This discussion will explore the role of educational systems and their underlying ideology in Nazi Germany and the United States as they each sought to create a specific national identity during the 1920s through the 1940s.

After Adolf Hitler was appointed German Chancellor in January 1933, the new Nazi government began an effort to completely reorder public and private life in Germany. It quickly targeted German universities - among the most elite in the world at the time - for restructuring according to Nazi principles. These forces, along with increasing antisemitism under Nazi rule, transformed everyday life at German universities, from the curriculum that was taught, the instructors that the university employed, and the type of community that students sought to build.

During this same period, indigenous boarding schools in the United States (in existence since 1819) thrived on principles that also defined if - and how - Native American children could be part of American society.

Using a curriculum that sought to violently “civilize” and “assimilate” these children, these schools too drew upon racist ideology. While these policies had very different outcomes, they were both based on shared ideas of “racial” hierarchy and national belonging.