing, gymnastics and was on the rowing team. The walk to and from school became a terrifying challenge as war reduced much of the city to rubble. By 1943, many schools had to go on split sessions as "Volkschule" children had to be shifted to several "big kids" schools from 8 to 12, and reduced hours for teens from 12 to 4. ... the school board felt getting kids home in daylight, and teens by dusk in winter time in a city of total darkness provided the greatest chance, and parent's relief of getting home alive. A favorite memory was of a biology field trip to learn about edible mushrooms. The teacher said some are poisonous, some are not. Nibble on a corner, if it makes you sick, it probably IS poisonous, spit it out."
Then as the situation becane increaigly worse, schools were closed and unified. Many went on two shift schules. By the end of the war the school system had ceased to exist.
We have a few personal accounts of gong to school during the NAZI-era and World War II.
Here are my comments on NAZI education. First of all I was not conscious that I have been indoctrinated by the NAZIs. May be I was too young and lived in a smaller town (Hameln, in those days 40 000 inhabitants). I never wore the uniform to school. But since the shorts were of very general and usefull style (many pockets), a few did at times. Anyway it was not compulsory to wear uniform at school. I have a very weak remembrance that older boys wore their uniform for special occasions in school.
remember my class work, sctivies and outfits resonably well, of course the secondary years better than the earlier years. I began Kindergarten at age 4 in 1939. Coincidentally this was also when World War II began. I was dressed in a warm black or navy-blue training suit ( Trainingsanzug ) in Winter. Note the cap called a devil's cap ( Teufelsmüze ). I also had a handkerchief and some sweets in a little leather bag. I began primary school /Volksschule school at 6 1/2 years old in the Fall 1941 (figure 1). I wore several different outfits, but always with my leather book satchel ( Ranzen ). Primary school was mostly academic work. I don't recall much in the way of activities. The older boys who had joined the HJ did organize some activities. With age 10 about 8 percent of the students were selected out for a more academic program. They went on to Gymnasium (secondary school). Mother took me out of school in the Fall of 1944 as conditions were becoming so dangerous. I did not return to school until the War was over. In Fall 1945 I graduated to a Gymnasium (secondary school) as I did. In addition to the academic activities there were a range of activities.
Much of the pagentry of the modern Olympic Games dates from the 1936 NAZI Berlin Olympics. A HBC reader is compiling an album of his Mother's life growing up in Berlin. She was not a member of the Bund Deutscher Mädel (BDM), the girl's division of the Hitler Jugend. She performed in the 1936 Olympic Games opening ceremony. She is in the lower left group facing the Olympic torch / cauldron. This was taken just before the girls refilled the stadium field after revealing the 500 boys in rotating rings. The girls resurged on to the field around them to form the white flag background and form a" living" Olympic flag. Rather impressive." These kind of displays were part of the NAZI Health through Joy program. Similar displays were organized for the annual NAZI Nurenberg Party Rallies. Our reader provides more details about his mother's experience here/ "Saturday morning, August 1, was a once in a lifetime day of JOY as my mother arrived at her school, Uhland Oberlyceum, dressed in her special white jumper for dress rehearsal and boarded one of two military trucks sent to take her group of 60 girls to the stadium. At 8pm that night the "Festspiel Olympische Jugend" of 1,000 would perform to an audience of 100,000 in the Reich Stadium with music composed by Karl Orff and Werner Egk to the brilliant choreography of Dorothee Gunther & Maja Lex. A sea of white costumes parted to reveal 500 boys in lines that bent to form the Olympic rings rotating as the Berlin Opera chorus and Philharmonic Symphony performed Beethoven's Ode to Joy choral finale. 30,000 white doves were released above their heads. My Mother said they practiced that section relentlessly to make sure they hit their 'marks' on the stadium field on the right notes of the music. One has to look very closely, but you can spot the portable speakers on tall poles placed strategically on the outer lines of the track so the performers could hear on both sides of the field the music at the same time without a delay echo and thereby be late unintentionally. Can you spot the 'arches' in the girls' hands? They were added early into the choreography rehearsals as a way to help keep the 1,000 girls spacing symmetry even as they went from one formation to another. The stadium feild was easy to get disoriented on, as it was so large. The public's reaction was so overwhelming that three additional ENCORE performances were given on the 3rd, 18th, and 19th. An Olympic memory never to be forgotten.
German boys went to school durung the 1940s under very varied circumstances. Hitler launched World War II (1939). An by pilaging the economies of countries the NAZIs occupied, living standards did not deteriorate in Germany until after the war decisively turned against Germany in 1943. German cities by the time the NAZIs surrendered were devestated by the Allied strategic bombing campaign (1945). This significantly affected living standards including clothing during the first years of occupation. The ecoconmy did not begin to recover until the American Marshall Plan began (1948). Stalin did not allow East Germany to participate in the Marshall Plan and recovery there took longer. As a result of these larger trends, fashion did not change much in the early 40s and after the War families did not have much money for clothes. Boys commonly wore clothes that they had really grown out of. Many younger children went barefoot.
The Allies instituted a thorough going denazification process. The process was handed over to the Germans in 1948. The Allies attacked the militarism of the old Prussian junker class which the united German state was built around in 1870. A substantial number of NAZIs and war criminals were arrested, but realtively few actually procecuted. The German Government continues anti-NAZI policies to this day in Germany. The denazification process was not particularly successful in convicting NAZIs and war criminals, but in a larger sence in succeeded in helping to convert Germany into a democratic nation. About half the top leadership of the SS managed to survive or disaapear. This included Eichmann's deputies and the commanders of the Einsatzgruppen. The principle that membership in these and other convicted organizations was prima facie evidence of guilt was not sustainable after the immediate post-war years. The crimes of the NAZIs, including the Holocaust were of such magnitude and involved so many Germans and colaborators throughout Europe that normal juridical mechanisms could not possibly cope. Many high-profile defendants were judged at the Nuremberg Trials. Some of the most vicious pepertrators of attrocities were never tried or sentenced. These included Obergruppenführer Karl Wolff (considered as a possible successor to Heydrich), Hinrich Lohse (Rosenberg's commissioner of the Ostland). Even of those found guilty, the United States set up a clemency board which reduced numerous sentences. Most of the guilty simply blended into the German population after the War. The results of the post-War trials are revealing. There were about 3.5 million Germans charged before the denazification courts established by the Allies. Less than 1 million were actually brought to trial and of those brought to trial only 9,600 (including Schacht, Papaen, and Fritzshe) were ever encarcerated. And the courts by 1949 had freed all but 300. [Conot, p. 518.]
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