Education: Test in Aachen

In Aachen, first sizable German city to be captured by U.S. troops, a great experiment is about to begin. Last week the Aachen presses were printing the first of 20,000 new textbooks. Next month, the United Nations will take their momentous first step in the re-education of Nazi Germany: under the supervision of U.S. Army military government officers, classes will reopen for first-to-fourth-grade students.

Aachen’s teachers were chosen from those on the scene who, by a meticulous, secret, weeding process, had been found free of any past connection with the Nazi Party. Of Aachen’s 325 pre-war teachers, 49 were still in the city. Of these, 26 were pronounced fit, a percentage which the Army considered high. As in Italy (TIME, Feb. 5), it was made sure that Germany’s new texts—six primers and three arithmetic books—are clear of fascist taints. This was accomplished by the simple process of choosing them from a collection of 1,200 pre-Nazi German textbooks owned by Columbia University.