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HJ – Hitlerjugend

The Hitler Youth

The Nazi Party’s goal was to exert influence over all aspects of German society, and youth – perceived as the foundation of the new world as future party members, mothers and soldiers – were seen as essential for the survival and the health of the People’s Community (“Volksgemeinschaft”).

Hitler Youth members listen to a speech by Adolf Hitler at a Nazi „party day“ rally. Nuremberg, Germany, September 11, 1935 (World Wide Photo)
Hitler Youth members listen to a speech by Adolf Hitler at a Nazi „party day“ rally. Nuremberg, Germany, September 11, 1935 (World Wide Photo)

Over the course of the 1930s, the Nazi state abolished all other youth groups in Germany, so that, by 1939, more than 82% of eligible youth (aged 10 to 18) belonged to the Hitler Youth or its female equivalent, the League of German Girls. These youth groups were designed to introduce children and young teenagers to the Nazi ideology.

While girls were prepared for their futures as wives and mothers, boys underwent military training. The Hitler Youth had a military structure at the local, regional and national levels, and boys practiced military drills and learned how to handle weapons; they worked on farms in the summer and took part in competitive sports, especially boxing. Many enjoyed the camaraderie of the Hitler Youth, while others found the constant focus on preparing for war and sacrificing themselves for the Fatherland to be overwhelming and alienating.

In 1943, the Waffen-SS formed a special division made up of Hitler Youth (boys aged 16 or 17) who committed several massacres in France (the Ardenne Abbey massacre of Canadian prisoners of war; the reprisal killing of French men known as the Ascq massacre, etc.). In the final months of the war, many of the Hitler Youth were recruited into a new defensive militia called the People’s Storm (“Volkssturm”) and engaged in final defensive battles against the Allied troops. Poorly equipped and inadequately trained, thousands of youths fought and died for the German war effort even though defeat had become inevitable by that point.