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Ryan Augustine

Mr. Palcsey

Honors English 10

April 23, 2018

Hitler Youth

Adolf Hitler was a corrupt man who became the Führer of Germany before and during

World War II. Hitler was a part of an anti-sematic and nationalistic party in Germany called the

National Socialist German Workers’ Party, also known as the Nazi party. This party was formed

early in the 1900s, but by 1933 Germany was controlled by Hitler and his Nazi party. The way

such a new party gained so much support so fast had a lot to do with Hitler’s tremendous public

speaking skills and his vow to right the wrongs that was forced on Germany after the Great War.

Once Hitler gained control and the backing of the German people he instituted a group for kids

called, “the Hitler Youth.” The goals of the Hitler Youth camps were to brain wash all attending

members and to dehumanize Jewish people.

The Hitler Youth was a youth program put into place by Hitler when he came into power

in Germany. This program started off small and optional for German people, but soon turned to

more than this. At age fourteen a German citizen was eligible to join Hitler Youth. In order to

join this group, the applicant had to pass a written exam, racial background test, and they could

not be Jewish. After passing these barriers the eager youngsters held a flag dipped in the blood of

martyrs of the Nazi party; while holding this flag the candidates recited an oath pledging their

allegiance and willingness to die for Hitler and the third Reich (Bartolleti 25). The camps had a

lot of appeal to children because of this the Hitler Youth grew very quickly. The reason Hitler
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Youth was so popular was because the leaders knew what appealed to kids and they offered an

abundance of this. At first children sang songs, played games, listened to readings, learned

slogans, and read propaganda pamphlets. All of these activities were centered around how to be a

good Nazi citizen in the upcoming Nazi Germany. The leaders of the Hitler Youth had complete

control over the thinking of the children (Bartolleti 27). The Hitler Youth and its leaders had a

strong grip on everyone in the group and they knew the kids would do whatever they were told to

do. A German boy that attended Hitler Youth wrote, “He (the Hitler Youth leader of his group)

exerted more influence over me then any person, parent, teacher, or anyone else of the older

generation” (Bartolleti 27). The Hitler Youth became so popular that children would beg their

parents to join the Nazi party so they could join the Hitler Youth. Parents who were not apart of

the Nazi party were ridiculed by others and resented by their children. The Hitler Youth then

started basic training with the male recruits and separate the boys from the girls. Girls were

assigned to the BDM, which is also known as the League of German Girls in the Hitler Youth.

There girls learned household training, social work, air-raiding, and Nazi ideology. The boys

continued went to Hitlerjugend and learned basic war training including shooting guns, throw

grenades, and even how to properly storm a trench (Bartolleti 29). Also instilled into the young

recruits is one core idea, never question the superior. This is the first step the Nazi’s took to brain

wash the children in the Hitler Youth. Then next step was to train the kids to have an unending

love and faith in Hitler. “Germany’s youth was to be trained in a blind faith in Hitler” (Mezger

60). Hitler wanted more of the youth to be under his control and fit his perfect Nazi citizen

image. His solution to the problem was to eliminate all other groups that competed with Hitler

Youth to gain young peoples’ support. Once Hitler destroyed all rivaling groups in Germany he

made Hitler Youth mandatory for all who were eligible to join. By 1935 Hitler Youth, along with
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the BDM, had more than fifty percent of the German youth population, which is over four

million people. At this point in time Hitler Youth was the most powerful organization in

Germany.

Hitler used the power of the Hitler Youth to help enforce his beliefs and destroy Jews and

their way of life. Young adults were taught in Hitler Youth that Jews were not equal to pure

bread Germans and should not be trusted. Hitler even blamed the Jews for Germany’s loss in

WWI. Bartolleti says, “Hitler and the Nazis blamed the Jews for Germany’s defeat in WWI and

for economic troubles that followed” (50). The Jews were accused of planning to take over

Germany and profiting during inflation due to the mount of shops they owned. This belief was

far from the truth and painted Jews in a negative light. In reality Jews were law abiding citizens

who struggled just as much as everyone else during extreme times of inflation. Jews made up

less than 1% of the German population, this would make it virtually impossible to take over

Germany (Bartolleti 50). Nuremberg Race Laws were put into placed in Germany in the 1930s.

These laws took from Jews their German citizenship and stopped them from going into parks,

pools, concerts and transportation. The way Nazis enforced these laws were by sending SS men

and Hitler Youth out into Germany and patrol the streets. If a Jew was caught breaking one of

these laws the Hitler Youth member who caught the Jew had the authority to drag the Jew out

from where they were and beat them until they bleed and learned their lesson (Bartolleti 51).

Another responsibility of Hitler Youth members and SS men were to stand outside of Jewish

stores and not allow citizens inside. The Jews, no longer seen as citizens or equal to any pure

German, had no way to stop the Hitler Youth members or the SS men from stopping customers

from supporting their business. Eventually these boycotted turned violent, the SS men and Hitler

Youth members would drag out the Jewish store owner beat him in the street, break all the
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windows in the store, and either destroy or throw all of the goods inside of the store into the

streets. An example of this happened in 1938 when Jewish owned stores’ glass was shattered

with clubs by SS men and Hitler Youth members. The good from these stores were thrown into

the streets and taken by other German citizens. All of this took place in a small town in the

Rhineland where everyone knew everyone.(Bartolleti 51) This means Hitler Youth members

who grew up with Jews and saw them as friends in their childhood now saw them as enemies of

the state and their families. This shows how effectively the Nazis brainwashed children in the

Hitler Youth programs into believing Jew were not humans and do not deserve to be treated as

people.

The Nazi party gained control of all of Germany quickly and almost effortlessly. Middle

class German citizens saw the Nazi party as a utopia and were drawn in by their parades,

uniforms, and overall organization. These people were no different from average citizens who

select a political party. The German citizens who bought into the Nazi Party thought this party

would hap them the most because of the promise to right the wrongs Germany received after

WWI ended.(Brustein xii) Hitler was only able to use Hitler Youth camps effectively because of

the amount of support he had from Germany and because of the amount of people who bought

into his Nazi party. In these camps children were brain washed into thinking this war was

inevitable and that some races were more important than others. Another false ideal that was

taught in Hitler Youth camps were that Jews were hurting Germany and needed to be erased

from German culture and society. If Hitler never came into power the German people would

have never prosecuted Jews, WWII would have been completely avoided, and Germany would

have recovered from WWI quicker.

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Work Cited

Bartolleti, Susan Campbell. Hitler Youth. Designed by Nancy Sabato. Scholastic Inc, 2005, New

York

Brustein, William. The Logic of Evil: The Social Origins of the Nazi Party, 1925-1933. Yale University

Press, New Haven, Connecticut.

Kater, Michael. Hitler Youth. Harvard College, 2004. Boston, Massachusets.

Mezger, Carolina. Hitler's Messenger. 2012. Budapest, Hungary.