Hitler Youth
Setting the Stage
After World War I, Germany was in shambles and its people, led to believe they were winning the war right up until defeat, were in shock. Their leader, the Kaiser, was forced to step down and the Treaty of Versailles led to significant loss of land and citizens. In January 1919, Anton Drexler and Karl Herrer founded the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiter-Partei (NSDAP; National Socialist German Workers’ Party), commonly known as the Nazi party. In 1920, the Nazis published the “25-Point Program,” which contained the NSDAP agenda. The following year, Adolf Hitler, an Austrian World War I veteran, became the NSDAP chairman. The Youth League of the Nazi Party, a paramilitary organization, was established in 1922. Four years later it was renamed the Hitler Youth. The female branch, Bund deutscher Mädel (League of German Girls), was founded in 1930. Children ages ten to fourteen were in the Young Volk or the Young Girls’ League; from age fourteen to eighteen they were members of the Hitler Youth or the League of German Girls. Through propaganda and indoctrination, the Nazis used the Hitler Youth and the League of German Girls to shape the thoughts, views and activities of Aryan children.
Hitler Jugund and Bund deutscher Mädel
The Hitler Youth was established to transform German boys, to quote Hitler, into a “violently active, dominating, brutal youth.” When Hitler became German chancellor in 1933, the Hitler Youth had over one million members. A year later, all other youth groups were forbidden – all divisions of the Hitler Youth were the only legal youth movement in Germany. In 1936, the Law concerning the Hitler Youth made involvement compulsory for all children over ten years old. By 1939, not being a member of the Hitler Youth became a punishable offense. Members of the Hitler Youth and the League of German Girls were encouraged to report any suspicious behavior – of their family members, of their neighbors, of their teachers – to the Nazis. In this photograph, Holocaust survivor Renate Rossmere is pictured with classmates, including Boys participated in paramilitary drills that prepared them to fight as soldiers for the Nazi cause. members of the Hitler Youth. Girls were trained to become wives and mothers and nurses. During World War II, members of the Hitler Youth were drafted to participate in military activities, and in 1943, a special division of the Schutzstaffel (SS) was created for Hitler Youth members. By the end of the war, young members were inducted into the Volkssturm (national militia). Members of the Volkssturm fought in streets and on battlefronts throughout Germany. After the war, the Hitler Youth and the League of German Girls were outlawed.
Testimony
USC Shoah Foundation’s Visual History Archive preserves firsthand experiences and memories of the Holocaust from 14 collec- tions. The VHA contains over 53,000 testimonies of Holocaust survivors and witnesses, including 927 testimonies that discuss the Hitler Youth or Hitler Youth Members. Other testimonies are from Jewish survivors, Rescuer and Aid Providers, Liberators, Sinti and Roma Survivors, Political Prisoners, Jehovah’s Witness Survivors, War Crimes Trial Participants, Non- Jewish Forced Laborers, Eugenic Policies Survivors, and Homosexual Survivors. The vast majority of the testimony was collected between 1994 and 1999, and the interviewees detail their lives before, during, and after the Holocaust. Testimonies average about two hours in length.
© 2019 USC Shoah Foundation