Nazi Elite Schools and International Exchange
| Dates: | 13 February 2014 |
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| Times: | 17:00 - 19:00 |
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| What is it: | Lecture |
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| Organiser: | School of Arts, Languages and Cultures |
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| Who is it for: | Adults, Alumni, Current University students, General public, University staff |
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| Speaker: | Dr Helen Roche |
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A lecture from the seminar series
YOUNG IN DANGEROUS TIMES: CHILDREN AND YOUTH IN GLOBAL HISTORY
The Napolas (Nationalpolitische Erziehungsanstalten) were the most prominent type of Nazi elite school. Founded as a birthday present for Hitler in 1933 by Reich Education Minister Bernhard Rust, they aimed to educate future leaders of the Third Reich in all walks of life (including politics, economics, and the military). Before the outbreak of World War II, international exchanges with British public schools, U.S. academies and schools in Scandinavia formed an important part of school life – Napola pupils were seen as ‘cultural ambassadors’ for the Third Reich, who could potentially proselytise and convince youth in other ‘Nordic’ countries of the rightness of National Socialism.
This talk will explore some of the general background to these exchange programmes, before focusing on a series of exchanges between Napola Ilfeld and Kingswood School in Bath. The British public schools had long been perceived as an important model for the Napolas, but it was intended that the National Socialist model should prove itself incontrovertibly superior to that of the ‘Eton schools’. Using a mixture of contemporary documentary evidence and eyewitness testimony from former pupils on both sides of the Anglo-German divide, we can analyse the development – and deterioration – of relations on both sides, as the political situation steadily worsened.
Speaker
Dr Helen Roche
Organisation: Cambridge University
Travel and Contact Information
Find event
A101
Samuel Alexander Building
Manchester
