HOW AN IDEOLOGY CAPTURED A NATION

How in the world did a philosophy as evil and corrupt as that of National Socialism capture the minds, hearts, and wills of millions and millions of Germans in the 1930's? Let's examine that question by putting the process of capturing a nation into steps.

STEP ONE: MINIMIZE INCIDENCES OF RESISTANCE TO THE PHILOSOPHY

Hitler appointed Bernard Rust as Minister for Education. (We notice immediately that the state was in charge of education.) His task was to change the educational system so that resistance to the philosophy of the state was kept to a minimum. None of the neatly dressed, well-behaved primary-school students questioned [or were allowed to question] the new books, the new songs, the new syllabus, the new rules or the new standard script.

STEP TWO: IDEALIZE THE LEADER OF THE PHILOSOPHY

At school the students were taught to worship Adolf Hitler: As the teacher entered the class, the students would stand and raise their right arms. The teacher would say, "For the Führer a triple victory," answered by a chorus of Heil! three times. Every class started with a song. The almighty Führer would be staring at the students from his picture on the wall. These uplifting songs were brilliantly written and composed, transporting the children into a state of enthusiastic glee.

STEP THREE: INDOCTRINATE WITH THE PRINTED WORD

All school textbooks were withdrawn before new ones were published that reflected the Nazi ideology. A directive issued in January 1934, made it compulsory for schools to educate their pupils "in the spirit of National Socialism." School bulletin boards were covered in Nazi propaganda posters and teachers often read aloud articles written by anti-Semites. In every schoolbook was an illustration of Hitler with one of his sayings as a frontispiece.

New mathematics textbooks were introduced and included "social arithmetic," in which the children were to calculate how much it would cost the state to keep a mentally ill person alive in an asylum.

Biology textbooks had page after page showing the physical differences between Jews and Germans in grotesque drawings of Jewish noses, lips, and eyes. The book encouraged every child to note these differences and to bring anyone who bore Jewish features to the attention of their parents or teachers. The textbooks accused Jews of killing babies, loan-sharking, basic dishonesty, and conspiring to destroy Germany and rule the world. The descriptions in the textbooks of the Jewish people would convince any child that these were monsters.

STEP FOUR: REMOVE RESISTANCE TO THE PHILOSOPHY BY FORCE. REWARD COMPLIANCE

In 1933 all Jewish teachers were dismissed from German schools and universities.

Teachers who did not support the philosophy were fired. Teachers had to pretend to be Nazis in order to remain in their posts. If somebody wanted to be promoted, he had to show what a fine Nazi he was, whether he really believed what he was saying or not.

The teacher would enter the classroom and welcome the group with a ‘Hitler salute’, shouting "Heil Hitler!" Students would have to respond in the same manner. One of the jokes that circulated in Germany during this period was: "What is the shortest measurable unit of time? The time it takes a grade-school teacher to change his political allegiance." Gradually, the old teachers were replaced with younger ones, those who held to the philosophy of the state.

By 1938, two-thirds of all elementary school teachers were indoctrinated at special camps in a compulsory one-month training course of lectures. What they learned at camp they were expected to pass on to their students. Principals were instructed to dismiss teachers who were not supporters of Hitler.

One teacher, hostile to Hitler wrote to a friend, "In the schools it is not the teacher, but the pupils, who exercise authority. Party functionaries train their children to be spies and agent provocateurs."

Teachers constantly feared the possibility that their students would inform on them. One day a teacher asked a question. The student, who was wearing his Hitler Youth uniform, stood up and clicked his heels. The teacher became angry and shouted: "I don't want you to do this. I want you to act like a human being. I don't want machines. You're not a robot."

After the lesson he called the student into his office and apologized because he was afraid the student would  report him to the Gestapo."

A 38-year-old teacher told a joke to her class of twelve year-olds, that was slightly critical Hitler. She immediately realized that she had made a mistake and begged the children not to tell anybody about it. One of the children told his parents and they promptly informed the Gestapo. She immediately lost her job and sent to prison for three-weeks.

It worked the other way too: teachers encouraged students to inform on their parents. They were promised a reward of money if they denounced their parents or their neighbors. The teachers told them, "Even if you denounce your parents, and if you should love them, your real father is the Führer, and being his children, you will be the chosen ones, the heroes of the future."

The teachers assigned essays to answer the question, "What does your family talk about at home?" Parents became alarmed with the gradual brutalization of manners, impoverishment of vocabulary and rejection of their values. Their children became strangers, contemptuous of religion.

Nazi Germany is a case study in how the way could be cleared for the Antichrist, a man who will be revered as a god, to reign and kill during the Great Tribulation.

In reviewing all of the above data from Spartacus Educational of Britain, we can breathe a sigh of relief that such isn't happening in our country. Or is it?