To What Extend Was Nazi Propaganda Successful in Gaining Hearts and Minds of the Youth?

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To what extend was Nazi propaganda successful in gaining hearts and minds of the youth? Although Germany never won the World War II it is sometimes claimed to have won at least the war of propaganda. Hitler managed to impose his ideas on youth from early childhood and he used mainly education and youth movements to achieve his aims. In my essay, I am going to asses to what extend was he successful in gaining the hearts of youngsters with particular focus on those two aspects and their mutual influence. In pursuing of his aims, Hitler started to indoctrinate children when they were three. As soon as they were capable of perceiving the world, they encountered the NSDAP ideology not only in their everyday life, but more significantly at school. Education became a powerful mean of spreading the propaganda and this approach was reflected also in the change of syllabus. PE became one of the most important subjects, since values like obedience and physical strength very generally promoted. Great coverage was also given to subjects like History, racist biology and German literature which were considered most suitable for spreading the philosophy of Nazism. What’s more, everything was shaped according to this ideology , what can be clearly seen in a Dictation Exercise from a primary school in 1934 : Just as Jesus saved people from sin and from Hell, Hitler saves the German Volk from ruin… Jesus built for heaven: Hitler for the German earth. Such approach caused that most children didn’t came across any other set of values and in fact had no other possibility and were forced to accept them as true. However, the glorification of mediocrity that significantly influenced German art of those times played a crucial role also in devaluation of the quality of German educational system. In addition the membership in youth organization went against studying, since German boys were
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