A new type of historical instruction, and a particularly fertile field for propaganda, is the “geo-political” course. A textbook by Heinrich Schroder advocates the innovation, which will soon be generally established.
Classes are conducted as follows: a pupil is asked what he considers a “rightful battle for a common Reich,” and a little girl volunteers: “My conscience tells me what to do.”
The boy is more precise: “We must help provide bread for the unemployed, and we must get rid of the Jews. Wherever one hundred Jews are employed, there is work for only twelve Germans.” (Whatever that means….)
When the teacher invites the class to consider the German-speaking people abroad ( Auslandsdeutsche ), these are the answers he wants:
“We must help the Germans in Russia.”
“We must write to Germans abroad that they must not surrender their blood” (i.e., mix with non-Germans and so become less German).
“First we must fight to make Germany strong; and then we must come to the assistance of Germans abroad.”
The following conversation, quoted verbatim, is the clue to what Schröder and other educators mean when they speak of helping Germans abroad:
TEACHER: Our people have one blood and one language; but they lack one thing.
FRITZ: The German people have no common country.
RUDI: Adolf Hitler says that one blood belongs to one land.
ANNELIESE: We say this, but we can do nothing about it.
TEACHER: Then all Germans will never be able to live in one country?
MARIECHEN: The time must come.
RUDI: But the Führer cannot accomplish this alone. We must all help him.
TEACHER: Are you all helping him?
RUDI: I am helping by being a member of the Jungvolk and by fighting for Germany.
FRITZ: In my brown shirt I am fighting for Germany.
KARL: I have written letters to America to counteract the propaganda of the Jews who accuse us of perpetrating atrocities.
FRITZ: I have written letters to Danzig; and in my letters to Canada I have valiantly fought with my pen.
TEACHER: That is good. And I gather that our ultimate aim is clear to us all.
FRITZ: Our aim is one strong and unified Germany for all the Germans in the world.
TEACHER: Rudi has already quoted the significant words of our Fiihrer; we all utter these words reverently: “One blood belongs to one land!” Let us close the lesson by singing the Horst Wessel song.