Part 2: How The Nazis "Reformed" German Education-- The Precedent For The Florida Model Is The Hitler Youth

Part 2, The Hitler Youth: The Nazis "Pro-Life" Program To Mass Produce Studs, Breeders And Soldiers For The Reich

By 1936, 32 percent of all teachers in Nazi Germany were members of the Party, and would wear uniforms to their classrooms. As mentioned, it was mandatory to give the "Heil Hitler" salute at the beginning of classes, even for those who were not members. Most teachers were Social Democrats before Hitler took power, but those who were concerned with students informing on them and losing their jobs complied. One of the jokes which circulated in Germany at this time was "what is the shortest unit of time?" "The time it takes for a grade school teacher to change their political allegiance." (*Ibid, Evans) 

By 1938, two-thirds of all elementary school teachers were indoctrinated in special camps in a compulsory one month training course of lectures. 97 percent were made members of the national teachers organization run by the Party.  Some anti-Nazi teachers survived with stealth, and tried to convey powers of judgment and fairness to their students through their teaching of the subject matter. They held on knowing that if they objected, a hardened Nazi ideologue would replace them, leaving the group of young minds at their mercy, and themselves in the hands of the Gestapo and risking prison. Keep in mind, Hitler annihilated the free Trade Unions and their leaders as he nazified Germany's traditional institutions, so the teachers had no vehicle for making input or waging resistance. 

One additionally important side note is that Germany before Hitler had a tradition of youth organizations which were aligned with both Churches and political parties of different stripes. Needless to say, these were socially useful and benign in that there was no political indoctrination, coercion, or police state supervision in these organizations. They were organic and not imposed on German society from the top down. Each of these organizations were shut down and absorbed by the Nazis upon Hitler's consolidation of power. 

The Hitler Youth had 8,000 full-time leaders by 1938, and 720,000 part-time leaders, many of whom were Nazi-trained teachers. One anti-Nazi teacher in a letter to a friend wrote: "In the schools, it is not the teacher, but the pupils who exercise authority. Party functionaries train their children to be spies and agent provocateurs. The youth organizations, particularly the Hitler Youth, have been accorded powers of control which enable every boy and girl to exercise authority backed up by threats. Children have been taken away from parents who refused to acknowledge their belief in National Socialism. The refusal of parents to allow their children to join the youth organization is regarded as adequate reason for taking the children away." (*anonymous letter from teacher to a friend, Spartacus Education blog)

Gregor Ziemer was a teacher and headmaster at the American School in Berlin (a school for the children of American citizens living in Germany) for most of the 1930s. During this time, Ziemer toured German schools and eventually wrote a book called Education for Death, which was first published in 1941. In it, Ziemer describes the schools he visited:

A teacher is not spoken of as a teacher (Lehrer) but an Erzieher. The word suggests an iron disciplinarian who does not instruct but commands, and whose orders are backed up with force if necessary.

Matters of the spirit are frankly and energetically belittled. Physical education, education for action, is alone worthy of the Nazi teacher’s attention. All else can be dismissed as non-essential . . .
    
The Nazi schools are no place for weaklings. All children must, of course, finish the primary school before they are ten; but after that the schools are proving-grounds for the Party. Those who betray any weakness of body or have not the capacities for absolute obedience and submission must be expelled. . . .

 

The regime draws a sharp distinction between girls, inherently weak, and boys, natural exponents of strength. Boys and girls have nothing in common. Their aims, their purposes in life, are fundamentally different. Boys will become soldiers; girls will become breeders. Co-educational schools are manifestations of decadent democracies and hence are taboo.

 

History and science were the subjects most influenced by Nazi ideology. Soon after Hitler took power, a new course in “race science” was added to the curriculum in every German school. The Nazi minister of education outlined the objectives of the course:

1. Give pupils an insight into the relationship, causes and effects of all basic facts having to do with the science of heredity and race.
2. Impress the pupils with the importance of the science of heredity and race for the future of the nation and the purposes of the government.
3. Awaken in the pupils a sense of responsibility toward the nation, as represented by both its ancestry and its posterity; imbue the pupils with pride in the fact that the German people are the most important exponent of the Nordic race. . . .

Racial instruction was not limited to a single course. It was included in all classes, even arithmetic. One book, titled Germany’s Fall and Rise—Illustrations Taken from Arithmetic Instruction in the Higher Grades of Elementary School, asks, “The Jews are aliens in Germany—in 1933 there were 66,060,000 inhabitants of the German Reich, of whom 499,682 were Jews. What is the percentage of aliens?” (*facinghistory.org)

Nazi Education For Girls--

The League of German Girls (Bund Deutscher Mädel [BDM]) was the female section of the Hitler Youth, its role was to indoctrinate girls into the beliefs and ideals of the Nazi regime.  The BDM focused on developing girls into women who were dedicated to Nazism, dutiful housewives, and whose role within in society was to become a mother. Girls were to grow-up with an unquestioning understanding of the intended role of women in the Third Reich. BDM members were required to have German parents, be in good health, and conform to Nazi racial ideals.

On July 7, 1932, Baldur Von Schirach and Gregor Strasser dissolved other Nazi girl’s groups, transferring all memberships to the BDM. By the end of 1932, membership was estimated between 10,000 to 15,000 girls. The movement increased momentum after the Nazi rise to power, with dissolution of non-Nazi girl’s groups. The BDM’s inclusion in the Nazi propaganda campaign and association with the Hitler Youth increased its popularity.

In 1939, on the implementation of the Law on the Hitler Youth, it became mandatory for all young girls aged 10 to 14 to be in the Young Girls League (Jungmädelbund), and girls 14 to 18 to be in the League of German Girls. The indoctrination of young people into Nazi ideals was the purpose of the groups, with a focus on the role of young girls as future mothers of the Third Reich.

The Belief and Beauty Society

The Belief and Beauty Society was intended to link young women directly into the women’s wing of the Nazi Party. It was aimed at girls aged between 17 and 21. The group was voluntary and focused on cooking, sewing, education, and politics, in line with Nazi ideals. Members also carried out work in the areas of home help, store and office help, assistance within the health service, and troop support. It was headed by the BDM leader Jutta Rudiger from 1942, when she took over from Martha Mindendorf. Gertrud Scholtz-Klink, leader of the women’s wing of the Nazi Party, desired that all BDM members would eventually transfer over. (National Holocaust Center)

What This Means For Us, Today--

Those of us who have taken the time and effort to organize opposition to the imposition of Cristo-fascist policies against women's rights, including emphatically reproductive rights, employment and education opportunity, and protection from various forms of physical and mental abuse, would do well to look at these examples from Nazi Germany, recognizing that denying women educational advancement to university studies was a top education policy priority for Hitler. Today, forcing American women to revert to the role of solely childbearers is the open policy of the Christian Right, from Florida, to Texas, to most of the Red States, to the leadership of the GOP, to the fascist judges who sit on the US Supreme Court such as Sam Alito. Need anyone at this point be reminded that tolerating the marginalization or suppression of another group of people will assuredly be the pathway toward bringing the same upon yourself? 

Conclusion--

Taking this history as a whole, it is important to remember that the damage done to the German psyche by the full scope of Nazi horrors, required almost two generations of re-education to mitigate, as well as Nuremberg trials for the leading perpetrators. And the world still has not seen the last of the original Nazis and their destructive impact. War criminals are still being hunted, and graduates of the Hitler Youth have continued impacting the present, such as the recently deceased right-wing Pope Benedict XVI. (who has attempted to distance himself from his past with a carefully curated set of biographies) Closeted fascists and so-called mainstream politicians still to this day will blurt out that they found value in "some" policies of the Third Reich, such as their discipline, unity, national pride, and economic accomplishments. They admire the "efficiency" of Hitler's government, (and likewise Mussolini) and sometimes express support for fascism without anti-semitism in a sort of cleaned-up version, thinking this a positive alternative to liberalism. And herein lies the current clear and present danger. 

For our purposes, it is sufficient to have this overview of the history of how the Nazis imposed their ideology on their younger generation. It is urgent and relevant to consider this in light of the current political devolution of the US under the influence of the MAGA aligned growing Christian nationalist insurgency. We are forced by events to confront the reality that what was once simply a small minority of loud and well financed extremists has hijacked the Republican Party, and is determined to impose policies which parallel those of Hitler's education system. 

There is debate about privatization vs public school systems which happens to be a leading battleground between erstwhile liberals and conservatives in the US. That is, in a way a separate subject, in so far as our current dangerous path is defined by the direction of our political culture, more so than "business" considerations. We are experiencing what Hitler himself called "the brutalization of the masses." With that formulation he was expressing his endorsement of the brutality of his Brownshirts, which he said were the most important recruitment arm of his nascent Party. This is, in my view, what needs to be burned into our consciousness as much as the "mechanics" of how today's fascists intend to implement their "reforms," because that is their real political strategy.

One of the things which characterized the Nazis was their obsessive quality for tracking and writing down everything, as embodied in the German word "gründlich." Everything they did involving their day to day actions were either notated by hand, or tracked by first generation computer punch cards made available to them by IBM. For those who are currently copying fascist education and immigration restriction programs from the Nazis like Trump adviser Stephen Miller, it is all there in the record. And Miller, like Trump and Steve Bannon, are committed hard-core fascist ideologues who have and will continue to "learn from the best" for their purposes. Clarity on this fact is vital for each of us. 

The methodology of the current "culture war" is to seize power by creating a culture of violence in which to operate. Their rhetoric, talking points, policy positions, organizing tactics all have violence as their end. The GOP/MAGA "education activists" and anti-woke candidates are in many cases QAnon followers, and are seen by security experts as a potential domestic terror threat. This is why the FBI began their involvement in keeping their eyes on this political conflict. 

The kind of society they want to bring into existence is contingent on a thorough tear down of our existing laws, norms, traditions and culture, in what amounts to a national bloodletting. This is the common ground between fascists, libertarians, Confederates, and "End Times" evangelical fanatics. 

The biggest mistake is to get so caught up in the minutiae of legalism and statistics that we lose sight of the ugly nature of this MAGA entity, with or without the feature of "Trumpism" which is relatively new on the scene. The "Dominionists" and social darwinist Libertarians have been buiding for this conflict for decades, and they combine the worst aspects of that "Old Testament" retribution brought by their God of wrath, with the Eugenicists doctrine of "survival of the fittest" as this extends into every sphere of policy. 

Because violence is their objective, it is vital to understand that they are "gaming" the so-called "left" in a strategy to inflame them. Everything they are currently doing with their culture war is an intentional outrage and provocation to give them their pretext for violence, vigilantism, dictatorial measures and the crushing of dissent. 

As difficult as it seems, our resistance must remain non-violent. Not "peaceful," but non-violent because peace with MAGA is not feasible or desired. We need to organize and occupy high ground in our conduct, even if we are "behind enemy lines" so to speak. 

Let's not give them what they want by reacting with rage, violence, or despair. We stand for something, and our purpose is to bring about a future in which the need for violence is ended. Not in order to tear down our society in a bloodbath, as does our literally fascist adversary. 

Stick with ideas and principles which reject the idea of "the other" which divides us. We can find unity in our diversity, and put an end to the culture which thrives only on finding or making enemies. But first, it might help to ask ourselves how we ourselves were complicit in allowing things to go this far. Then we might be more able to see the way out.