Growing Up In Hitler's Shadow, By Susan Bartoletti

In the 1930’s, Hitler Youth was a youth organization developed by Adolf Hitler to form children into good Nazis by manipulating their education. In “Hitler Youth: Growing up in Hitler’s Shadow,” author Susan Campbell Bartoletti discusses the ways Adolf Hitler used education to further Nazi ideals. Hitler implemented only Nazi approved ideas for students to be taught, used teachers to pressure the students into joining, and did not allow students to express their own ideas. One way Hitler used education to mold young children into good Nazis was teaching them only Nazi approved ideas. They enforced a standardized school curriculum so every student in Germany would learn Nazi ideas. Paragraph 10 states, “They threw out old textbooks and implemented new ones. They rewrote the curriculum from top to bottom, so that it only taught Nazi-approved ideas.”. With teachers teaching Nazi approved ideas at every school in Germany, all students would share the same outlook on the world, anti-Semitism or antipathy towards Jews. …show more content…
To convince them into joining, teachers would guilt trip students. One student’s teacher once said, “You see, all your friends in class have become members. Surely so many cannot be wrong in their choice while you are the only one who is right. Remember they are determined to help the Fuhrer.” (Paragraph 15). Paragraph 15 states, “The Nazi Party pressured teachers, in turn, pressured students to join.”. If teachers did not persuade students into joining Hitler Youth, they would be dealt with harshly and sent to a concentration