Online Book Launch: The Third Reich's Elite Schools: A History of the Napolas (Oxford University Press, 2021).

Hosted by Helen Roche  Associate Professor in Modern European Cultural History

Chair : Joachim Whaley, Professor of German History and Thought, University of Cambridge

Panellists:

Rebecca Clifford, Professor of European and Transnational History, Durham University

Moritz Föllmer, Associate Professor of Modern History, University of Amsterdam

The Third Reich’s Elite Schools tells the story of the Napolas, Nazi Germany’s most prominent training academies for the future elite. Modelled on the English public schools, the Prussian cadet corps, and the harsh educational practices of ancient Sparta, these boarding schools took pupils from the age of ten upwards, moulding them into potential future leaders of the Third Reich. Fusing original research from eighty archives worldwide and eyewitness testimonies from over 100 former pupils, the book gives an in-depth account of everyday life at the schools, whilst also shedding fresh light on the political, social, and cultural history of the Nazi dictatorship.