R

Hitler Rule #1

Notes - Due 4/23 - Approx. 120 Minutes Youth and education

Youth needed to be shaped in their eatly years to fit the ideal nazis

Education

  • Was seen as a tool for indoctrination



  • Youth groups

    • Long standing history of them in germany

    • Hitler youth was created but started as only 1% of all groups

    • (Hitler Jugen HJ)

    • 1939 membership became compulsory

  • Profile of Schirach

    • Youth Leader of the German Reich’

    • supervise all youth organizations

    • Not respected because he was effeminate

    • appointed Gauleiter of Vienna

    • guilty of having transported Jews from Austria

  • Removing alternatives

    • Opposing youth groups ie (jewish, communist) were banned

    • OTher youth groups ie protestans were forced to join HJ

    • Socialist grouo was raided

  • Overview

    • Focus on

      •  political indoctrination

      •  emphasizing the life and achievements of the Fuhrer, 

      • German patriotism

      • athletics and camping

    • Sexes were seperated and catered to the roles the youth would play in future german society

      • BDM, league of german Maidens

    • Ethos of the group:

      • Hitler Youth was primarily male oriented and remained so throughout the duration of the Third Reich

      • EVERYTHING was a competition

      • Capitalized on the enthusiasm and socialiness of young people in order to cultivate what felt like a community

    • Becoming a full member

      • Boys were trained by the older boys

      • Had to past tests on nazisim and courage test

      • Ended with the right to wear the brown shirt and carry the dagger

    • Group had difficulty expanding to due the clashing with ideologies of former youth groups, solved this problem through leadership camps

    • Year of Training 1934

      • Unclear what it is

    • Year of Physical Training 1935

      • Introduced sports competition

      • Medals were awarded to people whom completed rigorous courses

    • The role of fitness in the Volk

      • Hitler thought physical fitness was very important

    • Year of the Jungvolk 1936

      • enormous pressure was put on young children to join. As a birthday present for hitlet

        • In school, they were pressured by Nazi-affiliated teachers. 

        • At home and at play, they were pursued by individual Hitler Youths and through neighborhood propaganda marches, meetings for parents, and special childrens' sing-a-longs. 

    • National Vocational Competition for Hitler Youth 

      • in which teens learning various trades were judged and rewarded, with the winners in each catagory getting to meet Hitler. 

      • Reich's Land Service was introduced, offering young city dwellers the opportunity to experience life on German farm

    • Opposition

      • "The Law concerning the Hitler Youth" which mandated that all young Germans (excluding Jews) entered the Hitler Youth from the age of ten onward 

        • Parents who prevented their children from joining the Hitler Youth were subject to heavy prison sentences. 

        • Membership thus grew to nearly six million. 

        • become a big governmental institution in marked contrast to the dynamic organization it had been in the 1920s and early '30s when members battled daily to bring Hitler to power.

      • The compulsory nature of weekly HJ meetings for everyone led to a gradual decline in morale and discipline. 

    • Special Hitler Youth

      • special Hitler Youth para-military formations for boys 

        • Flieger-HJ for aviation enthusiasts

          • built gliders

          • participated in annual glider flying competitions

          •  visited Luftwaffe facilities 

          • went for rides in fighters and bombers

        • the Motor-HJ for boys 16 and older 

          • acquired their driver's license

          •  learned to ride motorcycles

        • the Marine-HJ

          • obtained sailing certificates, 

          • learned river navigation

          • participated in naval exercises aboard German training ships.

    • Training as Gestapo agents

      • HJ-Streifendienst (Patrol Force) units functioning as internal political police,

        • maintaining order at meetings

        • ferreting out disloyal members, and 

        • denouncing anyone who criticized Hitler or Nazism including,(including parents) eg Walter Hess who turned in his father for calling Hitler a crazed Nazi maniac.

      • Members were targeted for SS recruitment

      • Many entered directly into SS officer training schools.

  • Impact of hitler youth on education:

    • The schools receive no support whatsoever from the Hitler Youth units

  • Hitler’s own assessment in 1938

    • Hitler sees it as a pathway to joining and participating in the nazi party

      • Going from Jungvolk into the Hitler Youth and then into the Party or into the Labour Front, the SA, or the SS, the NSKK 

  • Impact of Hitler Youth

    • Positive

      • Emphasis on teamwork and extra curricular activities was impressive compared with the rest of Europe

      • Provision of sports, camping and music genuinely appealed to young people

      • For poorer people it offered real opportunities

    • Negative

      • The organisation suffered from over-rapid expansion, leadership was inadequate to its increasing size

      • With the start of the war the emphasis on military drill and discipline was resented by teenagers

      • It became more and more obviously an instrument of the NSDP to train people in war work



  • What themes do you notice? 

The theme of Relation to jewish peple is a big theme, focus on current nazi history

  • What does it tell you about the Nazi’s views on education?

It again becomes a tool  of indoctrination



What does the source below tell us about how the Nazis viewed education?

The source below tells us that the nazis viewed education as a tool to indoctrinate the youth

Why do you think this is?

I think


  • Fear/intimidation/violence/Gestapo

  • Propaganda

  • Social Policis

  • Economic Policies

  • Culture