Hitler Youth: organization, ideology, and historical impact

HITLER YOUTH & the HOLOCAUST

The Hitler Youth or the Hitlerjugend was a group comprised of German youth and while the Hitler Youth was "not in essence a military organization" from this groups origins "as the youth department of the brown-shirted Sturmabteilung, or SA, the Hitler Youth expanded to become an all-encompassing institution of the Nazi state…" with the express purpose of indoctrinating children in Germany in Nazi ideology, and to prepare them physically and ideologically for lives of service to the Volksgemeinschaft (national community)." When the war broke out in 1939 membership to the Hitler Youth became "compulsory for all German children between the ages of 10 and 18." (Dearn and Sharp, 2006) the war breaking out resulted in the induction of more German children into the Hitler Youth.

The Songs and Oaths of the Hitler Youth

The work of Dearn and Sharp (Dearn and Sharp, 2006) entitled: 'The Hitler Youth 1933-45" paints a colorful picture of the "triumphant years of the 1930s" in which "Hitler Youth groups the length and breadth of Germany had sung their martial songs as they marched with lyrics like 'the flag means more to us than death' and 'we are born to die for Germany'." (Dearn and Sharp, 2006) it is related that these slogans adopted by the Hitler Youth arose within the context of the struggles taking place among political powers in the early 1930s and that these slogans "often may have meant metaphorically, but they became descriptive of the experience of members of the Hitler Youth as the war progressed." (Dearn and Sharp, 2006)

II. Brave, Determined, and Arrogant

It is interesting to note the reports of Dearn and Sharp citing other sources and sources that actually knew these youth is the fact that the most resistance with which they met was in the encounter between the "…Commonwealth and U.S. troops in the last months of the war…" and with the groups of the Hitler Youth. These groups did not surrender until they had exhausted their ammunition and was a group comprised of 14 and 15-year-old children who were reported to have remained arrogant even following their capture "…near Munsteer at the beginning of April 1945. This specific moment was captured in the picture located in Figure 1 of this study below.

Figure 1

Capture of Hitler Youth near Munster (April, 1945)

Source: Dearn and Sharp (2006)

II. Hitler's Strategic Formation of Dictatorship

It is often stated among intellectuals when discussing the subject of children and youth to recall the statement so famously attributed to Adolph Hitler of "…give me a child until the age of six and he is mine forever. (paraphrased, date unknown)

It is precisely this strategy utilized by Hitler in implementing dictatorship over Germany's people. Indeed the very strategic induction into the Nazi ideology and belief system was one in which a creed and pledge to Hitler is given by the youth and then combined with the eugenics framework of 'survival of the fittest' resulted in "a merciless ideology" that "constituted a major point of attraction for adolescents who were searching for certitudes in a swiftly changing and newly structured world, however harshly regimented." (Kater, 2004)

III. The Assumption of Possession of Superiority of the Hitler Youth

In fact Michael H. Kater reports of these youth that they held themselves 'superior' to those weaker and younger 'who were their charges, and it gave them an incomparable sense of seniority over average German citizens of any age, even when they were Nazis, and nearly absolute power over those who were not." (Kater, 2004)

Many of these Hitler Youth were inducted into the following of Nazi ideology at a very young age and never had a choice in the matter. Prior to compulsory membership the belief was that membership would serve to advance them in the world around them which was quickly evolving and on a basis of "uniformity and solidarity." (Kater, 2004) Just as in American civic organizations for youth whom enjoyed wearing "spiffy uniforms" the same can be said of the German youth. As well the satisfaction in belonging to a safe community that was dominant in the world around them and that offered protection the participation in camping, marching, and communal singing in groups was appealing to these youth and the presence of the "omniscient and omnipotent father, Adolf Hitler, who provided immense guarantees of safety at a time shaken by continued economic depression and recurrent fears of war." (Kater, 2004)

V. Bund Deutscher Madel (BMD) - the League of German Girls

Included in the Hitler Youth groups were the BDM which was established in 1930 and was the female branch of the Nazi Party's youth movement. The group's official title was the League of German Girls in the Hitler Youth (Bund Deutscher Madel in der Hitler-Jugend). In 1933 this group began a rapid expansion and compulsory membership existed for girls between the ages of 10 and 18 in 1939 and all members were Germans, German citizens and free of hereditary diseases." (Jewish Virtual Library, 2009) Baldur von Schirach ran the group until 1934 when Trude Mohr accepted the appointment to the position of BDM-Teichsreferentin" however upon her marriage in 1937 she resigned by force and was followed by Dr. Jutta Rudiger. (Jewish Virtual Library, 2009)

The BDM training programs were characterized by the appearance of freedom within society that girls had not previously experienced and included: (1) singing; (2) arts; (3) crafts; (4) theater; and (5) even fashion design and community work." (Jewish Virtual Library, 2009) These German girls were, just as in the case of German boys with membership in the Hitler Youth trained, educated, indoctrinated and then channeled directly into positions with armed forces and other Hitler-based government in Germany. The Nazi ideology was so ingrained into these individuals that they could not conceive of their being wrong in their beliefs which coincided with the search for the 'master race' of Hitler and the superiority a specific race of human beings and specifically the Aryan race of individuals of whom Hitler claimed ancestors on his father's side of the family and thereby claimed superiority over other races and specifically over the Jewish race to which his mother belonged.