Figure 1.-- Hitler soon became a prominent feature in the new text books. Here we see a page from a primary text book. Both children are neatly dressed in the uniforms of the Hitler Youth, although the boy looks younger than 10 years old and thus too young to join. Note the Gothic characters which was at first promoted by the NAZIs. |
The NAZIs proceeded to unabashedly use schoolbooks for both political and propaganda purposes. Bernhard Rust, the Minister of Education, saw the purpose of school textbooks was to achieve "the ideological education of young German people, so as to develop them into fit members of the national community ... ready to serve and to sacrifice". Censorship Director Bouhler worked closely with Reich Education Minister Bernhard Rust to revise German textbooks. Even the NAZIs could not immediately replace all the country's textbooks. Large numbers of text books were destroyed in 1933 leading to shortages of texts for several years. Publishers initially made only minor changes in existing texts. They often reprinted existing with the addition of swastikas and NAZI Party slogans. Rust by the late 1930s had overseen the repacement of school books that had been completely rewritten by authors approved by the Ministry of Education and members of the National Socialist Teachers’ Association. The new text and carefully chosen illustrations were designed to support major NAZI tenants and were blatantly used to promote the Party program. Hitler soon became a prominent feature in the new text books. Here we see a page from a primary text book. Both children are neatly dressed in the uniforms of the Hitler Youth, although the boy looks younger than 10 years old and thus too young to join (figure 1). The little girl is telling the Führer, "I know you well and love you, like fatgher and mother. I shall always obey you, like father and mother. And when I grow up I shall help you, like father and mother. And you will be proud of me, like father and mother." Of course all the horrible crimes we associate with the NAZIs did not appear in NAZI textbooks. There were, however, thems stressed that led to those crimes. Note here with the younger children the emphasis on obedience. After the War we know that war criminals claimed they were only obeying orders. Older students would study biology with an emphasis on survival of the fittest. Math students would calculate the high cost of supporting handicapped people.
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