Hitler Youth: Nazi Indoctrination and Cultural Control

Introduction: Ideology, Nationalism, and the Holocaust

The entirety of the Holocaust was precipitated by a hard-line ideological predisposition toward German nationalism, at least as such a concept was defined by the National Socialist Party. Though World War II and the rise of Hitler and the Nazi regime revolved around military confrontations and international proxy battles, the European continent played host to a far more unconventional wartime operation. As the Nazi Party portrayed it to a surprisingly receptive population, the quest for German national pride and success was to be defined not simply by victorious emergence from the war, but by a purification of the people. While this provided an impetus for the larger war — wherein conquered nations would undergo a cultural Germanification — it was also the theoretical basis for the nefarious plans for which Hitler had begun to lay the groundwork even before the complete onset of war.

Herein lay the primary justification for the extermination of various groups deemed to compromise the nation's strength through ethnic impurity. In the midst of a devastating economic depression, and seized by Hitler's dramatic subversion of the ineffective central leadership in parliament, the German people actively embraced the scapegoating directed toward a number of groups, most specifically the Jews. Ultimately sending to their deaths 6 million Jews and 5 million more of assorted ethnicity or targeted social identity, the Nazis succeeded in weaving through the German psyche a culture of acceptance for the so-called "final solution" — the full genocide of the Jewish people.

Of primary importance in facilitating this final solution was the indoctrination of a population with ideologies of false nationalism, ethnic hatred, and physical purity, particularly through the most susceptible and simultaneously potent demographic available: the youth. The young people of Germany and conquered parts of Europe would be key to the psychological success of the Nazi Party in establishing its occupation and expansion. The Hitler Youth would become a central part of the Nazi perpetration of the vast crimes committed against Germany, Europe, and humanity.

Hitler's Vision for German Youth

Within the context of the civilian population, the Hitler Youth became the champions of Nazi ideology, functioning as a particularly violent and gang-oriented presence in German society. In this regard, the Hitler Youth served as something of an enforcement agency with primarily cultural and social outlets. The directives of character and purpose for the movement came from no lesser source than Adolf Hitler himself. Speaking on the subject in 1933, the Führer evoked the imagery today associated with the so-called Aryan race in the indoctrination of his young followers. He declared:

"My program for educating youth is hard. Weakness must be hammered away. In my castles of the Teutonic Order a youth will grow up before which the world will tremble. I want a brutal, domineering, fearless, cruel youth. Youth must be all that. It must bear pain. There must be nothing weak and gentle about it. The free, splendid beast of prey must once again flash from its eyes… That is how I will eradicate thousands of years of human domestication… That is how I will create the New Order." (HP, 1)

In no uncertain terms, Hitler announced that he was building a force of rabid devotees and producing the soldiers of a future German empire. It can be seen as no mystery, therefore, that members of the Hitler Youth who ascended the ranks and achieved a level of loyalty to the party would be among the fiercest defenders of the Third Reich. Hitler's intense focus on the youth as a primary operational arm of the Nazi Party demonstrated his keen awareness of this population's susceptibility to molding. The idea of creating a young generation of Aryan supermen fed into the construction of a new German mythology — a key feature of Nazi distortion and propaganda. The inexperience and vulnerability of youth to indoctrination meant that a great number of Germany's young people would become easy fodder for the fabrication of a convenient German history and nationalistic identity.

This theme is underscored again by Hitler's rhetoric, delivered before a vast multitude at the 1934 Nuremberg Rally. Here, Hitler declared:

"We do not want this nation to become soft. Instead, it should be hard and you will have to harden yourselves while you are young. You must learn to accept deprivations without ever collapsing. Regardless of whatever we create and do, we shall pass away, but in you, Germany will live on and when nothing is left of us you will have to hold up the banner which some time ago we lifted out of nothingness. And I know it cannot be otherwise because you are flesh of our flesh, blood of our blood, and your young minds are filled with the same will that dominates us… And when the great columns of our movement march victoriously through Germany today I know that you will join these columns. And we know that Germany is before us, within us, and behind us." (HP, 1)

Connecting the Hitler Youth to the ideal of carrying on a nation's heritage and pure bloodline was central to constructing a mythology with which young followers could achieve a deep psychological bond. This would prove markedly effective at producing devoted followers and eventual elite recruits into the various corps of the German military.

Growth and Recruitment of the Hitler Youth

Attention to the advancement of the youth movement was not an afterthought but a mission of fundamental importance to the Nazi Party as a whole. As Kater (2004) explains, "while Hitler appeared to many young people as the father or older brother they had never had or had already lost, the Nazi movement, with all its factions, was coming across to many as a party made for youth. Its visible formations in the street seemed to be young — the SA, the SS, and the National Socialist Student League, which from bastions in the universities had acted as a vanguard of Nazism in Germany's educated middle class since the mid-1920s." (Kater, 10)

This history of recruitment among elites in the party meant that, by the prime years of the war, the Hitler Youth had already proven to be an ideal vehicle both for developing members of the German military — especially its upper echelons — and for strengthening the party at the local level. To many Germans who wished to resist the aims and conditioning of the Nazi Party, the Hitler Youth represented a fearsome vision of the country's future. Contrary to older generations of Germans, members of the Hitler Youth had typically been born or come of age entirely within the dominance of the Third Reich. There was therefore little tendency among them to offer rational, practical, or psychological resistance to the tenets of National Socialism. The ethically objectionable nature of violent nationalism, racial purification, and pointed anti-Semitism would not register as such to those raised without critical reflection on these ideas and practices. As Kater notes, "above all, the members of the Nazi Party themselves were visibly young, with a mean age of approximately thirty-one for all new joiners in the period from 1925 to 1932." (Kater, 10)

This demonstrates the importance of the Hitler Youth to the party's evolution from organizational proliferation to outright cultural, political, and military domination of German and European society. In a manner aligned with its general efficiency at permeating all aspects of German life, the Nazi Party found a youth disenchanted by low living standards and an eroded sense of national pride in the pre-Nazi era, and exploited that cohort's desire to belong to something powerful and unified. The Hitler Youth reflected all the cultural, hierarchical, and political aspects of the larger Nazi Party, including radical nationalism, coercive mob tactics, and a deliberate absence of intellectual scrutiny. Training was driven by physical and athletic rigor, the reinforcement of National Socialist ideologies, education in the myths of Nazi heritage, and immersion in party propaganda (HBU1, 1).

The movement had all the hallmarks of a recruitment agency for future soldiers, beginning with the creation of the ideal psychological and physical prototype for service to the Aryan race. Accordingly, "the Hitler Youth movement emphasized activism, physical training, Nazi ideology — especially nationalism and racial concepts — and absolute obedience to Hitler and the Nazi Party. Indoctrinating children in National Socialist ideology was a key goal of the Nazi Party. Once Hitler assumed control over the German state, he used the government to make the Hitler Youth the country's all-encompassing youth movement." (HBU1, 1)

The racial elements of the Hitler Youth's indoctrination were also of critical importance to the Nazi movement, as they propelled the aggressive social isolation and abuse of groups such as Jews, Roma, and homosexuals. The Hitler Youth gained a sense of pride from propaganda designed to project them as the future leaders of Germany. Essentially granted the right to defy anyone who differed with the party's values, the Hitler Youth were primed for a distinct level of enthusiasm rooted in this empowerment. In their numbers and in the encouragement to "enforce" Nazi views on racial disparity, members of the Hitler Youth achieved a status of importance within the party that preyed on their collective psychological commitment. The party thrived on the dedication and outright cruelty of which the youth movement was uniquely capable.

In fact, there is a perspective which holds that the Hitler Youth was among the most successful avenues for the realization of Hitler's vision. The pace and scale of its growth in membership is demonstrative of this claim. The organization was originally founded in 1922, disbanded during Hitler's temporary imprisonment in 1926, and revitalized during the onset of his ascension to total power in Germany. It was at this juncture that the Hitler Youth began an intense campaign to distinguish itself as the preeminent group among the many Nazi-oriented youth organizations vying for favor with the new state authorities. None succeeded as thoroughly as the Hitler Youth, who gradually gained the support and favoritism of Hitler himself. As the Historical Boys' Uniform record tells, "the Hitler Youth grew from a group with a handful of boys to one of the most important uniformed youth groups in Europe. No group so thoroughly succeeded in their stated purpose. Had the Nazis succeeded, the elite of Europe would have been raised and trained through the Hitler Youth. Membership increased from about 1,000 boys in 1923 to nearly 8 million in 1939 when Hitler launched World War II." (HBU1, 1)

In this way, the Nazi Party used the Hitler Youth to advance a projected plan of continental and global domination in which the generation of emergent leaders would have been raised entirely within Nazi ideals, training, and propaganda. Kater shows how this produced not only dedication to the cause but a sense of ownership over its values and goals. For members of the Hitler Youth, there was an impression that they were being primed to lead the New Order upon its emergence. As Kater writes, "most Hitler Youths in the fold loved its program of activities and did feel looked after, knowing that they would graduate to become bearers of the new Reich. From their subjective point of view, the sentiments of belonging, of sharing, of being willing to follow orders from tough but caring leaders, were very real." (Kater, 15)

Like many movements associated with Nazism at that time, the Hitler Youth only gradually attained a clear affiliation with the tenets of the Nazi Party. In its initial phases, it was only one of many groups with ties to socialism and a desire for greater national pride. But the cause of its elevation above competitors was in large part the degree of admiration which the group's founder held for Hitler. Kater tells that "the youth group was initiated by Kurt Gruber, a law student and admirer of Hitler from Plauen in Saxony, home to many blue-collar workers. Thus the beginnings of the Nazi youth affiliate were in the proletarian realm, and at least until Hitler's takeover in 1933, the groups emphasized their working-class mystique." (Kater, 16)

It was only a matter of time before the Hitler Youth became important and prominent among middle- and upper-class Germans as well. For young members of German society, the organization offered a chance to join the push for change in an otherwise bleak economic era. The failures of the Weimar Republic had alienated many educated young Germans, producing a push by those with career aspirations, interests in political change, and desires for industrial growth toward membership in the Hitler Youth. Though at first Hitler only casually voiced his support for the organization — noting that as youths they lacked the right to vote in German elections — his ascension to power in 1933 produced a totally different perspective on the importance of German youth activities.

It was at this juncture that the state began to produce its own standards and regulatory oversight for the group, giving rise to its adoption as a state-sponsored organization. Simultaneously, the Hitler Youth achieved ever greater levels of social penetration with its elevated stature in the new power structure, and its age of recruitment was lowered to expand its general reach. Therefore, "by the end of 1930, the age range for the HJ of both genders was from ten to eighteen. In October 1931, Baldur von Schirach was appointed by Hitler as chief of all youth activities for the NSDAP. Schirach had led the Nazi University Student League since 1928, as well as the Nazi Pupils' League… In 1931 the HJ already had close to 35,000 members, which still comprised about 69% young workers, 12% pupils, and 10% white-collar shop clerks." (Kater, 17–18)

With respect to the motives driving these populations of young Germans toward membership in the Nazi Party, Kater acknowledges that during the Great Depression, roughly half of all Nazi youth members' parents were struggling with unemployment. This confirms that, as with adult Germans throughout Europe, the state of the German economy was a primary impetus for younger members of the party as well.

Works Cited

Associated Press (AP). (2005). New Pope Defied Nazis As Teen During WWII. The New York Times.

The History Place (HP). (1999). The History Place: Hitler Youth. Historyplace.com.

Historical Boys' Uniform (HBU). (1998). German Boy Scouts/Pfadfinderen. Historical Boys' Clothing.

Historical Boys' Uniform (HBU1). (1998). Hitler Youth. Historical Boys' Clothing.

Kater, M. H. (2004). Hitler Youth. Harvard University Press.

Rempel, G. (1991). Hitler's Children: The Hitler Youth and the SS. The University of North Carolina Press.