Nazi Germany used British public schools like Eton and Harrow as a 'model' for their education system during the 1930s, a new book reveals.
The Third Reich cultivated links with the UK through a series of student and staff exchanges, according to a leading historian.
Dr Helen Roche, of Durham University, drew on 80 archives in six countries worldwide, as well as eyewitness testimonies from more than 100 former pupils.
Children from Nazi National Socialist elite schools, known as Napolas, took part in exchanges with Eton, Harrow, Winchester, Westminster, and Rugby, from 1934-9.
The Napola pupils were seen as ‘cultural ambassadors’ for the ‘new Germany’. The British public schools were used as a model for the Nazi elite school system.
One of their leaders, August Heißmeyer, often praised the ‘character-forming’ education of our public schools as a model for the Napolas during their exchange trips.
Inspector Heißmeyer believed that "the young man will see Germany with new eyes; he will return rich in experiences; his horizons will be broadened...; he will detect weaknesses at home which he must help to remedy. He will learn to love his Fatherland more deeply."
Dr Roche said: “In the early days, the English boys and masters often felt that what they saw in Nazi Germany and at the Napolas was in some ways superior to the state of affairs in England.
“There was a feeling, which found its way into wider British attitudes towards Germany, that Britain would do well to emulate Germany’s racial confidence, and there was an admiration for the sheer strength and physical development of the German boys.”
An Englishman named 'Frank T', who took part in the exchange, said: “I can remember thinking that we had a lot to learn from the high motivation of the German students and their belief in the superiority of the German race.
"In comparison we seemed to have little motivation.”
The first three Napolas were founded in 1933 as a birthday present for Hitler by the then Prussian Culture Minister, Bernhard Rust.
By 1945, there were more than 40 Napola schools established throughout the ‘Greater German Reich’, including four for girls, which were used to indoctrinate young Germans.
- The Third Reich's Elite Schools – a History of the Napolas, is published by Oxford University Press.
