死亡教育：纳粹的形成
美国历史电视台
死亡教育
这部二战时期的华特迪士尼工作室动画短片讽刺了希特勒青年团，改编自格雷戈尔·齐默的同名书籍。
Full text of "Education For Death The Making Of The Nazi"
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EDUGAriON
FOR D E A T I-I
THE MAKING OF THE NAZI
GREGOR ZIEMER
LONDON NEW YORK TORONTO
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
COPYRIGHT 1941 BY GREGOR ZIEMER
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
TO:
Edna and Patricia, who came away with me from a land
where these things are, to our own land where these things
must never be.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. PROLOGUE 5
Rector to Schulrat to Minister of Education
2 . COMING s-5
Hitler brides; expectant mothers; pre-school
children
3 . RECEPTIVE 55
The Pirapf: Nazi boys from six to ten
4 . CURIOUS 83
Jungmaedel: Nazi girls from six to fourteen
5 . WAITING 103
Jungvolk: boys from ten to fourteen
6. EAGER 123
BDM: girls from fourteen to twenty
7 . IMPATIENT 145
Hitler Youth: boys from fourteen to eighteen
8. FINISHED 169
University and research students
9 . EDUCATION FOR LIFE 193
American education challenged
Bibliography 201
Abbreviations 203
German Words ‘ 204
EDUCATION FOR DEATH
It was a murky winter day in Berlin. The tempera¬
ture was hovering near the freezing point, the humid¬
ity was high, low clouds were scraping dank feet on
the earth.
The American School dismissed at one o’clock.
A happy group of children, boys and girls between the
ages of six and eighteen, came streaming out of the
schoolhouse, Platanen Alice i8, in the western part of
the German capital.
Across the street a German Volksschule devoted
to the education of Nazi boys below the age of ten was
also dismissing its students.
I was at our front gate talking to a mother
about plans for the Thanksgiving celebration when I
heard the scream.
Six-year-old Peter M., who had been on his way
home, came dashing back across the broad avenue
under the gaunt sycamores and ran to the school gate.
There a group of high school students stopped him.
3
^ EDUCATION FOR DEATH
A stone whistled through the air; somebody let
out a sharp exclamation o£ pain for the bit of granite
was jagged and it hurt.
‘Juden—Amerikanische Juden—Laestige Aus-
laenderl’ (Jews, Jews, meddlesome foreigners!) came
shrill voices. Across the street a squad of Nazi young¬
sters in their finest Party toggery of black shoes, heavy
black stockings, short black pants, and brown shirts
decorated with swastikas stood as if arrayed in battle.
‘Down with the nasty foreigners—laejlige Am-
laender nieder!’ came the cry again, this time in
chorus.
The American Colony School, of which I was
the president, was under the patronage of the Ameri¬
can Ambassador and the American Consul General;
the few Jewish students we had were children who
were anticipating a transfer to the United States and
temporarily availing themselves of our educational
facilities.-But obviously to the young Nazis all for¬
eigners were enemies.
Another stone came scuttling over our heads.
Our students stood irresolute for a moment. The Jew¬
ish members were pale, pressed back into the gate.
‘Let’s go beat up those Nazi hoodlums!’ hot¬
headed Billy B. from California suggested.
‘Let’s!' other American students agreed.
I had to interfere. I warned my students by
reminding them that the Nazi boys were in full uni¬
form. The least move on our part would bring the
Gestapo about our ears and our school would be in
jeopardy.
PROLOGUE 5
'Take it easy, boys,’ I said. ‘Let me see if I
can’t handle this.’
With the dignity becoming a headmaster, I
stamped across the street. The boys yelled a defiant
‘Heil Hitler,’ and scattered down the street toward
Adolf Hitler Platz.
Our students waited a few minutes before dis¬
persing, the Americans silent and furious, but help¬
less; the Jews pale and trembling.
I hurried back into my office and called the
Rector of the Volksschule, whom I had met. The con¬
versation began with the proverbial formalities.
‘But, Herr Rector,' I continued, ‘these boys
were throwing stones at our students. Do you sanction
that?’
I had a pad beside the telephone and jotted
down what he said. In fact, it was one of my rules in
Germany to make notes whenever I talked to officials
or people of interest. If I could not write in their
presence, I concentrated on their words and got them
on paper at the earliest possible moment. My training
as reporter helped me in this. Thus reams of tran¬
scribed notes make it possible now to reconstruct with¬
out too much difficulty, and with a safe degree of ac¬
curacy, many interviews I had.
According to my notes the Rector was not in
favor of any stone-throwing. ‘But,’ he said, ‘you must
know how impossible it is for me to control the boys
once they leave the school. Anyway, you would not
expect me to stop a spontaneous popular demonstra¬
tion, would you? Even if I wanted to, I wouldn’t be
allowed to do it.’ ' '
6
EDUCATION FOR DEATH
I reminded him that we were an American in¬
stitution and had always conducted ourselves as be¬
comes guests in a foreign country. We had, I told him,
great respect for the old German culture.
‘Yes, but you have Jewish students,’ he inter¬
rupted me. ‘We teach our students that the Jews are
our greatest enemies. Wliy do you not dismiss them?’
I did not wish to explain that. I remarked that
it seemed as if his students had an antipathy toward
all foreigners. He admitted that; admitted, also, that
his boys knew the whole world was against them and
their Fuehrer. They had been told by their teachers
that they had to be hard, ready to fight and die for
Hitler at any time. He ‘presumed’ the boys were just
practicing a little.
That stone-throwing episode induced me to
make a long-delayed decision. Ever since 1953 I had
been wondering what was going on in Nazi schools
and educational centers. That they were the real
cradles and incubators of Nazi ideology I knew- But I
had been wondering what they actually taught in
those schools—whether the old German training with
its thoroughness, discipline, and emphasis on law and
order had not been replaced by a fanatic new type of
pedagogy. I was curious to ascertain what methods
were being used and what spirit prevailed.
That afternoon I discussed the matter with an
old friend, Doktor Schroeder, in the privacy of my car.
He was not in sympathy with Nazi ideology, but kept
his lips sealed for the sake of his patients. His answer
was direct. He advised me to get permission to visit
PROLOGUE 7
not only the schools and universities, but the pre-school
institutions, the homes for pregnant women, the day
nurseries.
I knew he was right. I could not understand
the Nazi power over the child by reading about their
theories in manuals and j^amphlets. These were only
tools. I had to see the tools applied to the living mat¬
ter of young minds.
But it was not easy to trespass into the holy
precincts of Nazi educational halls. I was a foreigner,
the founder and director of a foreign institution. We
had the American Ambassador as patron, but he, too,
was under suspicion. America was a democracy, and
democracies were sworn enemies.
The Nazi school, I discovered, was an auxiliary
of the army, and its methods were guarded as if they
were military secrets. Strict rules and regulations gov¬
erned the actions of supervisors, superintendents,
teachers, and assistants.
I employed the only system I knew would pro¬
duce the desired results. I bribed.
My school was visited regularly by the Nazi dis¬
trict superintendent who came to check on our teach¬
ers and our methods, as well as on the race, creed, and
political backgrounds of our students. He was not very
chummy, but I had hopes of making him more amen¬
able—with a pound of cofFee.
He got the coffee. It was slipped into his over¬
coat pocket out in the hall while he was visiting one
of our classes. He could not understand one word of
English, but occasionally demanded translations. He
8 EDUCATION FOR DEATH
was tall, lean; his face with a huge Prussian nose was
hawk-like; his mouth was thin. He wore a magnificent
swastika button in his coat lapel.
The coffee produced unexpected results. In¬
stead of waiting a month for the next inspection, he
returned in two weeks.
Again a pound of coffee was slipped into the
overcoat. The third visit came in three weeks. Be¬
tween classes on that visit, I had my first indication
that the offering was graciously accepted. The super¬
intendent became almost friendly. He invited me to
call on him at his office—not for business, but for
pleasure.
I knew that office, a bleak, cold place not far
from the Olivaer Platz. I had spent hours there, thrash¬
ing out details about the administration of our school,
solving problems of policy, getting permission to hire
American teachers, and settling tax problems.
I called on Schulrat Pieper early the next Sat¬
urday. That is not his name, but the name of one of
his numerous secretaries. If the Gestapo will go
through the complete Civil Service list of Berlin they
will, no doubt, find the man who accepted bribes from
a foreigner.
Schulrat Pieper was friendly in his abrupt Prus¬
sian way. He made several sly allusions to the coffee
and how good it had tasted. His wife, who was suffer¬
ing from a nervous disorder, had discovered it to be
better medicine than pills. Discreetly I promised more
‘nerve tonic.’ He grinned with anticipation.
I left the conversational pace to him. Outside,
a few sparrows were disconsolately looking for shelter.
PROLOGUE 9
The Nazi flag flapping on the pole reminded me
where I was—a superfluous reminder.
The Schulratj I knew, represented the half-way
mark in the field of German school oflicials. There
were cogs in the machine smaller than he—the teach¬
ers, whom I hoped to contact later. There were cogs
larger than he—the members of the Ministry of Cul¬
ture; especially the Herr Minister himself, whom I
hoped to circumvent. But in the course of the talk it
soon became evident that I would have to go over
Pieper’s head to get what I wanted.
Schulrat Pieper had a remarkable philosophy
which governed his conversational procedure. Its pat¬
tern was this: The Fuehrer has decreed that the schools
are to be the nucleus of the Party. The Fuehrer has
decreed that the children must belong to him. The
Fuehrer has decreed that boys and girls must not be
educated in the same schools, since boys will become
soldiers and girls will be mothers of soldiers. The
Fuehrer has decreed that boys must be trained to go
out and conquer. The Fuehrer has decreed that the
most important subject in the curriculum is physical
education. The Fuehrer has decreed that the schools
must not use textbooks. The Fuehrer has decreed—the
Fuehrer . . .
I was getting nowhere, that was clear. I tried
another method. I asked him point-blank if he would
give me permission to visit Nazi schools and attend
Nazi classes.
He stared at me, horrified at my audacity, and
then asked: ‘You mean you actually want to visit Ger¬
man classes, go right into the school rooms?'
10
EDUCATION FOR DEATH
I told him that was what I wanted. He was si¬
lent; then he found a way out. It would not be neces¬
sary for me to visit Nazi schools. He himself would
provide me with all the pamphlets and discussions
about German schools I needed.
I expressed my appreciation, but repeated that
I wanted to see Nazi education in action. I reminded
him that he was visiting my school and inspecting
other schools simply to see for himself.
‘You are right,’ he snapped. ‘I shall endorse
your request.'
I feared the worst. I knew what he meant. He
could not give me the permission.
He did not keep me waiting long, but ex¬
plained that permission to visit Nazi schools had to
come from the Ministry of Education. I would have
to apply there. ‘They’ would advise him to investigate
me to discover if I was the kind of man who could see
the German schools. He would make a favorable re-
'-j
port about me. He leaned back as if he had just pre¬
sented me with the moon.
I bowed my thanks and asked how long the
process might take.
He did not think it would take long—a few
months perhaps. I was to write a letter to His Excel¬
lency, Herr Minister Fuer Erziehung und Volksbil-
dung, Dr. Bernhard Rust. If he thought kindly of my
request, one of his commissioners would write Pieper
to do the preliminary investigating. He would endorse
the request to prove that he had found nothing objec¬
tionable in me. Then Rust or his officials would pon-
PROLOGUE 11
der the matter again, and finally make their decision.
It was all very simple and direct, he thought.
I left—with another allusion to coffee.
I knew enough about Nazi red tape to realize
that if I wrote a letter it would get buried under the
huge piles of decrees and counter-decrees which Herr
Rust was always pouring into Germany. I would never
see the inside of a German school. But I prepared my
request, stating that I was an American in charge of
the American School, gi'ateful for German hospitality;
that I was eager to understand the new Nazi methods
and the efficient administration in his department;
that I would soon return to America, would be asked
about Nazi pedagogy, ancl would be able to talk with
much more authority if I had actually visited some of
the Nazi schools that were producing such unprece¬
dented results.
I did not mail the letter. I carried it personally
to the Foreign Office, where I explained my problem
to a secretary I knew. I pleaded with him to make
an appointment for me with Herr Minister Rust in
his palatial Ministry, corner of Untcr den Linden and
Wilhelms trasse.
After three weeks I was informed that the ap¬
pointment was granted.
The interview was one I shall not forget, Nor
have I forgotten much of the exact phraseology used
by Herr Rust. My notes were written out very com¬
pletely in the lobby of the Adlon Hotel, two minutes’
from the Ministry.
Rust was a huge man, overflowing his mahog-
EDUCATION FOR DEATH
13
any chair and lolling over his polished desk. He was
pasty-faced, his eyes shifted from object to object, his
mustache twitched. He seemed indescribably sad and
appeared to find concentration difficult.
'Heil Hitler!’ he greeted me without rising. He
glanced at my letter lying on the desk. ‘You are an
Amerikaner?’
'Yes, Herr Minister.’
'What do you Americans teach about us Nazis
in your schools in America?’
I regretted exceedingly that I could not tell
him. I had not been back in America for some time,
I said.
‘But here in your American School in Berlin—
you have an American school, nichtf—WhRt do you
teach about us?’
I regretted again. Our school had only one pur¬
pose, I declared: to keep American children in touch
with American education. We avoided all politics. We
taught only arithmetic, geography, writing, French,
science. Of course, we availed ourselves humbly of the
cultural opportunities Germany offered; we visited
German museums, attended operas, and studied his¬
toric spots . . .
‘And you have Jews in your school,’ he thun¬
dered, interrupting me.
I was on thin ice. He knew that I realized it.
‘Herr Minister,’ I said, ‘those Jewish students
are boys and girls who are going to America shortly.
And you don’t want them in your schools, do you?’
I can still hear his answer. His half-shut eyes
suddenly blazed hatred. ‘America,’ he said, ‘America is
PROLOGUE ig
foolish, furchtbar foolish, to absorb so many Jews. But
then, America always has been foolish. Americans al¬
ways knew everything better. You will see. I believe
some day Germany will have to teach America a good
lesson. And now—what do you want of me?’
I repeated in substance what I had already writ¬
ten.
He leaned back again, seemed to consider,
toyed with the Iron Cross on the left pocket of his
brown Hitler shirt.
‘You want to inspect our institutions. Why?’
I told him his system had been remarkably suc¬
cessful for its purpose. I wanted to confirm that per¬
sonally.
He peered at me as if trying to discover any
lurking thoughts I might have. Impatiently he
punched a button.
‘Bring me the official teachers’ manual,’ he
ordered.
A paper-covered book, as thick as a high school
algebra text, was reverently laid on his desk.
Rust became very official. In the book, he said,
I would find the complete outline of all work done
in Nazi schools. In the introduction, he added with
self-satisfaction, I would discover what the Minister
for Culture and Education had personally decreed. In
those pages he had made his own views perfectly clear.
I was advised to study the manual and tell American
teachers about it. It would reveal that Young Germany
was in deadly earnest.
I have another direct quotation in my notes:
‘Germany always has been and by rights ought to be
EDUCATION FOR DEATH
the focal point of culture in the world,’ Rust informed
me, pounding the table. ‘Your democracies have tem¬
porarily degraded us with the cursed Treaty of Ver¬
sailles. Those days are gone, never to return. German
Nordic Culture will cover the world, will sweep all
before it—wird dies vor sich her fegen. We will give
your request due consideration. Meanwhile, you have
the manual, the official basis for our education. Study
it. Heil Hitler^ Sieg HeiU’
I had ample time to examine the precious
teachers’ manual, for I heard nothing more from the
Ministry for weeks.
That manual had the ponderous title: Erzie-
hung und Unterricht—Amtliche Ausgahe des Reichs
und Preuszischen Ministeriums fuer Wissenschaft,
Erziehungj und Volksbildung. It was printed for the
government by the Weidmannsche Verlagsbuchhand-
lung. The issue Rust gave me was dated 1938. There
have been no new editions, according to the latest
reports that I have been able to get from Berlin.
As nearly as one can translate words, the con¬
notations of which are more important than the deno¬
tations, the title of the manual means: Education and
Instruction, Official Publication of the Reich and
Prussian Ministry of Knowledge, Education, and Na¬
tional Culture. It offered a fruitful field for investi¬
gation.
After reading it I talked with scores of Nazi
teachers about it. To them it seemed perfectly nor¬
mal, a straightforward exposition of Nazi educational
ideals. Some considered it almost too conservative.
And Rust, I was informed, was never regarded as un-
prologue 15
duly radical—was, on the contrary, decidedly quiet and
considerate in what he said, wrote, and did.
I first inspected the introduction to which Rust
had made personal reference, and of which he was ob¬
viously very proud. Compared with the educational
methods in any country in Europe, Asia, or South
America, the theories promulgated in the first twenty-
two pages of this book are unique in spirit, content,
and presentation.
The orders Rust gives his teachers are couched
in brutal, dogmatic words, saturated with the Nazi
ideal that Nordic Nazi Might makes Universal Right.
The manual has its own Nazi terminology. A
teacher is not spoken of as a teacher (Lehrer) but an
Enieher. The word suggests an iron disciplinarian
who does not instruct but commands, and whose
orders are backed up with force if necessary.
Matters of the spirit are frankly and energeti¬
cally belittled. Physical education, education for ac¬
tion, is alone
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