School for Barbarians

Erika Mann, a member of the generation of German youth during World War II, witnessed firsthand how the Third Reich distorted the prestigious education system, turning schools into instruments of brainwashing. These methods included separating children from their parents, asserting racial superiority over science, and cultivating a cult of personality in the Führer.

A School for Barbarians: Education Under Nazi Rule, published in 1938 as Nazism was consolidating its power, was one of the greatest exposés of all time, and a disturbing warning about how easily education could be turned into a tool for totalitarian ends.