Imagine if instead of going to school you went to the Hitler Youth. The Hitler Youth was as important as regular school was. The Hitler Youth was Hitler's belief of what people should be: “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.” Hitler was teaching the youth what he thought was right.
The Hitler Youth, also known as the Hitlerjugend, was designed specifically for young Germans who wanted to fulfill their duties to the Fatherland and its leader, Adolf Hitler. Founded in 1926, this helped Hitler gain support from children throughout the entire country. Children as young as 6, with good records could join and become apprentices. By 1933, there were 100,000 members of the Hitler Youth and by 1940, 90% of all German children were members of the organization. Children were encouraged directly, mostly through school teachers. Parent permission was not necessary, making it easier for children to join. There were different sections of the Hitler Youth, based on age. It also had several divisions much like a real army. The boys were treated much like real soldiers at Hitler Youth training camps. They practiced military marching daily, strengthened their bodies, and had their hair shaved in military
“Young boys were organized into the Deutches Jungvolk (German Young People, informally called Pimpfe), older boys into the Hitlerjugend (HJ). The Deutches Jungvolk could have boys from the ages of 10-14 and the Hitlerjugend could have boys from the ages of 14-18. When World War II started, more than ninety percent of German youth were members of these organizations. Ninety percent is a huge percentage. That means that almost every teenage German, Gentile was a member of some kind of Nazi Youth Organization. Many of these youth organization actually over rid the parental control on the children. Many were told that the individual or the family was less important than the state. If children had disloyal parents, they were encouraged to report them. When the boys weren’t in school or at home with their parents, they were with their youth organization learning military maneuvers and different chants. An example of the one the chants that the Hitler Youth used to march around chanting are: “Comrades, we march to the field, red today, tomorrow dead, Comrades it must be that way.” If the boys made any achievement in the Hitler Youth, credit in school would be given to the student. The teacher must respect the authority of the youth leaders, regardless of their age or attitude towards them. Blind obedience seems to be a common theme. Children are taught these ideologies without knowing the true real reason. Teachers are forced to believe and follow these ideologies if they wish to
The pinnacle of the movement is embodied during the raging battles of World War II. At present, it is apparent that the entire barrage of propaganda for seven plus years was in preparation to send German youths, both boys and girls, to both fronts to fight the Allied powers. According to expert David Welch of the BBC, the Nazi usage of propaganda was so persuasive that Hitlerjugend became paramilitary troops who were sent directly to Poland to fight the Soviets as well as to the Rhine region to fend off the Americans. One such propaganda poster depicted a father with a SS armband helping his son shoot a gun, both of them in full military attire, as well as another which, when translated, says, “For Freedom and Life; The People’s Storm,” (see Appendix B) and Welch argued that such encouragement would have filled the youth on the battlefield with drive. The surprising fanaticism and reckless bravado of the Hitler Youth in battle left the Western Allied forces astonished. There were reports of accounts which detailed how the adolescent boys fought till their death without the thought of surrendering; young boys were shot by soldiers who were old enough to be their own fathers. From the D-Day and Invasion of Normandy, the Hitlerjugend lost 8000 over the course of six hours. Even boys at the age of seventeen were described as ruthless fighters, who would outfight their fellow adult Nazi soldiers, and this can be directly attributed to their indoctrination. Out of the
Action. Fun. Adventure. These were the things promised to children as young as ten, who were lured by the promises of Hitler Youth or BDM. By training the children rigorously and implementing Nazi Germany’s core beliefs in them, Hitler formed future Nazi citizens that would be willing to sacrifice their lives for Hitler and the Third Reich. In 1920, Hitler approved the founding of Hitler Youth which modeled a previous youth group who distinguished themselves, wanting to reconnect with the land ( Lisciotto). The brainwashing of Germany’s children through the use of Hitler Youth programs was unethical: it was created to mold children into perfect Nazi citizens,implementing a deep sense of racial superiority taught by teachers, infusing deep hatred for anything the Nazis considered a threat to Germany, and due to Hitler Youth teachings of reporting adults who were not law-abiding citizens, it lead to children reporting their parents out of duty to the Third Reich.
“The future of the German nation depends on its youth and the German youth shall have to be prepared for its future duties”
In the Hitler Youth movement, created in 1922, each child born had to join an extremely tough military training in preparation for any kind of war. Many children did not know why they were training in that way. Yet for them just the feeling in being proud and brave was enough to continue in their tasks. They enjoyed being the center of attention and the object of the adult desires. We can say that the Nazis system in
Children were not only drawn into Nazi ideology through education reforms, but the creation of Nazi Youth Organizations also attracted a majority of German youth to the Nazi belief system. The single greatest tool used by Hitler to convince the youth to work towards the Volksgemeinschaft was the Hitler Youth. The goal of this party-run youth organization was to brainwash children to think and act German, and to wipe out class distinction and individualism. Like the education system, the Hitler Youth also emphasized physical fitness, as a key part of Aryan superiority. It also provided a plethora of group activities, the goal of these activities was to build trust for your
Action. Fun. Adventure. These were the things promised to children as young as ten, who were lured by Hitler Youth and BDM organizations. By training the children rigorously and implementing Nazi Germany’s core beliefs in them, Hitler formed future Nazi citizens that would be willing to sacrifice their lives for him and the Third Reich. In 1920, Hitler approved the founding of Hitler Youth which modeled a previous youth group who distinguished themselves through clothing and such, wanting to reconnect Germans with the land ( Lisciotto). The brainwashing of Germany’s children through the use of Hitler Youth programs was unethical: it was created to mold children into perfect Nazi citizens, implementing a deep sense of racial superiority taught by teachers: infusing deep hatred for anything the Nazis considered a threat to Germany, and due to Hitler Youth teachings of reporting adults who were not law-abiding citizens, it led to children reporting their parents out of duty to the Third Reich.
One way in which the Hitler Youth pushed the Nazification of Germany was through the brainwashing of the youth in schools (Featherman, 1932). Hitler was smart and realized it would be very hard to convince adults to change their ways immediately, so he targeted the youth because they were young and easily manipulated. According to
Then the Nazis had to prepare for the future and the future of Germany was the youth. Many organisations like the Hitler youth and the league for German Maidens were set up to teach the youth to follow the Nazis. In the Hitler youth they were taught like the military, neat, tidy and organised. The youth saw Hitler as a father figure in the fatherland and obeyed him. Then Hitler used indoctrination in the education system to recruit them into the army as loyal Nazis. There were subtle Nazi views added into all school work to brainwash the youth, as they were naive and didn’t see the wrong side of the Nazis true nature. The future of the people’s community was successfully secure and the Nazis would keep control for years to come.
From the time Adolf Hitler came into office in 1933, up to the time when Germany surrendered to the Allied forces and Hitler committed suicide in 1945; the future for Germany became strongly invested in the hands of the younger generations. The Hitler Youth was a paramilitary organization formed in 1926. It gave kids excitement, adventure and new heroes to idolize. Hitler admired young kids drive, energy and strong love for Germany. He recognized these qualities and made it part of his plan to control the future world but the real question is why did Adolf Hitler pick children for his future? The education and the lack of schooling in independent thinking that instilled the ideology that brainwashed the Hitler- Jugend and eventually led
Have you ever wondered what Nazi youth was like during World War 2? During the Holocaust? Or simply even what they were taught in school. Nazi children had certain requirements, were taught differently in school than most kids now in 2017, and had a different homelife.
During the time of Adolf Hitler, many young German Kids were forced to join the Hitler Youth. Teachers pressured the German students into joining the Hitler Youth program, In “Hitler Youth: Growing up in Hitler’s Shadow,” author Susan Campbell Bartolletti discussed the ways Adolf Hitler used education to further Nazi ideals. To make young Germans into good Nazis, Hitler changed the textbooks and the curriculum, so that it only taught Nazi approved ideas. Hitler also made the German students pledge to him every single day, by saying, “Heil Hitler” to a poster of him and a Nazi flag. Hitler and the Nazis also forced teachers to teach the Nazi ideas to make sure that every German student would grow up to be a good Nazi.
With Adolf Hitler coming to power, he wanted to increase the power of Germany to rule the world. To do this, he has to start off small, and to do this, he created the Hitler Youth in the 1930’s. In “Hitler Youth: Growing up in Hitler’s Shadow,” author Susan Campbell Bartoletti discusses the ways Hitler used education to further Nazi ideals. He implemented new textbooks, made students salute him and say “Heil Hitler,” and did not let them express their own ideas in order to mold them into “good Nazis.”