Read the following information on “Hitler Youth".

 

3. Write down a minimum of two important points for each of the following subheadings: Reorganization, Bronze over Brains and Mandatory Participation.

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Reorganization

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"Schirach soon introduced a new structure to the Hitler Youth based on age. Little boys aged 6 to 10 were allowed to hang around the older boys and participate informally. Boys 10 to 14 belonged to the Jungvolk, then from 14 to 18 were in the actual HJ, the commonly used abbreviation for Hitler Jugend (Hitler Youth). Each boy was given a performance booklet detailing his progress in athletics and Nazi indoctrination throughout all of his years in the HJ.

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Girls 10 to 14 joined the Jungmädel and from 14 to 18 belonged to the BDM, the commonly used abbreviation for Bund Deutcher Mädel (League of German Girls). They wore a schoolgirl-style uniform with skirts and blouses along with army-style hiking boots.

 

Activities for boys included vigorous games of hide and seek called "Trapper and Indian." They also played war games in which the boys formed platoons, put on red or blue arm bands, then were supposed to hunt down the "enemy" and rip off their arm bands. This sometimes resulted in fist fights and outright brawls between platoons. Younger, weaker boys got pummeled while platoon leaders stood by or even encouraged the fighting. Ripped shirts, scraped knees and elbows along with bruises were common during these field exercises which were intended to toughen them up."

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(http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/hitleryouth/hj-prelude.htm)

 

Bronze Over Brains

 

"By 1935, about 60 percent of Germany's young people belonged to the Hitler Youth. Schirach declared it as "The Year of Physical Training" and introduced the second major annual HJ event – the Sports Competition. Medals were awarded to youths who performed rigorous athletic drills and met strict physical fitness standards. Every summer, a day would now be set aside as the "Day of the State Youth" for these events.

 

Physical fitness, according to Hitler, was much more important for his young people than memorizing "dead facts" in the classroom. In his book, Mein Kampf, he stated that "a less well-educated, but physically healthy individual with a sound, firm character, full of determination and willpower, is more valuable to the Volkishcommunity than an intellectual weakling."

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School schedules were adjusted to allow for at least one hour of physical training in the morning and one hour each evening. Prior to this, only two hours per week had been set aside. Hitler also encouraged young boys to take up boxing to heighten their aggressiveness."

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(http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/hitleryouth/hj-prelude.htm)

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Mandatory Participation

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"On December 1st, 1936, Hitler decreed "The Law concerning the Hitler Youth" which mandated that all young Germans (excluding Jews) would "be educated physically, intellectually and morally in the spirit of National Socialism" through the Hitler Youth from the age of ten onward. This law also effectively ended the Catholic Youth Organization which had managed to hold out for three years amid constant Nazi harassment.

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Parents who prevented their children from joining the Hitler Youth were subject to heavy prison sentences. Membership thus grew to nearly six million. As a result, the organization bloated into a giant bureaucracy in Berlin. It began to acquire the dreariness of a big governmental institution in marked contrast to the dynamic organization it had been in the 1920s and early '30s when members risked their lives daily to bring Hitler to power."

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(http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/hitleryouth/hj-prelude.htm)

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