In mainstream culture, children tend to focus on school and recreation, while politics has often been a subject that is present in the conversations of adults. In Nazi Germany, however, the social and political ideologies of Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP) was entrenched in the lives of millions of German youth, evidently by design. In his autobiographical book, “Destined to Witness: Growing Up Black in Nazi Germany”, Hans J. Massaquoi provides a unique perspective to the typical prototype of a German youth. As a mixed-race, German boy growing up in one of the most politically-instilled cultures in modern history, he was neither accepted by the Nazi regime, nor persecuted to Nazi Germany’s fullest extent.
…show more content…
The superficial characteristics of the Nazis such as sharp uniforms and skilled marching bands were appealing to Hans and his “budding sense of masculinity”.2 With the military-styled discipline of their members and constant display of the swastika symbol, the NSDAP stood apart from their political opponents, and most importantly, they appealed to the growing masculinity of young German boys, just as they did for Hans. While this initial support was routed in spectacle, the Nazi government began to instill their political ideologies in German youth culture when they seized power in 1933 and Hitler himself outlined his reasoning for this policy: “I begin with the young. We older ones are used up. We are rotten to the marrow…But my magnificent youngsters! Look at these young men and boys! What material! With them, I can make a new …show more content…
While most of the adults in German society had established their own political and social views, the minds of young people were moldable. As the designated stewards of Hitler’s “new world”, they were one of the most prominent targets of the Nazi propaganda machine and the method in which this policy was put in place was through the educational system. After the death of the national father figure, Reichspräsident Paul von Hindenburg, Massaquoi recalls the first instances of change in school culture. Heil Hitler was introduced as the formal greeting and the portraits of Hindenburg were soon replaced by portraits of Adolf Hitler. The most captivating change that Hans recalled was the increased frequency of Hitler addressing the German nation directly. All school activity halted and students would congregate in the auditoriums to listen to the speeches in their entirety.4 While the political rhetoric did not resonate with young minds, the sheer power and conviction in Hitler’s voice gave listeners, in what Massaquoi describes, as a sense of “pride in an emerging, all-powerful father figure who was courageous and not intimidated by Germany’s
The superficial characteristics of the Nazis such as sharp uniforms and skilled marching bands were appealing to Hans and his “budding sense of masculinity”.2 With the military-styled discipline of their members and constant display of the swastika symbol, the NSDAP stood apart from their political opponents, and most importantly, they appealed to the growing masculinity of young German boys, just as they did for Hans. While this initial support was routed in spectacle, the Nazi government began to instill their political ideologies in German youth culture when they seized power in 1933 and Hitler himself outlined his reasoning for this policy: “I begin with the young. We older ones are used up. We are rotten to the marrow…But my magnificent youngsters! Look at these young men and boys! What material! With them, I can make a new …show more content…
While most of the adults in German society had established their own political and social views, the minds of young people were moldable. As the designated stewards of Hitler’s “new world”, they were one of the most prominent targets of the Nazi propaganda machine and the method in which this policy was put in place was through the educational system. After the death of the national father figure, Reichspräsident Paul von Hindenburg, Massaquoi recalls the first instances of change in school culture. Heil Hitler was introduced as the formal greeting and the portraits of Hindenburg were soon replaced by portraits of Adolf Hitler. The most captivating change that Hans recalled was the increased frequency of Hitler addressing the German nation directly. All school activity halted and students would congregate in the auditoriums to listen to the speeches in their entirety.4 While the political rhetoric did not resonate with young minds, the sheer power and conviction in Hitler’s voice gave listeners, in what Massaquoi describes, as a sense of “pride in an emerging, all-powerful father figure who was courageous and not intimidated by Germany’s