Fibel für die deutsche Jugend

The book paints an overall view of Germany in 1940 as being akin to the Germany before WWI, with rosy-cheeked, chubby children living in hamlets filled with farm animals and non-mechanical means of handling daily chores. Only every so often does the "present time" become apparent, as with the picture on p. 12 of a child who has barely made it across the street after a big, sleek car goes by, or a slickly-dressed traffic officer attending to trolley car and pedestrian traffic on p. 69. Any pictures with more modern trappings are set in bigger cities, with many buildings showing in the background. The more ominous pictures show the influence of the Third Reich on society: on p. 45 an innocent verse about the drums in a parade is illustrated with files of black uniformed men marching under the flags of the German military; a little story on p. 60-61 is about the uniforms little boys wear in school, showing one of their duties to be raising the red, black and white Nazi flag in the schoolyard; a reading entitled, "Am 20. April" celebrating "Der Führer's" (Hitler) birthday, urging the children to offer a "Sieg-Heil" to him.