Hitler+Youth

This is for Dan Rau and Will Sever

Final Letter #1

My dear Hitler Youth, You are now apart of a glorious time in the history of Germany. You have now gone through the rigors of the new Hitler Youth. On the 20th of April, you will be awarded for your efforts. This means that you will pledge yourselves to the greater good of Germany. The pledge of the Hitler Youth is meaningful because you will be pledging yourselves on the flag dipped in the blood of Herbert Norkes, lest his scacrifice be forgotten. You are Germany's next generation. You are the future of the world . Germany and her people will depend on your skills, cunning, and bravery. All of you are Germany's future and with the lead of the loyal Hitler Youth, this riche will last 1,000 years! The greater Germany thanks you for your talents, and for your hard work. May the Furher and his people shower you with thankfulness that you are brave noble <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">and full German. <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">You are fallowing in many peoples footsteps including those of Herbert Norkes and the <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">brave, noble, and brilliant Adolf Hitler! You will take up<span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"> spades, the "guns of peace" and build a greater Fatherland for your<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">selves, for Hitler, and for generations to come. <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">You and the rest of the loyal <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Hitler Youth are the leaders of tomorrow. <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">This is the glorious time of Germany. <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">We are the young and bold. <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">We will strike fear in the fatherlands enemies. <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">We will strike deep and hard and never surrender. <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Remember the heros of Germanys past and be the hero's of her future god which shines down on the Hitler Youth, on Germany and on you<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">. Hitler and the Nazis thank you for your courage<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">. Germany now depends on you to be its young leader. <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">You must lead the way for your friends and enemys alike. <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">I sit here and wonder what great things you and your fellow youth will reach for and accomplish. You, your peers, and others that have come before you, will follow in your footsteps and are the future of Germany<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">. You are the leaders of tomorrow. <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">You will carry Germany out of her shame and ashes to greater heights <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">than ever before! We are depending on you and your peers for the future. <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">You will reach for higher goals and __YOU WILL GET THEM!__ <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">We agian thank and you may god shine on Hitler the Nazis and you! For the rise of the thrid rich to the top of the world is to begin and end with you! HAIL HITLER!

Heinrich Himmler

Final Letter #2 Dear Mom, Dad, and Heinrich,

I've finished the trials of a new youth, such as <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">proving that I am a full German and <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">passing the fitness test. It was very hard, but I did well. I <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">got a passing grade from the Commandant. The unit of boys before us <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">failed. I guess they aren't loyal to Hitler. You <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">should be getting a letter from the head of the youth about the work of the <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">Hitler youth to better Germany. As part of the older youth I am responsible for the younger youth and their work. With the new responsibility I now have privileges and new opportunities to better Germany and its people. <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">I can now express my beliefs and opinions in public ! Finally as a legitimate Hitler youth <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">I can assist in the daily duties of officials.

There will be a <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">ceremony that allows the new youth to become full Hitler Jugend. I<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">t will be on April 20th which is Hitler's birthday. <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">Hitler himself will be there to<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);"> hand out acceptance letters to those who are loyal to the Nazi's and Hitler. It will be so great to meet Hitler himself! All of my friends will be there to receive the honor of the Hitler Youth. The <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">older members who will be there will be holding spades <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">which Hitler calls them the "guns of peace". They <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">will accept us into their ranks and <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">give us each a shovel with our names on them. They will <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">be our own "guns of peace". Some of us (if we work hard) will be accepted into the S.S.. Being in the S.S. would be a honor. This is only surpassed by being one of Hitlers bodyguards. It <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">would be an honor even to be considered for a promotion to the S.S.. The best part of being a Hitler Youth is <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">I won't be disrespected and <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">I will have freedom over all that I do. <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">Hitler promises now that everyone will be treated equal, no matter what class they are from. We are now the leaders of tomorrow. I am <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">very excited to finally see you again. It has been <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">so long since I have seen you because of all my training. It has felt like ages when yet it was only a <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">few months. I can't wait to <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">finally relax for a few precious days and ponder what great things I and the rest of the Hitler Youth may accomplish, "<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">for god shines down on us ". Though the journey is long it will also be fun and enjoyable to see <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">Berlin. It will also be amazing to <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">travel by train for the first time. I still cannot believe that it will <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">only take us one night to reach Berlin.

I have given myself to my country in service, strength, and loyalty and I cannot wait to share my pride of the new man that I have become. I will love you always and miss you. See you next week.

Love your son, Axel

Draft 1 Part 2 (NOT DOING)

Dear Mom and Dad, Hey! I am so excited. I am <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">finally a Hitler Youth instead of a Jungvolk. I <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">now have legal freedom of conscience and much more independence. Along with this new freedom I <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">can finally express my opinions and beliefs in public !

Draft 2 Part1 My dear hitler youth. You are now apart of a glorious time in the history of Germany. You have now gone through the riggers of the new youth. On the <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">20 of April you will be awarded for your efforts. This means that you will <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);"><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">pledge your self to the greater good of Germany. <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">The pledge of the Hitler youth, <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">the <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">gift to Hitler from the young of Germany <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">in the <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Reichstag <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">you will <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">pledge your self on the flag dipped <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> in the <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">blood of Herbert Norkes lest his sacrifice be forgoten. <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">You are <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Germanys next generation you are the future of the world <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">. Germany and <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">her people will depende on your skills, cunning and bravery. All of you are<span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"> Germanys future and <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">with the lead of the loyal Hitler youth this rich will last 1000 years! The greater Germany thanks you for your talentes, and for your hard work. <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">May the Furher and his people shower you with thankfulness that <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">you are<span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"> brave <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">nobel <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">and full German. That you are fallowing in many peoples foot steps inclueding those of Herbert Norkes and the <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">brave, nobel and briliant Adolf Hitler! You will take up<span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"> spades, the "guns of peace" and builed a greater Fatherland! For your <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">selves. for Hitler and for genorations to come. HEIL HITLER!

Hinrich Himmler

Draft2 part2 Dear Mom, Dad and Hinrich, I've finished the triales of a new youth shuch as <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">proving that I am a full german and <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">passing the fitness test. It was very hard, but I did well. I <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">got a passing grade from the Commandant. The unit of boys befor us <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">failed, I guess they aren't loyel to Hitler. You <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">should be getting a letter from the head of the youth about the work of the <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">Hitler youth to better Germany. As part of the older youth I am responsible for the younger youth and their work. With the new responsobility I now have privliges and new oppertunitys to better Germany and its people. <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">I can now express my beliefs and opinions in public ! Finally as a legitamit Hitler youth <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">I can assist in the daily duties of officals. There will be a <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">cerimony that allows the new youth to become full hitler Jugend it will be on April 20 for Hitler's birthday. <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">Hitler himself will be there to<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);"> hand out acceptance letters to those who are loyal to the Nazi's and Hitler. It be so great to meet Hitler himself! All of my friends will be there to reseve the honer of the of the Hitler youth the <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">older members who will be there will be holding spades which Hitler calls the the "guns of peace". They <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">will accept us into their ranks and <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">give us each a shovel with our names on them. They will <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">be our own "guns of peace". Some of us (if we work hard) will be accepted into the S.S. Being in the S.S. would be a honor. This is only surpassed by being one of Hitlers body guards. It <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">would be an honor even to be considered for a promotion to the S.S. The best part is that because I am a Hitler Youth, <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">I won't be disrespected and <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">I will have freedom over all that I do. Hitler promises now that every one will be treated equal, no matter what class they are from.

Love your son,

Love your son, Axel

Draft1 Part1(NOT DOING)

Letters of the Hitler Youth.

To the loyal Hitler Youth boys of Germany, You are now apart of a glorious time in the history of Germany. You have given your life to serve Germany. It doesn't mater if you are in the Dertsche Jugend Group or Hitler Jugend group you are all honored for your commitment in Germany.

Notes: Sorry about the notes Dan. I copyed and pasted them here hope they look better. see you tonight I added a lot hope you don't mind. Will P.S Are you going on tonight thuresday the 26?


 * Background:** The Nazis were a totalitarian movement that wanted to involve the party in every aspect of life. The churches were a particular problem, since they also had a faith that claimed every aspect of life. Although the Nazi platform favored a "positive Christianity," its leaders viewed the church as an enemy that ultimately would need to be dealt with. One way of combating the church was to develop Nazi rituals to replace those of the church. Both the Protestant and Catholic churches had the rite of confirmation. The Nazis were interested in replacing it with a Nazi version. This article from //Der Hoheitsträger// provides suggestions on organizing such rites. The periodical was published by Robert Ley's //Reichsorganisationsleitung//, and was "confidential." However, since it was circulated to over 38,000 people (1942 statistics), there was not much in it that was confidential. For further information on Nazi ceremonies, see some of my [|published articles].
 * The source:** "Jugendfeier — Lebenswende der Jugend" //Der Hoheitsträger,// #1/1939, pp. 23-28.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Rites of Passage for the Youth
The following pieces are the core of Kieckbusch's thorough treatment: 'How Do We Organize Youth Ceremonies?" The proposed organization of the ceremony is taken from last year's ceremonies by //Kreisleitung// Northeim. It was developed by party member rings. The musical suggestions were developed by party member Köhler, head of the Music School for Youth and Nation in Hanover. The remaining material was developed by //Gau// Education Chief Kieckbusch of Hanover, who prepared this material for the //Hoheitsträger// and the districts in his //Gau//.

The transition from 14 to 15 is an important event for the youth. Many finish school and leave their parents' home to take up an occupation. The boys move from the Jungvolk to the Hitler Youth and the girls move from the Jungmädel to the League of German Girls. More than that, each youth now has greater independence, which is signified by the fact that each German upon completion of the fourteenth year has legal freedom of conscience. Each German at 14 is allowed to choose his faith. His inner beliefs can now become public. A greater sense of independence develops in all other areas of life as well. To hold a brief moment of contemplation at the beginning of this process is both an inner need and an old tradition of our people. The NSDAP would neglect a major part of its responsibility, education and leadership, if it did not provide a way for our youth to celebrate this rite of passage. The Hitler Youth and National Socialist teachers and schools also have their inner and outer parts to play. **However, were each of these to organize its own ceremony for the youth, it would disrupt the unified experience of the youth and destroy the ever necessary unity of the National Socialist movement.** That danger is particularly great today, since we are at the beginning of developing our ability to lead through ceremonies. And as good as the individual attempts at organizing ceremonies by the various groups may be, it is necessary to maintain the unity of the National Socialist worldview. Here, as in every other area, we must develop a unified National Socialist system of ceremonies. This will naturally have to include all relevant groups. The Hitler Youth, schools and parents must join to develop a unified ceremony for the youth under the authority of the NSDAP. What follows is a plan for youth ceremonies which has already proved itself in one district of the NSDAP, and which exemplifies a unified National Socialist approach to ceremonies. In that //Gau// with its 27 counties, the party, the Hitler Youth and the schools have already made plans for the coming year. Since it has proven itself, it is provided here for all party leaders in the Greater German Reich. (Himstedt)

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">How Do I Organize a Youth Ceremony?
Karl Kiekbusch The need for a unified National Socialist ceremony alongside confessional confirmation and communion has led to a variety of attempts to make the ceremony of the youth organization of the school the leading one. Graduation from school, the transition from the Young People to the Hitler Youth, beginning an apprenticeship, etc., are occasions for ceremonies. They are landmarks along the way of a larger process: maturation. At these "turning points," which have to be seen from a National Socialist standpoint, the party is responsible for promoting the idea in the lives of young Germans. The party leader is therefore responsible for these ceremonies No satisfactory name for the ceremony has yet been found. Consider the normal personal ceremonies: the //Geburtsfeier// **<span style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);">[birth] **<span style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);"> (including naming), //Hochzeitsfeier// **<span style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);">[weddings] **, //Totenfeier// (funerals). That would make the term //Jugendfeier// **<span style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);">[youth ceremony] ** appropriate. But if one considers the content of the ceremony, the word //Lebensfeier// **<span style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);">[life ceremony] ** is appropriate, since it suggests the transition from childhood to adulthood. Instead of the term //Jugendfeier,// the word //Jugendbekenntnis// **<span style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);">[youth affirmation] **<span style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);"> has been proposed, which also is related to the content of the ceremony. None of these words is completely satisfactory. Considering such common phrases as "Best wishes on the occasion of your //Lebenswende// **<span style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);">[life turning point] **, the term //Lebenswende// may be the most useful. Should a better term be found, we should use it. Terms such as //Schulentlassungsfeier// <span style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);">[**school leaving ceremony]**, //Jugendweihe// **<span style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);">[youth consecration] **, //Jugendappell// **<span style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);">[youth appeal] **, etc., are to be avoided. //Schulentlassungsfeier// is not appropriate because not all the youth are actually leaving school. Even the trade school pupils have three years of job training ahead of them, and those going to secondary school will study further too. The term //Jugendweihe// has bad connotations because of its former use by the Marxists, and on worldview grounds we must avoid the term //Weihen// **<span style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);">[consecration] **<span style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);">. We do not consecrate or bless, but rather only give eloquent expression to an event, in this case the arrival of maturity. not only those who are not confirmed or do not take first communion. The party is not a sect, but rather it involves every citizen! The ceremony should be organized in a way that makes it a valuable experience for those who are not confirmed. And children who participate in religious ceremonies should sense that the party ceremony is the most genuine and most German. in order to make them aware of the nature of our ceremony. But even without such preparation, the ceremony should be understandable and effective. is the responsibility of the local group leader, supported by the education leader. The Hitler Youth leader and school leaders should be informed of the nature of the ceremony so that they know what will happen and can support it. The schools can provide information about the children involved. Parents should receive a dignified announcement of the ceremony, and a request to have their children participate. should be as large as possible, and well-lit. It should have the movement's symbols, and fresh greens and flowers. The youth sit at the front of the room, their family members in the rear. The Hitler Youth and the League of German Girls will sit in uniform (see the picture). It is important that all participants be well-dressed. The children should thank their parents and make their own affirmation of their coming tasks. Both elements are to be carefully prepared. The affirmation should not be made by an adult! The ceremony should consist of four parts. This allows for other texts to replace those suggested here, which cannot be given for reasons of space. Do not include too many poems. The suggestions here can sound more natural, particularly when read by the youth. A fanfare, a march in with flags. A quotation from the Führer: "We want a hard generation that is strong, reliable, loyal obedient and decent, so that we do not need to be ashamed." (Spoken by a uniformed political leader, for example an S.A. Man, an SS Man, or a party leader.) Music: (a song) 1. HJ Speaker **<span style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);">[Hitler Youth] **: Young people stand here On the threshold of their lives. A brief drum roll. 2. HJ Speaker: We enter joyfully Through the open door. We face our fate courageously, For while fate defeats the cowardly, God helps the brave! Drum roll. 3. HJ Speaker: We the youth are the bridge From ancestors to grandchildren. A song
 * Basic Principles**
 * The National Socialist ceremony for the youth is organized by the party!**
 * The name of the ceremony**
 * The ceremony involves all those in the year between 14 and 15,**
 * If possible, parents and children should be talked to in advance,**
 * The preparation of the ceremony**
 * The room for the ceremony**[[image:http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/images/hht/hht01.jpg width="388" height="218" align="right"]]
 * The high points of the ceremony are:**
 * The Course of the Ceremony**
 * Opening**
 * Introduction to the ceremony**

"Now let the banners fly..." (First the tune is played. The words are available in the //Schulungsbrief// **<span style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);">[another Nazi magazine] **<span style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);">, February 1938, p. 45.)

Address: German youth, German parents! Germans have always found the transition from 14 to 15 an important moment. It marks the beginning of a new stage of life. It is true that the young person is not yet fully adult. But the body has completed the greater part of its growth. With this physical growth the young person becomes increasingly able to determine his own life. This ceremony marks the point at which boys and girls increasingly become men and women. As you become more mature, you must increasingly follow the laws and meet the duties of life. Until now you have been a child. If you misbehaved, you did not have to bear the responsibility. Your father or mother made good the damage, and they forgave you. Now you will increasingly encounter people who will not forgive your bad behavior as your mother and father did. They will hold you responsible. If you have been well-behaved and did whatever your father and mother told you to do, you must realize that you will increasingly encounter situations in which your father and mother will no longer be able to help you. You will have to make your own decisions. If you leave school you will begin an apprenticeship, or if you continue school you will have a future occupation in mind. You will move from the Young People to the Hitler Youth or from the Young Girls to the League of German Girls. You will leave the circle in which you had become the oldest, and join a new one in which you will again be the youngest. You face something new in every direction. Whether in your apprenticeship or in further schooling, that is in your professional training, or in your personal lives, greater demands will be placed on you young men and women. How well you meet these demands will determine the remainder of your life. If you obey the laws of life you will succeed, and you will become useful men and diligent women. If you fail to meet life's demands, you will face a shipwreck. That is the meaning of this ceremony, of your transition. You must decide here between the good and the bad. Life is uncertain. Hard fate may strike some of you, perhaps even destroy you. We are defenseless against such blows of fate, but they are rare. In most cases where life does not go well, it is a matter of personal failure. Each person has his good and bad aspects. It is our will that determines whether the good or the bad wins. **That is the meaning of this ceremony. Here, before yourselves and us all, before your people and your Führer, and before God Almighty, you will pledge that the good will win in you, and that you want to become decent German people.** We say that the bad is harmful, the good useful. **Never make the mistake of asking what is good for you. Only that is good which is gained through honest means and serves the people.** Never forget when you begin your apprenticeship to learn how one earns his own bread, and that the bread you eat today as children of your parents, and that you shall later produce, is the bread of your people. Never forget that the camaraderie you will learn among your comrades is the camaraderie that the entire nation needs from you. **Never forget, boys and girls, that you live today in a free and strong Germany, and that your future will be secure only if you preserve this spirit of community.** Before Adolf Hitler, your parents and grandparents of the German community were divided into classes and groups, and Germany was defeated. Back then, someone who got his hands dirty by working honestly and industriously for his people was held in contempt by those who earned their money in other ways. German boys and girls, you must never again let Germany be divided into classes and groups, into parties and religious denominations. The community you had as //Pimpfe// **<span style="color: rgb(153, 102, 51);">[members of the youth group for young boys] ** or Young Girls you must also have as members of the Hitler Youth or the League of German Girls, and further on when you put on the uniform of the Labor Service, the army, the SA, the SS, the NSKK, or the NS Flying Corps. You must have it even later when you become a political leader or a member of the Women's League so that alongside your work or household you can carry on the work of Adolf Hitler, even when the day comes that the Führer is no longer with us. **You must be comrades for your entire life, and must respect every citizen who works, or who as a soldier is ready to give his life for Germany, and you must yourself strive to become such a worker or soldier.** The life before you is not a matter of good or bad behavior, or parental punishment, or cowardly behavior to avoid parental punishment, but rather it is a matter of proving yourself as a man or a woman. You will not have this strength if you do not have a living faith in God during your entire life. **But it must be a faith that leads you to serve God through deeds, not words.** It must be a faith that makes you consider yourself God's tool, called through your work, your struggle, your creation of new life, to serve the eternal maintenance of order, justice, and life itself in this world. You must never feel yourself a servant or slave of God, but rather a fighter for God. One gives a comrade the greatest joy when one gives him a weapon in the certainty that he will never use it against us, but rather use it to defend that which is holy to us all. One does not give a weapon to a fool! God gave us weapons. The creative strength in our hands with which we work, the creative strength in our minds, with which we learn and seek and research, the strength in our hearts and souls, with which we believe, the strengths with which we create new life, these are the weapons God has given humanity. We would be fools if we did not use these weapons to work, fight, create order, and maintain life, but rather served life ill because we were lazy, cowardly, disloyal, immoral. We would then be truly pitiable creatures before God! Were you like that, you would be ungrateful to the parents who raised you and educated you, who led you to come here under the flags of your people. You would be ungrateful to the teachers who taught you so much, and who helped you to begin to understand your duties. You would be ungrateful to your leaders in the Young People and the Hitler Youth who have helped you deal with some of the difficult questions young people face. At the least, out of gratitude to your parents, teachers, and comrades, you must work to become useful people in the future. We must **here give parents, teachers and the leaders of these boys and girls our thanks.** When these children were born, they carried in their blood the ability to become German boys and girls, and eventually German women and men. But when they were born, they could neither speak nor think, nor did they believe anything. We thank their German mothers, German fathers, German teachers, and the leaders of the Young People and Young Girls that they raised these children such that they are now mature enough to stand here before the flags of their people and make an affirmation to Germany. The methods of education and leadership they will experience in the coming years will be different than those of their childhood. You must know that you have a great responsibility also in the coming years to educate and lead these young people. Fulfill that responsibility as well as you have fulfilled those in the past. These words are also directed to the master who accepts these young boys or girls as apprentices, and to the leaders of the Labor Front and the army, who in the coming years will also be involved in the education of these young people. If you have such teachers, leaders and comrades in the future, and use all your strength as well, the Führer's hopes for you will be fulfilled. You will become a hard, loyal, industrious and successful generation. We will not need to be ashamed of you before the past or the future generations of our people. This is the proud hope and certainty we can give you in this solemn hour, if the affirmation you will now give is not only spoken, but also realized. But we must also give this warning: **If you do not stand together, but become disunited, if you are not loyal, but disloyal, if you do not work and are cowardly, you will fall into terrible chaos and Germany will collapse. God will have no home in Germany any longer.** A song is sung (The tune is played through first). Loyalty stands Where We Stand... (See the //Hoheitsträger,// Issue IX/38, p. 20) Speaker (one of the youth celebrating the event): We affirm: The German people has been created by the will of God. All those who fight for the life of our people, and those who died, Carried out the will of God. Their deeds are to us holy obligation All the boys and girls participating:
 * The Meaning of the Ceremony**
 * What is good, and what is bad?**
 * Boys and girls!**
 * The pledge of the youth:**

This we believe.

Speaker: We affirm that God gave us all our strength, In order to maintain the life of our people And defend it. It is therefore our holiest Duty to fight to our last breath Anything that threatens or endangers the life Of our people. God will decide Whether we live or die. Everyone present: This we pledge. Speaker: We want to be free from all selfishness. We want to be fighters for this Reich Named Germany, our home. We will never forget that we are German. Everyone present: That is what we want. The political leader: The pledge has been made. A new group of our people has joined our fighting and creative people's community. We are happy in the confidence this experience gave us in the eternal growth of our people. We conclude his pledge and this ceremony with a greeting to the Führer. Adolf Hitler, Sieg Heil! Singing of the National Anthem and the Horst-Wessel Song. The flags are carried out. Here are two other versions of the ceremony. The District Leader in Dortmund, party comrade Hesseldieck, gives us the following valuable ideas: The totality of education in the schools is not to be separated from the worldview education that became the party's responsibility after the seizure of power. We must claim and influence the totality of education. That requires our involvement at the critical transition points of the youth. As the youth leave school and assume their obligations to fight and work for the German people, the party must be involved, which means it becomes the duty of the respective political leader, the county leader, or the local group leader. For these reasons, I decided to hold school leaving ceremonies in the name of the party for all boys and girls finishing school. I delegated this responsibility for obvious reasons to the National Socialist Teacher's Federation. (The NS Teacher's Federation made all the preparations, and the ceremonies were conducted by the party's political leaders. The Editors.) The center of each ceremony, the pledge by the boys and girls, was entirely the responsibility of the political leader. All those completing middle, upper and advanced schools were gathered on one day. The ceremony took place in the large Dortmund film theater, the "Capitol." About 1800 youth participated. I myself led the pledge for the boys and girls. In other local groups, the ceremony was held in similar ways, led by the respective local group leader. In many cases, the youth received a picture of the Führer along with a quotation of National Socialist thought, or else the book //Remember that you are a German.// These ceremonies had a powerful effect on everyone, particularly on the youth. We also impressed the opponents of our worldview. That proves to me that this is the right way. The county office in Segeberg (Bad Segeberg in Holstein) conducted a "Ceremony of the Youth" for the first time in 1938. Despite the brief period of preparation, it was a great success. Many parents who did not want to have their children confirmed came to us with the request to show them the way to their future. This was done in the form of a National Socialist ceremony. It was not a copy or substitute for some kind of religious ceremony, but rather something new. We wanted to show that National Socialism can create new forms that correspond to the greatness of our idea, and that are impressive for those participating. 55 children chose to participate from the local groups of Segeberg county. Since it was not possible to carry out a single ceremony given the distances, ceremonies were held by the local groups in Kaltenkirchen and Bad Segeberg. Rooms were decorated and all the necessary preparations were made. 26 children participated in the western part of the county, 29 in the eastern part. The success was almost surprising, since the preparations began only at the beginning of the year. There were no sufficiently large official meeting halls in Kaltenkirchen and Bad Segeberg. We therefore used the largest available private halls, halls in which many of our meetings were held during the struggle for power. Both halls were well decorated with greenery, flowers, symbols of the party, and flags. Both ceremonies followed the following plan: 1. Entrance of the flags with music. 2. The poem "Adolf Hitler" (Anne-Marie Koeppen). 3. The song "Holy Fatherland..." 4. Address by the district leader, party comrade Sach, Bad Segeberg. 5. Music. 7. The oath, and presentation of a book. 7. The song "Raise our flags...". 8. Sieg Heil and the National Anthem. 9. Exit of the flags. Each book included a page with a motto, and the following inscription: Presented on the day when you took on obligations for the life of your people. Bad Segeberg, 20 March 1939. Signed: Werner Stiehr, //Kreisleiter//, Member of the Reichstag. Signed: ...... (Signed by the respective local group leader.) Not only the members of the local group, but all the inhabitants of the town and its surroundings were invited. 700 people attended in Bad Segeberg, 600 in Kaltenkirchen. I stress that party groups did not order members to attend, but rather that attendance was entirely voluntary. **I consider ordering people to attend in such situations unwise, since it gives an impression of compulsion that is not in keeping with the meaning of such a ceremony.** Most of the attendees in Bad Segeberg, which has a population of 6600, were from the town itself, while many in Kaltenkirchen, which has 12,000 inhabitants, came from the surrounding areas. District Education Leader Otto Gubitz.
 * Conclusion of the ceremony:**
 * A Youth Ceremony in Dortmund**
 * "Ceremony of the Youth" in Segeberg County**


 * [Page copyright © 1999 by Randall L. Bytwerk. No unauthorized reproduction. My email address is available on the [|FAQ page].]**

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//<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">Hitler's Boy Soldiers //
 * <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">1939 - 1945 **

On September 1, 1939, Hitler's armies invaded Poland. Six years of war would follow with the full participation of the Hitler Youth eventually down to the youngest child. At the onset of war, the Hitler Youth totaled 8.8 million. But the war brought immediate, drastic changes as over a million Hitler Youth leaders of draft age and regional adult leaders were immediately called up into the army. This resulted in a severe shortage of local and district leaders. The problem was resolved by lowering the age of local Hitler Youth leaders to 16 and 17. The average age had been 24. These 16 and 17-year-olds would now be responsible for as many as 500 or more boys. Another big change was the elimination of the strict division between the Jungvolk (boys 10 to 14) and the actual HJ (Hitler Youth 14 to 18). The HJ organization had sprawled into a giant bureaucracy with 14 different regional offices. It was now cut back to just six main offices. Hitler Youth leader Baldur von Schirach, not wanting to be left out of the war, received Hitler's permission to volunteer for the army. He underwent training and received a rapid rise through the ranks, becoming a lieutenant in just a few months. He was replaced by Artur Axmann, who had headed the HJ Social Affairs Department and had been involved with the organization since the late 1920s. The war returned a sense of urgency to the daily activities of the Hitler Youth. The organization had experienced a bit of a slump after 1936 when participation had become mandatory. For many young Germans, HJ meetings and activities had simply become part of the weekly routine. The original mission of the HJ had been to bring Hitler to power. Victory in the war became the new mission and HJ boys enthusiastically sprang into action, serving first as special postmen delivering draft notices in their neighborhoods along with monthly ration cards. They also went door to door collecting scrap metals and other needed war materials. Girls also enthusiastically participated, although they were assigned duties in keeping with the Nazi viewpoint on the role of females. An old German slogan, popular even during the Nazi era, summed it up -- //Kinder, Kirche, K<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">ü che// (Children, Church, Kitchen). The primary role of young females in Nazi Germany was to give birth to healthy, racially pure (according to Nazi standards) boys. All women's organizations were thus regarded as auxiliaries ranking below their male counterparts. BDM girls were assigned to help care for wounded soldiers in hospitals, to help in kindergartens, and to assist households with large families. They also stood on railway platforms, offering encouragement and refreshments to army troops departing for the front. Following the rapid German victory over Poland, girls from the Land Service were assigned to the acquired territory in northern Poland (Warthegau) to assist in the massive Nazi repopulation program in which native Poles were forced off their homes and farms by Himmler's SS troops to make way for ethnic Germans. Hitler Youth assisted in this operation by watching over Polish families as they were evicted from their homes making sure they took only a few basic possessions. Everything else of value was to be left behind for the Germans. Hitler considered the war in the East to be a "war of annihilation" in which those considered racially inferior, the Slavs and Jews, would be forcibly resettled or destroyed. Masses of unwanted humanity were thus forced into the southeastern portion of Poland where ghettos sprang up along with slave labor camps and eventually the extermination camps. Following the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, ethnic Germans began arriving into the Warthegau from areas of Russia and central Europe. Hitler Youth were utilized to help resettle and Nazify the new arrivals, many of whom did not even speak German. Children of the arrivals were also subject to mandatory participation in the HJ. In August 1940, British air raids began against Berlin in retaliation for the German bombing of London. Hitler Youth boys had been functioning as air raid wardens and anti-aircraft (flak) gun assistants in Berlin and other cities since the outbreak of war, and now saw their first action. America's entry into the war in December of 1941 resulted in a massive influx of air power into England. The first thousand bomber raid occurred in May 1942 against Cologne. In that same month, newly created //Wehrert<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">ü chtigungslager// or WELS (Defense Strengthening Camps) went into operation in Germany providing three weeks of mandatory war training for all boys aged 16 to 18 under the supervision of the Wehrmacht. They learned how to handle German infantry weapons including various pistols, machine-guns, hand grenades and Panzerfausts (German bazookas). By the beginning of 1943, Hitler's armies were stretched to the limit, battling the combined forces of the Soviet Union, United States, England and other Allies. By this time, most able-bodied German men were in the armed services. As a result, starting on January 26, 1943, anti-aircraft batteries were officially manned solely by Hitler Youth boys. At first they were stationed at flak guns near their homes, but as the overall situation deteriorated, they were transferred all over Germany. The younger boys were assigned to operate search lights and assist with communications, often riding their bicycles as dispatch riders. In October 1943, a search light battery received a direct bomb hit, killing the entire crew of boys, all aged 14 and under. Following each bombing raid, Hitler Youths assisted in neighborhood cleanup and helped relocate bombed out civilians. They knocked on doors looking for unused rooms in undamaged houses or apartments. Occupants refusing to let in the new 'tenants' were reported to the local police and could likely expect a visit from Gestapo. As the Allies stepped up their bombing campaign, the Nazis began evacuating children from threatened cities into Hitler Youth KLV (//Kinderlandverschickung//) camps located mainly in the rural regions of East Prussia, the Warthegau section of Poland, Upper Silesia, and Slovakia. From 1940 to 1945, over 2.8 million German children were sent to these camps. There were separate KLV camps for boys and girls. About 5,000 camps were eventually in operation, varying greatly in sizes from the smallest which had 18 children to the largest which held 1,200. Each camp was run by a Nazi approved teacher and a Hitler Youth squad leader. The camps replaced big city grammar schools, most of which were closed due to the bombing. Reluctant parents were forced to send their children away to the camps. Life inside the boys' camp was harsh, featuring a dreary routine of roll calls, para-military field exercises, hikes, marches, recitation of Nazi slogans and propaganda, along with endless singing of Hitler Youth songs and Nazi anthems. School work was neglected while supreme emphasis was placed on the boys learning to automatically snap-to attention at any time of the day or night and to obey all orders unconditionally "without any if or buts." Isolated in these camp and without any counter-balancing influences from a home life, the boys descended into a primitive, survival of the fittest mentality. Weakness was despised. Civilized notions of generosity and sympathy for those in need faded. Rigid pecking orders arose in which the youngest and most vulnerable boys were bullied, humiliated, and otherwise made to suffer, including sexual abuse. 1943 marked the military turning point for Hitler's Reich. In January, the German Sixth Army was destroyed by the Soviets at Stalingrad. In May, the last German strongholds in North Africa fell to the Allies. In July, the massive German counter-attack against the Soviets at Kursk failed. The Allies invaded Italy. An Allied front in northern Europe was anticipated. The war would only end with the "unconditional surrender" of Germany and its Axis partners, as stated by President Franklin Roosevelt at the Casablanca Conference in January 1943. In February, Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels retaliated by issuing a German declaration of "Total War." Amid a dwindling supply of manpower, the existence of an entire generation of ideologically pure boys, raised as Nazis, eager to fight for the Fatherland and even die for the F<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">ü hrer, could not be ignored. The result was the formation of the 12th SS-Panzer Division Hitlerjugend. A recruitment drive began, drawing principally on 17-year-old volunteers, but younger members 16 and under eagerly joined. During July and August 1943, 10,000 recruits arrived at the training camp in Beverloo, Belgium. To fill out the HJ Division with enough experienced soldiers and officers, Waffen-SS survivors from the Russian Front, including members of the elite //Leibstandarte-SS Adolf Hitler//, were brought in. Fifty officers from the Wehrmacht, who were former Hitler Youth leaders, were also reassigned to the division. The remaining shortage of squad and section leaders was filled with Hitler Youth members who had demonstrated leadership aptitude during HJ para-military training exercises. The division was placed under of the command of 34-year-old Maj. Gen. Fritz Witt, who had also been a Hitler Youth, dating back before 1933. Among his young troops, morale was high. Traditional, stiff German codes of conduct between officers and soldiers were replaced by more informal relationships in which young soldiers were often given the reasons behind orders. Unnecessary drills, such as goose-step marching were eliminated. Lessons learned on the Russian Front were applied during training to emphasize realistic battlefield conditions, including the use of live ammunition. By the spring of 1944, training was complete. The HJ Panzer Division, now fully trained and equipped, conducted divisional maneuvers observed by Gen. Heinz Guderian and Field Marshal von Rundstedt, both of whom admired the enthusiasm and expressed their high approval of the proficiency achieved by the young troops in such a short time. The division was then transferred to Hasselt, Belgium, in anticipation of D-Day, the Allied invasion of northern France. A few days before the invasion, SS Reichsf<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">ü hrer Heinrich Himmler visited the division. On D-Day, June 6, 1944, the HJ Division was one of three Panzer divisions held in reserve by Hitler as the Allies stormed the beaches at Normandy beginning at dawn. At 2:30 in the afternoon, the HJ Division was released and sent to Caen, located not far inland from Sword and Juno beaches on which British and Canadian troops had landed. The division soon came under heavy strafing attacks from Allied fighter bombers, which delayed arrival there until 10 p.m. The HJ were off to face an enemy that now had overwhelming air superiority and would soon have nearly unlimited artillery support. The Allies, for their part, were about to have their first encounter with Hitler's fanatical boy-soldiers. The shocking fanaticism and reckless bravery of the Hitler Youth in battle astounded the British and Canadians who fought them. They sprang like wolves against tanks. If they were encircled or outnumbered, they fought-on until there were no survivors. Young boys, years away from their first shave, had to be shot dead by Allied soldiers, old enough, in some cases, to be their fathers. The "fearless, cruel, domineering" youth Hitler had wanted had now come of age and arrived on the battlefield with utter contempt for danger. This soon resulted in the near destruction of the entire division. By the end of its first month in battle, 60 percent of the HJ Division was knocked out of action, with 20 percent killed and the rest wounded and missing. Divisional Commander Witt was killed by a direct hit on his headquarters from a British warship. Command then passed to Kurt Meyer, nicknamed 'Panzermeyer,' who at age 33, became the youngest divisional commander in the entire German armed forces. After Caen fell to the British, the HJ Division was withdrawn from the Normandy Front. The once confident fresh-faced Nazi youths were now exhausted and filthy, a sight which "presented a picture of deep human misery" as described by Meyer. In August, the Germans mounted a big counter-offensive toward Avranches, but were pushed back from the north by the British and Canadians, and by the Americans from the east, into the area around Falaise. Twenty four German divisions were trapped inside the Falaise Pocket with a narrow 20 mile gap existing as the sole avenue of escape. The HJ Division was sent to keep the northern edge of this gap open. However, Allied air superiority and massive artillery barrages smashed the HJ as well as the Germans trapped inside the pocket. Over 5,000 armored vehicles were destroyed, with 50,000 Germans captured, while 20,000 managed to escape, including the tattered remnants of the HJ. By September 1944,<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> the 12th SS-Panzer Division Hitlerjugend numbe red only 600 surviving young soldiers, with no tanks and no ammunition. Over 9,000 had been lost in Normandy and Falaise. The division continued to exist in name only for the duration of the war, as even younger (and still eager) volunteers were brought in along with a hodgepodge of conscripts. The division participated in the failed Battle of the Bulge (Ardennes offensive) and was then sent to Hungary where it participated in the failed attempt to recapture Budapest. On May 8, 1945, numbering just 455 soldiers and one tank, <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">the 12th SS-Panzer Division Hitlerjugend surrendered to the American 7th Army. Hitler's own generals tried to assassinate him on July 20, 1944, to end Nazi Germany's all-out commitment to a war that was now clearly lost. But the assassination attempt failed. Hitler took revenge by purging the General Staff of anyone deemed suspicious or exhibiting defeatist behavior. Nearly 200 officers and others were killed, in some cases, slowly hanged from meat hooks. Germany under Hitler would now fight-on to the very last, utilizing every available human and material resource. In September, Hitler Youth leader Artur Axmann proclaimed, "As the sixth year of war begins, Adolf Hitler's youth stands prepared to fight resolutely and with dedication for the freedom of their lives and their future. We say to them: You must decide whether you want to be the last of an unworthy race despised by future generations, or whether you want to be part of a new time, marvelous beyond all imagination." With the Waffen-SS and regular army now depleted of officers, Hitler ordered Hitler Youth boys as young as fifteen to be trained as replacements and sent to the Russian Front. Everyone, both young and old, would be thrown into the final fight to stop the onslaught of 'Bolshevik hordes' from the East and 'Anglo-American gangsters' from the West. On September 25, 1944, anticipating the invasion of the German Fatherland, the //Volkssturm// (People's Storm) was formed under the overall command of Heinrich Himmler. Every available male aged 16 to 60 was conscripted into this new army and trained to use the Panzerfaust anti-tank weapon. Objections to using even younger boys were bypassed. In the Ruhr area of Germany, HJ boys practiced guerilla warfare against invading U.S. troops. In the forests, the boys stayed hidden until the tanks passed, waiting for the foot soldiers. They would then spring up, shoot at them and throw grenades, inflicting heavy causalities, then dash away and disappear back into the forest. The Americans retaliated with air-attacks and leveled several villages in the surrounding area. If the boys happened to get cornered by American patrols, they often battled until the last boy was killed rather than surrender. And the boys kept getting younger. American troops reported capturing armed 8-year-olds at Aachen and knocking out artillery units operated entirely by boys aged twelve and under. Girls were also used now, operating 88mm anti-aircraft guns alongside boys. In February 1945, project Werewolf began, training German children as spies and saboteurs, intending to send them behind Allied lines with explosives and arsenic. But most of these would-be saboteurs were quickly captured or killed by the Allies as they advanced into the Reich. The Soviets by now were rushing toward Berlin, capital of Nazi Germany, where Hitler had chosen to make his last stand. On April 23, battalions made up entirely of Hitler Youths were formed to hold the Pichelsdorf bridges by the Havel River. These bridges in Berlin were supposed to be used by General Wenck's relief army coming from the south. That army, unknown to the boys, had already been destroyed and now existed on paper only. It was one of several phantom armies being commanded by Hitler to save encircled Berlin. At the Pichelsdorf bridges, 5,000 boys, wearing man-sized uniforms several sizes too big and helmets that flopped around on their heads, stood by with rifles and Panzerfausts, ready to oppose the Soviet Army. Within five days of battle, 4,500 had been killed or wounded. In other parts of Berlin, HJ boys met similar fates. Many committed suicide rather than be taken alive by the Red Army. All over the city, every able bodied male was pressed into the desperate final struggle. Anyone fleeing or refusing to go to the front lines was shot or hanged on the spot by SS executioners roaming the streets hunting for deserters. In his last public appearance, just days before his death, Adolf Hitler ventured out of his Berlin bunker on his 56th birthday into the chancellery garden to decorate twelve-year-old Hitler Youths with Iron Crosses for their heroism in the defence of Berlin. The extraordinary event was captured on film and remains one of the most enduring images chronicling the collapse of Hitler's thousand year Reich, as the tottering, senile-looking F<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">ü hrer is seen congratulating little boys staring at him with worshipful admiration. They were then sent back out into the streets to continue the hopeless fight. On April 30, 1945, as the Russians advanced to within a few hundred yards of his bunker, Hitler committed suicide. The next day, Hitler Youth leader Artur Axmann, who had been commanding an HJ battalion in Berlin, abandoned his boys and fled to the Alps. In Vienna, Baldur von Schirach abandoned HJ fighting to defend that city. The war ended with Germany's unconditional surrender on May 7, 1945. However, it was soon realized that this defeat was unlike any other in history. In addition to his war of military conquest, Hitler had also waged a war against defenseless civilians. The events of that war, revealed in the coming months during the Nuremberg trials, would stun the world, and even resulted in a new term to describe the systematic killing of an entire race of people -- genocide.
 * <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 160);">BDM - Girls **
 * <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 160);">Flak Crews **
 * <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 160);">KLV Camps **
 * <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 160);">Total War - The 12th SS-Panzer Division Hitlerjugend **
 * <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 160);">Volkssturm - The Final Defence **

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 * <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Copyright © 1999 The History Place™ All Rights Reserved **

//<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">Hitler's Boy Soldiers //
 * <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">1939 - 1945 **

On September 1, 1939, Hitler's armies invaded Poland. Six years of war would follow with the full participation of the Hitler Youth eventually down to the youngest child. At the onset of war, the Hitler Youth totaled 8.8 million. But the war brought immediate, drastic changes as over a million Hitler Youth leaders of draft age and regional adult leaders were immediately called up into the army. This resulted in a severe shortage of local and district leaders. The problem was resolved by lowering the age of local Hitler Youth leaders to 16 and 17. The average age had been 24. These 16 and 17-year-olds would now be responsible for as many as 500 or more boys. Another big change was the elimination of the strict division between the Jungvolk (boys 10 to 14) and the actual HJ (Hitler Youth 14 to 18). The HJ organization had sprawled into a giant bureaucracy with 14 different regional offices. It was now cut back to just six main offices. Hitler Youth leader Baldur von Schirach, not wanting to be left out of the war, received Hitler's permission to volunteer for the army. He underwent training and received a rapid rise through the ranks, becoming a lieutenant in just a few months. He was replaced by Artur Axmann, who had headed the HJ Social Affairs Department and had been involved with the organization since the late 1920s. The war returned a sense of urgency to the daily activities of the Hitler Youth. The organization had experienced a bit of a slump after 1936 when participation had become mandatory. For many young Germans, HJ meetings and activities had simply become part of the weekly routine. The original mission of the HJ had been to bring Hitler to power. Victory in the war became the new mission and HJ boys enthusiastically sprang into action, serving first as special postmen delivering draft notices in their neighborhoods along with monthly ration cards. They also went door to door collecting scrap metals and other needed war materials. Girls also enthusiastically participated, although they were assigned duties in keeping with the Nazi viewpoint on the role of females. An old German slogan, popular even during the Nazi era, summed it up -- //Kinder, Kirche, K<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">ü che// (Children, Church, Kitchen). The primary role of young females in Nazi Germany was to give birth to healthy, racially pure (according to Nazi standards) boys. All women's organizations were thus regarded as auxiliaries ranking below their male counterparts. BDM girls were assigned to help care for wounded soldiers in hospitals, to help in kindergartens, and to assist households with large families. They also stood on railway platforms, offering encouragement and refreshments to army troops departing for the front. Following the rapid German victory over Poland, girls from the Land Service were assigned to the acquired territory in northern Poland (Warthegau) to assist in the massive Nazi repopulation program in which native Poles were forced off their homes and farms by Himmler's SS troops to make way for ethnic Germans. Hitler Youth assisted in this operation by watching over Polish families as they were evicted from their homes making sure they took only a few basic possessions. Everything else of value was to be left behind for the Germans. Hitler considered the war in the East to be a "war of annihilation" in which those considered racially inferior, the Slavs and Jews, would be forcibly resettled or destroyed. Masses of unwanted humanity were thus forced into the southeastern portion of Poland where ghettos sprang up along with slave labor camps and eventually the extermination camps. Following the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, ethnic Germans began arriving into the Warthegau from areas of Russia and central Europe. Hitler Youth were utilized to help resettle and Nazify the new arrivals, many of whom did not even speak German. Children of the arrivals were also subject to mandatory participation in the HJ. In August 1940, British air raids began against Berlin in retaliation for the German bombing of London. Hitler Youth boys had been functioning as air raid wardens and anti-aircraft (flak) gun assistants in Berlin and other cities since the outbreak of war, and now saw their first action. America's entry into the war in December of 1941 resulted in a massive influx of air power into England. The first thousand bomber raid occurred in May 1942 against Cologne. In that same month, newly created //Wehrert<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">ü chtigungslager// or WELS (Defense Strengthening Camps) went into operation in Germany providing three weeks of mandatory war training for all boys aged 16 to 18 under the supervision of the Wehrmacht. They learned how to handle German infantry weapons including various pistols, machine-guns, hand grenades and Panzerfausts (German bazookas). By the beginning of 1943, Hitler's armies were stretched to the limit, battling the combined forces of the Soviet Union, United States, England and other Allies. By this time, most able-bodied German men were in the armed services. As a result, starting on January 26, 1943, anti-aircraft batteries were officially manned solely by Hitler Youth boys. At first they were stationed at flak guns near their homes, but as the overall situation deteriorated, they were transferred all over Germany. The younger boys were assigned to operate search lights and assist with communications, often riding their bicycles as dispatch riders. In October 1943, a search light battery received a direct bomb hit, killing the entire crew of boys, all aged 14 and under. Following each bombing raid, Hitler Youths assisted in neighborhood cleanup and helped relocate bombed out civilians. They knocked on doors looking for unused rooms in undamaged houses or apartments. Occupants refusing to let in the new 'tenants' were reported to the local police and could likely expect a visit from Gestapo. As the Allies stepped up their bombing campaign, the Nazis began evacuating children from threatened cities into Hitler Youth KLV (//Kinderlandverschickung//) camps located mainly in the rural regions of East Prussia, the Warthegau section of Poland, Upper Silesia, and Slovakia. From 1940 to 1945, over 2.8 million German children were sent to these camps. There were separate KLV camps for boys and girls. About 5,000 camps were eventually in operation, varying greatly in sizes from the smallest which had 18 children to the largest which held 1,200. Each camp was run by a Nazi approved teacher and a Hitler Youth squad leader. The camps replaced big city grammar schools, most of which were closed due to the bombing. Reluctant parents were forced to send their children away to the camps. Life inside the boys' camp was harsh, featuring a dreary routine of roll calls, para-military field exercises, hikes, marches, recitation of Nazi slogans and propaganda, along with endless singing of Hitler Youth songs and Nazi anthems. School work was neglected while supreme emphasis was placed on the boys learning to automatically snap-to attention at any time of the day or night and to obey all orders unconditionally "without any if or buts." Isolated in these camp and without any counter-balancing influences from a home life, the boys descended into a primitive, survival of the fittest mentality. Weakness was despised. Civilized notions of generosity and sympathy for those in need faded. Rigid pecking orders arose in which the youngest and most vulnerable boys were bullied, humiliated, and otherwise made to suffer, including sexual abuse. 1943 marked the military turning point for Hitler's Reich. In January, the German Sixth Army was destroyed by the Soviets at Stalingrad. In May, the last German strongholds in North Africa fell to the Allies. In July, the massive German counter-attack against the Soviets at Kursk failed. The Allies invaded Italy. An Allied front in northern Europe was anticipated. The war would only end with the "unconditional surrender" of Germany and its Axis partners, as stated by President Franklin Roosevelt at the Casablanca Conference in January 1943. In February, Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels retaliated by issuing a German declaration of "Total War." Amid a dwindling supply of manpower, the existence of an entire generation of ideologically pure boys, raised as Nazis, eager to fight for the Fatherland and even die for the F<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">ü hrer, could not be ignored. The result was the formation of the 12th SS-Panzer Division Hitlerjugend. A recruitment drive began, drawing principally on 17-year-old volunteers, but younger members 16 and under eagerly joined. During July and August 1943, 10,000 recruits arrived at the training camp in Beverloo, Belgium. To fill out the HJ Division with enough experienced soldiers and officers, Waffen-SS survivors from the Russian Front, including members of the elite //Leibstandarte-SS Adolf Hitler//, were brought in. Fifty officers from the Wehrmacht, who were former Hitler Youth leaders, were also reassigned to the division. The remaining shortage of squad and section leaders was filled with Hitler Youth members who had demonstrated leadership aptitude during HJ para-military training exercises. The division was placed under of the command of 34-year-old Maj. Gen. Fritz Witt, who had also been a Hitler Youth, dating back before 1933. Among his young troops, morale was high. Traditional, stiff German codes of conduct between officers and soldiers were replaced by more informal relationships in which young soldiers were often given the reasons behind orders. Unnecessary drills, such as goose-step marching were eliminated. Lessons learned on the Russian Front were applied during training to emphasize realistic battlefield conditions, including the use of live ammunition. By the spring of 1944, training was complete. The HJ Panzer Division, now fully trained and equipped, conducted divisional maneuvers observed by Gen. Heinz Guderian and Field Marshal von Rundstedt, both of whom admired the enthusiasm and expressed their high approval of the proficiency achieved by the young troops in such a short time. The division was then transferred to Hasselt, Belgium, in anticipation of D-Day, the Allied invasion of northern France. A few days before the invasion, SS Reichsf<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">ü hrer Heinrich Himmler visited the division. On D-Day, June 6, 1944, the HJ Division was one of three Panzer divisions held in reserve by Hitler as the Allies stormed the beaches at Normandy beginning at dawn. At 2:30 in the afternoon, the HJ Division was released and sent to Caen, located not far inland from Sword and Juno beaches on which British and Canadian troops had landed. The division soon came under heavy strafing attacks from Allied fighter bombers, which delayed arrival there until 10 p.m. The HJ were off to face an enemy that now had overwhelming air superiority and would soon have nearly unlimited artillery support. The Allies, for their part, were about to have their first encounter with Hitler's fanatical boy-soldiers. The shocking fanaticism and reckless bravery of the Hitler Youth in battle astounded the British and Canadians who fought them. They sprang like wolves against tanks. If they were encircled or outnumbered, they fought-on until there were no survivors. Young boys, years away from their first shave, had to be shot dead by Allied soldiers, old enough, in some cases, to be their fathers. The "fearless, cruel, domineering" youth Hitler had wanted had now come of age and arrived on the battlefield with utter contempt for danger. This soon resulted in the near destruction of the entire division. By the end of its first month in battle, 60 percent of the HJ Division was knocked out of action, with 20 percent killed and the rest wounded and missing. Divisional Commander Witt was killed by a direct hit on his headquarters from a British warship. Command then passed to Kurt Meyer, nicknamed 'Panzermeyer,' who at age 33, became the youngest divisional commander in the entire German armed forces. After Caen fell to the British, the HJ Division was withdrawn from the Normandy Front. The once confident fresh-faced Nazi youths were now exhausted and filthy, a sight which "presented a picture of deep human misery" as described by Meyer. In August, the Germans mounted a big counter-offensive toward Avranches, but were pushed back from the north by the British and Canadians, and by the Americans from the east, into the area around Falaise. Twenty four German divisions were trapped inside the Falaise Pocket with a narrow 20 mile gap existing as the sole avenue of escape. The HJ Division was sent to keep the northern edge of this gap open. However, Allied air superiority and massive artillery barrages smashed the HJ as well as the Germans trapped inside the pocket. Over 5,000 armored vehicles were destroyed, with 50,000 Germans captured, while 20,000 managed to escape, including the tattered remnants of the HJ. By September 1944,<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> the 12th SS-Panzer Division Hitlerjugend numbe red only 600 surviving young soldiers, with no tanks and no ammunition. Over 9,000 had been lost in Normandy and Falaise. The division continued to exist in name only for the duration of the war, as even younger (and still eager) volunteers were brought in along with a hodgepodge of conscripts. The division participated in the failed Battle of the Bulge (Ardennes offensive) and was then sent to Hungary where it participated in the failed attempt to recapture Budapest. On May 8, 1945, numbering just 455 soldiers and one tank, <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">the 12th SS-Panzer Division Hitlerjugend surrendered to the American 7th Army. Hitler's own generals tried to assassinate him on July 20, 1944, to end Nazi Germany's all-out commitment to a war that was now clearly lost. But the assassination attempt failed. Hitler took revenge by purging the General Staff of anyone deemed suspicious or exhibiting defeatist behavior. Nearly 200 officers and others were killed, in some cases, slowly hanged from meat hooks. Germany under Hitler would now fight-on to the very last, utilizing every available human and material resource. In September, Hitler Youth leader Artur Axmann proclaimed, "As the sixth year of war begins, Adolf Hitler's youth stands prepared to fight resolutely and with dedication for the freedom of their lives and their future. We say to them: You must decide whether you want to be the last of an unworthy race despised by future generations, or whether you want to be part of a new time, marvelous beyond all imagination." With the Waffen-SS and regular army now depleted of officers, Hitler ordered Hitler Youth boys as young as fifteen to be trained as replacements and sent to the Russian Front. Everyone, both young and old, would be thrown into the final fight to stop the onslaught of 'Bolshevik hordes' from the East and 'Anglo-American gangsters' from the West. On September 25, 1944, anticipating the invasion of the German Fatherland, the //Volkssturm// (People's Storm) was formed under the overall command of Heinrich Himmler. Every available male aged 16 to 60 was conscripted into this new army and trained to use the Panzerfaust anti-tank weapon. Objections to using even younger boys were bypassed. In the Ruhr area of Germany, HJ boys practiced guerilla warfare against invading U.S. troops. In the forests, the boys stayed hidden until the tanks passed, waiting for the foot soldiers. They would then spring up, shoot at them and throw grenades, inflicting heavy causalities, then dash away and disappear back into the forest. The Americans retaliated with air-attacks and leveled several villages in the surrounding area. If the boys happened to get cornered by American patrols, they often battled until the last boy was killed rather than surrender. And the boys kept getting younger. American troops reported capturing armed 8-year-olds at Aachen and knocking out artillery units operated entirely by boys aged twelve and under. Girls were also used now, operating 88mm anti-aircraft guns alongside boys. In February 1945, project Werewolf began, training German children as spies and saboteurs, intending to send them behind Allied lines with explosives and arsenic. But most of these would-be saboteurs were quickly captured or killed by the Allies as they advanced into the Reich. The Soviets by now were rushing toward Berlin, capital of Nazi Germany, where Hitler had chosen to make his last stand. On April 23, battalions made up entirely of Hitler Youths were formed to hold the Pichelsdorf bridges by the Havel River. These bridges in Berlin were supposed to be used by General Wenck's relief army coming from the south. That army, unknown to the boys, had already been destroyed and now existed on paper only. It was one of several phantom armies being commanded by Hitler to save encircled Berlin. At the Pichelsdorf bridges, 5,000 boys, wearing man-sized uniforms several sizes too big and helmets that flopped around on their heads, stood by with rifles and Panzerfausts, ready to oppose the Soviet Army. Within five days of battle, 4,500 had been killed or wounded. In other parts of Berlin, HJ boys met similar fates. Many committed suicide rather than be taken alive by the Red Army. All over the city, every able bodied male was pressed into the desperate final struggle. Anyone fleeing or refusing to go to the front lines was shot or hanged on the spot by SS executioners roaming the streets hunting for deserters. In his last public appearance, just days before his death, Adolf Hitler ventured out of his Berlin bunker on his 56th birthday into the chancellery garden to decorate twelve-year-old Hitler Youths with Iron Crosses for their heroism in the defence of Berlin. The extraordinary event was captured on film and remains one of the most enduring images chronicling the collapse of Hitler's thousand year Reich, as the tottering, senile-looking F<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">ü hrer is seen congratulating little boys staring at him with worshipful admiration. They were then sent back out into the streets to continue the hopeless fight. On April 30, 1945, as the Russians advanced to within a few hundred yards of his bunker, Hitler committed suicide. The next day, Hitler Youth leader Artur Axmann, who had been commanding an HJ battalion in Berlin, abandoned his boys and fled to the Alps. In Vienna, Baldur von Schirach abandoned HJ fighting to defend that city. The war ended with Germany's unconditional surrender on May 7, 1945. However, it was soon realized that this defeat was unlike any other in history. In addition to his war of military conquest, Hitler had also waged a war against defenseless civilians. The events of that war, revealed in the coming months during the Nuremberg trials, would stun the world, and even resulted in a new term to describe the systematic killing of an entire race of people -- genocide.
 * <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 160);">BDM - Girls **
 * <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 160);">Flak Crews **
 * <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 160);">KLV Camps **
 * <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 160);">Total War - The 12th SS-Panzer Division Hitlerjugend **
 * <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 160);">Volkssturm - The Final Defence **

[|NEXT SECTION - Aftermath, Nuremberg and Beyond][|Hitler Youth Index Page][|The History Place Main Page] <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Terms of use: Private home/school non-commercial, non-Internet re-usage only is allowed of any text, graphics, photos, audio clips, other electronic files or materials from The History Place.
 * <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Copyright © 1999 The History Place™ All Rights Reserved **


 * The Hitler Youth, known in German as Hitler- [[image:http://cdn5.tribalfusion.com/media/1584056/Netflix_468x60.gif width="468" height="60" align="center" caption="Click Here!" link="http://a.tribalfusion.com/h.click/aumNvB0UYDTPPp46vcPAMA4dvo1HJZcpdIy3PnR3sMfTGQdUcZbgPAYOUd33Ub753UPmUqrtWE3dQqUZdQcYCRbEvSt7aVsf54U6pntun0qXm3HbFPVbZc2m3ZcodAmTtQ8Xr77XbjlXTyMSFYDTrQ1WtQ5mbjxRVfFuaZcZcue/http://clk.atdmt.com/NFX/go/trblfnfx0060000671nfx/direct/01/"]]



//<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">Road to Power //
 * <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">1923 - 1933 **

<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Following the failed Beer Hall Putsch and Hitler's arrest, the Nazi Party and Youth League of the NSDAP had been outlawed. Gustav Lenk, former leader of the Nazi Youth League, then founded a new group, the Patriotic Youth Association of Greater Germany. However, German officials soon disbanded this group, believing it was just another name for the Nazi Youth League. Lenk was arrested and briefly imprisoned, but upon his release, founded yet another group, the Greater German Youth Movement. He was arrested again and sent to Landsberg Prison where Hitler was confined. Lenk wound up being released from prison about the same time as Hitler in December of 1924. After his release, Hitler announced he would re-found the Nazi Party and invited all German nationalists to join the revitalized Nazi Party with him as its undisputed leader. However, Lenk doubted Hitler could maintain his position as absolute leader. Lenk then founded a new nationalist youth group independent of the NSDAP. The Nazis retaliated by discrediting Lenk via trumped up charges that he was a traitor and petty thief. This resulted in Lenk's downfall and complete removal from the entire German youth movement scene. He was replaced by Kurt Gruber, a 21-year-old law student who had joined the Nazi Party in 1923. Gruber had served as a group leader under Lenk and was a skilled organizer. Gruber introduced the first Hitler Youth style uniforms featuring a brown shirt and black shorts and a unique arm band with a Nazi swastika minus the white circular background, with a white horizontal stripe added to easily distinguish youth members from brownshirted storm troopers, the SA, who resented being confused with the youths. Hitler was impressed by Gruber's zeal and organizational talent. The Greater German Youth Movement under Gruber became the sole official youth organization of the Nazi Party and was even allowed to retain a degree of independence from the NSDAP leadership. For Hitler, 1925 was a year spent successfully rebuilding the Nazi Party and consolidating his position as its absolute leader. Amid this success, Hitler called for his first mass rally since his release from prison. He chose the city of Weimar, located in the German state of Thuringia, which was one of the few states where he could legally speak in public. On July 3, 1926, a two day Nazi rally began and was attended by youth group members. On Sunday, July 4, at the suggestion Julius Streicher, Gruber's Greater German Youth Movement was renamed as the //Hitler Jugend, Bund der Deutschen Arbeiterjugend.// Thus the //Hitler Jugend (HJ)// or Hitler Youth was born. Kurt Gruber was then officially proclaimed as its first leader. All other independent National Socialist youth associations, including groups in Austria, were now absorbed into the Hitler Youth organization. Gruber next established various departments and procedures. Among the 14 separate departments were ones for sports, propaganda and education. New guidelines stipulated: that all Hitler Youth members over age 18 had to be Nazi Party members; appointments to high ranking positions required Party approval; Hitler Youths must obey all commands issued by any Nazi Party leader; pay a membership fee of four Pfennigs per month; and wear standardized uniforms designed to avoid confusion with storm trooper uniforms. By the end of 1927, a further requirement was that Hitler Youths turning 18 had to join the storm troopers. However, this resulted in a shortage of trained leaders within the upper echelons of the Hitler Youth. The Youth Committee of the NSDAP then worked out an arrangement with the SA allowing valuable members to stay in the Hitler Youth past age 18. With new branches in twenty different German Gaue (districts), the Hitler Youth organization faced financial problems associated with its expansion. Paid dues and Party funds only covered a portion of the costs. Hitler Youth members then began the practice of collecting money during propaganda marches. Those marches always included the attention getting, rousing singing of Hitler Youth boys. Their songs, borrowed mainly from the pre-war German youth movement, were based on old ballards and traditional German folklore. They also borrowed tunes from other nationalist groups and other political organizations, even the Communists, and simply changed the lyrics. <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">At the Nuremberg Party rally in 1927, about 300 Hitler Youth members marched alongside 30,000 brownshirted storm troopers. This was the first appearance of the Hitler Youth at the annual Nuremberg rallies. Adolf Hitler took notice of his young followers and paid special tribute to them. Due to a lack of money, many of the boys had walked all the way to Nuremberg. In 1928, the Hitler Youth organization continued its slow, steady growth and began making contacts with groups outside of Germany, including Sudeten German youths in Czechoslovakia and ethnic German youths in Poland. On November 18, Gruber introduced the first //Reichsappell//, special days of the year in which all Hitler Youth units were required to simultaneously stage public rallies to listen to special orders of the day and Nazi Party proclamations. At the end of 1928, Gruber called for a meeting of the entire Hitler Youth leadership to streamline the organization. That meeting resulted in the addition of a new department for boys aged 10 to 14, later known as the //Jungvolk//. A separate branch was established for girls, later called the //Bund Deutscher Mädel//, the League of German Girls, or BDM. Another new department was the Hitler Youth news service, set up to assist with Nazi propaganda and publish youth oriented newspapers to overcome the "Jewish monopoly of news." Gruber also reaffirmed the unique identity of the Hitler Youth as "a new youth movement of young social-revolutionary minded Germans" trained to risk their own lives if necessary to free Germany from "the shackles of Capitalists and the enemies of the German race." <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Although Gruber was enjoying much success, competition for his position soon arose from an ambitious young upstart. Baldur von Schirach had joined the Nazi Party at age 18 after hearing Hitler speak for the first time. Schirach was the son of a wealthy Prussian army captain and an American mother whose ancestors included two signers of the Declaration of Independence. He was educated at the best German schools and quickly came to the attention of Hitler after joining the Party. At Hitler's prompting, he attended the University of Munich to study Germanic folklore and art history. He joined the local Nazi Student Association as well as the storm troopers, although they tended to poke fun at him because of his upper class, schoolboy looks. But young Schirach and his wealthy family enjoyed Hitler's friendship and confidence. Hitler made many social visits to his home. In July 1928, Schirach was appointed Leader of the Nazi Student Association and was made an adviser for student affairs at Nazi Party headquarters in Munich. The ambitious young Schirach soon set his sights on gaining control of the Hitler Youth organization as well. Gruber soon became aware of Schirach's ambitions and made personal appeals to Hitler Youth leaders for their continued loyalty. He also attempted to make a favorable impression on Hitler by expanding the newspaper activities of the Hitler Youth. Two monthly papers were established, //Die Junge Front// and //Hitler Jugend Zeitung//, along with a bi-weekly. But the papers never sold well. Gruber later required boys wanting promotions within the Hitler Youth to sell a fixed quota each month in order to qualify. In April 1929, the Hitler Youth was declared the only official youth group of the Nazi Party. In September, Hitler Youth made a strong showing at the annual Nuremberg rally as about 2,000 members marched past Hitler amid great applause. Among them was a group of Berlin boys who had marched 400 miles all the way to Nuremberg. This became an instant tradition and would be repeated each year, known as the Adolf Hitler March. The Hitler Youth organization had grown from 80 branches with 700 members in 1926 to about 450 branches with 13,000 members in 1929. But it was still a tiny organization, considering that throughout Germany there was a total of 4.3 million young people involved in a wide variety of youth groups. But the Hitler Youth movement, like the Nazi Party itself, would soon experience enormous growth as a result of the economic catastrophe brought on by the Great Depression which began in October 1929. <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">In Germany, the severe economic hardships of the Great Depression destabilized the democratic government, spurring anti-democratic groups into action including the Nazis and Communists. On March 20, 1930, Hitler Youth gathered in Berlin for their first solo mass rally. It had the theme "From Resistance to Attack" and featured inflammatory speeches by Berlin Gauleiter Joseph Goebbels and Hitler Youth Leader Gruber. The radical tone of the speeches attracted the attention of local police and public authorities, resulting in a crackdown on the Hitler Youth. Propaganda marches were banned and German schoolboys were prohibited from joining. Penalties included possible expulsion from school and fines. To get around this, local Hitler Youth groups simply renamed themselves with harmless sounding names such as the 'Friends of Nature.' The official crackdown had little overall effect and actually made this 'forbidden' organization more appealing to adventurous teens. Parents tried in vain to discouraged their children from associating with Hitler Youths. The Roman Catholic church, which had its own extensive youth organization, restricted young parish members from joining. To keep boys from defecting, Catholic youth groups copied some of the practices of the Hitler Youth such as target shooting with small caliber rifles. Hitler Youth marches, rallies and meetings continued despite the opposition. Political activities of the boys included disrupting the first showing of the anti-war film //All Quiet on the Western Front.// In the movie, a schoolboy enthusiastically joins the German army in World War I, only to discover the murderous realities of modern warfare. In several German cities and in Vienna, disruptive Hitler Youths inside theaters caused film showings to be cancelled. The film was then taken out of general circulation in Germany. 1930 was a landmark year in the rise of Hitler and Hitler Youth played an important role. Throughout Germany, along with Nazi storm troopers, they tirelessly campaigned to get Nazis elected to the Reichstag in the now-faltering democratic government. In the election held on September 14, 1930<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">, Nazis received 18 percent of the vote, winning 107 seats in the Reichstag, instantly becoming the second largest political party in Germany. <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Despite the success of the Hitler Youth, Kurt Gruber's position as leader became shaky due to the unceasing behind-the-scenes manipulations of Balder von Schirach and the return of Ernst Röhm from South America to assume command of the SA. Hitler had recalled Röhm from South America after unrest occurred within the ranks of his storm troopers, including an open revolt in Berlin in March 1931. Following the revolt, Hitler named himself Supreme Commander of the SA, with Röhm as its Chief of Staff actually running the organization. The Hitler Youth organization under Gruber had been operating as a semi-independent entity within the SA. Under Röhm, that was about to change. In April 1931, at Röhm's request, Hitler issued an order placing Gruber directly subordinate to the SA Chief of Staff. The headquarters of the Hitler Youth organization was also moved from Plauen to the main Nazi headquarters in Munich. Making matters worse for Gruber, he was criticized by Schirach for the heavy financial losses of the Hitler Youth organization. Newspaper sales and fund raising had been hurt by local government bans on Hitler Youth publications as well as bans on general activities. Schirach capitalized on this and now claimed that he, not Gruber, was the man who could successfully lead a reorganized and revitalized Hitler Youth organization on a national level, and that Gruber had shown a lack of vision and organizational ability. Gruber was also criticized by Röhm over the slow growth of the Hitler Youth compared to the huge increase of memberships in the Nazi Party. Gruber countered the growing criticism by promising Hitler that he would double membership by the end of 1931, a promise that would be nearly impossible to keep. In October 1931, Nazi Party headquarters in Munich abruptly announced it had accepted Gruber's resignation, although in reality he never actually submitted one. After three years of intense work building the Hitler Youth organization, Gruber was gone, replaced by the 24-year-old Schirach. <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Schirach had proven himself an able organizer and propagandist while he was a student leader. Although he was from an upper class background, he became a militant opponent of his own social class. He was also an anti-Semite as well as an opponent of Christianity. As one of the earliest members of the Nazi Party, he was among Hitler's inner circle and was personally well regarded by Hitler. Schirach was a romantic and a self-styled poet who had worshipful admiration for Hitler. He expressed blind devotion in sentimental writings, describing Hitler as "this genius grazing the stars" and stating that "loyalty is everything and everything is the love of Adolf Hitler." Schirach's flattery was also an effective means of furthering his own advancement. Hitler had a notable weakness for flattery which was well known to members of his inner circle, including Göring, Goebbels, and Himmler. They constantly tried to outdo each other in lavishing praise upon him, but none were better skilled at it than Schirach. In a directive issued by Hitler on October 30, 1931, Schirach was appointed to the newly created office of //Reichsjugendführer// (Reich Youth Leader) directly responsible to the Chief of the SA. The Hitler Youth organization, as well as the two Nazi student organizations already led by Schirach, were all combined and placed under Schirach's control. The Nazi student organizations were known for the virulent anti-Semitism of its young members who harassed and sometimes beat up Jewish teachers and administrators as well as anyone expressing anti-Nazi opinions. Immediately after his appointment as //Reichsjugendführer,// Schirach weeded out any leaders not entirely devoted to Hitler. Schirach and SA Leader Röhm were allied in internal political squabbles within the Nazi Party and personally got along very well, a relationship that caused malicious gossip. Röhm was a known homosexual and Schirach had a somewhat delicate persona with his upper class schoolboy looks and mannerisms considered effeminate by battle hardened storm troopers. Schirach, like most of the top Nazi leaders, was unable to live up to the Nazi ideal for men -- the tough, athletic, young blond. Although Schirach enjoyed the support of Hitler and strong backing among the Nazi Party leadership, throughout his entire career as Hitler Youth Leader, he would have to overcome persistent gossip and ridicule, struggling to be taken seriously by the brutal minded Nazi youths under his command. One rumour widely circulated was that Schirach's bedroom was 'girlishly' decorated all in white. <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">In 1932, Hitler Youth, along with the SA, took part in four separate election campaigns -- two Reichstag elections and two Presidential elections. Hitler's goal was to achieve power democratically and then eliminate democracy. But the campaigns cost a lot of money and the Nazi Party ran into serious financial difficulties. The Hitler Youth organization essentially went broke. Although it continued to attract more members, new boys mostly came from unemployed families. During overnight camping trips, the new boys relaxed around the camp fire and learned Nazi slogans while joining in sing-a-longs of Hitler Youth and Nazi anthems. Political instruction took place during weekly //Heimabends// (home evenings) in the houses of Hitler Youth. The agenda was usually set via special educational letters sent to local Hitler Youth leaders giving detailed instructions on how to conduct the meetings. During these meetings, propaganda activities for the following week were also planned. To the average German, their elected democratic leaders seemed unable to cope with the enormous daily sufferings brought on by the Great Depression. Throughout Germany, thousands of businesses and banks had failed. People lost their life's savings. Millions were now unemployed, struggling just to put food on the table to feed their children. As the democratic government in Berlin slowly unraveled under this pressure, the Nazis and other rival political groups, especially the Communists, positioned themselves to seize power. The Communists were the Nazis main rivals and had their own storm trooper organization, the Red Front, whose members were always willing to fight Nazis in the streets. Violent street incidents also erupted between Hitler Youths and young Communists. Uniformed Hitler Youth, like the brownshirted SA, were a visible force in the streets campaigning for Hitler and conducting frequent propaganda marches. Street battles between Communist youths and Hitler Youths occurred regularly. They battled with fists and sticks but increasingly resorted to the use firearms. Between 1931 and 1933, twenty three Hitler Youths were killed in the streets. The best known case involved twelve-year-old Herbert Norkus. Early on the morning of Sunday, January 26, 1932, he went out with his local Hitler Youth troop posting notices of an upcoming anti-Red meeting. The boys were then attacked by a troop of Communists and scattered, but Norkus was caught and stabbed twice. He ran to a nearby house for help but the owner shut the door in his face. Norkus was then stabbed five more times and left a trail of bloody hand prints along the outside wall of the house as he tried to pull himself up. The incident became the focus of the Nazi feature length propaganda movie //Hitler Junge Quex// which starred actual members of the Berlin Hitler Youth. In April 1932, attempting to halt the widespread political violence, the German democratic government banned the SA and the Hitler Youth. However, for German teenagers, the lure of joining this now-forbidden youth organization resulted in a surge of new recruits. A few months later, due to behind-the-scenes political manipulations by Hitler, the ban on the SA and Hitler Youth was lifted. Hitler and the Nazis were now close to achieving power. In the parliamentary elections held on July 31, 1932, the Nazis became the largest political party in Germany, receiving 13.7 million votes granting them 230 seats in the Reichstag. The tireless propaganda activities of the Hitler Youth had helped enormously to achieve this. All over Germany they had handed out millions of pamphlets and special editions of Nazi newspapers and conducted countless propaganda marches. In October, to celebrate Hitler's success and the growing strength of the Hitler Youth movement, Schirach asked the entire membership to gather for a //Reichsjugendtag der NSDAP// (Reich Youth Day) rally at Potsdam. Although there were initial concerns over the number that would actually show up, over 80,000 members travelled on foot, by bus and rail, converging on Potsdam and overwhelming the city. On October 2, they staged a parade beginning at 11 a.m. lasting until 6 p.m. A teary-eyed Hitler stood on the reviewing stand saluting them, deeply impressed by their resolve and their overwhelming turnout. The organization now had about 107,000 members. It would soon number in the millions. [|NEXT SECTION - Prelude to War][|Hitler Youth Index Page][|The History Place Main Page] <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Terms of use: Private home/school non-commercial, non-Internet re-usage only is allowed of any text, graphics, photos, audio clips, other electronic files or materials from The History Place. Jugend (HJ), was founded in 1926, though its roots stretch back a few years. Its origins come from the Jungsturm Adolf Hitler (Adolf Hitler Boy’s Storm Troop), an arm of the storm troopers founded in 1922. It was originally the youth movement of the German Workers’ Party, founded in 1919, which, in 1920, Hitler renamed the National Socialist German Workers’ Party. The Jungsturm Adolf Hitler collapsed in 1923 with the failure of the Beer Hall Putsch and Hitler’s imprisonment. A number of youth groups were then founded to try to fill the gap. While originally a boys movement, in 1928 a separate girls organization was added in 1929 called Schwesternschaft der Hitler-Jugend, it was renamed Bund Deutscher Mädel (BDM) in 1930 and a section for younger females, the Jungmädelgruppe, was added in 1931.
 * <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 160);">First Nuremberg Appearance **
 * <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 160);">Baldur von Schirach Emerges **
 * <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 160);">Young Political Activists **
 * <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 160);">Gruber's Downfall **
 * <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 160);">About Schirach **
 * <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 160);">Demise of Democracy **
 * <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Copyright © 1999 The History Place™ All Rights Reserved **

In 1931, Baldur von Schirach was appointed Reich Youth Leader and one of his primary goals was to unify all of the different Nazi youth organizations. By 1935, the HJ comprised 60 percent of the country’s youth. Following the Nazi seizure of power, other right-wing youth groups were merged into the HJ. From December 1, 1936, under the Jugenddienstpflicht all other youth groups were banned and their membership was merged into the Hitler Youth. HJ membership was made compulsory for youths over 17 in 1939, and for all over the age of 10 in 1941. By 1939, Hitler Youth membership comprised 90 percent of the country’s youth.

German youth could join the Hitler Youth beginning at the age of 10. The organization was divided into two categories, one for members ages 10-14 and the other for members 14-18. The organizational structure was based on a military model, with squads, platoons, and companies.

Hitler was a firm believer in the need to indoctrinate Nazi ideology early and the power of young people in ensuring the continued vitality of the “Thousand Year Reich.” The Hitler Youth was based on Hitler’s anti-intellectualism, focusing on military training in preparation for becoming a soldier at 18.

Young German women were indoctrinated with the values of obedience, duty, self-sacrifice, discipline and physical self-control. The goal of girls in the BDM was to prepare women for motherhood and raise children who would be educated in the ways of National Socialism. They were indoctrinated with “racial pride” and told to avoid any contact with Jews.

During World War II, the girls of the BDM played a significant role in the ideological and propaganda side. The girls division of Hitler Youth was much more ideological then the boys. Sometimes estranged from their families, the girls would become their family’s ideological guides and guards.

As the war progressed, the group took on the work of men drafted into the armed forces, manned anti-aircraft defenses and also produced many soldiers, especially for the Waffen SS, notably the 12th SS Panzer division under Kurt Meyer. As Germany was invaded, members of the HJ were taken into the army at ever younger ages, and, during the Battle of Berlin in 1945, they were a major part of the German defenses.

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Politics portal v • d • e Hitler Youth emblem. The motto of the organization was "Blut und Ehre", meaning "Blood and Honour".

For the SS division with the nickname Hitlerjugend see; 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend

The Hitler Youth (German: De-HJ.ogg Hitler-Jugend (help·info), abbreviated HJ) was a paramilitary organization of the Nazi Party. It existed from 1922 to 1945. The HJ was the second oldest paramilitary Nazi group, founded one year after its adult counterpart, the Sturmabteilung (the SA). Contents [hide]


 * 1 Origins
 * 2 Doctrine
 * 3 Organization
 * 4 The flags of the HJ and its branches
 * 5 Membership
 * 6 Hitler Youth in World War II
 * 7 Post World War II
 * 8 See also
 * 9 Sources
 * 10 Further reading
 * 11 External links

Origins

The first NSDAP-related organization of German youth was the Jugendbund der NSDAP.[1] Its establishment by the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP, the German Nazi Party, was announced on 8 Mar 1922 in the Völkischer Beobachter, and its inaugural meeting was held on the 13th May the same year.[2] In April 1924 the Jugendbund der NSDAP was renamed Grossdeutsche Jugendbewegung (Greater German Youth Movement).

Another Youth group was established in 1922 as the JsAH.ogg Jungsturm Adolf Hitler (help·info). Based in Munich, Bavaria, it served to train and recruit future members of the Sturmabteilung (or "Storm Regiment"), the adult paramilitary wing of the NSDAP.

Following the abortive Beer Hall Putsch (in 1923), the Nazi youth groups were ostensibly disbanded but many elements simply went underground, operating clandestinely in small units under assumed names. Finally, on July 4th 1926 the Grossdeutsche Jugendbewegung was officially renamed Hitler Jugend Bund der deutschen Arbeiterjugend, (Hitler Youth League of German Worker Youth). This event took place a year after the Nazi Party itself had been reorganized. The architect of the re-organisation was Kurt Gruber, a law student and admirer of Hitler from Plauen, Saxony.

After a short power struggle with a rival organization - Gerhard Roßbach's Schilljugend - Gruber prevailed and his Greater German Youth Movement became the Nazi Party's official youth organization. In July 1926, it was renamed Hitler-Jugend, Bund deutscher Arbeiterjugend (Hitler Youth, League of German Worker Youth) and, for the first time, officially became an integral part of the Sturmabteilung.

By 1930, the Hitler-Jugend had enlisted over 25,000 boys aged fourteen and upwards. It also set up a junior branch, the Deutsches Jungvolk, for boys aged ten to fourteen. Girls from ten to eighteen were given their own parallel organisation, the Bund Deutscher Mädel (BDM), League of German Girls.

In April 1932, the Hitler Youth was banned by Chancellor Heinrich Brüning in an attempt to stop widespread political violence. But by June the ban was lifted by his successor, Franz von Papen as a way of appeasing Hitler whose political star was ascending rapidly.

A further significant expansion drive started in 1933, when Baldur von Schirach became the first Reichsjugendführer (Reich Youth Leader), pouring much time and large amounts of money into the project.

Doctrine Hitler Youth recruitment poster. The wording translates to: "Youth serves the leader. All ten year-olds into the Hitler Youth."

The HJ were viewed as future "Aryan supermen" and were indoctrinated in anti-Semitism. One aim was to instill the motivation that would enable HJ members, as soldiers, to fight faithfully for the Third Reich. The HJ put more emphasis on physical and military training than on academic study.[3] The Nationalsozialistischer Reichsbund für Leibesübungen (NSRBL), the umbrella organization promoting and coordinating sport activities in Germany during the Nazi period, had the responsibility of overseeing the physical fitness development programs provided to the German youth.[4]

After the boy scout movement was banned through German-controlled countries, the HJ appropriated many of its activities, though changed in content and intention. For example, many HJ activities closely resembled military training, with weapons training, assault course circuits and basic strategy. Some cruelty by the older boys toward the younger ones was tolerated and even encouraged, since it was believed this would weed out the unfit and harden the rest.

The HJ wore uniforms very like those of the SA, with similar ranks and insignia.

Organization Hitlerjugend members in 1933. Hitlerjugend camp in China, 1935. Germany had lost all of its concessions in China after WW1, so the camp had been set up with permission from the Chinese Kuomintang government, see Sino-German cooperation (1911–1941).[5]

The HJ was organized into corps under adult leaders, and the general membership comprised boys aged fourteen to eighteen. From 1936, membership of the HJ was compulsory for all young German men. The HJ was also seen as an important stepping stone to future membership of the elite Schutzstaffel (the SS). 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.

The HJ was organized into local cells on a community level. Such cells had weekly meetings at which various Nazi doctrines were taught by adult HJ leaders. Regional leaders typically organized rallies and field exercises in which several dozen Hitler Youth cells would participate. The largest HJ gathering usually took place annually, at Nuremberg, where members from all over Germany would converge for the annual Nazi Party rally.

The HJ maintained training academies comparable to preparatory schools. They were designed to nurture future Nazi Party leaders, and only the most radical and devoted HJ members could expect to attend.

The HJ also maintained several corps designed to develop future officers for the Wehrmacht. The corps offered specialist pre-training for each of the specific arms for which the HJ member was ultimately destined. The Marine Hitler Youth, for example, was the largest such corps and served as a water rescue auxiliary to the Kriegsmarine[citations needed].

Another branch of the HJ was the Deutsche Arbeiter Jugend - HJ (German Worker Youth - HY). This organization within the Hitler Youth was a training ground for future labor leaders and technicians. Its symbol was a rising sun with a swastika.

The Hitler Youth regularly issued the Wille und Macht (Will and Power) monthly magazine. This publication was also its official organ and its editor was Baldur von Schirach.[6] Other publications included Die Kameradshaft (Comradeship), which had a girl's version for the BDM called Mädelschaft, and a yearbook called Jungen eure Welt (Youth your World).[7]

The flags of the HJ and its branches

The basic unit of the Hitler Youth was the Bann (unit of the whole district, consisting of 2,400 to 3,600 members, with 4 Stamm/Stämmen each of 600 members or more), the equivalent of a military regiment.[citations needed] Of these Banne, there were more than 300 spread throughout Germany, each of a strength of about 6000 youths. Each unit carried a flag of almost identical design, but the individual Bann was identified by its number, displayed in black on a yellow scroll above the eagle's head. The flags measured 200 cm long by 145 cm high. The displayed eagle in the center was adopted from the former Imperial State of Prussia. In its talons it grasped a white coloured sword and a black hammer. These symbols were used on the first official flags presented to the HJ at a national rally of the NSDAP in August 1929 in Nürnberg. The sword was said to represent nationalism, whereas the hammer was a symbol of socialism. The poles used with these flags were of bamboo topped by a white metal ball and spear point finial.

The flags carried by the HJ Gefolgschaft (Escort), the equivalent of a company with a strength of 150 youths, displayed the emblem used on the HJ armband: a tribar of red over white over red, in the centre of which was a square of white standing on its point containing a black swastika. The Gefolgschafts flag measured 180 cm long by 120 cm high with the three horizontal bars each 40 cm deep. In order to distinguish both the individual Gefolgschaft and the branch of HJ service to which the unit belonged, each flag displayed a small coloured identification panel in the upper left corner. The patch was in a specific colour according to the HJ branch. For example, there was a light-blue patch, a white Unit number, and a white piping reserved for the Flieger-HJ, or Flying-HJ. The flagpoles were of polished black wood and had a white metal bayonet finial.

The Deutsches Jungvolk (DJ) was the junior branch of the HJ, for boys aged 10 to 14. DJ Jungbann flags generally followed the same style as those of the HJ. The differences were: the DJ flag had an all-black field; the DJ-eagle was the negative of the HJ-eagle (white with a black swastika); the scroll above the eagle's head was in white with the unit number in black; and the sword, hammer, beak, talons, and left leg of the eagle were in silver-grey colour. The flags eventually measured 165 cm long by 120 cm high. The flagpoles were of black polished wood topped with a white-metal spearhead-shaped finial. It displayed on both sides an eagle bearing on its breast the HJ diamond.

In contrast, the DJ Fähnlein flag, that of the name of the unit, equivalent to a troop or company, was of a very simple design. It displayed a single runic S in white on an all-black field. The Fähnlein number appeared on a white patch sewn to the cloth in the top left-hand corner. It was piped in silver and had black unit numbers. The size was 160 cm long by 120 cm high. The flagpoles were of polished black wood with a white metal unsheathed bayonet blade. A "Fähnlein" however, was not so much the flag, but the name of the DJ unit itself, a term which had been taken over from ancient Landsknecht denominations.[citations needed]

Flag of the Hitler Youth (General flag)

Bannfahne (HJ District flag) for the Hitler-Jugend

HJ Gefolgschafts (Escort) Flag

Arbeiterjugend (HJ) pennant (pre 1933)

DJ Jungbann (DJ District) Flag

DJ Fähnlein (Troop) Flag

DJ pennant

Early DJ pennant (pre 1933)

Bund deutscher Mädel (BDM)/Jungmädel (JM)- Untergau pennant

Bund deutscher Mädel (BDM)/ JM-Gruppen pennant

Membership "Leistungsbuch" (Performance booklet) of a Hitler Youth member. Both symbols displayed are based on ancient Runes, the latter being the "Tyr" rune

The HJ was originally Munich-based only. In 1923, the organization had a little over one thousand members. In 1925, when the Nazi Party had been refounded, the membership grew to over 5,000. Five years later, national HJ membership stood at 25,000. By the end of 1932 (a few weeks before the Nazis came to power) it was at 107,956. At the end of 1933, the HJ had 2,300,000 members. Much of these increases came from the more or less forcible merger of other youth organizations with the HJ. (The sizable Evangelische Jugend, a Lutheran youth organisation of 600,000 members, was integrated on February 18, 1934).[8]

By December 1936, HJ membership stood at just over five million. That same month, HJ membership became mandatory, under the Gesetz über die Hitlerjugend law. This legal obligation was re-affirmed in 1939 with the Jugenddienstpflicht and HJ membership was required even when it was opposed by the member's parents. From then on, most of Germany's teenagers belonged to the HJ. By 1940, it had eight million members. Later war figures are difficult to calculate, since massive conscription efforts and a general call-up of boys as young as ten years old meant that virtually every young male in Germany was, in some way, connected to the HJ. Only about 10 to 20% were able to avoid joining.[9]

Hitler Youth in World War II March 20, 1945. Hitler awards the Iron Cross to Hitler Youth outside his bunker.

In 1940, Artur Axmann replaced Schirach as Reichsjugendführer and took over leadership of the Hitler Youth. Axmann began to reform the group into an auxiliary force which could perform war duties. The Hitler Youth became active in German fire brigades and assisted with recovery efforts to German cities affected from Allied bombing. The Hitler Youth also assisted in such organizations as the Reich Postal Service, Deutsche Reichsbahn, fire services, and Reich radio service, and served among anti-aircraft defense crews.

By 1943, Nazi leaders began turning the Hitler Youth into a military reserve to draw manpower which had been depleted due to tremendous military losses. In 1943, the 12.SS-Panzer-Division Hitlerjugend, under the command of SS-Brigadeführer Fritz Witt, was formed. The Division was a fully equipped Waffen-SS panzer division, with the majority of the enlisted cadre being drawn from Hitler Youth boys between the ages of sixteen and eighteen. The division was deployed during the Battle of Normandy against the British and Canadian forces to the north of Caen. During the following months, the division earned itself a reputation for ferocity and fanaticism. When Witt was killed by allied naval gunfire, SS-Brigadeführer Kurt Meyer took over command and became the youngest divisional commander at age 33.

As German casualties escalated with the combination of Operation Bagration and the Lvov-Sandomierz Operation in the east, and Operation Cobra in the west, members of the Hitlerjugend were recruited at ever younger ages. By 1945, the Volkssturm was commonly drafting 12-year-old Hitler Youth members into its ranks. During the Battle of Berlin, Axmann's Hitler Youth formed a major part of the last line of German defense, and were reportedly among the fiercest fighters. Although the city commander, General Helmuth Weidling, ordered Axmann to disband the Hitler Youth combat formations; in the confusion, this order was never carried out.

Post World War II Hitler youth POWs in Berlin

The Hitler Youth was disbanded by Allied authorities as part of the Denazification process. Some HJ members were suspected of war crimes but - as they were children - no serious efforts were made to prosecute these claims. While the HJ was never declared a criminal organization, its adult leadership was considered tainted for corrupting the minds of young Germans. Many adult leaders of the HJ were put on trial by Allied authorities, and Baldur von Schirach was sentenced to twenty years in prison. He was, however, convicted of crimes against Humanity for his actions as Gauleiter of Vienna, not his leadership of the HJ.

German children born in the 1920s and 30s became adults during the Cold War years. Since membership was compulsory after 1936, it was neither surprising nor uncommon that many senior leaders of both West and East Germany had been in the HJ. Little effort was made to blacklist political figures who had been youth members of the HJ, since many had had little choice in the matter.

Despite this, several notable figures have been "exposed" by the media as former HJ Youth members. These include Stuttgart mayor Manfred Rommel (son of the famous general Erwin Rommel); former foreign minister of Germany Hans-Dietrich Genscher; philosopher Jurgen Habermas; and the late Prince Consort of the Netherlands Claus von Amsberg.

In April 2005 the media reported that Pope Benedict XVI had, as 14-year old Joseph Ratzinger, been a HJ member. The German government's response was that compulsory membership of the HJ had little bearing on the pope's religious convictions or on his ability to lead the Roman Catholic Church.[citation needed]

Furthermore, membership in the organization did not mean support for Nazi ideologies was unanimous among the membership. For instance, Hans Scholl, the brother of Sophie Scholl and one of the leading figures of the anti-Nazi resistance movement White Rose (Weiße Rose), was also a member of the Hitler Youth. This fact is emphasised in the film The White Rose which speaks of how Scholl was able to resist Nazi Germany ideals while still serving in a Nazi organization. The Thomas Carter film Swing Kids also focuses on this topic.

See also Sister project Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Hitlerjugend


 * Bund Deutscher Mädel (League of German Girls)
 * Nationalsozialistischer Reichsbund für Leibesübungen
 * Reichskolonialbund
 * National Socialist German Students' League
 * National Socialist Schoolchildren's League
 * Hitler Youth Knife
 * Der Marsch zum Führer
 * Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow
 * Mocidade Portuguesa
 * Falange
 * German Youth Movement
 * Opera Nazionale Balilla - Italian Fascist youth movement

Sources

1. ^ First NSDAP-related organization of German youth 2. ^ Axis History 3. ^ Hakim, Joy (1995). A History of Us: War, Peace and all that Jazz. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-509514-6. 4. ^ Hitlerjugend: An In-Depth History 5. ^ One of the terms of the treaty of Versailles, Article 156, was to hand over all German concessions in China to Japan in 1919. The camp is dated 1935. 6. ^ Wille und Macht Posted Monday, 2:43 pm || Hitler Youth Activities: Camp Figure 1.--These boys at a Baltic Sea Hitler Youth camp are using a medice ball for physdical conditioning. Notice the Hitler Youtyh tank top that manybof thy boys are wearing.
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An important part of the Hitler Youth program was the summer camps. The camps were designed to toughen boys most physically and mentally. There were a lot of exercizes of a militay natue such as laing communications cable. Older boys might do actual fire arms training. HBU does not yet have any actual accounts from any of the boys. One interesting account comes from Richard Windmark, the American movie actor. He had just graduated from college in 1937 and as student of political science wanted to see what was happening in NAZI Germany. He and a friend spent the summer in Germany. They asked to see the Dachau Concentration Camp which was believed to be a intetnment camp for political discedents. The NAZI official they asked laughed at them and told them they didn't want to go there. Instead they were sent to a Hitler Youth camp. He took color movies there. The boys wore the standard Hitler Youth uniform of brown shirts and black short pants. As it was summer they often didn't wear their shirts. Windmark says that the boys were constantly being lined up in military ranks by "bullies"--but the boys loved it. He said some of the boys were as young as 6 years, I think he may have been wrong about that. Tradition

HBU has few details at this time, but believes that Germany had a well established tradition of summer camps by the 1930s. Many groups like the Scouts and other groups had purchased oroerty and built summer camp facilities. Property Seizures

When the NAZIs obtained power in 1933, the Hitler Youth seized and occupied the facilities of other youth groups all over Germany. At first the Catholic facilities were exempted, but this was only temporary. The property of Jewish youth groups were next seized, although I am not sure about the date, and the boys simply excluded. Other groups were banned or incorporated into the Hitler Youth. The boys thus had access to the old facilities and many new ones as Hitler Youth members. The YMCA had a major role in the American summer camp movement. I am not sure if this was the case in Germany. Chronology

The Hitler Youth until 1933 had very limited facilites. They did have some camps, but finaces were very limited and it was other youth groups that had fine facilities. This cahnged in 1933 when the Hitler Youth simply seized the facilities of the other groups. The facilities of the Jewish and Catholic youth groups were first exempted, but not for long. The Hitler Youth found itself in possession of the best facilities in Germany and a major state-financed budget to improve and expand those facilities so that every Aryan boy could attend summer camp. Thus the summer camp program expanded very rapidly as the HJ membership itself expanded. Purpose

An important part of the Hitler Youth program was the summer camps. The camps were designed to toughen boys most physically and mentally. Ages

We do not yet know a great deal about how the HJ summer camps were organized concerning age groups. I am not sure just what age groups went to summer camps. Presumably boys 10 years and older as this was the asge that they joined the Deutche Jugend (DJ). Available images show both the youher DJ and older HJ boys at the summer camps. Generally speaking, summer camps in the Scouts movement was just for the older Boy Scout section. Cubs did not normally go to camp. The Hitler Youth was different. The younger DJ did boys who were about 10-13 years of age did go to camp, although the DJ included older boys than were normally in Cubbing. I do not know if the younger boys went for shorter periods or to what extent age groups were separated. We do not that the older boys served as youth leaders at the camps. Gender

As all Hitler Youth programs, summer camps were single gender facilities. The girls had their own summer camps. This was not unusual at the time. Most youth summer camps in Germany and other countriesere single gender camps. There were some coed summer camps, some of which werecoperated by the Communist youth movements. Period

I am not sure just how long boys attended summer camps. It may have been different for the various age groups. Group Attendance

I believe the boys attended summer camp as part of their home Hitler Youth unit. This may have been different for the older boys in specialized units such as the Marine Division. There were specially designed summer camp programs for these specialized Hitler Youth divisions.

Figure 2.--These boys at summer camp are dressed in their standard Hitler Youth uniform. They appear to be receiving training in the drum and buggle corps. Notice their instruments stacked neatly in the background. Slogans

At camp, a new boy would be selected each dy in leding a mass reciaion of slogans. There would also be different slogans each day, many writen by Hitler Youth Leaer Von Schriach himself. Typical slogans included, "Deutche Jugend boys are strong, silent, and ???," "Deutche Jugend boys are comrads," ?????. Food

We have no idea at this time what the food was like at Hitler Youth summer camps. A American Scout camps part of the program was learning to cook camp meals over camp fires. I'm not sure if the HJ program put the same emphasis on this. Perhaps the HJ wanted the boys more involved in formal asects of the program than cooking which may have been seen as more women's work. We note army-style field kitches being set up at HJ camps. I've never noted anuthing quite like thiseven at major U.S. Scout functions like jamborees with thousands of Scouts.I have no ideas just what kind of food was produced in these kitchens. I suspect these field kitchens were similar to army rathions, but this is just a guess. Perhaps HBU readers will know more about this and be able to offer some insights. Seasons

I belive that camps were primarily summer events. The facilities may have been used during other seasons, but HBU has no information on this. Uniforms

The boys seem to have worn their standard Hitler Youth uniform at summer camp. Some boys had tank tops with a small Hitler Youth symbol on the front. Because of all these activities, the boys were not always formally dressed in their uniforms. We see boys loubging around barefoot or in swim trunks. For some avtivites the boys seemed to have taken off their shirts. Cost

The HJ summer camps were free to participating HJ boys. The goal was to provide a summer camp experience for all HJ boys regardless of family background or finances. The only requirement was that that the boys be a HJ member in good standing, and thus Aryan. Parebts did have to purchase the equipment and uniforms that the boys wore to camp. Gender

The HJ summer camp program focussed primarily on the boys. There were also camps for the girls, but they were always seperate. There were no coed HJ camps. In addition the girls were not under the same intense pressure to attend that the boys were subjected to. Facilities

The facilities at HJ camps varied significantly. Some had elaborate faciluties had living quarters of varying design or barracks-like buildings that could be used year round. Others had cabins that were not heated for winter use or were wiklderness areas where the children camped with tents. Many were on lakes and rivers to make water sports and boating possible. There were some camps along the Baltic Sea coast or on Baltic Sea islands with especially good facilities for water sports. Activities

Hitler Youth boys engaged in a wide range of activities at their summer camps. Many of the activities were standard summer camp fare. One of the most popular activities was of course wilderness camping. Many HJ camped in tents around camp fires. There was a wide range of other activities such as would be found in other summer camps, including athletics, boating, vamp fire ceremonies, canoeing, hiking, singing, swimming, wide games, and other activities. I assume activities like archery, arts and crafts, skirs, and other summer camp staples were also involved, but have only limited information at this time. Along with these activities which were fairly standard at summer camps around the world, were a condiderable amount of time devoted to drill. Younger boys wre taught the correct way of making the NAZI salute and to hold it for extended periods. The wide games were popular, but often much rougher than was normal in other youth movements like Scouting. The boys were incouraged to fight to toughen them up. Older boys might do actual fire arms training. There were also specialized programs such as for the units such as the Marine or Air Divisions. Boys also received training for the Drum and Buggle Corps.Some were virtual full scale fights between groups of campers. There was also various levels of para-military trainingm, depending on the ages of the boys. There were exercizes of a militay natue such as laying communications cable. The specialized HJ divisions such as the Fleger-HJ and the Marine-HJ had special facilties to focus on their specialized activity program. HBU does not yet have any actual accounts from any of the boys about there summer camp activities, but we eventually hope to acquire such accounts. KLV

The HJ summer camp program was significantly affected by World War II whivh Hitler anf the NAZIs launched in Sptember 1939. While the summer camping program, was imapired, the HJ took on an even larger program, the KLV.. The Kinderlandverschickung (KLV) was a massive NAZI program to evacuate children from cities targetted by the Allied bombing camapign. About 2.5 million children were involved. They were housed in HJ youth camps and many other facilities in rural areas throughout the Reich. This meant year-round care, not just during the summer. Not only were HJ facilities used, but HJ youth leaders played a major role in running the camps. Movies

HJ camps were sometimes depicted in films. The most famous was Hitler Youth Quex, the first important NAZI film. One German boy recalls seeing the film. "Communist youths were shown. All of them dressed like ruffians. Unsavoury figures. Then they set up camp and even girls were with them. Everything was really disgusting. The Hitler Youth on the other hand: all dressed the same, clean, nice, with leaders who had everything under control. I still remember today that after the film we all agreed: the NAXIs made an altogether great impression, there was discipline, one wanted to join in. The communists, on the other hand, no, our parents would never have let us be part of a bunch like that." [Heinz-Huber, p. 19.] Personal Accounts

HBU hopes to collect some personal accounts of Hitler Youth summer camps. Richard Windmark

One interesting account comes from Richard Windmark, the American movie actor. He had just graduated from college in 1937 and as student of political science wanted to see what was happening in NAZI Germany. He and a friend spent the summer in Germany. They asked to see the Dachau Concentration Camp which was believed to be a intetnment camp for political discedents. The NAZI official they asked laughed at them and told them they didn't want to go there. Instead they were sent to a Hitler Youth camp. He took color movies there. The boys wore the standard Hitler Youth uniform of brown shirts and black short pants. As it was summer they often didn't wear their shirts. Windmark says that the boys were constantly being lined up in military ranks by "bullies"--but the boys seemed to love it. He said some of the boys were as young as 6 years, I think he may have been wrong about that. Sources

Karl Heinz-Huber, Jugend unterm Hakenkreuz (Frankfurt am Main: Ullstein, 1936).

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Created: December 12, 2000 Last updated: 3:29 AM 7/23/2007 Posted Monday, 2:44 pm || Hitler Youth History: The Early Years (1922-32) Figure 1.--Hikes in the country were popular activities for the Hitler Youth and other German youth groups. Fights sometimes occurred when the differed groups, especially with political affiliations, encountered each other.
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Hitler from an early point in his political career conceived of the imprtance of appealing to children and guiding their moral and political formation. This was a novel approach for a German politician. No other German politican made a similar effort. Hitler joined the NAZI Pary in 1921. The NAZI youth movement was formed in 1926. Rudolf Hess suggested it be called the Hitler Youth (Hitlerjugend). The movement proved to a valuable force in Hitler's drive to seize power. German Youth Groups

German youth during the 1920's were involved in an incredible diverse number of mostly small youth organiztions, perhaps as many as 2,000 such groups. The most popular organization was the Wandervogel, which was popular due to the involvement of sports. Boys were able to go on weekend retreats, where they would hike and learn to survive on their own in the wilderness. Organized sporting events of soccer and other various competitions kept the interests of the children. The Wandervogel were noted for their love of the land, not the new, modern conveniences of the cities. Hiking and skiing were chosen over activities such as watching a movie or going to a dance. The Wandervogel, which was formed November 4, 1901, reflected the main attitudes of the of the youth movement.

The Wandervogel was partly a manifestation of the perceptible mood of boredom and restlessness appearance of Wilhelmian Germany was little more than a facade which concealed latent tensions beneath the surface. The youth movement was a rejection of the Weimar government, which was one of the reasons why they were so easily supportive of the NAZI regime. They were also disenchanted with the older generation and their new sets of values: work and money.

The Hohe Meissner meeting of 1913 showed the spirit of the youth. German youth wanted to rejuvenate Germany and were so serious in their convictions that they were approached by a variety of people and organizations. These people included reformers, intellectuals and critics of Weimar Germany. They wanted the youth to become their allies, but they were making a serious mistake. This mistake was that they expected that the youth to be led by adults, but the youth were not willing to give up their independence. Early NAZI Youth Organization

The National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP or NAZI Party) announced the foundation of the Jugendbund der NSDAP om March 8, 1922 in the newspaper Völkischer Beobachter. The Jugenbund held its first meeting May 13. As with the NAZI Party, the Jugenbund was first primarily centered in Bavaria. It was renamed Jungsturm Adolf Hitler. There were other NAZI youth organisations informally organized, but it was the only one that was officially sanctioned by the NSDAP. The leader of the Jugendbund was Adolf Lenk an (Sturm Abteilung) SA leader. (The SA was the para-military NAZI formation of stree thugs, better known as the Brown Shirts or Storm Troopers.) The Jugendbund was organized into two levels: the Jungmannschaften (14-16 years old) and the Jungsturm Adolf Hitler (16-18 year old). Showing its SA origins, Jugenbund was involved in street disorders. The first notable action was in the so-called "Battle of Coburg" October 14-15, 1922. Jugenbund members joined about 800 adult SA Storm Troopers. The Jugendbund held its first national congress in 1923, as units had been organized in other German states besides Bavaria. Munich Beer Hall Putch

The Jugenbund was susposed to take part in the Munich Beer Hall Putsch of 1923, but did not. Even so the Jugenbund was banned after the disastrous failure of the Putsch along with the NSDAP itself. The Jugendbund was the forefather of the Hitler Jugend but it was outlawed (with the rest of the party) after the failed "Beer Hall Putch" in 1923. Attempts at Reorganization

During the years that the NSDAP was outlawed the NAZI youth was organised in various other organisations. The NAZIs tried to reorganize a youth movement after the 1923 banning, hoping bthat name chnges ould be ufficient. Jugendbund leader Lenk tried twice to reorganize. The first group was the Vaterländische Jugendverband Grossdeutschlands. The second was the Grossdeutsche Jugendbewegung (GDJB). Authorities arrested Lenck each time. Kurt Gruber proved more successful. Gruber had been the Jugendbund leader in Saxony. He set up the Grossdeutsche Jugendbewegung (GDJB). Saxon authorities accepted the GDJB. Gruber also cooperated with other extreme right groups. The GDJB was renamed the Frontjugend as it became with youth branch of the Frontbann, a group set up to reserect the banned SA. The Frontjugend, however, later decided to revert to the GDJB.

Other NAZI youth groups appeared. Gerhard Rossbach in Austria formed the Schilljugend. Units in Germany were led by SA-Gruppenführer Edmund Heines. Hitler decided tht a unified NAZI youth movement was needed and he considered who to appoint to lead it. Lenk decided he did not want the task. Rossbach made the mistake of refusing to accept Hitler as the leader. Hitler than gave the asignment to Gruber. Hitler Youth Founded

The NAZI Party (NSDAP) on July 4, 1926, held a convention Parteitag) where youth leaders and party members attended. The theme was Educational Questions and Youth Organizations. At this convention the NAZIs decided to form a party youth group. Rudolf Hess suggested it be named the Hitler Youth (Hitlerjugend). Kurt Gruber was appointed Reichsfuehrer of the Bund Deutscher Arbeiterjugend (German Youth Workers Organization) and adviser for youth affairs on the NSDAP Reichsleitung. Gruber decided not move his headquarters to Munch, but kept it in Plauen. The HJ under Gruber, however, did not grow significantly. This did not please Hitler who began to think about a more ffective leader. Sturm Abteilung (SA)

Later in 1926 leadership of the HJ movement was transferred to Franz von Pfeffer of the Sturm Abteilung (SA). Pfeffer's vission for the HJ was limitd. His primary focus was to train young men to fight against members of left-wing youth groups. As a branch of the SA the HJ used the SA brown shirt uniform. This resulted, howevr, in unforseen consequences. In the increasing streeting fighting and demonstrations that Hitler promoted, some members were killed because they were mistaken for SA stromtroopers. This prompted the design of a more destinctive HJ-uniform.

Hitler officially recognized these decisions on July 27, 1926. Hitler decided that if the youth loved the outdoors, they would also love weapons; unfortunately, he was right. The boys loved weapons, only the boys were given weapons training, and the programs designed by the party's security aparatus, the Schutzstafel (SS). The programs involved all the activities the youth normally would do in their other organizations, with the exception of the use of weapons.

Three of Hitler’s seven points of business for the German people dealt directly or indirectly with education in the Third Reich: Point 4: The state must take the sport of the youth to an unheard-of-level. Point 6: The state must emphasize the teaching of racial knowledge in schools. Point 7: Dealt indirectly with education and enphasized that the state must awaken patriotism and national pride in all its citizens. This is clearly a goal that was enforced in the HJ. Rallies

The first national HJ rally was held in 1928 with 600 boys. The next year 2,500 boys took part in the Nüremberg party rally. These annual rallies were to become the primary political event in German political life with thousands of HJ boys participating and adding to the pageantry. Hitler and Children

HBU is unsure as to when Hitler's ideas for the HJ crystalized. We believed they began to take shape as Hitler observed the idealism of the boys and how it could be used to political advantage. The HJ movement played an important role in enabling the NAZIs to seize power and as result Hitler saw the potential for a massive youth movement in his desire to remold the German people.

Hitler's influencial ideas and powerful personality were to reach past the adult members of the NAZI party, to the German children. Hitler felt that by teaching the future generation about fascism, then all of his plans and ideas would succeed with the help of the children. Hitler then acted as the father of the German children. He gained their respect and support at a young age, which was a new tactic which had never been used before. This effort of course was facilitated when the NAZIs seized power in 1933 and quickly took contol of the schools as well as independent youth groups. Hitler gained the children's respect and support by teaching them strict manners and discipliary orders while they were still in school. He also enforced the teaching of Fascism and xenephobic nationalism in the schools.

Figure 2.--Baldur Von Schirach attending the funeral of a 15-year old Hitler Youth boy who had been killed. New Units

The HJ began to take its final shape in 1930. Two new branches of the HJ was formed: Deutsche Jungvolk (DJ) and Bund Deutscher Mädel (BDM). Jungmädel (JM) was later made a seperate branch). DJ was the branch for younger boys aged 10-14 and BDM the branch for girls. The girls had previously been organised in Schwesternschaften Organizational Responsibility

The HJ as their uniforms show was originally organized as a unit of the SA. The HJ was separated from the SA in 1931. The SA was banned at the time and the rough undisciplined SA was hardly a force wkith which most German parents, ecept NAZI Party stalwarts, wanted their children involved. In fact, SA members had complained that the Hitler Youth uniform looked too much like their uniform. After its separation from the SA, the more elite SS began to play an increasingly important role in the HJ. The program was increasingly militarized. The HJ in fact played an important role in World War II. The HJ in 1944 formed a SS Panzer Division which fanatically resisted the Allied landings at Normandy and in the ensuing battle was descimated. HJ boys played a major role in the Volkstrum which defended the Reich in 1945. Baldur Von Schirach

Baldur von Schirach was born in Berlin on March 9, 1907, the son of an aristocratic German father and an American mother, whose ancestors included two signatories of the Declaration of Independence. On his father's side descended from an officers' family with artistic tendencies and a cosmopolitan background (Carl von Schirach had resignedfrom the army in 1908 to become a theatre director in Weimar), Baldur grew up in a pampered, well-to do environment. One of the earliest members of the NSDAP (he entered the Party in 1924-25 while attending the University of Munich where he briefly studied Germanic folklore and art history), Von Schirach and the HJ

The guiding light that made the Hitler Youth into a formidable youth organizaion was Baldur Von Schirach, who was eventually tried at Nuremberg and sentenced to 30 years in prison. Von Schirach, who came from a cultured family, joined the NAZI Party in 1925 when he was only 18 years old. Upon special request of Hitler, he went to Munich in order to study Party affairs. After having joined the Party, he became active in converting students to National Socialism. Schirach actively promoted the NAZI Party (NSDAP) and its affiliated youth organizations. This was the start of Schirach's conspiratorial activities, which he continued for two decades in the spirit of unbending loyalty to Hitler and to the principles of National Socialism. Schirach shows his slavish loyalty to Hitler in his principal book, The Hitler Youth, published in 1934:

We were not yet able to account for our conception in detail, we simply believed. And when Hitler's book, Mein Kampf, was published it was our bible which we almost learned by heart in order to answer the questions of the doubters and superior critics. Almost everyone today who is leading youth in a responsible position joined us in those years."

Figure 3.--The Hitler Youth participated in NAZI rallies and demonstrations well before Hitler seized power.

Hitler in 1929 appointed Schirach leader of the National Socialist German Students League. Hitler insisted in 1931 that the HJ headquarters to be moved to Munich. Hitler was disatisfied with Gruber's lack-luster performance with the HJ and forced him out. A new post of Reichsjugendführer was created to head NAZI youth movements: the HJ, he National-Sozialistische Schülerbund (NSS), National-Sozialistische deutsche Studentenbund (NSDSt.B. Baldur von Schirach was appointed to the new post. He also made head of the NSDSt.B and Adrian von Renteln was made head of the HJ and NSS. Schirach began devoting his efforts full time to Party work. Before 1933, Schirach moved throughout Germany, leading demonstrations and summoning German youth to the Hitler Youth. When this organization and the wearing of its uniform were forbidden by law, Schirach continued by illegal means. Of this period he writes:

"Whoever came to us during this illegal time, boy or girl, risked everything. With pistols in our belts we drove through the Ruhr district while stones came flying after us."

Schirach relates that Rosenberg and he were not successful before 1933 in efforts to reach "an understanding" with other youth organizations. Schirach states that he thereupon arrived at a conclusion which later was to spell the doom of independent youth groups: "I realized at that time that an understanding with the leaders of the League would never be possible and devoted myself to the principle of the totality [Totalitlaet] of the Hitler Youth which in the year 1933 cost all those leagues their independent existence." The Hitler Youth as a SA unit were nominally under the command of SA Chief Ernst Roehm. After Hitler had Roehm murdered during the Night of the Long Knives, the HJ came under the direct control of von Schirach.

Christopher Wagner

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[] The Hitler Youth was a logical extension of [|Hitler's] belief that the future of [|Nazi Germany] was its children. The Hitler Youth was seen as being as important to a child as [|school] was. In the early years of the Nazi government, [|Hitler] had made it clear as to what he expected German children to be like:
 * "The weak must be chiselled 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."**

[] There were two sections to the boys units of the Hitler Youth, the Deutsche Jugend for the younger (10-14) boys and the Hitler Jugend proper for the older (15-18) boys. There were differences in the uniforms of the two groups.The most obvious uniform item was a brown shirt. The Hitler Youth began as a unit of the SA or Storm Troopers. The SA was known as the Brown Shirts.The other major uniform item was black short pants. There were also a variety of accessories and patches. Members of the DJ wore only a single shoulder strap on the right shoulder of their tunics and blouse. It was black with a black edging and showed the number of the DJ unit in white cotton. There were major uniform distinctions for the Divisions of the Hitler Youth specializing in different military specialties, naval, air, signals, motorized, etc. Some of these Divisions, such as the Marine Division, wore distinctive uniforms. Other Divisions wore different color shoulder straps to identify their division. The patterns introduced in 1938 back with different color piping: Flakhelfern were members of the Hitler Youth who volunteered for war work assisting on antiaircraft gun sites. They served as messengers, signallers, weather observers and ammunition carriers. In some cases they were even employed as gunners, locaters and searchlight operators with both antiaircraft batteries and with gun crews of flak towers. The Flakhelfern wore a special blue grey uniform consisting of a short battle dress style blouse and long trousers gathered at the ankles. On this blouse was displayed special insignia together with the familiar HJ arm band. A blue grey greatcoat and side cap was part of this uniform. Special fire fighting squads were organised in those German towns and cities that had large numbers of industrial concerns and which were being increasingly terror bombed by the Allies as the war progressed. These squads which supplemented the regular fire police brigades were made up of volunteers from the Hitler Youth who were aged fifteen years and over. The Hitlerjugend Streifendienst was a special patrol service consisting of older members of the Hitler Youth. It was set up for the purpose of policing the Hitler Youth, but during the later stages of the war years it became an armed body of patriotic youth members who assisted the Police and the SS in hunting down escaped prisoners of war, allied aircrews who had baled out of their aircraft, and anyone else that was suspected of evading the authorities or were considered as enemy agents working against the National Socialist regime. [] The HJ were viewed as future "[|Aryan] supermen" and were indoctrinated in [|anti-Semitism]. One aim was to instill the motivation that would enable HJ members, as soldiers, to fight faithfully for the [|Third Reich]. The HJ put more emphasis on [|physical] and military training than on [|academic] study.
 * Allgemeine-HJ** (General HJ): in bright red
 * Marine-HJ**: dark navy blue shoulde straps (the only exception) piped yellow
 * Motor-HJ** (Motorised HJ) in pink
 * Flieger-HJ** (Aviation HJ) in light blue
 * Nachrichten-HJ** (Signals HJ) in lemon yellow,
 * HJ-Streifendienst** (Special Patrol Service HJ): in white
 * NPEA** (National Political Education Institutes): in white
 * Landjahr-HJ** (One Year Land Service HJ): in green,
 * Gebietsstäbe/RJF** (District Staff Headquarters and Reich Youth Leader Staff Headquarters) in crimson.