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Hitler youth movement essay

The Hitler youth movement started not long after Hitler came into power. The Nazis wanted great control over the youth and did whatever it took to get that control. The younger generation was used, manipulated, and brainwashed to join the service for the “ good” of the Third Reich. For that purpose they created groups for boys and girls in all different ages. The Youth Movement was originally created to make the youth future warriors and to carry out Hitler’s master plan. The Nazis used many different ways to influence the youth, mostly by the press, speech, education, radio, leisure’s, and school time.

Hitler successfully brainwashed the young men and women to believe in his ideals and his greatness. Because of Hitler’s training and molding, the youth was strong, fit, loyal, and hated the Jews. The young German children did whatever Hitler wanted and followed him to the fullest. The movement was so successful, because it offered new opportunities to be physically activity, the new adventure, and the chance to meet new people. Back then adventure and activities was very uncommon for many German children, because of the economic depression.

This paper will explain what the youth went through throughout the movement, why some joined the movement, and why some protest against the movement. “ He alone, who owns the youth, gains the future! ”—Adolf Hitler, speech at the Reichsparteitag, 1935 The Hitler Youth Movement or Hitler Jugend (HJ) was developed in 1926. Children from every part of Germany wanted to join the movement, mostly children from the ages of 6 to 21. Every child wanted to participate in the activities that came along with the movement such as: swimming, hiking, war games, and more.

Throughout the movement boys were trained to become Stormtroops and girls were trained to develop strong and healthy mothering skills, who knew the importance of blood purity. According to Alfons Heck (Heck, Alfons. “ Hitler’s Youth Movement. ” Diary of a Hitler Youth : n. pag. Hitler’s Youth Movement. Web. 27 Mar. 2013. ), by 1939, about 90% of “ Ayran” children in Germany belonged to the Nazi’s youth group. Boys and Girls from all over Germany could join the HJ, by proving their health and that they were “ true Ayrans”. Children that were physically disabled, blind, and deaf could join the HJ as well.

The only way you couldn’t join the HJ was if you were mentally challenged, didn’t pass the racial test, and if you were a Jew. In fact some Jews did join the HJ and lived each day in fear of being found out. In Hitler’s mind, young Germans were the key to success of the nation. In (Grunberger, Richard The 12-year Reich; a social history of Nazi Germany, 1933-1945… [1st Ed. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1971. Print. ) speech after speech, he declared: We older ones are used up. Yes, we are old already…We are cowardly and sentimental…But my magnificent youngsters?

Are there finer ones anywhere in the world? Look at these young men and boys. What material! With them I can make a new world…A violently active, dominating, intrepid, brutal youth—that is what I am after. Youth must be all those things. It must be indifferent to pain. There must be no weakness or tenderness in it. I want to see once more in its eyes the gleam of pride and independence of the beast of prey…I intend to have an athletic youth—that is the first and the chief thing… I will have no intellectual training. Knowledge is ruin to my young men(Grunberger 277).

Boys between the ages of 6 and 10 were called Pimpf also known as Little Fellows. In this age group their activities were camping, hiking, swimming, and singing. Ages between 11 and 16 were Deutshe Jungvolk (German Young People) they were introduced to military music, preparation, weapon training, assault courses, and taught different strategies to get them prepared to serve as Hitler’s soldiers. The next age group was 17 to 21, which was called Hitler Jugend (Hitler’s Youth). In this stage the boys were fully trained to serve as soldiers.

Throughout the preparation the boys would fight and wrestle each other, which caused bruises, cuts, scrapes, and broken bones. After all the training the young boys had to go through, they would get a HJ dagger that said, “ Blood and Honor” on it. German girls on the other hand had only three important functions, according to Military History. The first one was to serve as helpmates to the men. The next was to bear their children and rear them according to Nazi values. The last one was to be faithful homemakers. Hitler needed the girls to understand that they needed to continue the Aryan race for the future.

German girls between the ages of 10 and 14 were Jungmadel ( Young Maidens), which they was trained to have good fitness and health, prepare for motherhood, and learn the Nazi views on racial purity and anti-Semitism. Bund Deutscher Madel (League of German Maidens) or BMD were girls from the ages of 15 to 21. In this stage you would sing songs, do arts and crafts, cook, and participate in the marches and parades. The BMD girls were also prepared for future motherhood, health, domestic duties, and even raised children. The girls was brainwashed with “ racial pride” and was told to avoid all contact with people of Jewish faith.

A few of the girls became SS Guards in the Nazi Concentration camps. That’s where they were taught the importance of obedience, duty, self-sacrifice, and discipline. The female SS Guards would watch and learn how to practice cruelty on the inmates. The female SS Guards would also engage in promiscuous sex with male SS Guards. As the movement reached its momentum, some children felt pressured to join Hitler’s Youth. Other youth groups and programs were disband and outlawed, so that there was only Hitler’s movement to join. When this happened most children just voluntarily joined the HJ.

Later in 1936, every German child over the age of 10 had to belong to the Hitler’s Youth. Some parents were outraged and didn’t allow their children to join the movement. Because of this, parents were sent to prison and the children were brutally beaten by young people, their age, in the Hitler’s Youth. The HJ children were so hostile and outraged with anyone who didn’t share the same Nazi views as them. They were even hostile to the members of their own family. The children even demanded that their parents participate in the Nazi’s parties or to even act like a Nazi.

If the parents did not do so, the children would threaten to turn them in. With that being said the parents lived in fear every day. German parents against the Nazis were sent to two places most of the time. Either the re-education camp or the concentration camp, so they’ll know how it feels to be on the other side. There are also some groups that were against the movement and stood up. The three main groups that stood up against Hitler were the White Rose, Edelweiss Pirates, and The Jazz/Swing Youth. The White Rose movement was a non-violent resistance group.

The group mostly consisted of Philosophy professors and students from the University of Munich. Six of the members were arrested by the Gestapo, convicted and executed in 1943. Sophie and Hans Scholl are brother and sister and were also members of the White Rose. Sophie and Hans had a campaign that was discovered on February 18, 1943. In this campaign they would take suitcases full of leaflets into the university and drop stacks of copies in the empty corridors. After doing this for a couple of days the police was finally called and the Scholls were taken into Gestapo custody.

Soon after other members was arrested and brought in for interrogation. In the people’s court on February 21, 1943, Han was recorded saying, “ Somebody, after all, had to make a start. What we wrote and said is also believed by many others. They just do not dare express themselves as we did. ” Because of this they gained many supporters and a lot of attention. The Edelweiss Pirates was a rebellion group in the late 1930’s. Most members of the group were generally 12 to 18 year old boys. The Edelweiss Pirates just wanted freedom and did the opposite of what the Nazis demanded.

Hitler had the children of the youth movement wearing certain clothes with short hair. The Edelweiss Pirates wore dark shorts, checker shirts, white jumpers, socks and scarfs. They also wore long hair and had it in many different hair styles. They would graffiti “ Eternal War on the Hitler Youth” to show they were against them. During wartime they would go on camping trips even though they weren’t aloud. They would sing songs and make jokes about Hitler’s Youth as well. The Jazz/Swing Youth was reflecting the appetite for English and American Jazz and the Jitterbug.

The Swing kids would meet at parties, bars, cafes, parks, railway stations, and even at their homes. The Hitler youth would spy on different groups and report them for overly sexual dancing. Swing clubs were allowed until 1940, after over 500 kids attended the gathering in Hamburg, Jazz went underground. By February 1, 1942, Himmler said, “ Leaders of the swing movement would be sent to concentration camps with beatings and would be forced to do labor. ” All of the anti-Nazi groups just wanted to be heard and be free, while the HJ youth were totally complaint.

The anti-Nazi groups just wanted to live their lives and have fun like kids are supposed to. When Hitler movement first started everyone wanted to join, because of the fun and excitement it brought. After a while some of the kids found out what was really going on and got out. On the other hand some kids did stay in the movement and did as they were told. The kids that stayed in the movement were brainwashed and tricked to do a lot of different things. Hitler set out to ensure that the young people of Germany would love him, their nation, and Nazism. Hitler never once cared about the children just his power and uccess.

Over all I have explained what the youth went through throughout the movement, what the youth was taught, why some joined the movement, and why some protest against the movement. The youth had gone through a lot of horrible things in their life time and never recovered from it. The youth that was in HJ died in battle fighting for what they thought was right. Most of the youth that were anti-Nazi died in camps, were beaten to death, or died in gas chambers. Hitler was a sick and twisted man that used his powers for evil, but as a leader Hitler did turn Germany back around and made it better.

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