Role Of Youth In Nazi Germany

Naziism had a huge impact on German youth during Hitler’s reign of power over the state. The life of a German child changed dramatically during the 1920’s and 30’s, especially for

In the years from 1929 to 1933 economic hardship, a faltering political regime and generational tensions left many young people with no place to turn. The Nazis used this situation to their advantage, pointing out to the youths the way the Weimar republic government were

The whole program to rebuild Germany was based on the idea that Germany had been betrayed and that the only way for Germany to avenge itself upon its enemies and put an end to the conflict that had begun in 1914 was through military action. (Nelson) Through the bad state of the country, the Nazis were able to use propaganda that influenced the German people to believe that it was right to punish the groups who they believed were to blame for their

Hitler isolated the youth from the rest of Germany to be able to easily manipulate their beliefs. In 1926 the Hitler Youth was founded to train boys to enter the SA (Storm Troopers), a Nazi Party paramilitary formation. After 1933, however, youth leaders sought to integrate boys, while isolating them from the German girls and from their parents, into the Nazi national community to prepare them for service in the armed forces as soldiers. The Nazi army was such a dominant

“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

Now back to the Hitler Youth motto they even did drills for the kids because they wanted them to think and act as one person did.But the Germans and the Nazis did not know their children and grandchildren could not succeed in life if they didn’t

As the Nazi regime aggressively implemented state approved recruitment tools, the rise of Hitler Youth can be attributed to the state- induced discord between the child and the parent. In the widely disseminated propaganda movie Hitlerjunge-Quex, a twelve year old defied his abusive Communist father and joins the local Hitler Youth chapter where he is made out to be a national hero because of the act. Defying his own family and choosing the fraternity of the Hitler Youth active army regiment as his actual family was the unofficial Nazi state norm. The film conveyed a simple idea which divided German children and their parents; Aryan youth were solely the property of Hitler and the Nazi Party. In other words; the Aryan youth belongs to his country, not his parents; thus the film brought about the New Nazi order. The film’s plot was to appeal to many teens and raise widespread sympathy for the cause, and by drawing a divide between the loyal Nazi youth and the disloyal communist youth was used to draw more and more children to be recruited. Richard Weikart, a professor of History at the California State University at Stanislaus stated, “Nazis hated disloyal parents even more than they [hated] anti- semites,” (Weikart). Nazis put parents in a legal limbo by warning parents that interference and failure to cooperate with the Nazi party would result in jail time and having their children raised in Nazi approved foster homes. Hitler often stated in a speech, “Your children belong

“The Hitler Youth was founded in 1926” (“The Nazi Party”). As stated by Meinecke, “The Hitler Youth is not a boy scout or a girl guide organization… it is a compulsory Nazi formation which has consciously sought to breed hate, treachery, and cruelty into the minds and souls of every German child. It is in the true sense of the word education for death” (Conley). Hitler “based the Hitler Youth on anti-intellectualism, focusing on military training in preparation for becoming a soldier at 18” ("The Nazi Party”). The Hitler Youth was split up throughout the world, with some of the groups sent as far away as South America. “Baldur von Schirach was appointed the Reich Youth Leader” (“The Nazi Party”). There were age restrictions for the German Youth under Hitler. “German Youth could join the Hitler Youth beginning at the age of 10” (“The Nazi Party”). Hitler thought that the Hitler youth would help the “Third Reich last 1000 years” (Conley). The Hitler Youth played a major part in Hitler’s ultimate plan to eliminate the Jews, the

The Hitler Youth is around 10 to 18 year olds. There were a separate organisations for boys and girls. The purpose of the boys section was to prepare them for military service and prepare to fight. The mostly activities were all about their physical side so they can fight.     The attractions of the nazi youth movements were many young people were attracted to the Nazi youth movements by the opportunities that they offered.

“the Hitler Youth was such a group, with its own departments of culture, school, press, propaganda and so on. All this early organization was done because Hitler realized that, if and when he finally managed to over throw the Weimar government, we would need to have something ready to take its place immediately.”

The Nazis very much aimed to control young people. They did this because young people seemed naturally drawn Hitler and the emphasis on which he placed upon sport, the military, family and the community. Nazis changed very much about education and the school system. They geared school to only teach Nazi views. They burned the textbooks they had before Nazi’s came to power, replacing them with Nazi textbooks.

The reason why the kids of Germany joined the Hitler Youth varies from people to people, but here’s three of the many circumstances some of them might have gone through. First of the reasons could be for compensation instead of being sent to a work camp or prison. This can be seen when Peter is forced to join the Hitler Youth after he steals the radio. Joining the Hitler Youth kept him from going to a work camp but also earned his family's safety as he was basically hiding among the enemy more or less. Another reason why the youth of Germany joined the Hitler youth was to feel empowered, they might have been power hungry and by joining they could easily gain power and respect. Peter’s friend Thomas, displays this behaviour. Once he joins the

Hitler’s rise to power was the catalyst to such a vile movement filled with innocent children and adolescents, and the entirety of German society indoctrinated their children to fight for the most abhorrent cause in history. The movement, although voluntary and grassroots at its inception slowly became a mandatory group to join in order to avoid social and societal ostracization. The entire 1930s generation of German youth were corrupted, through school, media, and government, into sympathizing with the Nazi party and their agenda. The movement had died with the second World War, but unfortunately, isolated incidents have been making a comeback in recent years, especially around the 2008 Recession and its aftermath due to contemporary economic

This demonstrates how these extracurricular groups supplemented the school curriculum and assisted the ruling parties of their counties achieve their goals. The Hitler Youth’s emphasis on preparing its members for future roles was especially apparent after his plans for rearmament were enacted in 1935, as the physical exercise and military training they received as

The Nazi party taught children to be obedience and to be able to make any sacrifice to save the country.