Nazi Influence on Education
“ The nation State must direct its education work, in the first place, not so much towards pumping in mere knowledge as towards cultivating thoroughly healthy bodies. After that comes development of capability. Here again formation of character comes first, especially encouragement of willpower and determination, combined with the teaching of responsibility, and not till last comes schooling in pure knowledge”. -Adolf Hitler (1938)
Hitler influenced and took control of German youth by controlling education and schools. School books were rewritten and there was production of anti semitic books and films that supported Nazi policy. Nazis replaced non-Nazi teachers and teachers of Jewish were forced out of the profession. Non-Nazi teachers were either pressured to join the The National Socialist Teachers League or were fired. Regardless of their proven teaching abilities or achievements, including 20 past (and future) Nobel Prize winners, these teachers were fired. About ten percent of Germany's university teaching force was terminated and prominent people like Albert Einstein, left Germany and settled in the United States.
Schools throughout Germany now had National Socialist teachers with questionable credentials teaching young minds in strict adherence to the Party motto: "The supreme task of the schools is the education of youth for the service of Volk and State in the National Socialist spirit." These teachers were forced to attend Nazi camps to learn more about Hitler's views. As the war progressed, students became more and more involved with the Hitler Youth organization, which gradually replaced the traditional elementary and secondary school system and became the main force educating German children. The quality of that education continually worsened. Students from the elite Adolf Hitler Schools were in superb physical condition and thoroughly drilled in Nazi ideology, but lacked basic skills in math and science. German Army leaders complained that young officer candidates displayed "a simply inconceivable lack of elementary knowledge. "They didn't even know enough to capitalize the first letter of a proper name. But for Hitler, these shortcomings really didn't matter as the school system now produced what he needed – unquestioning young men ready to obediently serve the Fatherland unto death amid Nazi slogans such as: Believe, Obey, Fight! This radical education molded their minds and “enlightened” these children about Aryan supremacy and the despicable traits of sub-human people and races.