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Hitler Jugend / Hitler Youth

"The National Socialist State will have to take care that it obtains
through an appropriate education of youth
the generation which is ready for the final and greatest decisions on this globe.
The people, moreover, that first start on this road will be victorious. "
- ADOLF HITLER

The English Boy Scouts were organized in 1907 and developed under the personal supervision of Lieutenant-General Sir Robert S.S. Baden-Powell. The Boy Scouts of America were formed on February 8th, 1910. The Boy Scout movement was a composite of the most appealing and useful ideas in a number of organizations for boys such as: the Boys' Brigade, the Knights of King Arthur, Woodcraft Indians, Sons of Daniel Boone, and numerous other brotherhoods, all designed to stimulate organized activities for boys. Sir Robert Baden-Powell was a soldier in the English army servicing as an officer among the Boers and British recruits in South Africa.

During this experience he made the startling discovery that natives enlisting for service were better soldiers than were the recruits (products of social conditions in congested manufacturing cities and the English school system) sent from Great Britain. They were with all their lack of text-book education more resourceful, more enterprising, and more capable of handling themselves in the exigencies of camp life.

No sooner was the organization of the Boy Scouts of America formed than many similar organizations calling themselves Boy Scouts were created. Their most outstanding difference was the fact that they emphasized military training rather than peace scouting as preparation for citizenship. Frequently the Boy Scouts of America suffered from the deeds of these others, and was mistaken for a military organization with a military backing.

Before Hitler came to power, the German youth of school age was solely under the influence of the family and the school. They were polite, kind, thoughtful, respectful to their elders, and obedient to their parents. "Danke" and "Bitte" were always on their lips; they were always ready to assist others. The growth and success of the HJ organisations cannot be properly appreciated without some reference to the earlier history of the Deutsche Jugendbewegung (German Youth Movement). Since the end of the last century, the latter gave young people an opportunity to express themselves and to carry on various activities in organisations of their own. Young people of both sexes joined Jugendsemeinschaften (Youth Communities) and formed groups of Wandervogel (Young Hikers) which had no political program, but were animated by youths determination to express itself unfettered by the older generation. Their activities inbluded hiking, camping and evening meetings for lectures and discussions; much emphasis was placed on the rediscovering and singing of old German folk songs.

The "Meissner Formula", a proclamation made by a "Youth Rally" in 1913, shaped a general policy of "Inner Freedom", a reaction against the complacency and restrictions of German middle-class life, its prejudices and "bourgeois mind". After the First World War the youth movement developed at an accelerated pace and reached its peak in the twenties when many new groups sprang up, and the Btndische Jugend (League of Youth) partly took the place of the original Jugendbewegung.

At this point many political parties, among them the NSDAP (lationalsozialistische Deutsche Axbeiternartei-National Socialist Workers Party) began to form their own youth organisations, and it is estimated that in the late nineteen twenties four million German boys and girls belonged to the young peoples sections of various political and non-political factions, some 80,000 being members of the original Bandische Jugend (League of Youth). The Nazis were regarded as outsiders by virtually all other youth formations.

There were some young people who sympathized with the Socialist and Communist doctrines, and held that only by militant action will the masses of the people achieve their rights. But even those militant youths displayed the same affability in their social relations as the youths belonging to the petty bourgeoisie. When the Nazis came to power, the main object of the school became the teaching of the National Socialist philosophy in order to make perfect Nazis of the German youth.

On March 8th, 1922, Hitler, in his own newspaper, the "Volkische Beobachter", announced the establishment of the Jugendbund der NSDAP (Youth League of the Nazi Party), later known as the Jungsturm Adolf Hitler (Youth Shock Troop Adolf Hitler). The group was based in Munich, Bavaria, and served as a recruiting ground for new Stormtroopers of the SA. The group was disbanded in 1923 following the abortive Beer Hall Putsch but was re-established in 1926, a year after the Nazi Party had been reorganized. Kurt Gruber formed the first group of young members of the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP) in 1926. Rudolf Hess suggested the name of the Hitler Youth (Hitlerjugend) and later that year transferred the leadership of the movement to Franz von Pfeffer of the Sturm Abteilung (SA). The Hitler Youth (HJ) were taken over by Ernst Roehm in 1930 and remained as a adjunct to the SA. By 1930, the group had over 25,000 members with the Bund Deutscher Mädel (BDM) (League of German Girls, for girls aged from fourteen to eighteen).

In April 1932 the Hitler Youth (as part of the SA) was banned by Chancellor Heinrich Brüning to stop the widespread political violence. But by June 1932 the ban was already lifted by his successor Franz von Papen as a way to appease Hitler. After Roehm was murdered during the Night of the Long Knives the group came under the control of Baldur von Schirach, the Reich youth leader. Schirach asked Adolf Hitler to allow him to create an independent youth movement. Hitler agreed and Schirach made several important changes to the way it was organized. Baldur von Schirach served as the first Reichsjugendführer (Reich Youth Leader) and devoted a great deal of time, finances, and manpower into the expansion of the Hitler Youth.

Despite the fact that the NJ was temporarily banned by the Republican Goverment, its ranks continued to swell tinder the leadership of von Schirach and by 1932 its numbers had risen to 250,000. In the same year the NJ was separated from the SA, mainly to free it from the ban imposed on the Stormtroopers.

When Hitler took over full Governmental power in 1933, many more boys and girls joined, and all other youth organisations were rapidly prohibited and disbanded, their members being subsequently urged. to join the HJ. Considerable opposition was encountered at first from the Catholic and Left Wing Youth Movements but these organisations too, were partly crushed. and partly absorbed in ruthless fashion. After the first year of the Nazi regime, the HJ, including its branches, numbered two million. One year later this figure had actually doubled, and by 01 December 1934., when the HJ was declared Staatsjugend (Government-sponsored Youth Organisation) the total amounted. to six million, of which one and a half million belonged to the HJ proper, the others to its branches.

The Decree of 01 December 1936, providing for Reichsjugendienstpflicht (Compulsory Youth Servioe), not only legalised the existence of the HJ, but also completely destroyed all the remaining youth organisations in Germany. The decree contained three major points: All German Youth shall join the HJ; the mission of the HJ is to train all German Youth - physically, mentally and morally - for national service in the spirit of National Socialism - school and home are subordinated to the interests of the State; The Reichsjugendfuhrer (Reich Youth Leader) is entrusted with all phases of the educalron of German youth, and is responsible only to the Fuhrer.

The Deutsches Jungvolk was a Hitler Youth group intended for younger children, both boys and girls. At the age of 10, German boys were brought into the Nazi scheme as members of the "Young Folk" (Jungvolk) organization, and receive their first taste of official indoctrination. The program of the DJ consisted of preparatory training for the HJ. Although special training in Sondertinheiten (Specialist Units) was officially limited to members of the HJ proper, specialist units such such as Flieger-DJ (Aviation) and Nachrichten-DJ (Signals) were reported.

Real shaping for the army began at 14, when they entered the "Hitler Youth" (Hitler Jugend). Even before the war, this organization was mainly concerned with preparing boys for the army, both by instilling military mental attitudes and by military training.

The Hitler Youth was organized into corps under adult leaders, and the general membership comprised boys aged fourteen to eighteen. After 1938, the Hitler Youth was a compulsory organization, mandatory for all young German men. The group was also seen as a recruiting ground for several Nazi Party paramilitary groups, with the Schutzstaffel (the SS) taking the most interest in the Hitler Youth. Members of the HJ were particularly proud to be bestowed with the single Sig Rune (victory symbol) by the SS. The SS utilized two Sig Runes as their mark, and this gesture served to symbolically link the two groups.

Activities of the HJ membership were numerous and took up a good deal of the German boys time; exactly how much it is impossible to estimate, even though many regulations were issued on this subject. It may be said, however, that most of the time not spent at work or school was spent serving the HJ. The day-to-day situation largely regulated the duties required of HJ members, but the basic peace time program was carried on side-by-side with the war duties resulting from Germany's manpower shortage.

Weltanschauung (ideological training) was at all times one of the important phases in a young Germans schooling. At least one evening each week was spent attending lectures given by specially trained leaders who use minutely worked out directives and Schulungsbriefe (educational pamphlets). Here the HJ boys memorized many stock phrases of the Nazi political program. Nazi schooling and extracurricular activities sought to inculcate racial hatred to an extraordinary extent. The entire curriculum––not only biology classes––was used to convince the young of the importance of race and the inferiority of Jews, blacks, etc. The official handbook for schooling the Hitler Youth devoted fully 45 out of 105 pages to racial ideology. Physical training in the HJ was designed to develop the young Germans, in Hitlers own words, into Joninr supermen: "hard as steel, tough as leather and swift as greyhounds". All physical training was carried out with the help and supervision of the NSRBL, the Nationalsozialistischer Reichesbund fur Leibesubung (National Socialist League for Physical Training).

Adolf-HitlerwSchulen (Adolf Hitler Schools) were free boarding schools conducted. by the NSDAP, so called because they were conceived, "partly endowed" and allegedly architechturally planned by the Fuhrer himself. Each school was directly under the supervision of the respective NSDAP Gauleiter (Party District Executive). Students were selected at the age of twelve from the ranks of the HJ, and admission depended on possession of all the basic characteristics of a good Nazi. These schools combined a curious mixture of toughness and luxury. They were on the secondary school level and placed great emphasis on military "sports", character building, and devotion to the Party-state.

v The most effective form of pre-military training took place in the Wehrertuchtigungslager ( WEL or Pre-Military Training Camps) of which some 300 existed in Greater Germany. Every 17 year old boy was required to take the three weeks basic course at a WEL before being drafted to labor service or prior to being "induced to volunteer" for the Armed Forces, including the Waffen-SS.

The Bund Deutscher Mädel (German Girls' League) was the female counterpart of the Hitler Youth. Up to the age of fourteen girls were known as Young Girls (Jungmädel). At 14 they entered the Bund Deutscher Mädel (German Girls' League). This included a year of farm or domestic service. The task of the BDM and JM was the eaucation of girls for "companionship, honour and faith". They were to be made "conscious of their duty as German girls to become good housewives and to have as many children as possible".

A sub-section, Glaube und Scheinheit (Faith and Beauty), organised women volunteers between the ages of 18 and 21 who aspired to careers in the girls and womens organisations of the Nazi Party and its affiliates, e.g. the NSF (National Socialist Party Womens Branch) and the NSV (National Socialist Welfare Organisation). Girls joined the National Socialist Women's Organization (NS-Frauenschaft) upon reaching the age of 21. The NS Frauenschaft trained women in propaganda, press relations, personnel organization, office administration, welfare, nursing and red cross. Graduates of the NSF moved on to administer many important functions relating to the use of women in war production. The age group of the NSF ranged from 18 to 30 years.

They were trained by female guardians and their overall leader was Gertrud Scholtz-Klink. From seventeen to twenty-one they formed a special voluntary organization called Faith and Beauty (Glaube und Schonheit). The duties demanded of Jungmädel were regular attendance at club premises and sports meetings, participation in journeys and camp life. The ideal German Girls' League type exemplified early nineteenth-century notions of what constituted the essence of maidenhood. Girls who infringed the code by perming their hair instead of wearing plaits or the 'Grechen' wreath of braids had it ceremoniously shaved off as punishment.

Conscription proceeded each year as follows: the ten year old registered in January and received his Meldeschein (Registration Card). In March he appeared at the Aulnahmeappell (Praliminary Rollcall) of his Standort. Between the 10th and 19th Apri1 the Standort conducted a technischer Aufnahmedienst (Preliminary Technicl Course) culminating in the Pimpfenprobe (Cubs Entrance Examination) On the 2Oth April, the Fuhrer's birthday, a ceremonial Standortappel (Total Rollcall) is staged, at which all HJ members, old and new, must appear. The new Pimpf (cub) of the HJ and the new Jungmadel ("young girl") of the JM, together with the 14 year olds who are being transferred into the HJ and the HDM respectively, take the oath of allegiance:

"Ich gelobe meinem Fuhrer Adolf Hitler Treue. Ich verspreche ihm und den Fuhrern, die er mir bestimmt, jederzeit Achtung und Gehorsam entgegen zu bringen" (I promise to be faithful to my Fuhrer, Adolf Hitler. I promise obedience and respect to him and to the leaders he shall appoint over me"). It is noteworthy that this oath is strikingly similar to that administered to the Waffen SS. The new boy member is now entitled to wear the dagger with the inscription "Blut und Ehre" ("Blood and Honour").

In 1939 the Storm Trooper section of the Nazi party took charge of the Hitler Youth, and after the start of war boys 16 to 18 years of age were compelled to take 6 months of regular pre-military work. The aim was to provide the army with the largest possible reserve of "mentally, physically, and militarily trained young men." The training includes infantry fundamentals, care and use of weapons, and signaling. The Hitler Youth was used in a variety of auxiliary services during the war: spotting aircraft, performing office work at airports, painting runways, harvesting crops, tending children in day nurseries, collecting useful junk and trash, soliciting for the Winter Help, singing at hospitals, and putting on entertainment for soldiers at the front.

The "League of European Youth" was launched by the Nazis in September 1942 at Vienna. There, the Pare managed to rally the youth organisations of fourteen nations (and satellites) around the principles of "unequivocal adherence to the reconstruction of the New Europe" and the promotion of internal struggles against "Jewish-Plutocratic-Bolshevist ideas". German-speaking young people from other countries were invited to the Reich, at no expense to themselves, in order to receive training in leadership at HJ institutes. Special stress in all these matters was placed on the so-Called "Germanic" youth, including not only Norwegians, Danes, Dutch and Flemings, but also Walloons, Finns and Latvians.

United States military forces had certainly faced children with weapons. Perhaps the most infamous and organized such force in the near past was the Hitler Jugend, or Hitler Youth, during World War Two, who made up a notable aspect of Hitler's last armed defense of Berlin. When the military invasion of Nazi Germany loomed, Hitler organized the "Volkssturm" under the command of Heinrich Himmler. Every male between the age of 16 and 60 were conscripted. However, pleas to allow the use of even younger boys were rejected as too barbarous. Even though younger children later fought, and many of these children under arms killed and were killed in combat, the Allied military rejected any suggestion that they should be subjected to military punishments for those acts

The Hitler Youth was disbanded by Allied authorities as an integral part of the Nazi Party. Some members of the Hitler Youth were accused of war crimes; however, as the organization was staffed with children, no serious efforts were made to prosecute these claims. While the entire Hitler Youth was never declared a criminal organization, the Hitler Youth adult leadership corps was deemed to have committed crimes against peace in corrupting the young minds of Germany. Many top Hitlerjugend leaders were put on trial by Allied authorities, with Baldur von Schirach sentenced to twenty years in prison. Schirach was convicted on crimes against Humanity for his actions as Gauleiter of Vienna, not his leadership of the Hitler Youth.

Between 1933 and 1945, young Germans were exposed to anti-Semitic ideology in schools, in the (extracurricular) Hitler Youth, and through radio, print, and film. As a result, Germans who grew up under the Nazi regime are much more anti-Semitic than those born before or after that period: the share of committed anti-Semites, who answer a host of questions about attitudes toward Jews in an extreme fashion, is 2–3 times higher than in the population as a whole. Results also hold for average beliefs, and not just the share of extremists; average views of Jews are much more negative among those born in the 1920s and 1930s. Nazi indoctrination was most effective where it could tap into preexisting prejudices. Committed anti-Semitism is not unusually pronounced among the 1920s cohort –– this is likely due to differential selection of fervent Nazi supporters from this cohort into army divisions that saw particularly high casualty rates.