Adolf Hitler understood the importance of getting his ideology out to the youth of his nation. He did this through his Hitler Youth program and the public education system. This process of indoctrination occurred immediately after his appointment as chancellor. The major feature of Nazi schools was that they were essentially propaganda machines. Teachers were trained in the tenets of National Socialism and were expected to communicate them to their students. Important in this ideology was the pseudoscience of race biology and a doctrine of racism. Germans were taught that Jews were an inferior race and were the cause of many of the nation's problems. Jews were excluded from German schools as teachers and students.

German schools were also tasked with the duty of preparing students for war. Physical education took on a new importance as did geography and history. Much of the science curriculum focused on studying the races and biological differences between Aryans and the other races. Some teachers resisted teaching the Nazi ideology out of a sense of human decency, but most were too afraid to agitate the party.