A is for Adolf is an online version of an exhibition on display at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris from 25 January 2016 to 28 February 2016. This exhibition was chosen in accordance with the theme of the 2016 International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust (observed 27 January): "From Words to Genocide: Antisemitic Propaganda and the Holocaust."
The original 2011 exhibition A is for Adolf showed the Wiener Library's unique collection of Nazi children's books, games and toys to the public for the very first time. This propaganda collection's history dates back to the early work of the Library's founder, Dr Alfred Wiener, a German-Jewish refugee. At the time when this collection was first begun, Wiener and several colleagues were based at the Jewish Central Information Office in Amsterdam, working to counter Nazi propaganda and to raise global awareness of the true nature of Hitler's regime. The Wiener Library's propaganda collection still has an important role to play today, providing a rare insight into the complex relationship between the Nazi regime and those it sought to indoctrinate. We are grateful to the Ernest Hecht Charitable Foundation for their grant which enables us to acquire new rare items relating to the indoctrination of children in the Nazi era.
The exhibition has four themes: School; Experiences of Jewish Children; The Hitler Youth; and Beyond School. Each theme displays images of original materials held by the Wiener Library in London, accompanied by explanatory texts. The aim is to show various ways that the Nazis tried to influence German children both at school and in other contexts. Nazi propaganda sought to shape every aspect of young people's thoughts, especially their perception of the self and the 'other,' the 'German' and the 'Jew'.