Description
Book SynopsisKamenetsky 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.
Trade Review“In a significant study based on years of archival research and embracing a wealth of primary sources, Christa Kamenetsky demonstrates exactly how the Nazis indoctrinated ‘the young nation.’…[This is] a richly rewarding and historically informative tapestry.…Highly recommended for the insight it gives into a neglected area of youth culture in the Third Reich.” * American Historical Review *
"Throughout her study, Kamenetsky provides a vast number of documents, references, and illustrations to present a comprehensive picture of how the Nazis sought to institutionalize children’s literature. She also demonstrates the gaps and weaknesses in this process of institutionalization that prevented the Nazis from completely capturing the minds of the young.” * Germanic Review *
“(Kamenetsky’s) study overwhelms the reader with the picture of what surely must have been a censor’s utopia, for she reveals the two-fold dream of censors in operation: aggression against everything that does not fit the censor’s view and imposition of a predetermined value system by the censor whose aggression has been successful.” * Children's Literature *
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Children’s Literature in Hitler’s Germany presents a fascinating picture of political censorship, control of publishing, and manipulation of story, and suggests that literature, when used to teach cultural values, can become a standard for conformity…. As German leaders began to reshape children’s literature, traditional fiction was discarded in favor of German and Nordic folklore, which was rewritten to fit the ideals of Nazi leaders. Germans, it was argued, should be aware of their true origins, and should realize that their peasant beginnings held the moral and cultural fiber most important to Germanic civilization.” * Children's Literature Association Quarterly *
