a: Height: 1.750 inches (4.445 cm) | Width: 0.375 inches (0.953 cm) | Depth: 0.375 inches (0.953 cm) b: Height: 6.500 inches (16.51 cm) | Width: 0.375 inches (0.953 cm) | Depth: 0.375 inches (0.953 cm)
No restrictions on use
Metal nib and painted swirl patterned wooden pen holder used by a student in Dresden, Germany, during the government of the Third Reich, 1933-1945. After Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany in 1933, the Nazi authorities passed new laws that dictated who could teach and be educated in the German school system. Quotas were placed that restricted the number of Jewish students who could attend public schools, and under the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service Act, teachers that were Jewish or considered “politically unreliable” were purged from schools. The act also made Nazi Party membership compulsory for all remaining teachers. At the entrance to school, students had to lift their arms and say, “Heil Hitler!” School curriculum was changed to emphasize sports, history, and racial science with the purpose of indoctrinating students with Nazi ideology. Subjects such as religion became less important, and were eventually removed from the curriculum altogether. Any textbooks used to educate students had to be approved by the party. Censors removed books that did not meet these standards from the classroom, and introduced new textbooks that taught students militarism, racism, antisemitism, obedience to state authority, and love for Hitler. Instruction aimed to produce race-conscious, obedient, self-sacrificing Germans who would be willing to die for Führer and Fatherland. Nordic and other “Aryan” races were glorified while labeling Jews and other so-called “inferior” peoples as “parasitic, bastard races” incapable of creating culture or civilization.
D. Leonhardt & Co. Eureka nib and pen holder used by a student in Nazi Germany
No restrictions on access
The nib and pen holder was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1990 by the Schulmuseum des Rates des Bezirkes Dresden.
a. Silver colored metal pen nib with a convex end and an elongated oval body that tapers at the waist, flares out at the shoulders, and ends in a sharp point topped by a vertical vent. English and Greek text are engraved on the body and numbers and a letter above the vent. b. Elongated cylindrical wooden nib pen painted with a blue, red, and green pastel swirl pattern. It narrows at the ends and expands at the center of the grip. There is a circular metal insert with a slotted opening for the nib at the wider end. a. front, stamped : 516F a. front, stamped : D. LEONHARDT & Cos / εύρηκα [eureka] / HEMISPHERICAL POINT