The Third Reich's Elite Schools: A History of the Napolas

Drawing on material from eighty archives in six different countries worldwide, as well as eyewitness testimonies from over 100 former pupils, Helen Roche presents the first comprehensive history of the Third Reich's most prominent elite schools, the National Political Education Institutes (Napolas / NPEA). The Napolas provided an all-encompassing National Socialist 'total education', featuring ideological indoctrination, premilitary training, and a packed programme of extracurricular activities, including school trips and exchanges throughout Europe and beyond. Combining all the most seductive elements of reform-pedagogy, youth-movement traditions, and the militaristic ethos of the Prussian cadet schools, the schools took pupils from the age of ten, aiming to train them for leadership roles in all walks of life. Those who successfully passed the gruelling entrance examination, which tested applicants' physical prowess, courage, and alleged 'racial purity' along with their academic abilities, had to learn to live in a highly militarized and enclosed boarding-school community. Through an in-depth depiction of everyday life at the Napolas, as well as systematic analysis of the ways in which different schools within the NPEA system were shaped by their previous traditions, this study sheds light on the qualities which the Nazi regime desired to instil in its future citizens, whilst also contributing to key debates on the political, social, and cultural history of the Third Reich, demonstrating that the history of education and youth can illuminate the broader history of this era in novel ways. Ultimately, the NPEA can be seen as the Nazi dictatorship's most effective educational experiment.

History

Roche, Helen

Europe

Oxford University Press

Drawing on material from eighty archives in six different countries worldwide, as well as eyewitness testimonies from over 100 former pupils, Helen Roche presents the first comprehensive history of the Third Reich's most prominent elite schools, the National Political Education Institutes (Napolas / NPEA). The Napolas provided an all-encompassing National Socialist 'total education', featuring ideological indoctrination, premilitary training, and a packed programme of extracurricular activities, including school trips and exchanges throughout Europe and beyond. Combining all the most seductive elements of reform-pedagogy, youth-movement traditions, and the militaristic ethos of the Prussian cadet schools, the schools took pupils from the age of ten, aiming to train them for leadership roles in all walks of life. Those who successfully passed the gruelling entrance examination, which tested applicants' physical prowess, courage, and alleged 'racial purity' along with their academic abilities, had to learn to live in a highly militarized and enclosed boarding-school community. Through an in-depth depiction of everyday life at the Napolas, as well as systematic analysis of the ways in which different schools within the NPEA system were shaped by their previous traditions, this study sheds light on the qualities which the Nazi regime desired to instil in its future citizens, whilst also contributing to key debates on the political, social, and cultural history of the Third Reich, demonstrating that the history of education and youth can illuminate the broader history of this era in novel ways. Ultimately, the NPEA can be seen as the Nazi dictatorship's most effective educational experiment.

Together with the sites of Newgrange and Dowth, Knowth makes up the archaeological complex at Br? na BÃ?Â?Ã?Â?inne, and there has been enormous interest in this internationally important site over the years. George Eogan has been excavating the site at Knowth since 1962 and this is the second major report published in the Academy's Monographs in Archaeology series. The book deals with prehistoric settlement at the site starting with the arrival of people who practised farming there about 4000 years ago and it records important new evidence for settlement.

Excavations at Knowth Volume 2 (2)

Eogan, George

Royal Irish Academy

An Analysis of Ian Kershaw's The "Hitler Myth": Image and Reality in the Third Reich (The Macat Library)

Few historical problems are more baffling in retrospect than the conundrum of how Hitler was able to rise to power in Germany and then command the German people – many of whom had only marginal interest in or affiliation to Nazism – and the Nazi state. It took Ian Kershaw – author of the standard two-volume biography of Hitler – to provide a truly convincing solution to this problem. Kershaw's model blends theory – notably Max Weber's concept of ‘charismatic leadership’ – with new archival research into the development of the Hitler ‘cult’ from its origins in the 1920s to its collapse in the face of the harsh realities of the latter stages of World War II. Kershaw’s model also looks at dictatorship from an unusual angle: not from the top down, but from the bottom up, seeking to understand what ordinary Germans thought about their leader. Kershaw's broad approach is a problem-solving one. Most obviously, he actively interrogates his evidence, asking highly productive questions that lead him to fresh understandings and help generate solutions that are credibly rooted in the archives. Kershaw’s theories also have application elsewhere; the model set out in The ‘Hitler Myth’ has been used to analyse other charismatic leaders, including several from ideologically-opposed backgrounds.

The "Hitler Myth" (The Macat Library)

Literature & Fiction

History & Criticism

Macat

An Analysis of Timothy Snyder's Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin (The Macat Library)

A flagbearer for the increasingly fashionable genre of "transnational history," Timothy Snyder's Bloodlands is, first and foremost, a stunning example of the critical thinking skill of evaluation. Snyder's linguistic precocity allows him to cite evidence in 10 languages, putting fresh twists on the familiar story of World War II fighting on the Eastern Front from 1941-45. In doing so, he works to humanize the estimated 14 million people who lost their lives as their lands were fought over repeatedly by the Nazis and their Soviet opponents.  Snyder also works to link more closely the atrocities committed by Hitler and Stalin, which he insists are far too often viewed in isolation. He focuses heavily on the adequacy and relevance of his evidence, but he also uses the materials he has culled from so many different archives as fuel for an exemplary work of reasoning, forcing readers to confront the grim realities that lie behind terms such as ‘cannibalism’ and ‘liquidation.’ In consequence, Bloodlands has emerged, only a few years after its publication, as one of the seminal works of its era, one that is key to Holocaust studies, genocide studies and area studies, and to sociology as well as to history. A masterly work of literature as well as of history, Bloodlands will continue to be read for decades.

An Analysis of Timothy Snyder's Bloodlands (The Macat Library)

Macat Library

Few historical problems are more baffling in retrospect than the conundrum of how Hitler was able to rise to power in Germany and then command the German people – many of whom had only marginal interest in or affiliation to Nazism – and the Nazi state. It took Ian Kershaw – author of the standard two-volume biography of Hitler – to provide a truly convincing solution to this problem. Kershaw's model blends theory – notably Max Weber's concept of ‘charismatic leadership’ – with new archival research into the development of the Hitler ‘cult’ from its origins in the 1920s to its collapse in the face of the harsh realities of the latter stages of World War II. Kershaw’s model also looks at dictatorship from an unusual angle: not from the top down, but from the bottom up, seeking to understand what ordinary Germans thought about their leader.  Kershaw's broad approach is a problem-solving one. Most obviously, he actively interrogates his evidence, asking highly productive questions that lead him to fresh understandings and help generate solutions that are credibly rooted in the archives. Kershaw’s theories also have application elsewhere; the model set out in The ‘Hitler Myth’ has been used to analyse other charismatic leaders, including several from ideologically-opposed backgrounds.

A flagbearer for the increasingly fashionable genre of "transnational history," Timothy Snyder's Bloodlands is, first and foremost, a stunning example of the critical thinking skill of evaluation. Snyder's linguistic precocity allows him to cite evidence in 10 languages, putting fresh twists on the familiar story of World War II fighting on the Eastern Front from 1941-45. In doing so, he works to humanize the estimated 14 million people who lost their lives as their lands were fought over repeatedly by the Nazis and their Soviet opponents. 
Snyder also works to link more closely the atrocities committed by Hitler and Stalin, which he insists are far too often viewed in isolation. He focuses heavily on the adequacy and relevance of his evidence, but he also uses the materials he has culled from so many different archives as fuel for an exemplary work of reasoning, forcing readers to confront the grim realities that lie behind terms such as ‘cannibalism’ and ‘liquidation.’ In consequence, Bloodlands has emerged, only a few years after its publication, as one of the seminal works of its era, one that is key to Holocaust studies, genocide studies and area studies, and to sociology as well as to history. A masterly work of literature as well as of history, Bloodlands will continue to be read for decades.

The first ever guide to the manifold uses and reinterpretations of the classical tradition in Mussolini's Italy and Hitler's Germany, Brill's Companion to the Classics, Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany explores how political propaganda manipulated and reinvented the legacy of ancient Greece and Rome in order to create consensus and historical legitimation for the Fascist and National Socialist dictatorships. The memory of the past is a powerful tool to justify policy and create consensus, and, under the Fascist and Nazi regimes, the legacy of classical antiquity was often evoked to promote thorough transformations of Italian and German culture, society, and even landscape. At the same time, the classical past was constantly recreated to fit the ideology of each regime.

Brills Companion to the Classics, Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany (Brill's Companions to Classical Reception, 12)

Ancient Civilizations

BRILL

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Roche, Helen. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Roche, Helen

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Roche, Helen. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Third Reich's Elite Schools: A History of the Napolas

The Third Reich's Elite Schools: A History of the Napolas

Excavations at Knowth Volume 2 (2)

The "Hitler Myth" (The Macat Library)

An Analysis of Timothy Snyder's Bloodlands (The Macat Library)

An Analysis of Ian Kershaw's The "Hitler Myth": Image and Reality in the Third Reich (The Macat Library)

An Analysis of Timothy Snyder's Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin (The Macat Library)

Brills Companion to the Classics, Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany (Brill's Companions to Classical Reception, 12)