Anti-Semitism and Nazi Pride
Elements of Aryan Ideology and
Apathy
Paulo Freire, on education:
“All education is political.”
“Our anti-Semitism is not directed against
the Jews’ religion. It is directed against their
racial characteristics . . .everywhere they are
in league with the forces of rebellion . . .
Therefore every loyal son of his nation must
see in anti-Semitism the greatest national
progress of this century.”
-- GEORGE SCHONORER
VIENNA PARLIAMENT, 1887
“I suddenly encountered an apparition in a
black caftan and black sidelocks. ‘Is this a Jew?’
was my first thought. For, to be sure, they had
not looked like that in Linz. I observed the man
furtively and cautiously, but the longer I stared
at this foreign face, scrutinizing feature for
feature, the more my first question assumed a
new form. ‘Was this a German?’”
--Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf
Nazi Propaganda
• Ostara, an anti-Semitic magazine
Racial test: points for light skin, blue eyes,
blond hair. Below 100: “mixed breed”; below
zero: “apeling”
• Deutsche Volksblatt, an anti-Semitic
newspaper
• Handbook of the Jewish Question, by Theodor
Fritsch (1852-1934)
Hitler Youth
By 1939, membership was compulsory for boys
age 6 and girls age 10. “It is on youth that the
future of the German nation depends. Once it
is necessary to prepare the entire German
youth for its coming duties . . . all of
Germany’s youth is to be educated physically,
mentally and morally in the spirit of national
Socialism, to serve the nation and the racial
community.”
Boys in the Nazi Era
Age 6 – 9 Pimpfen (Little Fellows)
Age 10 – 13 Jungvolk (Young Folk)
Age 14 – 17 Hitlerjugend (Hitler Youth)
Age 18 Military Service
Girls in the Nazi Era
Age 10 – 13 Jungmadel (Young Girls)
Age 14 – 17 Bund Deutscher Machen
(the German Girls League)
Membership (Boys and Girls):
1932 – 108,000 members
1936 – 5.5 million
1939 – 8 million
Youth Membership
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Comradeship, loyalty and honor
Sporting contests and camping
Map reading, shooting, signaling
Self-discipline
Physical endurance
“The youth movement motto was ‘Youth must be led by
Youth’, but in practice it meant that bullies could torment
those they disliked. Once indoctrinated with Aryan
ideology they would be taught that it was their duty to
‘monitor’ their parents, their teachers and other
adults…(and) report any incidents or remarks that could
be considered acts of disloyalty to the state. The idea was
that they were little Hitlers in the making.”-- Paul Roland,
The Illustrated History of the Nazis
Women in the Nazi Era
• Ineligible for jury service (incapable of logical
thinking or objective reasoning)
• Party slogan: “Children, Church, Cooking”
• Interest-free marriage loans, reduced by a
quarter on the birth of each child
• Birth control clinics banned; anti-abortion
laws strictly enforced
Growing up under Hitler
Horst Druger, who was 14 years old when Hitler
became chancellor in 1933:
“My earliest memory of Hitler is jubilation. I’m sorry
about that, because today’s historians know
better – but I, at first, heard only jubilation…It
was a cold night in January and there was a
torchlight parade. …something about Germany’s
reawakening, and always adding as a refrain that
now everything, everything would be different
and better.” -- from A Crack in the Wall
Myth of the Persecuted People
Kruger, on his fellow Germans: “They changed from
law-abiding citizens to enthusiastic supporters of
the regime. None of them could even claim that
they had been swept up in the euphoria of a
mass rally or been carried along in the wake of a
procession. They had simply convinced
themselves that life would be better under Hitler
and they hoped that the rumors of war were no
more than malicious gossip…I am the typical child
of those innocuous Germans who were never
Nazis, and without whom the Nazis would never
have been able to do their work. That’s how it is.”
Brainwashing (definitions vary)
Brainwashing requires techniques that break down
the psychic integrity of the individual with regard
to information processing, with regard to
information retained in the mind, and with regard
to values. Chosen techniques included:
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* dehumanizing of individuals by keeping them in filth
* sleep deprivation
* partial sensory deprivation
* psychological harassment
* inculcation of guilt
* group social pressure