The Hitler Youth Propaganda Poster

The beginning of the Nazi Party can be traced back to 1919, just a year after the end of World War 1. Beginning with a group of unemployed soldiers unhappy about the Treaty of Versailles, the group quickly spiraled into a mass movement. In 1921, a former army veteran by the name of Adolf Hitler joined the association and quickly became the group's leader. Hitler soon began gaining new members as he went throughout the country advocating anti-semitism ideas and the idea that Germany would continue to suffer, unless their was a total revolution of German life where Jews and communists were eliminated. His ideas caught the attention of many, especially young, economically disadvantaged Germans, as they saw this as a chance to gain more than they ever had

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).

The Nazi Party considered the youth of Germany as an important component for the future. Adolf Hitler, the leader of the Nationalist Socialist German Worker’s Party (Nazi Party) wrote in his autobiography Mein Kamp (My Struggle), “whoever has the youth has the future” . Hitler considered the Germany’s youth and the treatment of the youth to be an imperative aspect to guarantee a secure future for Germany and Nazi party and he aimed to create a nation dedicated to the Nationalist Socialist view. In order to achieve this, Hitler exploited the education system and took control of the Youth movement. The Reich Ministry of Education took power of the schooling system permeated it with propaganda to indoctrinate the youth. The majority of the young people in Germany participated in youth groups such as the Hitler Youth and the League of German Girls which trained them for military service and motherhood.

“Once Hitler rose to power, he banned all other groups, even Boy Scouts, and only allowed for the Hitler Youth Program,” (Trueman). Hitler strongly believed that the youth was the future of Germany (Trueman). Additionally, he gradually started assigning adult roles to

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

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.

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

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.

Adolf Hitler fashioned a group in 1920 called the National Socialist German Workers’ Party or the Nazi Party. The statuses of Hitler’s Nazi Party swelled with indignant Germans who commiserated with the party’s bitter hatred of Germany’s democratic government, leftist politics, and Jews. In November 1923, after the German government recommenced the payment of war compensations to Britain and France, the Nazis propelled the “Beer Hall Putsch”. It was their endeavor to overthrow the German government by force. The revolution was instantaneously suppressed and Hitler was arrested and sentenced to five years

“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

<br>Hitler regained control of the Nazi Party upon his release in December 1924. From 1925 to 1930 Hitler built a network of local parties over most of Germany. He also organized the Schutzstaffel or the "SS", a group that performed police tasks. They carried out violent acts against Hitler's enemies. Unemployed young men who joined Hitler's groups were given food, shelter, uniforms and a sense of purpose.

After the HJ became the sole Nazi youth group, Hitler and Gruber stressed the importance of loyalty to the Reich and the ideologies for the Aryan race.

The Nazi party’s membership grew from 25,000 in 1925 to about 180,000 in 1929. It was the effects of the Great Depression and the unemployment in 1929-30 that intrigued millions of jobless people to join the Nazi party. From 1929 to 1932 membership increased from 800,000 in 1928 to 14,000,000 in July 1932 and it became the largest vote in (The German Parliament) also known as the Reichstag, with 230 members or 38 percent of the vote. In late 1932 unemployment began to drop in Germany and the Nazi party’s vote began to drop as well. On July 14, 1933 the Nazi party was the only political party in Germany. Hitler assumed dictatorial powers on March 23, 1933 when Reichstag passed the Enabling Act. Hitler took the title of Furer (“Leader”) and commander in chief of the army with the death of Hindenburg in 1934. In 1934 Hitler executed Ernst Rohm and other SA leaders in what is known as the “Night of the long knives”. After that, Hitler’s word was supreme and command in the party. It’s hierarchy was like a pyramid with mass organizations for youth, women, workers at the bottom, officials in the middle, and Hitler and his closest

The organization Hitler was a member of was popularly known as the Nazi Party. Originally was a small group of people under the name of German workers party. Adolf Hitler attended the meetings and joined it in 1919. Soon after he became leader of the party and changed the name to National Socialist German Workers Party. Hitler increased the Nazi party’s political power steadily. Then in 1933 Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany. (3)

Moving away from the window, the young man walked toward a school desk, the only furniture present in the room. He left a glass soda bottle, labelled ‘Eagle’s Flight’, on top of it. Just as he picked up the bottle, two teenagers, a boy and a girl, entered the room. The boy wore the winter uniform of the Hitlerjugend (Hitler Youth), the national youth movement of the German Reich. His female accomplice, dressed in the winter uniform of the Hitler Youth’s female wing, the Bund Deutscher Mädel. They even carried handguns holstered around their hips.