Hitler recognized the youth as the future of Germany. His aim was to breed and nurture a generation of anti-Semitic, physically superior and nationalistically minded youth. As Hitler said: “I begin with the young,” “We older ones are used up….But my magnificent youngsters! Are there finer ones anywhere in the world? Look at all these men and boys! What material! With them I can make a new world.” [1] Germany was under dictatorial rule and the life of Nazi youth was very well controlled and planned out. Their way of life and what they were to grow up to be was strongly influenced by Nazi propaganda and prearranged Nazi education. You could to argue extent to say that the German youth were “blindfolded” throughout their adolescence and concealed from anything that the Nazi officials objected. Life under the Nazis illustrated Hitler’s ideals for a greater Germany by the means of creating a more “Nazi-minded” generation of youth.
Hitler wanted to make sure that the German youth were loyal to him and the Nazi party. He replaced German education and rewrote textbooks with Nazi propaganda and teachings intended to contort the minds of the young during their adolescence. Hitler paid close attention to the education of the Nazi youth because these young people were the future of his policies. As Henry Metalmann, a member of the Hitler Jugend said: “It was drilled into us that we were the privileged members of the Herrenrasse or “master race” and that it was our God-given duty to bring order and sense into a wicked world, if necessary by force.”[2] The importance of this statement (that’s what I meant in my last comment) made by Henry Metalmann is that it showed the discipline installed into the training of the Hitler Jugend. They had to obey their orders and cleanse that which was “against” the Nazi Party by means of violence if necessary. But what actually is more astounding is that the fact the Nazis were changing the education curriculum in order to educate the German youth in a different manner which followed Nazi ideals. At the beginning of Hitler’s rise to power in 1933, the Nazis started to indirectly influence young minds into making them join the Hitler Youth. But by March 25, 1939 the Nazis created a law which made the Hitler Youth membership compulsory for all German boys from age ten.[3] This was a big change in Nazi Germany at the time as the youth now had no choice but to join. This can also be seen through the rise in numbers of the Hitler Jugend. In 1932, there was just under 107,956 youths in the Hitler Jugend. By the end of 1939, there were over 8,000,000 enrolling.[4] Hitler stated that: “When an opponent declares, ‘I will not come over to your side,’ I calmly say, ‘Your child belongs to us already... What are you? You will pass on. Your descendants, however, now stand in the new camp. In a short time they will know nothing else but this new community.’”[5] A crucial declaration However, the great increase in numbers was not only because of the compulsory rule to join the Hitler Jugend. The Youth were beginning to want to be part of the “Nazi Society.” This was because the Nazi teachings and propaganda were taking affect in brainwashing the youth. One of the first demonstrations against non-Nazi teachings, illustrating Nazi mind control over the German youth was on the midnight of 1933, May 10th, where thousands of Nazi College students participated in the mass burning of books. [6] Many of the books which were already censored and written by Jews and communists; approximately 20,000 books were burnt outside the University of Berlin.[7] In addition, Goebbels and other members of the Nazi party were already rewriting all textbooks and teachings to educate the German youth. The Nazi schooling curriculum would include biology, history, geography, science, etc. But the aim of the Nazi teachings would be to promote a knowing a race superiority, self-discipline and strong nationalistic fervour at a young age. For example, biology was the study of different races to ‘scientifically prove’ racial superiority.[8] “Racial Instruction” began at the age of six and Hitler himself decreed that “no boy or girl should leave school without complete knowledge of the necessity and meaning of blood purity.” [9]As Hitler himself said,: “Let me control the textbooks and I will control the state. The state will take youth and give to youth its own education and its own upbringing.”[10] Another key reason in why the Youth were being pulled towards the Nazi society was because the Hitler Jugend provided a sense of companionship and teamwork and it appeared to be ‘a lot of fun.’ Should this not then be a new paragraph? For example, there was the annual Hitler Jugend event - the Sports Competition which really enticed the youth of that time frame. They would choose physical education and activities over anything else. As Alfons Heck, a member of the Hitler Youth said: “Like most ten-year-olds, I craved action, and the Hitler Youth had that in abundance.”[11] But all the training installed for the Hitler Jugend was in fact a well built military course which prepared the young for future military action. The Hitler Jugend built discipline, physical strength and will power into the boys. Along with the propaganda education in schools they were turned into bloodlust Nazis with only one leader, their Fuhrer, Adolph Hitler. We can see the degree of passion the Hitler Jugend had through what Henry Metalmann says. “I was prepared to struggle for, to kill, and if necessary to die for my Fuhrer and country,”…. “While my parents worried about the threatening clouds of war, I believe my Hitler Youth teaching that war was a necessary cleansing process for the human race.”[12] This extraction shows the level of damage done to Metalmann; he has been brainwashed. The value of this passage is that it shows how one youth has been so completely overtaken by Nazi propaganda. But from only one youth we can wonder how much damage has been done to the German Youth as a whole, primarily those that are part of Hitler’s organizations. So in conclusion the life of youth under Nazi rule was very well controlled. The youth were limited to what they were aloud to learn. In schools the teachers assigned by Nazi officials only taught Nazi ideology and nothing beyond worshipping Hitler as ‘God.’ They barricaded all non-Nazi knowledge as shown from the burning of Jewish and Communist books. In addition, the Nazis were training a generation of physically superior youth. Since they were Aryan, they wanted their youth to be greater in every possible way.
Another way to discuss the life of youth under Nazi control is by comparing them with other youth organizations or systems around the globe. We can notice how they are in some areas different or overly similar. If we look at a modern day organizations such as the “Christo-fascist youth” as Richard Dawkins calls them in his book: “God Delusion.” [13] Good point We can notice great similarities between what is happening today around the globe because of Christian organizations in comparison with what was happening during the times of the Nazi’s. As Dr. James Luther Adams at Harvard Divinity School said in 1889 to his students: “when you are my age (he was close to 80), you would all be fighting the “Christian Fascists.” [14] What Dr. Adams is saying is very straight forward. He is saying that there is a gradual increase in the number of supporters for Christian groups or “Christo Fascist population” and they will begin to revolutionize the world slowly. This can be verified by what is happening in the schools of America. Furthermore we can compare it with what is happening to the youth of Nazi Germany. Currently there are millions of American children being home schooled, and 75% of them are children from fundamentalist Christian homes.[15] There are also more than six million elementary and secondary school students going to private schools and 11.5% of these students attend schools run by the Christian Right. Christian run schools have had an increase of 46% in enrollment over the last few years. The 245,000 extra students which joined private schools accounted for 75% of the total rise in numbers of students enrolling in private schools.[16] From these statistics we can confirm that there is a grow in number of Christian supporters but that is not really the key issue. What truly is astounding is that there is an increase in the number of students being limited to “only Christian Knowledge.” In other words they only learn what is aloud by the Christian society. Private schooling and home-schooling serves as a means for Christians to shield their children from issues such as evolution and global warming, but learning scientific method and principles of critical thinking and logical analysis. Christian parents, schools and organizations are feeding their youth only what they want them to learn; they are blindfolded into believing in God. This is very similar to educational methods the Nazi’s had for the German youth. Everything they were taught was about the Nazi’s and how they were superior in multiple ways. In biology for example, the understanding of racial superiority started at the age of sixth and it was ‘Racial Instruction’ by law, that no child could leave school without the understanding of ‘blood purity.[17]’ All school books were also written by Nazis and were all intended to build up nationalistic fervor and beliefs superiority of race. Few people would agree with what I’m trying to argue here and even lesser people would agree to Christians (Christian Right) seeing themselves as being superior as the Nazis did. However, there are Christians (Christian Right) in their societies that do believe themselves to be superior. As Pat Robertson wrote in his memo?? entitled “How to participate in a ‘political party’ at the Iowa Republican County Caucus: “Christians need to take leadership positions. [18]Party officers control political parties and so it is very important that mature Christians have a majority of leadership whenever possible, God willing.” [19]This is in fact very similar to what the NSDAP was saying during the pre-ruling years over Nazi Germany. The NSDAP believed that they’re party officers should control the government. The Christo-Fascist group also has similar ideals as that of Hitler. The Christian Right organization is against homosexuality, same sex marriages, etc. Supporters of the Christian Right also attack homosexuals. This is very similar to the days after Hitler consolidated power in 1933. He banned all homosexual and lesbian organizations and ordered raids on them. So, in brief you could say that Christian ways teachings and some of their beliefs are somewhat similar to that of the Nazis. However, this comparison between the Nazis and Christian Parties and what I have said is only valid for a proportion of the Christian population, primarily the extremists. Many of the Christians are very easygoing people (I am not trying to make a generalization of the Christians). You’ve gone beyond an investigation in the German youth of the 30s and into a general, troubled and possibly faulty comparison with contemporary America. There are also other groups such as the Communists and Nazis which you can compare. If you look at Mao’s Youth movement and the Marxist-Leninist approach to communism you will see that they believed that getting the youth of the country behind them assured them of a “blind following.” If you compare what Mao says with Hitler’s statements you’ll notice common ground. Mao wrote in his Little Red Book: “How should we judge whether a youth is a revolutionary? How can we tell? There can only be one criterion, namely, whether or not he is willing to integrate himself with the broad masses of workers and peasants and does so in practice. If he is willing to do so and actually does so, he is a revolutionary; otherwise he is a nonrevolutionary or a counter-revolutionary. If today he integrates himself with the masses of workers and peasants, then today he is a revolutionary; if tomorrow he ceases to do so or turns round to oppress the common people, then he becomes a nonrevolutionary or a counter revolutionary.”[20] He had also written: “In a revolution you need the support of the workers, the peasants and mainly the nation’s youth.”[21] Hitler had also written in Mein Kampf: “He alone, who owns the youth, gains the future.”[22] Mao Zedong and Hitler had similar political ideals in this case. They both believed that with the youth supporting them, they had the chance to succeed in any revolution. During both time frames the youth in fact did support their leaders strongly as they were brainwashed by propaganda. You can conclude from this that life for youth under Communist and Nazi rule was very well controlled. Their thoughts were influenced strongly by propaganda and education as they always vigorously supported their leaders. In conclusion, the life of Nazi youth is in fact comparable to the life of youth from organizations during our time and those on the opposite political spectrum to the Nazis: the Communist youth. The Nazis were completely anti-Christian, particularly Goebbels and Himmler.
Life under the Nazis for youth was very organized. What they could learn about and were aloud to do was limited down to what the Nazis wanted them to grow up to be. The Nazis commanded the youth’s lives from education and out of schools organizations such as the Hitler Jugend which was complimentary to join. Their minds were also strongly influenced and contorted by propaganda. In brief, the life of the youth was excessively preplanned and was prearranged in a manner which developed nationalistic passion from a young age and support for the Nazi party and also discipline and thoughts superiority which prepared them for the “Ideal Nazi life”.
18/20
You got into trouble as soon as you started going into Pat Robertson which might make an great extended essay but is not appropriate in an essay clearly devoted to life as it was, not as it is like, in the 1930s. If you had shortened it, and divided your main paragraph into three different paragraphs, you would have kept your marks.
[1] Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler’s Shadow by Susan Campbell Bartoletti, Susan Campbell Bartoletti page 7
[2] Ibid
[3] http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/hitleryouth/hj-timeline.htm
[4]http://www.japanweb.info/browse.php?u=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5sb2VzZXIudXMvZXhhbXBsZXMveW91dGguaHRtbA%3D%3D&b=31
[5] The Rise and Fall of The Third Reich, William Shirer, Page 249
[6] http://blog.tianya.cn/blogger/post_show.asp?BlogID=1157398&PostID=12666086
[7] Hitler’s Dictatorship, Part One, page 19.
[8] http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/Nazis_Education.htm
[9] Ibid
[10] Notable Quotes of Socialism, http://www.wealth4freedom.com/truth/Socialism.htm
[11] Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler’s Shadow by Susan Campbell Bartoletti, Susan Campbell Bartoletti page 29
[12] Ibid, page 73.
[13] God Delusion, page 17, Richard Dawkins
[14] http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Fascism/ChristianRight_AmerFascism.html
[15] Ibid
[16] Ibid
[17] http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/Nazis_Education.htm
[18] http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Fascism/ChristianRight_AmerFascism.html
[19] Ibid
[20] Little Red Book, Mao Zedong, page 14
[21] Little Red Book, Mao Zedong, page 18
[22] Reichsparteitag Records, 1935.
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