Wooden sliding lid pencil box with a rose decal used by a student in Nazi Germany
Extent and Medium
overall: Height: 1.000 inches (2.54 cm) | Width: 9.125 inches (23.178 cm) | Depth: 2.375 inches (6.033 cm)
Archival History
The pencil box was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1990 by the Schulmuseum des Rates des Bezirkes Dresden.
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of the Schulmuseum des Rates des Bezirkes Dresden
Funding Note: The cataloging of this artifact has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
Scope and Content
Wooden pencil holder with a rose decal used by a student in Dresden, Germany, during the government of the Third Reich, 1933-1945. After Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany in 1933, the Nazi authorities passed new laws that dictated who could teach and be educated in the German school system. Quotas were placed that restricted the number of Jewish students who could attend public schools, and under the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service Act, teachers that were Jewish or considered “politically unreliable” were purged from schools. The act also made Nazi Party membership compulsory for all remaining teachers. At the entrance to school, students had to lift their arms and say, “Heil Hitler!” School curriculum was changed to emphasize sports, history, and racial science with the purpose of indoctrinating students with Nazi ideology. Subjects such as religion became less important, and were eventually removed from the curriculum altogether. Any textbooks used to educate students had to be approved by the party. Censors removed books that did not meet these standards from the classroom, and introduced new textbooks that taught students militarism, racism, antisemitism, obedience to state authority, and love for Hitler. Instruction aimed to produce race-conscious, obedient, self-sacrificing Germans who would be willing to die for Führer and Fatherland. Nordic and other “Aryan” races were glorified while labeling Jews and other so-called “inferior” peoples as “parasitic, bastard races” incapable of creating culture or civilization.
Conditions Governing Access
No restrictions on access
Conditions Governing Reproduction
No restrictions on use
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Rectangular light brown lacquered wooden box with slightly rounded corners. The lid exterior has a decal with 5 pink roses, a circular depression, and incised dots and lines on the long edges. The sliding lid fits into a U shaped cutout on the base. On the underside of the base is a piece of green tape and gouged lines. The base interior has 3 oval horizontal compartments of varying lengths. On the lid interior is a crudely scratched name. A rectangular mark and numbers are stamped and handwritten on the tape.
base, exterior, bottom, handwritten, blue ink : /27 7 (European style 7) lid, interior, carved : K. N EUMANN (N is backwards)
Subjects
- Fascism and education--Germany--History--20th century.
- Education--Germany--History--20th century.
- Schools--Germany--Dresden.
- National socialism and education--Germany.
Genre
- Containers
- Object