The following quotations is the 1983 book, Nazism: A History in Documents and Eyewitness Accounts, 1919-1945, edited by J. Noakes and G. Pridham in cooperation with the Department of History and Archaeology at the University of Exeter. It represents years of research into the primary documents of the Nazi era.

CHANGE THE CHILDREN FIRST

"The Nazi leadership appreciated the difficulty of indoctrinating the older generation.... They were all the more determined to mold the new generation along Nazi lines. As the leader of the Nazi Teacher's League, Hans Schemm, put it: 'Those who have the youth on their side control the future.'" (416)

"...create a new type of student..." (440)

TEACH POLITICALLY CORRECT BELIEFS AND VALUES

"German youth must no longer... be confronted with the choice of whether it wishes to grow up in a spirit of materialism or idealism, of racism or internationalism, of religious or godlessness, but it must be consciously shaped according to principles which are recognized as correct...according to the principles of the ideology of National Socialism." (432)

"The teaching... aimed to encourage a 'consciousness of being German.... In the selection of teaching materials they should eschew those works which 'contradict German feelings or paralyze energies necessary for self-assertion' and only those modern works would be selected which 'have an affinity with the spirit of the new Germany'." (437)

ESTABLISH AN OUTCOME-BASED EDUCATION SYSTEM

"the regime endeavored to assert its control over the education system through reorganization and centralization..." (433)

"Many pupils believe they can simply drift through for eight years and secure their school-leaving certificate even with minimal intellectual performance... [T]hose pupils who are in positions of leadership... often display unmannerly behavior and laziness at school. in general, it must be said that school discipline has declined to an alarming extent..." (429)

"The new movement offered prospects of future employment at a time of massive graduate unemployment." (440)

IMPLEMENT MASTERY LEARNING

"'...the principal task of the school is the education of youth in the service of ... the State in the National Socialist spirit.' This made clear the Nazi's determination to shift the focus of education away from the needs of the individual and the development of his potential as a human being to the requirements of the community of nation and State, of which the individual was a member and to which he must subordinate himself." (436)

"Munich professors [were warned]: 'From now on it is not up to you to decide whether or not something is true, but whether it is in the interest of the national Socialist Revolution." (446)

"The more enthusiastic they get, the easier are the exams and the sooner they will get a position .... The new generation has never had much use for education and reading. Now nothing is demanded of them; on the contrary, knowledge is publicly condemned." (427)

Teach "right" attitudes or "character" through feel-good experiences: An important aspect of Nazi education was the cult of 'Experience' as being more crucial to the development of the individual than the academic process of learning with its stress on 'knowledge'. Unlike knowledge which involves the intellect, experience involved 'feeling' which alone provided access to the deep truths of Nazism which were essentially based on [ideological unity]. Such an 'experience'... was regarded as essential to character-building. (441)

"It appealed to the desire of youth to be independent of the adult world and exploited the conflict of generations and the typical tendency for young people to challenge authority figures, whether parents or teachers." (429)

"...particularly teachers in secondary schools, were alienated by the crudity of its indoctrination." (433)

INFUSE NEW VALUES THROUGH "REAL LIFE" LEARNING

"New courses were introduced in such fields as racial studies, eugenics, and defense studies and there was a new emphasis on pre-history... Law and political science courses were adapted to fit in with the changes introduced by the regime." (446)

"People told stories, danced and practiced handicrafts..." (423)

"Other subjects such as math and foreign language were less subject to ideological contamination. Even here however, Nazi ideology could enter by the back door, as is clear from the following tests...: 'Question 95: The construction of a lunatic asylum costs 6 million RM. How many houses at 15,000 RM each could have been built for that amount?'" (438-439)

"The slogan 'youth must be led by youth'... was ritually echoed and to some extent followed in practice. But the spirit in which it was applied was very different These young leaders were not representing an autonomous youth culture but were functionaries of an official bureaucracy regimented by rules and regulations and following set patterns of training." (422)

"It was preferred that people should not have a will of their own and should totally subordinate themselves." (428)

"If they have still not become real National Socialists, then they go into the Labor Service and are polished there... And if after six or seven months, there are still remnants of class consciousness or pride in status, then the Wehrmacht will take over the further treatment... and when they return after two or four years then, to prevent them from slipping back into old habits once again, we take them immediately into the SA, SS, etc., and they will not be free again for the rest of their lives." (417)

REQUIRE COMMUNITY SERVICE

"Service learning": "The purpose of labor service was partly practical--to... provide a source of cheap labor--but mainly ideological. It was a part of the cult of community current in the youth movement now manipulated by the Nazis for their own end. Students would be confronted with Real Life and, by being forced to mix with the less privileged sections of the community, would be reminded that they were all [national comrades] together." (440-441)

"Service in the Hitler Youth is honorary service to the German people. All young people are obliged from the age of 10 to their 19th birthday to serve in the Hitler youth." (420)

"We cannot fight our way out of this deep crisis through intellectualism... The school for character... which is a practical test of true comradeship in work and living is irreplaceable.... the true, great, practical school is... in the labor camp, for here instruction and words cease and action begins." (441)

REVISE HISTORY

"...in addition to controlling and indoctrinating the teaching profession, reorganizing the education system and establishing new elite schools, the regime sought to influence youth through the content of what was taught in schools." (436) "Relevance" and historical revision: "The course of history must not appear to our young people as a chronicle which strings events together indiscriminately, but, as in a play, only the important events, those which have a major impact on life, should be portrayed." (438)

RETRAIN TEACHERS

"The real task of the NSLB is to create the new German educator in the spirit of National Socialism. It is being carried out with the same methods with which the movement has conquered the whole nation: indoctrination and propaganda." (432)

"The Nazi party... realized they could do little with the existing professors if they outwardly conformed. They concentrated, therefore, on trying to transform the profession by controlling entry and promotion within it throgh process of political indoctrination...." (444)

"Teachers were, however, also subject to control from their professional association, the National Socialist Teachers' League (NSLB)... it expanded through a mixture of propaganda and intimidation... The main functions of the NSLB were, first, the provision of reports on the political reliability of teachers for appointments and promotions and, secondly, the ideological indoctrination of teachers..." (431)

"Most academics were either apolitical or approved of at least some aspects of the regime.... Those who did not, were either forced out or intimidated into silence." (445)

SILENCE THE OPPOSITION

"...these boys join our organization at the age of ten...four years later, they move from the Jungvolk to Hitler Youth and there we keep them for another four years. And then we are even less prepared to give them back into the hands of those who create our class and status barriers..." (417)

"A legal guardian will be liable to a fine up to 150 RM or to imprisonment, if he deliberately contravenes the stipulation #9 of this decree (registration for Hitler Youth)." (420)

"Private schools and denominational schools gradually succumbed to various pressures: the loss of government subsidies or tax concessions...." (434)

FACE THE CONSEQUENCES

"By the end of the 1930s, a growing number of students were coming to resent the regimentation, the pressures to conform, the anti-intellectual climate, the crudity of the regime's style and its moral duplicity." (443)

"Teachers, in particular, were also concerned at the contempt for intellect cultivated by the HJ and at the arrogance displayed toward them by pupils who were leaders in the HJ." (429)