Hitlerjugend: The Hitler Youth

It’s 1931. In a small town in Germany, Theresa is feeling excited. She’s just turned 10, and finally she can join her older friends at their weekly meetings where they cook, sew, play games and sing Nazi songs. She’ll get to learn more about her country’s leader, the Führer, and his ideas for the world. This group is Hitlerjugend: The Hitler Youth, formed in 1926.

Theresa will join the branch for 10-14 year old girls, The Young Girls’ League. Before she can join, Theresa must prove her background. Hitler believes that certain Germans belong to a master race, the Aryans. Only Aryans are allowed in the Hitler Youth. Theresa qualifies.

Solemnly, she pledges to do her “duty in the Hitler Youth, in love and loyalty to the Führer”. Theresa’s younger brother, Peter, is impatient to join the Hitler Youth, too. The boys branch is called The German Young People. In 1935, he turns 10 and joins. Like his friends, Peter is thrilled to put on the uniforms he’s seen older boys wearing, and to join in their sports, marching, and weapons training.

Peter’ best friend, Samuel, is not allowed to join. Samuel is not Aryan; he’s Jewish. Peter feels bad for him… but he soon gets too caught up in his new life, his new friends, to think much about it. In 1938, Peter and Theresa leave for Nuremberg to camp with thousands of other Hitler Youth at the Nazi’s annual gathering. Theresa is 17 now, and has graduated to the older girls’ branch, The League of Girls.

At Nuremburg, the youth sing stirring Nazi songs. They listen to speeches describing Jews, Roma, and black people as the lowest in society, ‘like rats to be disposed of’. At night, bunkmates swap stories of the Führer’s greatness. One day, the Führer himself arrives. All the youth are gathered, nervously. “Before us lies Germany, in us marches Germany, and behind us follows Germany.” Peter and Theresa return home electrified.

In 1939, Hitler invades Poland and World War II breaks out. Peter is 14 now and graduates to the main branch of the Hitler Youth. The war continues. As more and more local men leave to fight Peter and his unit carry out defence duties. They hurry people to shelters during air raids and shoot down enemy planes with anti-aircraft guns.

Theresa works as a nurse’s aide, treating wounded soldiers in the local hospital. Between their duties and meetings, Peter and Theresa have little time for school or family. They spend every day thinking about and working for their Führer. One day, Peter watches as his Jewish neighbours are forced onto trains. There’s his childhood friend, Samuel!

Peter is hit with a sharp pang of pain. Quietly he turns away. “Heil Hitler!” Peter returns to his work. In 1944, Peter is called up to join the army. He is proud, ready. His years in the Hitler Youth have made him a devoted Nazi, skilled in combat, and eager to fight, even die, for his country.

A few months later, Theresea receives the news that Peter has been killed in battle. Germany is losing more and more land, and people, in the war. Hitler’s plan is unravelling. Then, on April 30th, 1945 Hitler commits suicide. Days later, Germany surrenders.

Theresa tries to come to terms with the loss of the leader whose words she built her life on; with the loss of her beloved brother, transformed into a tool of war; and with the horrors committed by the Nazis — the group she belonged to, that she supported.