THE NAZI IDEAL OF HUMANKIND, YOUTH IMAGE, AND CHILD REPRESENTATION PRACTICES

Abstract

In my paper, I aim to examine the ideal of humanity, youth and child representation in Nazi imagery and plastic depictions through the ideological products of the period, using the iconographic-iconological method. The imagery of this period directly reflected the slogans of Nazi ideology: the ideal of the healthy, strong Aryan man and the image of the self-sacrificing, family-devoted woman, which appeared in paintings and sculptures with a propagandistic character, approaching fundamental questions of human existence in a highly discriminatory and overly essentialist manner. Children were mostly depicted within a family context or as members of the Hitler Youth, far from being valued for their own sake. The evolving, maturing child was not a focus of the visual culture of the period, which, being future-oriented, projected Nazi ideals, objectives, and ideological expectations onto representations of children, families, and youth alike. In my writing, I investigate the distinctive ways in which new ideals manifested in the ideologically harmful visual culture of the Nazi era. Given the awkward nature of Nazi representations, it is also worth focusing on the destructive effects of ideologically damaging visual culture.