Childrens Literature in Hitlers Germany

Between 1933 and 1945, National Socialists enacted a focused effort to propagandize childrens literature by distorting existing German values and traditions with the aim of creating a homogenous folk community. A vast censorship committee in Berlin oversaw the publication, revision, and distribution of books and textbooks for young readers, exercising its control over library and bookstore content as well as over new manuscripts, so as to redirect the cultural consumption of the nations children. In particular, the Nazis emphasized Nordic myths and legends with a focus on the fighting spirit of the saga heroes, their community loyalty, and a fierce spirit of revengeelements that were then applied to the concepts of loyalty to and sacrifice for the Fhrer and the fatherland. They also tolerated select popular series, even though these were meant to be replaced by modern Hitler Youth camping stories. In this important book, first published in 1984 and now back in print, Christa Kamenetsky demonstrates how Nazis used childrens literature to selectively shape a Nordic Germanic worldview that was intended to strengthen the German folk community, the Fhrer, and the fatherland by imposing a racial perspective on mankind. Their efforts corroded the last remnants of the Weimar Republics liberal education, while promoting an enthusiastic following for Hitler.