[The following is taken from a memoir of Irmgard A. Hunt, who grew up in the mountains under Hitler’s Eagles Nest during the Second World War.]
With this second baby my mother referred to her battered baby book. She grated fewer carrots for the fresh, vitamin-rich juice that had given my skin an orange hue.
[…]
The green paperback, written in the 1920s, had been meant for a miserably poor middle-class readership. It was filled with hints for how to deal with tiny, windowless city apartments with no heat or fresh air, or with the inability to take the baby outdoors or to hag its wet, hand-washed diapers outside to dry.
[…]
She was amused that the authors of the green book found it necessary to warn against toughening the baby in ice-cold water. “Must have been a Prussian custom, for who else would think of such a thing,” she said, shaking her head.
Source:
Hunt, Irmgard A. “Ominous Undercurrents.” On Hitler’s Mountain: Overcoming the Legacy of a Nazi Childhood. New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 2005. 62-63. Print.
view the rest of the comments →
rwbj ago
They still do something similar to this in Iceland. Babies are left outside to nap in the freezing cold. Here is a quick article on it. They have one of the highest life expectancies in the world, were one of the only countries in the world to hold their bankers accountable for the 2009 crash, rank constantly as one of the happiest countries in the world, have more chess grandmasters per capita than anywhere else in the world, and much more.
pitenius ago
Similar in Japan.