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Youth Affecting Nazi Germany

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How did the youth Affect Nazi Germany?

In Nazi Germany the youth played a very important role in the years leading up to World War II as well as fighting in the war. Hitler controlled and shaped the youth many ways including The Hitler Youth Program(HJ) for boys or the League of German Maidens(BDM) for girls. In just the HJ, there were 8.8 million youth at the start of the war. That is more than enough people to cause a problem. They could do the most good and cause the most destruction if not controlled and Hitler knew that. He indoctrinated the youth by surrounding them with Nazi propaganda and by rewriting German history. Some other things that influenced Germany were the youth resistances such as the Swing Kids and the Edelweiss Group.

One way hitler planned to control the youth was by starting his Hitler Youth (HJ) program in July 1926. In the HJ boys ages 10-18 had military training such as marching, bayonet drill, grenade throwing, trench digging, map reading, gas defence, use of dugouts, how to get under barbed wire and pistol shooting as well as Nazi ideological indoctrination courses. These were to prepare them for war. Their uniforms even had badges and other decorative insignia to make it easier to transition into the army. For some reason they didn’t suspect something of it. In 1938 meeting attendance dipped …show more content…

Without them WW II might’ve had a completely different outcome. Whether they were spying on parents, fighting in wars, or resisting capture and Nazi idealism. Hitler wouldn’t have made it as far if he hadn’t thought of controlling the youth. If the few that resisted didn’t exist he might’ve just as easily be able to have gone farther. Either way the youth provided a very large impact on WW II whether it was for the good or the bad is for you to decide. The importance of youth continues in our day. Even though we don’t fight wars we control the

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