Behind the Bedroom Wall

At school, Korinna and her classmates paste together pages of their history textbooks, concealing pages that are “forbidden” because they no longer align with the regime’s desired view of German history (19). At this point in the story, Korinna is cheerful about the process, hoping that their new history textbooks will erase mention of the Treaty of Versailles, which (per the regime’s propaganda) should never have been negotiated. Actively altering history books symbolizes the effort of the Nazi machine to rewrite history. This insidious propaganda positions German children to see Aryans as mighty, powerful, and racially superior. The fact that the regime led children to actively modify textbooks at school is a particularly disturbing aspect of the effort.

Korinna’s black book, a standard-issue part of her membership in the local jungmädel, symbolizes children’s role in reporting un-German and traitorous behavior. Children were taught, through systematic and emotive propaganda, that loyalty to the Fatherland should come above all else—even above loyalty to one’s own family. This created an atmosphere of suspicion and mistrust in Nazi Germany; reporting often resulted in arrest and deportation to a work camp.

Korinna’s participation in this system is evident when she reports the frustration of her teacher, Frau Meiser, at having to continually alter their history books.