Hitler's Messengers: the Hitler Youth and the Propagation of Nazi

Hitler’s Messengers: The Hitler Youth and the Propagation of Nazi Ideology Amongst Ethnic Germans of the Batschka By Caroline E. Mezger Submitted to the Central European University Department of History in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. Supervisor: Professor Balázs Trencsényi Second Reader: Professor Marsha Siefert Budapest, Hungary CEU eTD Collection 2012 Statement of Copyright Copyright in the text of this thesis rests with the Author. Copies by any process, either in full or part, may be made only in accordance with the instructions given by the Author and lodged in the Central European Library. Details may be obtained from the librarian. This page must form a part of any such copies made. Further copies made in accordance with such instructions may not be made without the written permission of the Author. CEU eTD Collection i Abstract This thesis investigates the creation of National Socialist youth groups within ethnic German communities of the Batschka. Located in a former Habsburg territory that fluctuated in borders, politics, and ethnic composition during the early twentieth century, the Batschka’s populations became embroiled within a multitude of contestations by greater state, national, and ideological projects during the 1930s and 1940s. The Batschka’s “Donauschwaben” especially were targeted by the Third Reich, which— through the mass “education” of ethnic Germans in the region— hoped to forge an “Aryan master race” that would be willing to fight and die “for Reich and Führer.” Youths became crucial within this scheme. Ideologized within the framework of “Hitler Youth” formations, youths were not merely to “educate” themselves about National Socialist definitions of “Germanness,” but also to act as agents of “education” and “conversion” within their communities. This study explores Nazi tactics of youth mobilization and their effects on the social interactions, political affiliations, and national identities of the Batschka’s ethnic German communities. Split into macro-, meso-, and micro-levels of analysis and employing a range of sources— including 1930s and 1940s German ethnographic studies and Volksgeschichten, contemporaneous German-speaking press from Hungary and Yugoslavia, Nazi youth propaganda, oral histories, and Heimatgemeinde-based memoires— this thesis investigates the various actors and perspectives involved with the Nazi mobilization of “volksdeutsche” youths. As this study illustrates, the “effects” of Nazi youth programs were manifold and far removed CEU eTD Collection from a traditional interpretation of the “totalitarian masses.” Rather, their impact was divisive, as the Batschka’s ethnic Germans became confronted with, and defended, conflicting interpretations of their own national identities. ii Acknowledgments The creation of this thesis would not have been possible without the support and guidance of many individuals over these past two years. Thank you, first of all, to my supervisor, Professor Balázs Trencsényi, for his invaluable feedback as this project progressed. Thank you also to my second reader, Professor Marsha Siefert, for providing me with crucial new perspectives and direction over the past few months. Thank you also to the Institut für deutsche Kultur und Geschichte Südosteuropas for generously funding two months of research in Munich for this project, and for the encouragement and input that I kindly received from the individuals working there. Thank you also to my interviewees for sharing their time and experiences with me, as well as for providing insights into this topic that made this thesis possible in the first place. Thank you, furthermore, to various friends, without whom this research could not have progressed: to Bálint Tolmar for his continuous feedback, assistance, and Hungarian language translations; to Iva Mandiü for her Serbo-Croatian language translations and data on schools in early twentieth-century Yugoslavia; and to Dejan Lukiü, who so kindly guided and hosted me for several days as I researched in Novi Sad and Belgrade. Thank you finally to my friends and family, whose support during these past two years has nourished and sustained me, and to whom this thesis is dedicated. CEU eTD Collection iii Table of Contents INTRODUCTION..........................................................................................................................................1 CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKS ..................................................................................9 1.1 NATIONAL SOCIALISM AS TOTALITARIANISM AND FASCISM...................................................................................9 1.2 NATIONALIZING THE MASSES WITHIN INTERSTITIAL SPACES............................................................................. 15 1.3 ORAL HISTORY............................................................................................................................................................... 21 CHAPTER 2: THE NAZI IMAGINED GEOGRAPHY— LEBENSRAUM AMBITIONS TOWARDS THE BATSCHKA, 1930S- 1940S....................................................................................... 31 2.1 THE BATSCHKA: A BRIEF GEOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION................................................ 31 2.2 THE EXPANSION OF GERMAN INTERESTS IN SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE............................................................ 34 2.3 A WEIMAR STUDY OF THE BATSCHKA....................................................................................................................... 37 2.4 A POST-GLEICHSCHALTUNG NATIONAL SOCIALIST STUDY OF THE BATSCHKA.............................................. 40 2.5 LATE THIRD REICH CONCEPTUALIZATIONS OF THE BATSCHKA......................................................................... 47 2.6 CONCLUSIONS................................................................................................................................................................ 50 CHAPTER 3: THE HITLER YOUTH— ORIGINS, EVOLUTION, AND THE EMPLOYMENT OF YOUTHS AS AN INSTRUMENT OF INTERNATIONAL PROPAGANDA ........................... 52 3.1 THE FORMATION OF THE HITLER YOUTH ................................................................................................................. 53 3.2 IDEOLOGICAL CONTENT AND DISSEMINATION OF THE HITLER YOUTH............................................................ 59 3.3 THE HITLER YOUTH’S FOREIGN ACTIVITIES ............................................................................................................ 64 3.4 CONCLUSIONS................................................................................................................................................................ 71 CHAPTER 4: THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE BATSCHKA’S VOLKSDEUTSCHE YOUTH ORGANIZATIONS FROM A TRANSNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE— FROM STUDENTS OF FOLK TRADITION TO “HARBINGERS OF [NAZI] ENLIGHTENMENT” TO SS FODDER.73 4.1 HUNGARY: THE EVOLUTION OF THE VOLKSBUND AND THE DEUTSCHE JUGEND, 1919-1944.................. 74 4.2 YUGOSLAVIA: AN ALTERNATE PATH TO NATIONALISTIC SELF-AWARENESS, 1919-1941 ....................... 92 4.3 THE FINAL YEARS: PROBLEMS WITH THE BATSCHKA’S REUNIFICATION AND SWEEPING SS RECRUITMENTS................................................................................................................................................................ 99 4.4 CONCLUSIONS...............................................................................................................................................................106 CHAPTER 5: PERSPECTIVES FROM BELOW— CURRENT REFLECTIONS ON PAST FRAGMENTATIONS ..............................................................................................................................109 5.1 PERSPECTIVE ONE: CHILDREN OBSERVE NAZI ACTIVITIES ...............................................................................110 5.2 PERSPECTIVE TWO: CHILDREN RESIST NAZI ACTIVITIES...................................................................................120 5.3 PERSPECTIVE THREE: CHILDREN ENGAGE IN NAZI ACTIVITIES .......................................................................132 5.4 CONCLUSIONS...............................................................................................................................................................143 CONCLUSION ..........................................................................................................................................145 APPENDIX.................................................................................................................................................152 CEU eTD Collection WORKS CITED ........................................................................................................................................166 iv Introduction Friedrich expected it would be the journey of a lifetime. In early August 1944, the sixteen-year-old packed his bags and, with thirty other German boys and girls from the villages surrounding Novi Sad, Vojvodina, traveled to Weimar, Germany. For one month, these youths slept amongst the baroque splendor of Schloss Belvedere, shared stories with various Spielmannszug musicians also staying on the premises, and read Schiller and Goethe. They visited the Erfurt Cathedral to hear the world’s largest organ. They tasted their first ever chocolate, oranges, and bananas. And they waited for the arrival of Adolf Hitler. Friedrich, born in Bukin in the Batschka,

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