REALITIES OF UKRAINIAN SCHOOL EDUCATION IN THE GERMAN OCCUPATION REGIME OF 1941-1943

Abstract

The situation and functioning of school education during the Second World War had a significant impact on the consciousness of the Ukrainian population. An analysis of the actual situation in the field of primary and secondary education shows that the aspirations of the leaders of the Third Reich and the Ukrainian intelligentsia were completely contradictory. The Nazi occupation regime pursued a policy that did not provide for the education of the Ukrainian population. The Ukrainian intelligentsia, in their articles in periodicals, demonstrated their aspirations rather than the real state of education. Under the strong pressure of the Nazi occupation authorities and under the influence of Hitler’s propaganda, the editors of the periodicals were forced to present a beautiful picture of education under the Nazi occupation regime. The analysis of sources and documents of various origins revealed the real state of the educational policy of the Nazi occupation authorities and its consequences. Although a certain number of primary and secondary schools were functioning in the first months of the occupation, there was a chronic shortage of teachers. This was due to the fact that most of them were sent to work in Germany, while others did not want to teach children in the new ideological realities. The occupation authorities were interested in educating Ukrainian children in vocational schools, where they could quickly learn a trade and go to work in factories or in agriculture. Under the conditions of brutal terror and suppression of national education, public schools turned into a miserable spectacle. The work of the schools was accompanied by constant problems with the lack of textbooks, teachers and heating for the school premises.