Hitler Youth
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The Hitler Youth (Template:Langx Template:IPA, often abbreviated as HJ, Template:IPA) was the youth wing of the German Nazi Party. Its origins date back to 1922 and it received the name Template:Lang ("Hitler Youth, League of German Worker Youth") in July 1926. From 1936 until 1945, it was the sole official boys' youth organisation in Germany (although the League of German Girls was a wing of it) and it was partially a paramilitary organisation. It was composed of the Hitler Youth proper for male youths aged 14 to 18, and the German Youngsters in the Hitler Youth (Template:Lang or "DJ", also "DJV") for younger boys aged 10 to 13.
With the surrender of Nazi Germany in 1945, the organisation de facto ceased to exist. On 10 October 1945, the Hitler Youth and its subordinate units were outlawed by the Allied Control Council along with other Nazi Party organisations. Under Section 86 of the Criminal Code of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Hitler Youth is an "unconstitutional organisation" and the distribution or public use of its symbols, except for educational or research purposes, is illegal.
Origins
In 1922, the Munich-based Nazi Party (NSDAP) established its official youth wing, the Template:Lang.Template:Sfn It was announced on 8 March 1922 in the Template:Lang, and its inaugural meeting took place on 13 May the same year.Template:Sfn Another youth wing was established in 1922 as the Template:Lang. Based in Munich, Bavaria, it served to train and recruit future members of the Template:Lang (SA), the main paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party at that time.Template:Sfn
One reason the Hitler Youth (HJ) developed easily was that regimented organisations, often focused on politics, for young people and particularly adolescent boys were a familiar concept to German society in the Weimar Republic. The German Youth Movement led to numerous youth movements being founded across Germany prior to and especially after World War I. They were created for various purposes. Some were religious and others were ideological, but the more prominent ones were formed for political reasons, like the Young Conservatives and the Young Protestants.Template:Sfn Once Hitler came onto the revolutionary scene, the transition from seemingly innocuous youth movements to political entities focused on Hitler was swift.Template:Sfn
Following the abortive Beer Hall Putsch (in November 1923), all NDSAP youth wings were ostensibly disbanded, but many elements simply went underground, operating clandestinely in small units under assumed names. In April 1924, the Template:Lang was renamed Template:Lang (Greater German Youth Movement).Template:Sfn On 4 July 1926, the Template:Lang was officially renamed Template:Lang (Hitler Youth League of German Worker Youth). This event took place a year after the Nazi Party was reorganised. The architect of the re-organisation was Kurt Gruber, a law student from Plauen in Saxony.Template:Sfn
After a short power struggle with a rival organisation—Gerhard Roßbach's Template:Lang—Gruber prevailed and his "Greater German Youth Movement" became the Nazi Party's official youth wing. In July 1926, it was renamed Template:Lang ("Hitler Youth, League of German Worker Youth"). The name Template:Lang was taken up on the suggestion of Hans Severus Ziegler.Template:Sfn By 1930, the Template:Lang (HJ) had enlisted over 25,000 boys aged 14 and upward.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn They also set up a junior branch, the Template:Lang (DJ), for boys aged 10 to 14. Girls from 10 to 18 were given their own parallel organisation, the League of German Girls (BDM).Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn On 30 October 1931, the HJ officially became part of the SA through a decree issue by Hitler, under the notional command of Ernst Röhm.Template:Sfn
Membership
In 1923, the youth wing of the Nazi Party had a little over 1,200 members.Template:Sfn In 1925, when the Nazi Party was refounded, the membership grew to over 5,000.Template:Sfn Five years later, national membership stood at 26,000.Template:Sfn By the end of 1932, it was at 107,956.Template:Sfn In April 1932, Chancellor Heinrich Brüning banned the Hitler Youth movement in an attempt to stop widespread political violence. However, in June, Brüning's successor as Chancellor, Franz von Papen, lifted the ban as a way of appeasing Hitler, the rapidly ascending political star. A further significant expansion drive started in 1933, after Baldur von Schirach was appointed by Hitler as the first Template:Lang (Reich Youth Leader).Template:Sfn All youth wings were brought under Schirach's control.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
When the Nazis came to power in 1933, the Hitler Youth's membership increased dramatically to 2,300,000 members by the end of that year. Much of this increase came from the forcible takeover of other youth organisations. The sizeable Template:Lang (Evangelical Youth), a Lutheran youth organisation of 600,000 members, was integrated on 18 February 1934.Template:Sfn In December 1936, a law declared the Hitler Youth to be the only legally permitted youth organisation in Germany, and stated that "all of the German youth in the Reich is organised within the Hitler Youth".Template:Sfn
By December 1936, Hitler Youth membership had reached over five million.Template:Sfn That same month, membership became mandatory for Aryans under the Template:Lang (Hitler Youth Law).Template:Sfn This legal obligation was reaffirmed in March 1939 with the Template:Lang (Youth Service Duty), which conscripted all German youths into the Hitler Youth—even if the parents objected.Template:Sfn Parents who refused to allow their children to join were subject to investigation by the authorities.Template:Sfn From then on, the vast majority of Germany's teenagers belonged to the Hitler Youth. By 1940, it had eight million members.Template:Sfn
Even before membership was made mandatory in 1939, German youth faced strong pressure to join. Students who held out were frequently assigned essays with titles such as "Why am I not in the Hitler Youth?"Template:Sfn They were also the subject of frequent taunts from teachers and fellow students, and could even be refused their diploma, which made it impossible to be admitted to university.Template:Sfn A number of employers refused to offer apprenticeships to anyone who was not a member of the Hitler Youth. By 1936, the Hitler Youth had a monopoly on all youth sports facilities in Germany, effectively locking out non-members. Hitler spoke of the regime's ability to make Nazis out of these German youth, exclaiming in 1938: Template:Blockquote
Over time, a number of boys dropped out due to the regimented nature of the organization. Some of these boys later rejoined after they learned that they could not get a job or enter university without being a member.Template:Sfn There were a few members of the Hitler Youth who privately disagreed with Nazi ideologies. For instance, Hans Scholl—the brother of Sophie Scholl and one of the leading figures of the anti-Nazi resistance movement Template:Lang (White Rose)—was also a member of the Hitler Youth.Template:SfnTemplate:EfnTemplate:Efn
Despite rare instances of disaffection, overall, the Hitler Youth constituted the single most successful of all the mass movements in the Third Reich.Template:Sfn
Organisation
The Hitler Youth was organised into corps under adult leaders, and the general membership of the HJ consisted of boys aged 14 to 18.Template:Sfn The Hitler Youth was organised into local cells on a community level. Such cells had weekly meetings at which various Nazi doctrines were taught by adult leaders. Regional leaders typically organised rallies and field exercises in which several dozen Hitler Youth cells would participate. The largest gathering usually took place annually at Nuremberg, where members from all over Germany would converge for the annual Nazi Party rally.Template:Sfn Since the HJ and BDM were considered fully Aryan organizations by Nazi officials, premarital sex was encouraged in their ranks.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn This did not conform to the general beliefs of the Nazi Party, which viewed premarital sex as undesirable and a potential public health hazard.Template:Sfn
The Hitler Youth maintained training academies comparable to preparatory schools, which were designed to nurture future Nazi Party leaders.Template:Sfn The Hitler Youth also maintained several corps designed to develop future officers for the Wehrmacht (Armed Forces). The corps offered specialised foundational training for each of the specific arms for which the member was ultimately destined. The Marine Hitler Youth (Marine-HJ), for example, served as an auxiliary to the Template:Lang.Template:Sfn Another branch of the Hitler Youth was the Template:Lang (German Worker Youth – HY). This organisation within the Hitler Youth was a training ground for future labour leaders and technicians. Its symbol was a rising sun with a swastika.Template:Sfn A program entitled Template:Lang (Country Service Camp) was designed to teach specifically chosen girls of the BDM high moral character standards within a rural educational setting.Template:Sfn
The Hitler Youth had a number of monthly and weekly publications: among them were the Template:Lang (Hitler Youth Newspaper), the Template:Lang (Storm Youth), Template:Lang (Young Front), Template:Lang (News for German Youth), and Template:Lang (Will and Power).Template:Sfn Other publications included Template:Lang (Young Germany), Template:Lang (a paper for girls in the BdM), and Template:Lang (Young Villager).Template:Sfn
Doctrine
The members of the Hitler Youth were viewed as ensuring the future of Nazi Germany and they were indoctrinated in Nazi ideology, including racism.Template:Sfn The boys were indoctrinated with the myths of Aryan racial superiority and to view Jews and Slavs as subhumans.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Members were taught to associate state-identified enemies such as Jews with Germany's previous defeat in the First World War and societal decline.Template:Sfn The Hitler Youth were used to break up church youth groups, spy on religious classes and Bible studies,Template:Sfn and interfere with church attendance.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Education and training programs for the Hitler Youth were designed to undermine the values of traditional structures of German society. Their training also aimed to remove social and intellectual distinctions between classes, to be replaced and dominated by the political goals of Hitler's totalitarian dictatorship.Template:Sfn Sacrifice for the Nazi cause was instilled into their training. As historian Richard Evans observes, "The songs they sang were Nazi songs. The books they read were Nazi books."Template:Sfn Former Hitler Youth Franz Jagemann said that the notion "Germany must live" even if the members of the HJ had to die, was "hammered" into them.Template:Sfn
The Hitler Youth appropriated many of the activities of the Boy Scout movement (which was banned in 1935), including camping and hiking. However, over time it changed in content and intention. For example, many activities closely resembled military training, with weapons familiarization, assault course circuits, and basic fighting tactics. The aim was to turn the HJ into motivated soldiers.Template:Sfn There was greater emphasis on physical ability and military training than on academic study.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn More than just a way to keep the German nation healthy, sports became a means of indoctrinating and training its youth for combat; this was in keeping with tenets outlined in Hitler's notorious work, Template:Lang.Template:Sfn In a 1936 edition of Foreign Affairs, an article discussing the appropriation of sports by contemporary dictatorial regimes such as Nazi Germany, commented that:Template:Blockquote By 1937, there was a HJ rifle school established, partially at the behest of General Erwin Rommel, who toured HJ meetings and lectured on "German soldiering", all the while he pressured Schirach to turn the HJ into a "junior army".Template:SfnTemplate:Efn During 1938, some 1.5 million HJ members were trained to shoot rifles.Template:Sfn Starting in early 1939, the OKW began supervising HJ shooting activities and military field exercises.Template:Sfn Upwards of 51,500 boys had earned their HJ Marksmanship Medal before the year's end.Template:Sfn
World War II
On 15 August 1939, a fortnight before the beginning of World War II, Schirach agreed with General Wilhelm Keitel that the entire Hitler Youth leadership must have "defence training".Template:Sfn
On 1 May 1940, Artur Axmann was appointed deputy to Schirach, whom he succeeded as Template:Lang of the Hitler Youth on 8 August 1940.Template:Sfn Axmann began to reform the group into an auxiliary force which could perform war duties.Template:Sfn The Hitler Youth became active in German fire brigades and assisted with recovery efforts to German cities affected by Allied bombing. The Hitler Youth also assisted in such organisations as the Reich postal service, the Reich railway services, and other government offices;Template:Sfn members of the HJ also aided the army and served with anti-aircraft defence crews.Template:Sfn
In 1942 Hitler decreed the establishment of "Hitler Youth defence training camps", led by Wehrmacht officers.Template:Sfn Nazi leaders began turning the Hitler Youth into a military reserve to replace manpower which had been depleted due to tremendous military losses. The idea for a Waffen-SS division made up of Hitler Youth members was first proposed by Axmann to Template:Lang Heinrich Himmler in early 1943.Template:Sfn The plan for a combat division made up of Hitler Youth members born in 1926 was passed on to Hitler for his approval. Hitler approved the plan in February and Gottlob Berger was tasked with recruiting.Template:Sfn Fritz Witt of SS Division Leibstandarte (LSSAH) was appointed divisional commander.Template:Sfn
In 1944, the 12th SS-Panzer-Division Hitlerjugend was deployed during the Battle of Normandy against the British and Canadian forces to the north of Caen. Over 20,000 German youths participated in the attempt to repulse the D-Day invasion;Template:Sfn while they knocked out 28 Canadian tanks during their first effort, they ultimately lost 3,000 lives before the Normandy assault was complete.Template:Sfn During the following months, the division earned a reputation for ferocity and fanaticism. When Witt was killed by Allied naval gunfire, SS-Template:Lang Kurt Meyer assumed command and became the divisional commander at age 33.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn
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 Template:Lang 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 defence, and they 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. The remnants of the youth brigade took heavy casualties from the advancing Russian forces. Only two survived.Template:Sfn
In 1945, there were various incidents of Hitler Youth members shooting prisoners, participating in executions, and committing other wartime atrocities.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
Post-World War II
The Hitler Youth was disbanded by Allied authorities as part of the denazification process. Some Hitler Youth members were suspected of war crimes but, because they were children, no serious efforts were made to prosecute these claims. While the Hitler Youth was never declared a criminal organisation, its adult leadership was considered tainted for corrupting the minds of young Germans. Many adult leaders of the Hitler Youth were put on trial by Allied authorities, and Baldur von Schirach was sentenced to 20 years in prison.Template:Sfn However, he was convicted of crimes against humanity for his actions as Template:Lang of Vienna, not for his leadership of the Hitler Youth, because Artur Axmann had been serving as the functioning leader of the Hitler Youth from 1940 onward. Axmann only received a 39-month prison sentence in May 1949, but he was not found guilty of war crimes.Template:Sfn Later, in 1958, a West Berlin court fined Axman 35,000 marks (approximately £3,000, or US$8,300), about half the value of his property in Berlin. The court found him guilty of indoctrinating German youth with National Socialism until the end of the war, but concluded that he was not guilty of war crimes.Template:Sfn
German children born in the 1920s and 1930s 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 members of the Hitler Youth. Little effort was made to blacklist political figures who had been members, since many had little choice in the matter. These German post-war leaders were nonetheless once part of an important institutional element of Nazi Germany. Historian Gerhard Rempel opined that Nazi Germany itself was impossible to conceive without the Hitler Youth, as their members constituted the "social, political, and military resiliency of the Third Reich" and were part of "the incubator that maintained the political system by replenishing the ranks of the dominant party and preventing the growth of mass opposition."Template:Sfn Rempel also reports that a large percentage of the boys who served in the HJ slowly came to the realization that "they had worked and slaved for a criminal cause", which they carried for a lifetime. Some of them recalled a "loss of freedom" and claimed that their time in the HJ "had robbed them of a normal childhood."Template:Sfn Historian Michael Kater relates how many who once served in the HJ were silent until older age when they became grandparents. While they were eventually able to look back at their place in "a dictatorship which oppressed, maimed, and killed millions", he maintains that an honest appraisal should lead them to conclude that their past contributions to the regime had "damaged their own souls."Template:Sfn
Once Nazi Germany was defeated by the Allied Powers, the Hitler Youth—like all NSDAP organisations—was officially abolished by the Allied Control Council on 10 October 1945Template:Sfn and later banned by the German Criminal Code.Template:Efn
Ranks and uniforms
Template:Lang (Reich Youth Leader) was the highest rank of the Hitler Youth and was held by the Nazi Party official in command of the entire organization.Template:Sfn The rank of Template:Lang was only held by two people during its existence, first by Baldur von Schirach and later by Artur Axmann.Template:Sfn
Members' summer uniform consisted of black shorts and a tan shirt with pockets, worn with a rolled black neckerchief secured with a woggle, usually tucked under the collar.Template:Sfn Headgear originally consisted of a beret, but this was discarded by the HJ in 1934.Template:Sfn One flag/symbol used by the HJ was the same as the DJ, a white Sowilo rune on a black background, which symbolised "victory".Template:Sfn Another flag used was a red–white–red striped flag with a black swastika in the middle, inside a white shaped diamond. Full members would also receive a knife upon enrollment, with the motto "Blut und Ehre" (Blood and Honour) engraved upon it.Template:Sfn
Troop colours/Paspel:
Template:SfnTemplate:Efn
(Most Hitler Youth shoulder boards were tan or black and piped with one of the below “troop colours” or Paspel; The naval Hitler Youth units were the exception, with navy blue shoulder boards piped in gold)
- Template:Farbindex (Template:Lang); Standard Hitler Youth (Template:Lang) colours
- Hitler Youth mountain walk groups (Template:Lang) and Mountain Hitler Youth (Template:Lang) were programs available to HJ members. They were not Sonderformation and did not bear unique Paspel, though participants were eligible to earn certain insignia, such as the Template:Lang (Hitler Youth Ski Leader’s Badge), among others
- Template:Farbindex (Template:Lang); Area and Template:Lang staffs
- Template:Farbindex (Template:Lang): 'Flyer' (or 'Pilot') Hitler Youth (Template:Lang)
- Template:Farbindex (Template:Lang): Motor Hitler Youth (Template:Lang)
- Template:Farbindex (Template:Lang): Communications/Signal Hitler Youth (Template:Lang)
- Template:Farbindex (Template:Lang): Pioneer (or Engineering) Hitler Youth (Template:Lang); Amalgamated into the Template:Lang in 1936, adopted Template:Farbindex (Template:Lang) piping
- Template:Farbindex (Template:Lang): Hitler Youth agriculture service (Template:Lang)
- Template:Farbindex (Template:Lang); National Political Institutes of Education (Template:Lang or NPEA) educational institutions; NPEA schools were NSDAP-sponsored preparatory schools which were paramilitary in nature. NPEA personnel utilized HJ uniforms and ranks
- Template:Farbindex (Template:Lang); Hitler Youth 'patrol service' (Template:Lang or SRD); White Paspel was authorized in June 1942 for SRD personnel. Prior to this, SRD personnel wore the standard red of the Template:Lang
- Template:Farbindex (Template:Lang); Hitler Youth Firefighting Brigades (Template:Lang, also referred to as Feuerwehrscharen im SRD); Feuerwehrscharen units existed prior to 1939, but their training was not standardized. In December 1939, training was standardized and all Feuerwehrscharen personnel were fully subordinated to the Template:Lang (SRD); In 1940, uniforms unique to the HJ-Feuerwehrscharen were introduced, bearing shoulder boards piped with Template:Farbindex (Template:Lang) Paspel. After the June 1942 transition of the SRD to white Paspel, Feuerwehrscharen were also authorized to wear the Template:Farbindex (Template:Lang) shoulder board piping on their standard HJ uniforms. Feuerwehrscharen personnel were also eligible to earn the HJ-Feuerwehrabzeichen ("Hitler Youth Fire Brigade Badge), issued in two degrees; Formationsabzeichen (standard badge), edged in carmine, and the Führerabzeichen (fire unit leaders’ badge), edged in white or silver. Apart from the edging, the badges were identical; a diamond-shaped cloth insignia worn on the lower-left outer sleeve of appropriate HJ uniforms, featuring a carmine Polizeiadler ("police eagle" insignia) superimposed on red and black flames. The badges were earned via a standardized pass-or-fail series of firefighting-related tests
- Template:Farbindex (Template:Lang) base piped in Template:Farbindex (Template:Lang): Naval Hitler Youth (Template:Lang)
- Template:Farbindex (Template:Lang); Mounted Hitler Youth (Template:Lang); Disbanded in 1936
- Template:Farbindex (Template:Lang); Hitler Youth First-Aiders; (Template:Lang)
- League of German Girls (Template:Lang or BDM)-Health Service Girl (Template:Lang); BDM personnel did not wear shoulder boards, and thus Health Service Girls had no unique colours. Qualified Template:Lang wore a Feldscher insignia of black and silver Aesculapius snake-and-staff on their lower-left sleeve. Post-September 1938 this insignia was changed to a white background with a red "life rune” with varied borders denoting rank
See also
- Great Japan Youth Party – Japanese Fascist youth movement
- Hitler Youth Badge
- Hitlerjunge Quex – 1933 propaganda film about the Hitler Youth
- Jojo Rabbit – satire film about Hitler Youth
- Nationale Jeugdstorm – Dutch Fascist youth movement
- National Socialist German Students' League
- National Socialist Schoolchildren's League
- Opera Nazionale Balilla – Italian Fascist youth movement
- "Vorwärts! Vorwärts!" – Anthem of Hitler Youth
References
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External links
Template:Commons category Template:Wikiquote
- "Neville Chamberlain writes to the Hitler Youth" on archive.org
Template:NSDAP Template:Nazism Template:Uniforms, insignia and ranks of Nazi Germany Template:German Youth Movement Template:Authority control