Nazis based their elite schools on top British private schools

Eton and Harrow among those whose character-building' qualities were admired by German educators in 1930s and 1940s

Nazi Germany's elite schools, which were set up to train future leaders of the Third Reich, used British private schools such as Eton and Harrow as their models, a new book reveals.

The historian Helen Roche has written the first comprehensive history of Nazi elite schools, known as Napolas. Drawing on research undertaken in 80 archives in six countries as well as testimonies from more than 100 former pupils, Roche discovered just how keen the Nazis were to learn from the character-forming" example of the British system.