Nazi Indoctrination And Adolescence : The Nazis Essay

This IA will address how the Hitler Youth program effected the Nazification of Germany leading up to World War II. Hitler started the Nazi movement in 1919 and led the Nazis for some time before the whole party took control of Germany (Featherman, 1932). The Nazis officially came to power in 1933, and The Hitler Youth was made official that same year (Baldur von Schirach, 67, Dies; Head of Hitler Youth 1933–40, 1974). Hitler chose Baldur von Schirach as the head of the youth program (“The New York Times Archives”, 1974, p. 36). Schirach’s job as the head of the Hitler Youth was to lead an organization that specializes in training the aryan German youth to embody the perfect Nazi. Once the Nazi’s were in control of Germany the Hitler Youth continued to and grow and grow, and eventually became mandatory for all the adolescent aryan youth in Germany (Central Intelligence Agency, p. 14). The Hitler Youth was the main reason that race in Germany became the society and the state (Waite, p. 340), and the German military was so abundant because of the Hitler Youths ability to train kids and put them into war quickly (Central Intelligence Agency, p. 14).

"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."

Evaluate the impact of Nazi Policy on the young people in Germany between 1933 and 1939.

The last stage of Piaget’s cognitive development is known as the Formal Operational Stage, which occurs between the ages of eleven and sixteen. Adolescents have now gained the ability to think in an abstract matter, and can now understand things such as science and algebra. The most distinct difference between the

The teacher could place two cups that have the same amount of liquid in the cups but because one of the cups is taller than the other the child is going to think the taller glass has more liquid in it. The third stage is the concrete operational stage which occurs during ages seven to eleven. The term concrete operational means the child can reason only about tangible objects presents. So the child can conserve and think logically but only with practical aids. Thinking becomes less egocentric with increased awareness of external events. The fourth and final stage is the formal operational stage which occurs during ages eleven to fifteen. This stage focuses on hypothetical thinking and scientific reasoning. Piaget believed that only children can learn when they are ‘ready’ to learn. He also believed that development couldn 't be ‘sped up.’ Piaget believed that children learned through the resolution of disequilibrium (self discovery, active participation). He believed that teachers should ‘bend’ to children’s needs, provide an appropriate environment, promote self discovery, exploratory learning, self-motivated learning, and set challenges to existing schemes.

The sensorimotor stage infants develop their schemas through sensory and motor activities. Followed by the preoperational stage where children begin to think symbolically using words, to represent concepts. Next concrete operational stage children display many important thinking skills, like ability to think logically. Finally, formal operational stage young adolescences formulate their operations by abstract and hypothetical thinking. Piaget’s theory provides ample and insightful perspectives, so it remains the central factor of contemporary

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.

Indoctrinating Youth." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Council, 29 Jan. 2016. Web. 29 Apr. 2016. Retrieved from

“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

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.

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

In order for Adolf Hitler to become successful, he knew that he had to spread Nazism to the far corners of the world. He accomplished this to some extent by using propaganda. “Following the Nazi seizure of power in 1933, Hitler established a Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda headed by Joseph Goebbels” (“Nazi Propaganda”). Goebbels was the master propagandist and orator to whom Hitler gave the responsibility of spreading the favorable image of the Nazi regime. The Nazis took control of all means of entertainment in order to spread their beliefs. “The ministry’s aim was to ensure that the Nazi message was successfully communicated through art, music, theater, films, books, radio, educational materials, and the press” (“Nazi Propaganda). The main target of the propaganda was the Jewish race. Goebbels’ “propaganda campaigns created

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

The fourth stage of Piaget’s Cognitive Stages of Development is the Formal operational stage. This stage is normally reached at age 11. These children are usually able to logically use symbols related to abstract concepts, such as algebra and science. These children can think about multiple variables in systemic ways, form hypotheses, and consider possibilities. Although Piaget believed in lifelong intellectual development, he insisted that the formal operational stage is the final stage of cognitive development, and that continued intellectual development in adults depends on the accumulation of knowledge (Shroff, 2015).

The Success of Nazi Policies Toward Education and Youth Hitler and the Nazi party had a range of policies to control education and the German youth. This was mainly to ensure loyalty to Hitler and the Nazi party. Some believed in these policies and other did not but it was fear and glory and the fear of social inadequacy that made most comply. Hitler and the Nazis wanted to control the education system and youth by controlling the teachers, pupils and the curriculum.