Dangerous Games Political Indoctrination Of Nazi Ideology

Erin Krawchuk Hist 421 December 10, 2015 Dangerous Games: Political Indoctrination of Nazi Ideology The rise of the Nazi Party, saw a rise of attention to the German Youth, who were rapidly becoming a core political component of the party. Nazis viewed children as the perfect breeding ground for their ideology, as early indoctrination of party ideals and norms would ensure the security of the Third Reich into the future. With this in mind, the Hitler Youth program was one of the more successful programs of the Nazi Party, as the mass organization used palatable forms of propaganda such as entertaining songs and activities to appeal to the younger masses. (kater)Emboldened by the efficacy of indoctrinating children through the†¦show more content†¦Thus this study seeks to look at how material goods, specifically board games for children, functioned as a tool for indoctrinating youth into supporting the goals of the Third Reich. Material culture is often described as the study of artefacts of human creation. (james)These objects can be used to examine broader social movem ents, as they are a product of the environment they were created in. While they do not provide concrete historical facts they do provide,† concretions of the realities of belief of other people in other times and places, (prown) When looking at children of the past it is often hard to find sources that directly reflect their daily experience, which is why the study of material culture is extremely advantageous in studying children’s history, as it displays the society’s expectation of the child through the objects given to them. One area of life that is often studied in regards to the history of childhood, is play. Usually seen as apolitical, play, is something that is associated with carefree naivety of youth. However, this is a wrong assumption as these supposedly innocent actions are actually† deeply affected by [the] context and the wider material environment they are situated in.†(derevenski. There is tangible links to the broader concerns of soc iety in play and playthings. The object or toy then can be understood as a tool for molding youth into the desired adult subjects, as it