Hitler Youth

"There can be but one German Youth Movement, because there is but one way in which German youth can be educated and trained... This Reich stands, and is building itself up anew, upon its youth. And this Reich will hand over its youth to no one, but will take its education and its formation upon itself."

"The overall effect of Hitler Youth membership, some Social Democratic observers complained, was a ‘coarsening’ of the young. The suppression of any discussion or debate, the military discipline, the emphasis on physical prowess and competition, led boys to become violent and aggressive, especially towards young people who for whatever reason had not joined the Hitler Youth. Hitler Youth groups travelling by train amused themselves by insulting and threatening guards who failed to say ‘Hail, Hitler!’ every time they asked a passenger for his ticket."

"Regardless of their motivation, youth who sought to avoid service in the Hitler Youth were treated as dangerous deviants to be crushed ruthlessly. In August 1940 a prison camp for boys aged 13 to 21 was established at Moringen, near Göttingen, which held 1,400 boys by the end of the war. Boys at the camp were used for slave labour under a brutal regime, and could be conscripted into the army for use in dangerous duties such as mine clearance. A similar camp was set up for girls in June 1942 at Uckermark, near Ravensbrück concentration camp. Under the direction of the SS, children could be placed directly into these camps without any legal trial."

"We all believe on this earth in Adolf Hitler, our Leader. We believe that this God has sent us Adolf Hitler so that Germany should be as a foundation stone in all eternity."

"Although many members of the Hitler Youth eagerly looked forward to the chance to fight against the enemy after years of preparation, the actual experience of combat was usually a cruel awakening. The experience and fate of young Germans thrown into battle against the Soviet and Western Allies armies in the final stages of the war often depended on the choices made by the older NCOs and officers who commanded them. These men often bore the responsibility for whether the children under their command were able to quietly return home or move into captivity when resistance was obviously futile, or whether they were sacrificed to no purpose."

"The songs they sang were Nazi songs. The books they read were Nazi books."

"At the end of World War I, the German people faced an uncertain future. The country was in uproar at the punitive terms of the Treaty of Versailles, dealing with skyrocketing unemployment, hyperinflation, political instability and profound social change. Into this crucible stepped Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party, offering simple solutions to these complex problems. One long-term solution was to introduce children and juveniles to German Nationalist principles and anti-Semitism- the building blocks of Nazi ideology- to help Hitler achieve his ultimate goal of long-term power. For this reason, in 1922, he announced he formation of his partys youth group. Looking back through the prism of history, the success of the Hitler Youth, perhaps National Socialisms greatest achievement, is almost impossible to comprehend. It was an organization which, at its height, included an entire generation of ten-to-18-year-old German boys and girls- almost 9 million people- more than 90 percent of the nations youth. In time, the Nazi regime came to depend on it to ensure the future of its much-trumpeted thousand-year Reich. For German historian Gerhard Rempel, the HJ acted as the social, political and military resiliency of the Third Reich, by constantly replenishing the ranks of the dominant party and preventing the growth of mass opposition. Their duty was to die so that Germany could live. That such a movement could be organized in the West today seems a ridiculous notion, but in 1930s Germany these young people were the chosen ones."

"Of course, Hitler Youths were also found in other military formations and as the war finally reached German soil, this increasingly meant service in home guard units, such as anti-aircraft units, but some also took senior positions in the Volkssturm. The use of youngsters in this way provoked objections among some members of the military High Command. General Westphal, for example, pointed ou that wasting young lives in this way would for future years endanger the reservoir of recruitment to the German armed forces. His objection was not noted, and Reichsjugendführer Artur Axmann repeated Hitkers ever more desperate mantra: There is only victory or annihilation."

"To reinforce the artillery defence of the approaches to Berlin and of the city itself all available anti-aircraft artillery was mobilized. Over 600 anti-aircraft guns of big and medium calibre were placed in position for anti-tank and anti-personnel defence. In addition, tanks- even those undergoing repairs but with operative artillery equipment- were used as weapons emplacements. They were dug into the ground at road crossings or railroad bridges. Special tank destruction squads were manned out of members of the Nazi youth organization, the "Hitlerjugend." They were armed with Panzer Faustpatronen."

"Of all Germans, the youth would be the Reichs last defenders against the Anglo-American gangsters and the Bolshevik hordes. Melita Maschmann explains their unwavering commitment to National Socialism, They had been fed with heroes legends ever since they could remember... They felt that the hour had come, the moment in which they could be counted, in which they would no longer be pushed aside because they were too young... They fed the refugees; they helped the wounded. In the air raids they fought the flames and helped to rescue the sick and the injured. And finally, they confronted the Russians with the Panzerfaust. But the reality was not always as glorious as this. American troops in the forested areas of the Ruhr pocket reported horrific encounters with units including large numbers of Hitler Youths who would hide when the US armour rolled past and ambush the slower-moving infantry behind. They would inflict maximum casualties then melt back into the forest. If they were cornered, they would fight and die rather than surrender. One lieutenant colonel reported an engagement with a German artillery unit manned by children of 12 and under."

"Nazi methods of indoctrination, aimed at turning HJ members into disciplined adults who would see the world as the regime intended, were crude, cruel, stifling and enormously effective. By targeting young brains that were not yet fully developed, the incredibly susceptible youths were easily co-opted by powerful authority figures. Hitlers intention was to secure their absolute loyalty. By influencing all aspects of German society, in particular schools, young people were given no room to think for themselves. In her study, Propaganda and Children in the Hitler Years, Mary Mills says that, "No single target of nazification took higher priority than Germanys young." Nazi messages were presented in schools as scientific fact and were taught and retaught until the messages of Aryan superiority and the Jewish problem were fully digested and adopted with idealistic zeal. Allied to this was a constant propaganda bombardment in the form of newspaper articles, flags, swastikas, uniformed parades, songs, music, films, radio broadcasts, slogans and posters. They all trumpeted simple messages, so simple that even the young could understand them. For many of them, Hiler had even replaced God."

"A logical consequence of the Nazi disdain for traditional education was the establishment in 1937 of a new type of school, the Adolf Hitler Schulen (AHS). These schools were placed under the jurisdiction of the Hitler Youth, rather than Rusts education ministry. By the end of 1943 there were 12 of these schools, catering for 2,027 students. Their aim was to provide the future political and administrative elite of the Third Reich, and they reflected the values of the HJ in stressing the importance of physical achievement over academic excellence. Only one-and-a-half hours per day were allocated to lessons, most of which were concerned with ideological topics, in comparison to the five hours each day devoted to sports and physical activities. The major achievement of the AHS was to sink the level of German educational standards to a new nadir. Somewhat more successful were the Nationalpolitische Erziehungsanstalten, or NAPOLAs, which had similar aims to the AHS in seeking to provide the future elite of the Reich. In characteristic fashion, the NAPOLAs, of which there were 21 by 1940, were controlled by the SS in competition with the AHS. NAPOLA students maintained only nominal ties to the Hitler Youth. The aim of the NAPOLAs was to turn out political soldiers, whom they produced by immersing their students in a regimen of drill, reinforced by often-brutal physical challenges. The individual identities of the students were suppressed, and group hazing of those who did not fit in was encouraged. That being said, the NAPOLAs did succeed in achieving much higher academic standards than those of the AHS. The approach to education also anticipated the sort of training that recruits in the Hitler Jugend Division were to receive in 1943-1944, with informal relations between teachers and students encouraged."