The Nazis deliberately set out to give young people a particular sense of belonging in the new society that National Socialism was building. The mechanism for this was the Hitler Youth, an organization run by Baldur von Schirach with the aim of training young men in National Socialist values: patriotism, loyalty and a readiness to put the Fuhrer and the nation before thoughts of self. But it was not all politics. The Hitler Youth laid great emphasis on physical activities and the outdoor life. In those respects it could be enjoyed in the same way that scouting legitimately was in other countries.
How did the Nazis develop their propaganda to appeal to the young?
SOURCE O
This 1940 poster reads ‘Youth Serves the Fuhrer. Every ten-year old into
The HJ’ (HJ is the Hitler Jugend - i. e. the Hitler youth).
Study Source O. What image of Hitler and the young is the poster attempting to convey?
The League of German Maidens (BDM in its German initials) was the sister movement to the boys' Hitler Youth. Both organizations aimed at providing an outdoor life that would keep the young people healthy at the same time as developing their understanding of National Socialism and making them feel truly part of the Volk, the community of Germans. The BDM's essential purpose was described by Jutta Rudinger, one the BDM's national leaders. She spoke of the movement developing in the girls 'character and the ability to perform, not useless knowledge, but an all-round education, and an exemplary bearing'.
The obvious aim of the Nazi bosses in creating a youth movement was to produce political conformity in the young so that they would go on as adults to have unquestioning loyalty to National Socialism. But it is also important to appreciate that, for all its politics, the BDM did give young women a sense of pride and self-worth. It also introduced them to people of their own age from other classes and regions of Germany, whom they would never have met but for BDM.
World History
