At school everything was hinting about what was going on around them. This was mainly to love the Nazis and Hitler, hate Jews and communist and the prospect of war. Even maths questions contained questions on bombing and the dying people. Schools were also made for the best of the best German youths destined to become the next leaders of the Nazi regime. This was called NAPOLAS (National Political Institutes of Education), controlled by the SS to help teach the future army leaders and government officials. Political leaders were prepared in specific schools set up by Adolf Hitler, which were called Adolf Hitler schools. This was a military-style education where pupils belonged to platoons or squads instead of classes. Education for Jews or non-Aryans was very difficult as they were often victimised by the teachers or the other students, especially Aryans. Pure Aryans often received special treatment, but non-Aryans ended up not having to go to school, which relieved them from the constant bullying.
Propaganda was a very prominent way in which to sway the feeble minds of the Nazi youths. For a start the Nazi Propaganda Ministry, directed by Dr. Joseph Goebbels, took control of all forms of communication in Germany: newspapers, magazines, books, public meetings, and rallies, art, music, movies, and radio. Opinions in any way threatening the Nazi beliefs or to the regime were censored or eliminated from all media. This left the youths with little left for them to do apart from concentrate on the Nazis. In the spring of 1933 there was a list made of books that should not be read by Germans, and these books were burnt and banned that same year. A common form of political propaganda was the “white” propaganda, which is designed to create a positive view of a particular organization, group, or government, like what was spread to the German nation during the 1930s by the Nazis that stressed German “supremacy” and prosperity. Education was regarded ultimately as a form of propaganda in the 1930s.
PE was used to give boys basic military skills all unknowingly. History was bombarding them with information about the establishment of the Nazis. Biology was telling them how to become like the perfect Nazi. German taught them about how also to become perfect Nazis. Geography was teaching them how to look after Nazi lands. Whilst the girls were learning how to become perfect wives to perfect Nazis to produce a perfect race. They were continually being brain washed. It was a constant stream of information on creating the perfect race of Nazis. They were focusing completely on Nazism and probably without even knowing it a lot of the time. There was no way they could get away from it as it was always there at school and out of school. Their lives had already been chosen for them before they even had the chance too. They were destined to become the next generation of Nazis.
Hitler Youth was German Nazi youth organization for boys, one of the key elements in Adolf Hitler's National Socialist master plan to extend complete control over all aspects of life in new Germany. Under the ruthless rule of Baldur von Schirach, a member of the Führer's inner circle, the Hitler Youth became a powerful force in the early 1930s. Von Schirach, who was appointed Youth Leader of the Reich in June 1933, made sure that the Hitler Youth noticed the other established German youth movements, confiscating all of their property. In 1936 all rival organizations were banned, and at the beginning of World War II in 1939 children began to be enlisted into the Hitler Youth. The system was arranged in a way that children were placed in different organisations and different special schools for political education depending to their ages; the organization took in youngsters from 15 to 18, who had their own sections of culture, press, propaganda, and sports. The intention behind all this was to indoctrinate a future generation of Aryan Nazi leaders. In the last days of the war, when the German army was broken and Hitler was cornered in his bunker, it was to the youngsters of the Hitler Youth that he turned for the defence of Berlin.
By 1933 its membership was at 100,000. After Hitler came to power, all other youth groups were closed so the Hitler Youth grew quickly. In 1936, there were about 4 million members. In 1936, it became very strictly compulsory to join the Hitler Youth. Youths could avoid doing any group activity service if they paid their subscriptions but this became almost impossible after 1939. The Hitler Youth catered for 10 to 18 year olds. The idea of the boy’s section was to prepare the boys for military service. Boys at 10 joined the Deutsches Jungvolk (German Young People) until they were 13 when they transferred to the Hitler Jugend (Hitler Youth) until the age of 18. In 1936, a writer, J R Tunus, wrote about the things that happened in the Hitler Jugend. He said that part of their "military athletics" (Wehrsport) included marching, bayonet drill, grenade throwing, trench digging, map reading, gas defence, use of dugouts, how to get under barbed wire and pistol shooting. To me it sounds more like war training than PE.
Girls, like the boys also joined a youth group, but instead they joined the League of German Maidens. Leader Gertrud Scholz-Klink ran the league of German Maidens. Girls, at the age of 10, joined the Jungmadelbund. (League of Young Girls) and at the age of 14 transferred to the Bund Deutscher Madel (League of German Girls). Girls had to be able to run 60 metres in 14 seconds, throw a ball 12 metres, complete a 2-hour march, swim 100 metres and know how to make a bed. The Nazis believed the girls' youth organisations were less important than those of the boys because the girls were not prepared for military service. Nevertheless, the girls had to do similar activities and tests to the boys. The girls’ youth organisations were instead used for training girls to become good housewives, good wives and how to produce the perfect off spring. Not everyone joined the Nazis youth groups, some did manage to rebel and form their own youth groups against the Nazis.
The Edelweiss Pirates were a group of youths who hated the Nazi youth groups. Some of the members were Hitler-youth dropouts, other cam from the “BÜdendische Jugend” (a scout-like group) where kids joined who opposed Hitler. They weren’t in any way revolved around politics, as most were just working class kids. With conditions throughout the war deteriorating throughout the war, they found more and more loopholes in the system especially in the big cities along the river Rhine. Living in bombed out houses, stealing and looting goods from freight trains and defending themselves against Gestapo, Hitler Youth, and Police they made a miserable yet Nazi-free living. They were there own group doing their own things, including rules and fashion and going against politics with their dare devilling mentality. There ended up being over a thousand of them. Although if they were caught they had to pay heavily for their decent. Many of them were tortured by Gestapo, sent to concentration camps or even killed. The public too did not like them as they were considered criminals or cranks, and had very few friends apart from their own.
Another group that did not follow the laws of the youth were the Swing youth group. This was a group that secretly held underground protest movements though which they best expressed their ideas as adolescent teenagers. They opened up their secret swing groups in all the major cities after the gatherings were banned. These youths mainly consisted of upper middle classes, but they had to be to afford the American swing music, as it was banned in Germany, and the players to play it on. They too were also quite clever as they did have a mild understanding of Basic English to understand the lyrics. There wealth was also distinctive in their distinctive styles similar to the swing ones in the United States. These youths often spent their time just hanging around dancing and listening to music, and if they ever encountered a Hitler Youth they usually just beat him up!
The White Rose was also another youth organisation set to go against the Nazis. By the summer of 1942 Hans Scholl and Alexander Schmorell had formed a close-knit group of friends who shared the same ideas and interests in music, art and philosophy. They soon found out that they also shared the same hatred for Hitler, the Reich and the Gestapo. Hans and Alex acted alone first, writing and duplicated an editorial leaflet about the White Rose. It told of their likes of music, art and philosophy and their hatred for Hitler, the Reich and the Gestapo. Their leaflets suggested things like passive resistance and how to silently downfall the government. Each leaflet was more hard-hitting than the last; but at the same time it encouraged more and more people to join them. Two final leaflets appeared, one in January 1943 and the last on February 18th. These were headed “ The Leaflets of the Resistance. The members of the White Rose worked day and night cranking a hand-operated copying machine creating thousands of leaflets, which mailed to all the major cities in southern Germany. The recipients of these leaflets were mainly scholars, medics and pub owner (the last one really confused the Gestapo, but what better way to spread the word!). On three nights in February 1934 (3rd, 8th, and 15th) Hans, Alex and another member called Willi conducted the most dangerous of all White Rose activities. The three men used tar and paint to write slogans on the sides of houses on Ludwidstrasses, a main through road in Munich near the University. They wrote “Down With Hitler,” “Hitler Mass Murderer,” “freedom,” and drew crossed-out swastikas. They did all this while policemen and other official still patrolled the streets in Munich. It was by far the most public, blatant and dangerous thing they did. Two of their key members Hans and his sister were arrested for throwing leaflets around in a university where they were caught and arrested by Gestapo. Some people say that they had plenty of time to escape, but instead they wanted to go down fighting. There are still many memories of the White Rose still known in Munich today. People say that the White Rose were silenced to early and that their words still live on, “freedom”.
I think overall what Hitler was trying to achieve with the young people would have worked only if they had longer to do it and if they had been successful in World War Two. I think it takes courage to stand up and fight for your Country, but I think it takes more courage to against it for what you believe is right. This is why I think the groups that went against Hitler were the real heroes of Germany; they were the next generation of Germany, not the Nazi Youths. They knew what was right, and they stuck with it, right to end, not giving up, and in my opinion they succeeded. They may not have played a huge role in the war but every little helps. A few thousand less Nazis, a few thousand less that had to die. This is why they were so courageous, a few thousand against millions, that takes true heroes with true courage to do that.
