Nazi Education Policies

1. Identify three important changes made by the Nazis to the education system. Explain the purpose of each change.

A. The Nazis had either replaced the teachers with their members, or had changed (or forced to teach) the views of the teachers to the idealogy of the NSPAD.
By 1936, 30% of teachers had willingly accepted and supported the Nazis, and as pressure increased, 97% had accepted by 1938. If any teacher should lack complete commitment to the Nazi party, they could be removed.

B.The curriculum had been changed by the Nazis for the education that the children recieved. Extended time for physical education, pressure for history, and biology all were set to force the ideas upon German children that they were superior to all others around them. Religion was eventualy abolished, and girls and boys were seperated in their education, to each be developped intellectually into their use for the state according to the NSPAD.

C.They changed existing universities into schools speciaized to training the youth to be politcal and military leaders. The were chosen by skill, looks, and physical health. Their education was much like that of the military where they would be in the system for up to 2 decades of their lives. Boys between the age of 10 and 18 had been the targetted students.

2. Give specific examples of how the Nazis tried in schools to develop the spirit of Volksgemeinschaft in the following seven goals:

Anti-intellectualism: The specialisation of education was very limmited under the Nazi regime. Each student received physical education alonf with false history and biology. Racism was incorperated into all subjects, even math.

Anti-semitism: In the spirit of Nazi education, the German youths were taught that they had been the master race, above all else. Jews, especially, were taught to be evil masterminds who lived to destroy the state. Biologically and historically, they were told to be inferior to the aryan child.

Indifference to the weak: Euology was introduced to the education, showing the children that in order to be the perfect Master Race they had to stand out from the weak, and stand above. That the ultimate goal by time and violence, would be to remove the weak from the world. By using the mentally and physically weak in things so simple as a math problem, it was quickly taught that they were a hinderance to society holding back the German people.

Nationalism: The general ideology of the Nazi education system was that the state was more important that the individual, and that, if necessary, the indivual must sacrifice themselves for the state. False history focused mainly on Germany gave children a sense of superiority of their country over all others.

Militarism: The Nazis had set up schools, Ordensburgen, that trained boys in a military sense to prepare them to join the SS elite and become the next politcal and militant leaders of Germany.

Obedience and discipline:

Hitler Worship: From what little religion was left in schools, an example of what was taught to the students is that of the comparison of Jesus and Hitler. It stated that both had suffered, and died for the sins of others, for the greater good of the people around them. In addition to state, Hitler was another worth for the individual to sacrifice themselves to.

3. What methods did the Nazis use to try to ensure schools were teaching correctly? (This is from Friday's in-class work.)
Source 14.5

In order to educate the youth in the Nazi idealogy, one must first ensure that the educators who teach the children, are those dedicated to the Nazi ideas.

Source 14.6

The youth are often the ones who begin protest against the government, when thier impressionable, and free minds, take the ideas of foreign countries. By removing the exposure, even the known existence of other countries, the Nazi regime could expose the youth to only one ideology, of theirs. Also, if the teachers would not teach the ideas of Nazism, then they would be replaced by Nazi members.

4. Write out a statement that explains the main educational aims of the Nazi Education System. (Reference some of the sources.)