"A logical consequence of the Nazi disdain for traditional education was the establishment in 1937 of a new type of school, the Adolf Hitler Schulen (AHS). These schools were placed under the jurisdiction of the Hitler Youth, rather than Rust's education ministry. By the end of 1943 there were 12 of these schools, catering for 2,027 students. Their aim was to provide the future political and administrative elite of the Third Reich, and they reflected the values of the HJ in stressing the importance of physical achievement over academic excellence. Only one-and-a-half hours per day were allocated to lessons, most of which were concerned with ideological topics, in comparison to the five hours each day devoted to sports and physical activities. The major achievement of the AHS was to sink the level of German educational standards to a new nadir. Somewhat more successful were the Nationalpolitische Erziehungsanstalten, or NAPOLAs, which had similar aims to the AHS in seeking to provide the future elite of the Reich. In characteristic fashion, the NAPOLAs, of which there were 21 by 1940, were controlled by the SS in competition with the AHS. NAPOLA students maintained only nominal ties to the Hitler Youth. The aim of the NAPOLAs was to turn out 'political soldiers', whom they produced by immersing their students in a regimen of drill, reinforced by often-brutal physical challenges. The individual identities of the students were suppressed, and group hazing of those who did not fit in was encouraged. That being said, the NAPOLAs did succeed in achieving much higher academic standards than those of the AHS. The approach to education also anticipated the sort of training that recruits in the 'Hitler Jugend' Division were to receive in 1943-1944, with informal relations between teachers and students encouraged."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Alan Dearn, The Hitler Youth: 1933-45 (2006), p. 28
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Hitler_Youth
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Hitler Youth
11 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Hitler Youth →
Related Quotes
"There can be but one German Youth Movement, because there is but one way in which German youth can be educated and tr…"
"Regardless of their motivation, youth who sought to avoid service in the Hitler Youth were treated as dangerous devia…"
"Although many members of the Hitler Youth eagerly looked forward to the chance to fight against the enemy after years…"
"It is a powerful reflection of the moral bankruptcy of Nazi Germany that there was such a widespread acceptance of th…"
"The songs they sang were Nazi songs. The books they read were Nazi books."
"For all their deficiencies, the Hitler Youth movement and the increasingly Nazified school system were driving a wedg…"
"There were even more disturbing reports of children whose membership in the Hitler Youth was disapproved of by their …"
"The overall effect of Hitler Youth membership, some Social Democratic observers complained, was a ‘coarsening’ of the…"
"The Hitler Youth proved a thoroughly disruptive influence on formal education. ‘School’, one Social Democratic report…"
"To reinforce the artillery defence of the approaches to Berlin and of the city itself all available anti-aircraft art…"