The Hitlerjugend and military indoctrination of Nazi German youth

Nazi Youth

Prelude

Mein Kompf was regarded as the "Bible" of the Hitlerjugend. On entering the Jungvolk at the age of 10, children took the following oath: In the presence of this blood-banner which represents our Fuehrer I swear to devote all my energies, and my strength to the Savior of our Country, Adolf Hitler. I am willing and ready to give up my life for him, so help me God. One People, one Reich, one Fuehrer." (Nazi Conspiracy & Aggression)

Becker)

Nazi Youth formal agreement between the Wehrmacht and the Hitlerjugend was published 11 August 1939. It recites that whereas 30,000 Hitlerjugend leaders had been trained annually in shooting and field exercises, the number would be doubled; that 60,000,000 shots had been fired in Hitler Youth training courses in 1938 and that a considerable increase in the figure was expected. The agreement recognized the close cooperation that existed between the Hitlerjugend and the Wehrmacht in the military training of youth and provided for a far more extensive program." (Nazi Conspiracy & Aggression)

Introduction

Whenever we think of the Nazi party, we usually think of Adolf Hitler and his boisterous speeches, the holocaust, the storming of Moscow by the Panzer divisions, Rommil's escapades in the deserts of Africa or some other war related subject matter. Rarely do we think of the German children who were coerced or manipulated into movements such as the Staatsjugend (State Youths) or the various other National Youth Movements that comprised the Hitlerjugend (Hitler youths). This report attempts to present an insight into the Nazi Youth Movement and how these children were used by the German Military machine.

The police can help to preserve social comity by containing violent eruptions, but they cannot create communal unity. In Nazi Germany, however, the political police claimed the right to determine the nature of social relationships." (Rempel) A historical account of the German youth movement is actually a complex process due to the fact that the Nazi party did not leave behind needed documentation. We know today that the young Germans were so vital to the overall success of the Nazi party that Hitler made it a point to mention them as often as possible in his speeches on his way to power. Hitler constantly mentioned the creation of a new Volksgemeinschaft (national community) which was for the benefit of the young.

In hindsight, we now know that Hitler was obviously not thinking of the young German children as he suggested but instead he was focused on an objective of achieving the ultimate power for himself and his supporters. With all that power in his hands, one question comes to mind in regard to the Hitler Youths: Did Adolf Hitler actually control the Nazi youth movement? Because Adolf Hitler is considered today as having been an absolute ruler or tyrant over the Nazi Party and the German People, it is hard to imagine that he did not institute the programs that led to the youth movement.

Yet, historians have shown that Hitler was in fact a member of thorough democratic political system which instituted checks and balances and therefore limits to the furor's power. "It leads to the heart of the complex Intentionalist-Structuralist debate. On the one hand, there are the Intentionalist historians who argue forcefully in the words of Norman Rich that 'Hitler was master in the Third Reich', while the Structuralists stress the many constraints on Hitler's power which range from his own personal inadequacies to the limits imposed upon him by the structure of the Nazi party and state." (Williamson)

With these checks and balances in place, some speculate that due to the democratic processes instituted by the Nazi party and the third Reich, Adolf Hitler may in fact have been one of the weakest leaders in regard to supreme political power that Germany has ever known. But the fact remains, the German youths were seen as a malleable force with dynamic potential and they could be the catalyst for changing a then old and decaying political system.

When did the movement evolve and Why?

Being poor can be considered as the true adversary of any political system. Germany in 1922 had seen the foreign powers create a post war financial crisis. Inflation was literally taking the food out of the nations starving children's mouths. Adolf Hitler understood that no matter what form of government was instituted by a people be it democratic, Fascist or communist, the true success of the government lay in their ability to provide economic success. The theory behind the Nazi youth movement was to reorder and to invigorate the crumbling German society in post World War I Germany.

The burdens which the German people had to bear were enormous, its sacrifices in taxes and blood unheard of, and yet, everyone who had eyes to see realized that all this would be in vain. What grieved us most was the fact that the whole system was morally protected by the alliance with Germany, and thus Germany herself, in a fashion, sanctioned the slow extermination of the German nationality in the old monarchy. The hypocrisy of the Habsburgs, who knew well how to create the impression abroad that Austria was still a German State, fanned the hatred against this house into flaming indignation and contempt." (Hitler)

The young Germans were supposed to have been the recipients of a German revolution that would eventually create a new nation with a fresh array of living space. "Young people were malleable enough, in general, to be instilled with the central tenets of the Nazi Weltanschauung (philosophy). Having swept away the values of the past and been inculcated with Nazi ideology, contemporary German youth would grow up to become the embodiment of the 'national community' of the future." (Pine)

The goal was to stay in line with its own ideological German essence. Of course, what actually took place was more or less a parental authority that established state and social controls. The Hitler followers established the Hitlerjugend in 1926 and later in 1930 they established the Bund Deutscher Madel (League of German Maidens). Both of these organizations were for explicitly for boys and girls who were between the ages of fourteen through eighteen.

The so-called recruitment process was extremely successful and by the end of 1934, the ranks or total membership of the two organizations had swelled to over one point five million teenage children. "This task, however, imperatively requires the training of the hitherto militarily still un-drilled elements, and this is practically impossible. With a training of one or two hours a week one cannot create soldiers. With the enormously increased demands of today that the war service makes upon the individual, a two years' service is perhaps barely sufficient in order to turn the untrained young man into a trained soldier." (Hitler)

Later around the end of 1934, the party established new groups for younger children between the ages of ten and fourteen years old. The group for boys was called the Deutsches Jungvolk (German Young folk) and for the pre-teen girls the Jungmadelbund (Young Girl Group).

Youth Group History

The first German youth groups were called Wandervogel (Birds of Passage). Not close off the starting mark were the German Boy Scouts. The German Scouts were technically affiliated to the English Boy Scouts. After World War I, the Wandervogel group divided itself into many smaller offshoots. Because of the post World War I turmoil, political parties began organizing self-fulfilling youth groups of their own. The Hitlerjugend was one of the many new politically focused youth movement. In 1933, the Nazi Party began abolishing or absorbing all of the nation's youth groups.

The Wandervogel movement was established by a student teacher in a Berlin suburb named Tonenliven. The movement was officially registered in 1901. The movement was an attempt by the German youths to avoid the usually strict parenting philosophies of the time. Although the movement was less successful than in other countries, Boy Scouts appeared around the same time in Germany as Wandervogel. A great many children that grew up with the Wandervogel philosophies were cut down in World War I.

After World War I was finished, Wandervogel had lost the appeal to the new generation of German kids so the Wandervogel movement divided itself into many new politically oriented groups.

Like Wandervogel, there is little documented history of the German Boy Scout movement. It is estimated that the German Scouts originated around 1910 and as the norm at that time, the case in the majority of scouting groups, separate Scout associations were formed primarily on religious line. The Communists did not approve of Scouting. After the mid 1920s the Hitler Youth movement gained in popularity.

When the Nazi's took charge of the nation in 1932, the Scouts and almost other competing youth groups were abolished and boys had to join the Hitler Youth. Many facilities of the Scouts and other youth groups were seized by the Hitler Youth, a practice they followed in areas with German populations incorporated into the Reich. "For a decade they had propagated a militant spirit within the Hitlerjugend that could only be realized in combat. At the same time they sensed the end of the cherished cultural and political activities that had given them unheard of prestige. Now they would be soldiers like everyone else and have to surrender the comfortable life to which they had become accustomed." (Rempel)

Some other groups that were available before Hitlerjugend became the only game in town are: the Gun-Club, Jewish Youth Groups, and Die Falken (The Falcon). This movement was very successful and their large amounts of money yet hey still enrolled over 100,000 boys.

What has Hitler's involvement?

Hitler and his Nazi Youth Corps represented indomitable strength amid a sea of weakness." (Stein) After World War I a large number of extremist political groups cropped up in Germany. One of the groups was the tiny German Workers' party that had an agenda that consisted of the combined socialist economic ideas combined with a deep nationalistic vigor. This nationalistic cause attracted war veterans like Hermann Goering, Rudolf Hess, and Adolf Hitler. Through his public speaking abilities, by 1920 Adolf Hitler fully led the party.

By strong arm tactics, anti-Semitism, anti-Communism, and attacks on the Treaty of Versailles, the party gained a strong following. National Socialism or Nazism was the doctrine and policy of the National Socialist German Workers' party. "Along with this goes general intimidation of parents and youngsters; there are many dire prophecies of what will happen if active functioning in Nazi youth organizations is continued. Quite often the prophecies are fulfilled: boys and girls have their uniforms splattered with paint, torn or even ripped off, and bloody noses and scratched faces occur with some frequency." (Becker)

By 1933 the party ruled Germany under Adolf Hitler until 1945. Throughout Germany the party name was Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or the NSDAP. Members were first called Nazis because of the abbreviation. Adolf Hitler and his party came to power on the notion that the German people had always ruled themselves and through the Treaty of Versailles, other nations had basically taken advantage of the German people.

Hitler was brilliant in extending an offer to allow the German people to express their right to a freedom of expression by stopping the injustices brought on the German people by the Treaty of Versailles. "Then some one has said: 'Since the Revolution the people has gained Rights. The people govern!' Strange! The people have now been ruling three years and no one has in practice once asked its opinion. Treaties were signed which will hold us down for centuries: and who has signed the treaties? The people? No! Governments which one fine day presented themselves as Governments. (The Adolf Hitler Historical Archives, vol. 4/12/1922)

As mentioned, the Nazi party had a successful checks and balance process in place that curbed some of the expected doctorial powers away from Hitler. But even the checks and balance process could not fully control Hitler.

In power once he had consolidated his position by the autumn of 1934 Hitler was, theoretically at least, omnipotent. He was both Chancellor and Head of State, and, to quote Hans Frank, 'supreme judge of the nation'. After 1937 Cabinet meetings ceased, legal principles such as equality before the law and civil rights were suspended by a series of arbitrary laws such as the Decree for the Protection of the Nationalist Movement. He had the means to enforce this power. The Gestapo, reinforced by the SS, prison camps and informers, effectively broke any opposition." (Williamson)

With that being said, Adolf Hitler, therefore must be seen as the ultimate leader of both the Nazi Party and the entire Nazi Youth Movement. Youth, schools, and the media were all under the Hitler's and his party's repressive control. This led to Hitlerjugend battles inside the party that literally absorbed strength and directly hampered the external struggles.

Hitler said about his youth movement in 1935, "He alone, who owns the youth, gains the Future! Practical consequences of this doctrine: The boy will enter the Jungvolk (boy 10-14) and the Pmpf (members of the Jungvolk) will come to the Hitler Youth, and the boy of the Hitler Youth will join the SA, the SS and the other formations, and the SA man and the SS man will one day join the Labor Service, and from there he will go to the Armed Forces, and the soldiers of the people will return again to the organization of Movement, the Party, the SA, the SS, and never again will our people be so depraved as they were at one time." (Nazi Conspiracy & Aggression)

How did they lure in the youth?

The Hitler Youth movement was a work in progress in the early years of the Nazi party. Between 1925 and 1932, the movement was actually many competing youth movements that migrated or evolved into the state sponsored youth movement. The poor and middle class were regular volunteers for the Hitlerjugend between through the years of 1926 through 1936. At that time joining the Hitlerjugend was strictly on a voluntary basis. Estimates of enrollment ranged upward consistently:

The membership statistics of the HitlerJugend to 1940 were:

End 1932

End 1933

End 1934

End 1935

End 1936

End 1937

End 1938

End 1939

And BDM (League of German Girls)

789 (2435-PS)

What role did the youth play in the war?

The Hitlerjugend movement was very active during World War II. One group was literally captured in Munich. The youth movement from 1933 on focused on supporting the war effort. "Goebbels's "total war" mobilized the younger generation as it did everyone else. The creation of the Hitlerjugend Division (HJD) within the W-SS expressed a sense of desperation and foreboding doom. The Hitlerjugend was also an essential element in the so-called People's Militia (Volkssturm), which was supposed to incorporate all able-bodied males." (Rempel) The Hitler Youth movement was more involved in the War than the Boy Scouts would have been.

The Hitlerjugend acted like the Scouts when collecting scrap metal. But the Hitlerjugend also conducted training sessions focusing on military skills. The Hitlerjugend were the main source for indoctrinating and recruiting future leaders. Eventually they became deeply involved in the war effort. They served as air raid wardens and even anti-aircraft gun crews. At the end of the war, the war graduates considered Volksstrum (Home Guard) units boys were the backbone of many.

The youths were usually kept away from the actual concentration camps but they were exposed to the railway cars filled with corpses and sometimes survivors. The youths often turned against their party upon seeing such horrific details. The Hitlerjugend members returned to regular civilian life after 1945 but for most part the damage had been done -- their childhood had been stolen away. To add insult to injury, many adult leaders of the Hitlerjugend were tried at Nuremberg and by the French who were on the receiving end of the Nazi infiltration to Paris.

Conclusion

In conclusion, we should begin to disassociate the Nazi party from Adolf Hitler and his boisterous speeches, the holocaust, the storming of Moscow by the Panzer divisions, Rommil's escapades in the deserts of Africa or subjective matter and begin to associate the Nazi party with their manipulation of the nation's children. This report attempted to present an insight into the Nazi Youth Movement and how these children were used by the German Military machine. A true and accurate historical account would have been difficult to come by since the Nazi party did not leave behind documentation.

Did Adolf Hitler actually control the Nazi youth movement? "For if a generation suffers from faults which it realizes, even admits, but nevertheless, as today in our bourgeois world, is satisfied with the cheap explanation that nothing can be done against it, then such a society is doomed to destruction. But the characteristic of our bourgeois world is just the fact that it is no longer able to deny the diseases. It has to admit that many things are foul and evil, but it no longer finds the determination to stand up against the evil, to integrate through frantic energy the force of a people of sixty or seventy millions and thus to set it up firmly against the danger." (Hitler) think yes