Education, Schooling, and Camps

This chapter stresses the continuities to earlier periods in Nazi educational thinking and practice. It brings out the inconsistencies and conflicts within the Third Reich and emphasizes the active role of ordinary citizens. While some Germans opposed the Third Reich's educational efforts and others were excluded from its remit, many actively embraced its educational agenda. This held true for Germans of both sexes. Self-mobilization was therefore often more important than top-down ideologization, and individual educational institutions were often less influential than the fact that Germans were increasingly part of a society shaped by Nazi values.