Why would Hitler be angry.

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myJj0mNNe1Y

WALT: How successfully indoctrinated were the German YouthWILFSCan explain and describe the Nazification of schools (D-C) and assess its impact (B)...... Can compare and contrast the different experiences of boys and girls in the Hitler Youth (C).... understands the motives behind the Nazi focus on youth (D)..... can evaluate the success or otherwise of Nazi policy towards youth (A)

Progress of Youth

• Boys• 6-10 Pimpfen (cubs)• 10-14 Deutsches Jungvolk (Young German Boys)• 14-18 Hitlerjugend (HJ Hitler Youth)

• Girls• 10-14 Jung Madel (JM) Young Girls• 14-18 Bund Deustcher Madel (BDM) – League of

German Girls• 18-21 Glaube und Schonheith – Faith and Beauty

HJ

• Created in 1926• Expanded rapidly in 1933, all other youth groups were taken over.• All other youth groups were banned by 1936.

• Although made compulsory many managed to avoid it. In addition rival groups were set up which the authorities failed to suppress.

• As membership became more widespread, the Hitler Youth arguably became less successful, because it included less committed youngsters and because there developed an increasing stress on military preparation at the expense of other, more popular, activities.

• 1932 – 107,956• 1934 – 3,500,000• 1936 – 6,000,000+

HJ / BDM

• 1935-7 – 973,803 HJ members attended camps

• 1937 – 96,699 BDM members attended camps.

• In 1935 during a rally of 199,000 members of the HJ and BFM, 900 15-18 year old girls became pregnant.

Task

• You will have to create a revision resource on the success of the German Youth indoctrination.

• - A Mind map• - A PowerPoint• - A Prezi• - A Podcast• - A Video• - A Poster• - Detailed Notes

• You can be as imaginative as you like. You will need to have a USP. Once everyone is done you will be ‘selling’ your resource to others. You will each be given £150 to spend. You must accumulate as much money as you can.

• Whoever has the most money wins a prize.

Summarise

• “These boys and girls enter our organizations [at] ten years of age, and often for the first time get a little fresh air; after four years of the Young Folk they go on to the Hitler Youth, where we have them for another four years . . . And even if they are still not complete National Socialists, they go to Labor Service and are smoothed out there for another six, seven months . . . And whatever class consciousness or social status might still be left . . . the Wehrmacht [German armed forces] will take care of that.” --Adolf Hitler (1938)

M Gartner joined the HJ in 1938 aged 12. (f)

• One day, fittingly enough on Hitler’s birthday, may age group was called up and I took the oath: ‘ I promise to do my duty in the Hitler Youth, in love and loyalty to the Fuhrer.’ Service in the Hitler Youth, we were told, was an honourable service to the German people. I was, however, not thinking of the Fuhrer, nor of serving the German people, when I raised my right hand, but of the attractive prospect of participating in games, sports, hiking, singing, camping and other exciting activates away from school and the home. A uniform, a badge, an oath, a salute, There seemed to be nothing to it … Thus, unquestioningly, I acquired membership, and forthwith attended meetings, joined ball games and competitions, and took part in weekend hikes…It was not long, however, before plain-faced leaders taught us marching drill and marching songs. I hated marching… There were now lectures on National Socialism, stories about modern heroes and about Hitler…. While extracts from Mein Kampf were used to expound the new racial doctrines.

BDM

• I and all the other girls of my age had to attend evening classes twice weekly. We had to be present at every public meeting and at youth rallies and sports. The weekend were crammed full with outings, campaigns and marches, when we carried heavy packs on our backs. It was all fun in a way, and we certainly got plenty of exercise, but it had a bad effect on our school reports. We had no time for homework. The young BDM leaders taught us songs and tried desperately to maintain a certain amount of discipline…we were marched up and down as though we were soldiers on the barrack square… we were of course lecture a lot on National Socialist ideology, and most of this went over our heads… We were told to prepare for motherhood, as the mother of our beloved leader and the national socialist government was the most important person in the nation. WE were Germanys hope and Germanys future.

Useful Links

• http://education.cambridge.org/media/653316/opposition_and_resistance_in_nazi_germany.pdf

• http://sitemaker.umich.edu/youthunderfascism/effects_of_the_hitler_youth

• http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/hitleryouth.html

• http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/GERyouth.htm

Source A

“If other people rave about their time in the Hitler Youth, I cannot share their enthusiasm. I have oppressive memories. In our troop, the Jungvolk activities consisted almost entirely of boring military drill. Perhaps there was a method in the madness: from childhood onwards we were drilled in toughness and blind obedience. But how did we put up with it? My only explanation is that we were all in the grip of ambition. For those who did well, they were promoted and could give orders. ‘Youth must be youth’ was the motto. In practice, it meant that those on top put the boot in.”

Adapted from the recollections of A. Klonne, in his book Youth in the Third Reich, 1982

Source B

“Erna Kranz was a teenager in the 1930s and remembers the early years of Nazi rule,in 1933 and 1934, as offering a ‘glimmer of hope, not just for the unemployed, but foreveryone’. She looked at the effect of Nazi policies on her own family and approved.Erna spoke fondly of the amusements, such as parades and celebrations that the Nazis organised for young people. ‘I can only speak for myself,’ she emphasised a number of times, aware no doubt that her views were not politically correct. ‘I thought it was a good time. I liked it. We weren’t living in affluence like today but there was order and discipline.’”

Adapted from the recollections of Erna Kranz, described by L Rees, in The Nazis: A Warning from History, 2000

Question One

Use Sources A and B and your own knowledge.

Explain how far the views in Source B differ from those in Source A in relation to the experiences of young people in Nazi Germany in the 1930s.

Source C

“Teachers knew within a few months of the Nazi seizure of power the basic outlines of what they had to teach. A directive issued in January 1934 made it compulsory for schools to educate their pupils ‘in the spirit of National Socialism’. In every school, libraries were checked for non-Nazi literature and Nazi books were stocked instead. By 1936, 97 per cent of all schoolteachers were members of the National Socialist Teachers’ League. By 1938, central directives, which dealt with the teaching of different subjects in different years, covered every school year and most subjects, even those without any ideological content.”

Adapted from R Evans, The Third Reich in Power, 2005

Question Two

Use Sources A, B and C and your own knowledge.

How successful was the Nazi regime in indoctrinating German youth in the years 1933 to 1939?

Find the Fiction

• Plenary

• Two truths and One lie about the Youth and Education of the German Youth.