Nazi Education, Youth Indoctrination and the Cult of Motherhood
Why did Hitler focuses on youth and their schooling?
- Hitler's focus on youth: He aimed to establish a strong Nazi society by teaching children Nazi ideology, requiring control inside and outside schools.
- Schools under Nazism:
- Teachers deemed 'unreliable' or Jewish were dismissed.
- Children were segregated: Germans and Jews couldn’t interact.
- 'Undesirable children' (Jews, disabled, Gypsies) were expelled.
- In the 1940s, many were sent to gas chambers.
- 'Good German' children: Underwent Nazi schooling, including:
- Textbooks rewritten to promote Nazi views.
- Racial science justified Nazi racial theories.
- Stereotypes about Jews were taught even in maths.
- Children were taught loyalty, hatred for Jews, and to worship Hitler.
- Sports nurtured aggression, with boxing encouraged for toughness.
- Youth organisations:
- Children joined Jungvolk at age 10, Hitler Youth at 14.
- They learned Nazi values: hatred for Jews, glorifying war, and violence.
- After training, they joined Labour Service and then the armed forces.
- Hitler Youth: Founded in 1922, later renamed. Other youth groups were dissolved.
- Impact on children: How would students feel towards Jews after this indoctrination?
- Classroom scenes: Depictions of anti-Semitism in textbooks (e.g., *Der Giftpilz*, 1938, and *Trau keinem Jud auf gruner Heid*, 1936).
- New term: Jungvolk – Nazi youth groups for children under 14.
- The Nazi Cult of Motherhood:
- Women were seen as different from men and must be mothers of pure Aryan children.
- Boys were trained for aggression, girls for motherhood and racial purity.
- Events:
- Robert Lay: Children were indoctrinated from a young age, from waving flags to military service.
- Boys took an oath to Hitler, pledging loyalty and even readiness to die for him.
- Hitler’s speech on women: Women’s role was motherhood; men fought in wars. Every child born was a battle for survival.
- Motherhood in Nazi Germany: Women producing 'racially desirable' children were rewarded with honours and privileges. Those who had undesirable children were punished.
- Aryan women’s conduct: Those who interacted with Jews, Poles, or Russians were severely punished, including public shaming and loss of honour.
