The Freemason, who was offered to the children as an enemy, was a failure all the way through. They may be as disgusting as “Dr. Freemason” in the play, and of course they’re enemies, but what are they like? “Have you ever seen one?” asks the German child.
The need is for vivid enemies. Above all, it is necessary to keep up the pretense of struggle, an eternal Kampf, with an antagonist who can be identified, recognized face to face, and who can offer the further stimulus of power, or at least the power of resistance. The men controlling the third circle of the German child, from which there is no escape, turn to the other two influences, which, according to them, exist only through their benevolence — the influences which surround the child, and are now to be labeled as enemies — the school and the family.
The school represents an acceptable enemy, a mild, weaponless opponent, without a place to escape to (and by connotation, the church is included here) — an enemy who is still alive and not as dull as the dead.
“Our teacher has a thin, pale nose. The end is flat because at the end of every sentence he strokes it with his right hand. He talks too much. Yesterday he talked about the summer solstice. Like this: ‘On the 21st of June, the sun has reached its apex. Apex means the highest point. Apex means culmination. Culmination is derived from the Latin culminare…. ’ At this moment, Fred who sits beside me, drew his Hitler Boy Quex[a Nazi Youth book] out of his school-bag and started looking for the place he was reading yesterday, while the fellow up in front kept talking about the ‘vocative.’… Fred must have swallowed a fly, for he suddenly began to cough terribly. But it’s just as well, or else I’d have continued thinking for at least another half hour — and it’s never any good to think for more than five minutes on end. Especially not for a boy….”
That is Jungvolk (No. 6, 1934) mocking at school, teachers, the vocative, and all thought, no matter how slight. If this were a private, boy’s magazine, brought out by boys, there would be nothing very objectionable in its tone. But this is official and absolute, edited by the leaders of the State Youth or their subordinates — and its mockery is only a skirmish in Schirach’s war against the school.
In each issue of these periodicals — and they are all official — there are at least two or three contributions with the same derisive aim. One essay is “A Fine Educator!” In the same issue of Jungvolk, the “defensive battle” is, this time, against an obviously well-meaning teacher who submitted a song to the editors.
“There is but one point at which we are sensitive,” the essay irritably begins, “and that is when people mix into our affairs; when they try to palm off their old-fashioned poems on us as though they were timely and up to the minute.”
The little song which is reprinted is hardly to be distinguished from others found in Jungvolk. The entire attitude of resentment can be explained only by this hatred of “people,” and especially teachers, who “mix into” Nazi affairs. The literary level of the publications and of the poetry is hardly one which permits the editors to criticize other authors on literary grounds.
The song is intended as a happy Wanderlied (marching song) and begins in traditional mildness.
Wenn der Kuckkuck lacht in grüner Ferne —