Education of the Hitler Youth

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Chris Goodall
Visitor
(2/3/01 3:46:09 pm)
Reply Education of the Hitler Youth
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Dear Sirs,

I have read varying arguments as to intensity of thel ideological/Social Darwinist/National Socialist (call it what you may) training of Hitler Jugend in the classroom. I was wondering what the best sources are regarding this area?

Some claim that the HJ was a time of sheer bliss and that ideological training was simply non-existent. Maybe the implementation was so subliminal so as to not trigger questioning, but merely accepted.

Obviously, others can attest to full-on racial training, and no-doubt veterans of the 12th SS- Panzerdivision HJ are not likely to associate there membership with wonderful, carefree times.

I appologise if I seem a little vague here, but I would like to find out if there is a direct connection to Anti-Semitic/ideological training with the district one was a member or whether the 'brainwashing' was conducted at varying levels according to the political climate and time, ex. 1934 to say, 1942.

So, was the educational promotion of the HJ as the master-race a scattered affair, or was it related to ones district or specific period of enrollment?

If you have any opinions on this matter, please feel free to include the BDM and the Jungvolk in the arguments.

Thank you in advance,

Chris Goodall. [email protected]

p.s. I would ask that you please do not argue over my word choices (ideological training, Social Darwinism, Anti-Semitism, etc). That is not the point for this post here, though I am fully aware that I need to further educate myself in the various subjects and their differences.

Ron in Calif
Visitor
(2/11/01 1:55:07 am)
Reply Relate to present times
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Look at how 2day in the U. S. the media portrays various things. Most of our media and education system is dominated by left wing idealists. It's taught in our schools and on TV every day/night. They demonize tobacco and guns and lately Christians are becoming fair game.

The media praised Joe Lieberman's strong religious (Jewish) views. On the other hand they demonized Senator Ashcroft because he holds strong Christian views.

So we are no different than the Germans of the 30s and 40s??? Just different targets.
NSDAP=Nationalsocialistische Deutsche Arbeiter Partei=Nationalsocialistic German Worker Party
(Nazi) targeted Jews -

The National Democratic Socialists here in the U. S. target Christians. Over 25 U. S. Congressmen/women belong to the Democratic Socialists of America.

Same mind set here now as Germany of the 30s.

Who said if U don't learn from history you're bound to reapeat it??


photosammler
Member
Posts: 42
(2/11/01 3:35:07 am)
Reply Education of the Hitler Youth
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Most information I got from former members of the HJ and the BDM tell different stories. There are those who had nearly no political education and others who done a lot. Off course there was a "program". It was disseminated by various books and "Schulungsbriefe" but it seems that it always depended on the leaders of the smaller formations, how strong their will was to educate the young boys and girls. Some did it well, others had more fun in doing outdoor games or more military related subjects. I remember when I was a boy in the early 70ties, I was in a boyscouts group and we did all the things that boy scouts do everywhere in the world. One day our leader wanted us to distribute leaflets of the communist party in our schools and as I don't wanted to do that, it was the end of my boyscouts career. I am not sad about that anyway, but I think it was no other thing in the 30ties, it always depended on the leaders how good Nazis they were or not.

Goggi
Member
Posts: 203
(2/11/01 7:39:51 am)
Reply Education of Hitler Youth
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Photosammler, I agree with you! It all depended on location and the people: I can remember from 1939 to 1945 ( my DJ and HJ time) only once that we had a history session about the Storm Troopers! Later in the war (From 1943 on), I had the impression that everybody tried to avoid political dicussions, because evrything was becoming hollowed out. And to the antisemitic stand of the DJ: I knew two brothers who had a Jewish mother and both were DJ members and were also holding the rank of Jungzugfuehrer and Hauptjungzugfuehrer in a staff position of my home town Bann (HJ-Bann 774, Gebiet Franken, Obergebiet SUED. The name of the Bannfuehrer was J.Koestler, his nickname "Beppo". By profession he was a school teacher.)
Goggi

pdhinkle
Member
Posts: 180
(2/12/01 12:27:33 am)
Reply Education of Hitler Youth
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Goggi:: thanks for this article and Occupation. They are the best reading on any forum. Those years just after WW II most have been hard.
At age 17 were you still in the normal school or already starting university? The average GI looked at the German youth like a kid brother. Were there any problems with the sober GIs?


NOte: My new e-mail address <[email protected]>

Chris Goodall
Visitor
(2/12/01 1:20:27 am)
Reply Thanks all...
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Thanks guys for the information so far.
I'm sure the educational indoctrination system varied according to which district one was in.
I'd like to especially thank Goggi who has been of invaluable assistance in my research and quite the opposite of Mr pdhinkle's email warning to me!

kind regards,
Chris.

von stauffenberg
Member
Posts: 55
(2/12/01 2:36:01 pm)
Reply HJ
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I just wanted to say that a lot of what I've seen of the HJ makes it seem quite idyllic. That was until I saw a special on the History channel. It showed the brutal hand to hand combat that was encouraged in the HJ. These were pitched battles where they just had them all fight each other. It was horrible. Kids that young should not be made to do that.