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Slate pencil covered with a blue patterned wrapper used by a student in Nazi Germany

Object | Accession Number: 1990.45.4

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    Slate pencil covered with a blue patterned wrapper used by a student in Nazi Germany

    Overview

    Brief Narrative
    Slate pencil used by a student in Germany before and during the Holocaust. Slate pencils were used by students to write on slate blackboards, or slates, which were made from thin sheets of stone. The slate pencils were made from a softer stone. 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 restricting the number of Jewish students who could attend public schools were established. Under the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service Act, Jewish teachers or ones considered “politically unreliable” were purged from schools, and Nazi Party membership was 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 Germans who would be willing to die for the Führer and Fatherland. Nordic and other “Aryan” races were glorified, while Jews and other peoples were deemed inferior.
    Date
    use:  1940-1944
    use:  before 1945
    Geography
    use: Germany
    Credit Line
    United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Schulmuseum Berlin.

    Physical Details

    Object Type
    Slate pencil (aat)
    Genre/Form
    Writing materials.
    Physical Description
    Thin, gray-colored, slate pencil with a pointed, conical tip, which tapers down to a flattened point. The top end of the pencil is flat, and the upper half is covered by white paper, decorated with rows of blue diamond patterns.
    Dimensions
    overall: Height: 6.375 inches (16.192 cm) | Depth: 0.250 inches (0.635 cm)
    Materials
    overall : slate, paper, ink

    Rights & Restrictions

    Conditions on Access
    No restrictions on access
    Conditions on Use
    No restrictions on use

    Keywords & Subjects

    Geographic Name
    Germany.

    Administrative Notes

    Provenance
    The pencil was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1990 by the Schulmuseum Berlin.
    Record last modified:
    2022-11-03 11:10:11
    This page:
    https:​/​/collections.ushmm.org​/search​/catalog​/irn521578

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