"The weak must be chiseled away. I

want young men and women who

can suffer pain. A young German

must be as swift as a greyhound, as

tough as leather, and as hard as

Krupp's steel."-Adolf Hitler

THE BEGINNING

In the 1930’s, Paul Von Hindenburg had appointed Hitler chancellor of Germany. Hindenburg did not want to elect Hitler for president, but he found no one else suitable. Germany was in midst the Great Depression, and Hindenburg needed someone to help the country out of it. Germany also needed a moderate leader, and someone who could bring together enough votes to rule the country. As a result, Hitler seemed like the only good solution for Germany. Hitler was elected, and that was when the nightmare of the Holocaust began. The Holocaust was the murder of six million Jews by the Nazi’s,

What you need to know

Adolf Hitler stands at one of his rallies,

addressing the immense, eager crowd of Germans and Hitler Youth. Hitler

LONG LIVE ADOLF HITLER- Boys of the

Hitler Youth cheer when seeing Hitler at one of the may famous Hitler Youth rallies.

HITLER IN THE EYE OF THE

YOUTH “Youth Serve’s the

Leader: All 10 year

olds into the [Hitler Youth].” Devotion

to Adolf Hitler was key to training.

but it was also the evolution of the Hitler Youth, or the Hitler-Jugend. The Hitler Youth were young children that worshiped him and followed in his footsteps. Eventually, they came to be one of the greatest and most powerful youth organizations in the world. Their development and power is attributed to Adolf Hitler’s leadership and influence.

How the Hitler Youth came to be

• • •

HITLER YOUTH CAMPS: ACTIVITIES

Male members of the Hitler Youth are instructed on how to use a cabin rifle in the Hitler Youth camps.

Group of young Hitler Youth girls are instructed to complete a task. This is a good example of how they Hitler Youth girls dressed. They all had to look the same.

Hitler Youth Memorabilia

The Official Flag of the

HitlerJugend

Members of the League of German Girls practice their gymnastics routine.

The Hilter-Jugend organization officially started on Adolf Hitler’s birthday, April 20th, 1933, when children were sworn in with the well-known Blood Banner. The Blood Banner had been dipped in the blood of Herbert Norkus and other model citizens who had devoted their lives for Hitler. Although some parents did not approve of their children being in this organization, the kids thought that the camping and parades sounded like fun. The Hitler Youth was divided into two sections: boys and girls. Girls, at the age of 10, joined the League of Young Girls. At 14 they went to the League of German Girls. Both the girls and the boys aimed for goals. The goal for German girls was to grow up to be good mothers. They did physical activities as well as simple chores like making a bed. For the boys, their main goal was to grow up to become a Nazi soldier. The boys hoped to become future SA or SS members.

Part of the oath the boys and girls needed to say in order to be

sworn in was “…I am willing and ready to give up my life for him, so help me God.” meaning that these children were so devoted to please their Fuhrer that they would give up their own life to earn his respect. There were several activities the boys and the girls did each day, as the Hitler Youth was very organized and methodical. This in turn contributed to how powerful the Hitler Youth came to be.

Was Everyone Eligible?

NOT EVERYONE GERMAN BOY AND GIRL COULD

JOIN THE FUN

Not everyone was eligible for the Hitler Youth. The children had to take a written exam as part of their entry. They had to know their racial background, which had to be from the Aryan descent. Only healthy boys and girls were permitted. Blond hair and blue eyes claimed a child to be from the Aryan descent. The Aryan’s were superior to all races, and anyone who did not look Aryan was not considered for this organization. Also, some disabled children could be in the Hitler Youth, and also the blind and the deaf, as long as their imperfection wasn’t inherited. Mentally handicapped people could not be in the Hitler Youth, presumably because they made this organization of superior Germans “look bad”. Of course, Jews and Gypsies could not be in the Hitler Youth, even half Jews or Jews who now practiced Christianity were excluded. They were strongly discriminated against. Children whose parents had relationships with Jews were not admitted into the Hitler Youth. This gave the Hitler Youth an enemy to pick on, an easy scapegoat. It gave them someone to blame for everything.

WHAT WERE THEY TAUGHT?

The children who were welcomed into

the Hitler Youth were taught many life

skills and training skills while in the

Hitler Youth. Healthy and strong boys

became part of the Hitler Youth section

of the SS (SS-HJ) division. They trained

for military and earned the Hitler Youth

Achievement Medal. The war required

many soldiers to fight. After they had run

out of the primary soldiers, the Germany

Army began to use the Hitler Youth. They

were called up into the army along with

adult leaders. Not all of the Hitler Youth

wanted to be one of these recruits.

Some refused, and the consequences

were fatal.

“Dear Parents,” wrote a farm

boy from the Sudentenland, “I

must give you bad news-I have

been condemned to death, I and

Gustave. We did not sign up for

the SS, and so they condemned

us to death…Both of us would

rather die than stain our

consciences with such deeds of

horror. I know what the SS has

to do.”

This letter was written in the 1930’s, when the Hitler Youth was just starting up. The views back then were most likely different than the views later on in the 1940’s, by then Hitler had more followers. This explains Hitler’s gradual rise to power and how some children in Germany resisted to Hitler.

The Hitler Youth had to go to school as well. The education in Germany very much revolved around Hitler. Hitler’s face hung in every classroom, alongside the Nazi Flag. In the morning, the students started their day with

‘Heil Hitler’ and not the plain ‘Good Morning, Children’. Hitler stressed the importance of physical training in every kind of sport and gymnastics. In 1936, the required training was increased to three hours a day, and in 1938, to five hours. The shortened school day didn’t bother some students. “Why should I weigh myself down with books?...Germany’s misfortunes are due to the fact that young people have stayed indoors studying and reading…books without learning how to face real problems.”, said one student. Physical Activity was very important to schools in Germany. Hitler soon took control of the education in Germany as well as the Hitler Youth.

“In April 1933, the Nazis passed the Law Against the Overcrowding of German Schools. The new law placed a limit on the number of Jews allowed to attend elementary schools… “They [the Jews] have no business being among us Germans,” explained one Nazi teacher to his students.”

After the Jews were kicked out of the school, this allowed the education to revolve around Hitler. The Hitler Youth also took it upon themselves to bully any unfortunate remaining Jews in the school. They harassed them and cursed at them. The police dept. was contacted, but they did not send anyone over, most likely because they did not care. The

Hitler Youth had total control over them, because of the fact that no one had the authority to stop them from what they were doing. Sooner or later, the Jews were not allowed to go to school at all. This is just one example of the absolute authority the Hitler had, and it shows how Adolf Hitler formed the Hitler Youth into this mass organization that was filled to the brim with power.

HARD WORK

Belonging to the Hitler Youth was strenuous. The members had to do a tremendous amount of “muscle-tearing hard work” that lasted for hours and left them aching and sore. In addition, the unemployment rate was high in Germany Hitler, being the good chancellor that he was, set the Hitler Youth to clear land for farming and other agricultural jobs so citizens of Germany could work again. The Reich Labor Service is what Hitler called it, which started in 1935. They also built roads and highways. “It was muscle-tearing hard work.” Said Zvonko Springer. The Nazi’s believed that this taught the boys and girls discipline, obedience and respect for hard physical work. In 1938, this Labor Service had turned forests and swamps into useful land for houses and businesses. Farmers planted more crops and there work food and work for all, two things Germany had been missing before. The Hitler Youth and the BDM, or the Bund Deutscher Mädel (the girls version of the Hitler Youth) helped this happen. In addition, the boys learned how to handle weapons and kill enemies, all in preparation for military life. They

were mainly taught that they must die for Germany if they had to and to commit themselves for their country. This is yet another example of how Adolf Hitler organized the Hitler Youth and how well trained the boys were to endure this kind of extensive training. With this training, the Hitler Youth could endure several difficult situations.

RESISTANCEAs Hitler had many people who thought he was great, it would be wrong to believe that Nazi regime succeeded in winning over the entire youth of Germany. Some people objected to indoctrination and discipline, and instead wanted

to

The Hitler Youths’ Way of Life

EDUCATION IN GERMANY

“...to rid the indoctrination and discipline...” NEWSPAPER ARTICLE

Newspaper article depicting the

Hitler Youth

form youth groups and gangs who engaged in acts of protest and defiance towards the Nazi’s orders. The big resistance groups at this time were the “Edelweiss Pirates” and the “Swing Youth”. The Edelweiss Pirates acted on the Hitler Youth, and wore distinctive clothes and hair. In order to break from the Nazi’s way of life, this group camped at waretime, when there were limitations on travel. They made fun of and told jokes about the Hitler Youth. Some of these resistance member were caught and executed, but those who didn’t joined in with the Communists and became part of a bigger resistance group. This shows that the regime of the Hitler Youth was so harsh that people would go to extremes to rebel against it. However the resistance was not as great as the Hitler Youth; as the Hitler Youth and consequences were enforced against the insurgents. In 1936, several smaller resistance groups were formed. They all wanted individual rights, to speak their mind, to read and wear what they

wanted and to sing and play their own music. Any resistance group was taken down and strictly prohibited. This made the Hitler

and to sing and play their own music. Any resistance group was taken down and strictly prohibited. This made the Hitler Youth a bit scared to resist to anything Hitler said or did. It made them not want to get arrested, so they did, as they were told and nothing else. In this way, Hitler kept the youth under control.

In order to do so much for Hitler, the Hitler Youth must have had to respect Hitler very much. Hitler held huge rallies, and it was considered a sign of importance. One of the largest rallies was the Nuremberg rally in 1938. “For a trip to Nuremburg and see the Fuhrer in person, I would have promised to enter a monastery.” said Alfons Heck when he was chosen to attend.

On the last day of this specific rally, it was the Hitler Youths’ turn to show off for Hitler. They had previously spent hundreds of hours practicing a routine to show him, and earn his

Hitler. They had previously spent hundreds of hours practicing a routine to show him, and earn his respect. This drill ended with the Hitler Youth marching into an intricate formation; they had spelled out Adolf Hitler with their bodies by the time it was over. The Hitler seriously looked up to Hitler as a complete idol and a fatherly guardian. He praised them and encouraged them by telling them that they were going to rule the country someday.

“From that moment on”, said Alfons, “I belonged to Adolf Hitler, body and soul.”

This explains how devoted the Hitler Youth was toward Hitler, and how Hitler loved the Youth. It explains why they would do physical hard work to please him and obey his orders. In turn, Hitler gives the Youth much wanted respect and praise. Hitler has a good reputation and for him to praise them like that is a great accomplishment. Hitler controlled his youth with his authority and their eagerness to please him.

The Hitler Youth was a group of strong, fearless German boys who possessed an indomitable devotion to Germany and Adolf Hitler. Young boys and girls in the Hitler were taught many things that Hitler thought was important. Hard work, discipline, and obedience were what Hitler thought was important for them to learn. He thought the young could suffer more than older men and women, could be tougher than the elder, and would pass on their beliefs to the next generation so that Hitler would be in power until he died. AFTER THE WAR

Even after the war ended in 1945, the Jews lived on. They are still living today. Hitler may have changed the way the youth thought about the Jews, but he failed to eliminate all of them. The Hitler Youth had different views when the war was over and Hitler was dead than they did when they first entered the program. The Hitler Youth was powerful in several ways. The memory and power of this organization will live on in history for eons even after it ended.

Hitler committed suicide when the Americans were winning the war, and left the Hitler Youth to fight for themselves. When the Americans won, they took the Hitler Youth to concentration camps, where most of them died. The war has ended, but the pride of the Jews will live on in history; the fact that Hitler did not defeat them. The Hitler Youth served their leader until the bitter end, as they showed stamina and courage as they fought bravely for their country.

Hitler Youth saluting their leader

Picture of Hitler Youth holding up the Nazi Flag, with an eagle in the background. This symbolizes courage and pride.