Children's Literature in Hitler's Germany

Children's Literature in Hitler's Germany
Author: Christa Kamenetsky
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2019-06-17
Genre: Children
ISBN: 9780821423646

Kamenetsky shows how Nazis used children's literature to shape a "Nordic Germanic" worldview, intended to strengthen the German folk community, the Führer, and the fatherland by imposing a racial perspective on mankind. Their thus corroded the last remnants of the Weimar Republic's liberal education, while promoting a following for Hitler.

Children’s Literature in Hitler’s Germany

Children’s Literature in Hitler’s Germany
Author: Christa Kamenetsky
Publisher: Ohio University Press
Total Pages: 347
Release: 2019-06-17
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 082144672X

Between 1933 and 1945, National Socialists enacted a focused effort to propagandize children’s 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 nation’s 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 revenge—elements that were then applied to the concepts of loyalty to and sacrifice for the Führer 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 children’s literature to selectively shape a “Nordic Germanic” worldview that was intended to strengthen the German folk community, the Führer, and the fatherland by imposing a racial perspective on mankind. Their efforts corroded the last remnants of the Weimar Republic’s liberal education, while promoting an enthusiastic following for Hitler.

Eleanor's Story

Eleanor's Story
Author: Eleanor Ramrath Garner
Publisher: Holiday House
Total Pages: 333
Release: 2012-03-06
Genre: Young Adult Nonfiction
ISBN: 1561456810

An engrossing coming-of-age autobiography of a young American caught in Nazi Germany during World War II. During the Great Depression, when Eleanor is nine, her family moves from her beloved America to Germany, from which her parents had emigrated years before and where her father has been offered a job he cannot pass up. But when war suddenly breaks out as her family is crossing the Atlantic, they realize returning to the United States isn't an option. They arrive in Berlin as enemy aliens. Eleanor tries to maintain her American identity as she feels herself pulled into the turbulent life roiling around her. She and her brother are enrolled in German schools and in Hitler's Youth (a requirement). She fervently hopes for an Allied victory, yet for years she must try to survive the Allied bombs shattering her neighborhood. Her family faces separations, bombings, hunger, the final fierce battle for Berlin, the Russian invasion, and the terrors of Soviet occupancy. This compelling story is heart-racing at times and immerses readers in a first-hand account of Nazi Germany, surviving World War II as a civilian, and immigration.

The Poisonous Mushroom

The Poisonous Mushroom
Author: Julius Streicher
Publisher:
Total Pages: 64
Release: 2017-07-29
Genre:
ISBN: 9781974027026

The Poisonous Mushroom is translated from the Third Reich original Der Giftpilz. That rare picture book, published by the St�rmer Verlag of Julius Streicher, is much sought after by collectors. Softcover. 64pp.

Hitler's Forgotten Children

Hitler's Forgotten Children
Author: Ingrid von Oelhafen
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 266
Release: 2016-02-02
Genre: History
ISBN: 0698409299

Hitler’s Forgotten Children is both a harrowing personal memoir and a devastating investigation into the awful crimes and monstrous scope of the Lebensborn program in World War 2. Created by Heinrich Himmler, the Lebensborn program abducted as many as half a million children from across Europe. Through a process called Germanization, they were to become the next generation of the Aryan master race in the second phase of the Final Solution. In the summer of 1942, parents across Nazi-occupied Yugoslavia were required to submit their children to medical checks designed to assess racial purity. One such child, Erika Matko, was nine months old when Nazi doctors declared her fit to be a “Child of Hitler.” Taken to Germany and placed with politically vetted foster parents, Erika was renamed Ingrid von Oelhafen. Many years later, Ingrid began to uncover the truth of her identity. Though the Nazis destroyed many Lebensborn records, Ingrid unearthed rare documents, including Nuremberg trial testimony about her own abduction. Following the evidence back to her place of birth, Ingrid discovered an even more shocking secret: a woman named Erika Matko, who as an infant had been given to Ingrid’s mother as a replacement child. INCLUDES PHOTOGRAPHS

The Story of Ferdinand

The Story of Ferdinand
Author: Munro Leaf
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Total Pages: 48
Release: 2017-09-05
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 0571335977

Once upon a time in Spain, there was a little bull and his name was Ferdinand . . . Unlike all the other little bulls - who run, jump, and butt their heads together in fights - Ferdinand would rather sit under his favourite cork tree and smell the flowers. So what will happen when Ferdinand is picked for the bull fights in Madrid? Beloved all over the world for its timeless message of peace, tolerance and the courage to be yourself, this truly classic story has never been out of print in the US since its release in 1936. Hitherto unpublished in the UK and now a major motion picture.

The Poisonous Mushroom: Der Giftpilz

The Poisonous Mushroom: Der Giftpilz
Author: Ernst Hiemer
Publisher: Clemens & Blair, LLC
Total Pages: 74
Release: 2020-05-09
Genre: History
ISBN: 9781734804225

Among the most controversial of Nazi publications was a book for children, published in 1938 under the title Der Giftpilz-or, The Poisonous Mushroom. Here, the Jewish threat to German society was portrayed in the most simplistic and elemental terms. The author, Ernst Hiemer, put together 17 short vignettes or morality stories intended to warn children of the dangers posed by Jews. Jews were depicted as conniving, thieving, treacherous liars who would do anything for personal gain. 'Avoid Jews at all costs, ' was Hiemer's underlying message. Though aimed at children aged roughly 8 to 14, Hiemer's lessons were intended for all readers-older siblings, parents, and grandparents. Following Hitler's lead, and not without justification, Jews were presented as a profound threat to German society; they had to be shunned and ultimately removed from the nation, if the German people were to flourish. Long out of circulation, and banned in Germany and elsewhere, this new edition reproduces a work of historical importance-including full color artwork by German cartoonist Philipp Rupprecht ("Fips"). The book was repeatedly cited at the Nuremberg Trials as evidence of 'Nazi cruelty', and was used by prosecutors to justify a death sentence for its publisher, Julius Streicher. If only for the sake of history, the reading public should have access to one of the more intriguing and notorious publications of the Third Reich.

Sparing the Child

Sparing the Child
Author: Hamida Bosmajian
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 301
Release: 2013-09-13
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1135720304

Bosmajian explores children's texts that have either a Holocaust survivor or a former member of the Hitler Youth as a protagonist.