Hitler Youth

The Hitler Youth (German: Hitler-Jugend, abbreviated HJ) was a paramilitary organization of the Nazi Party that existed from 1922 to 1945. The Hitler Youth was the second oldest paramilitary Nazi group, founded one year after the Sturmabteilung (SA) Stormtroopers.

Membership

The original membership of the Hitler Youth was confined to Munich, and in 1923, the organization had just over one thousand members. In 1925, when the Nazi Party had been refounded, its membership grew to over 5,000. Five years later, the national Hitler Youth membership was at 25,000, at he end of 1932 (a few weeks before the Nazis came to power) it was at 107,956, and at the end of 1933, the Hitler Youth held a membership of 2,300,000. This rise for a large part came from the members of several other youth organizations the HJ had (more or less forcefully) been merged with, including the rather big one of the "evangelische Jugend" (600,000 members at the time), the YO of the Evangelical Church in Germany.

Related Topics:
1932 - 1933 - Evangelical Church in Germany

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In December of 1936, Hitler Youth membership stood at just over 5 million. That same month, the Hitler Youth became obligatory and membership was required by law (Gesetz über die Hitlerjugend). This obligation was affirmed in 1939 with the Jugenddienstpflicht. Membership could be enforced even against the will of the parents. From that point, most of Germany's teenagers were incorporated into the Hitler Youth, and by 1940, the total membership reached eight million. Later war figures are difficult to calculate, since massive conscription efforts and a general call-up of boys as young as ten years old meant that virtually every young male in Germany was, in some way, connected to the Hitler Youth.

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Many of the "Hitler Youth Generation" were born in the 1920s and '30s and, as such, became the adult generation of Germany during the years of the Cold War in the 1960s and 70s. It was not uncommon, therefore, that many senior leaders of both West and East Germany had held membership in the Hitler Youth. Since the organization was compulsory after 1938, there was little effort to "black list" political figures who had once been members of the Hitler Youth, since it was considered that they had no choice in the matter.

Related Topics:
Cold War - West - East Germany

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Although the Hitler Youth was compulsory, and many of its members had no choice but to participate as members, several notable figures have drawn attention in the media as former Hitler Youth members. Such persons include Stuttgart mayor Manfred Rommel, former foreign minister of Germany Hans-Dietrich Genscher, and the then-14-year-old Pope Benedict XVI (Joseph Ratzinger). The April 2005 media frenzy involving the Pope's membership in the Hitler Youth drew angry responses from the German government, which felt that the Pope's Second World War activities had little bearing on his religious convictions or his ability to lead the Roman Catholic Church as Pope.

Related Topics:
Media - Stuttgart - Manfred Rommel - Hans-Dietrich Genscher - Pope Benedict XVI - April - 2005 - Roman Catholic Church

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Hans Scholl, one of the leading figures of the anti-Nazi resistance movement White Rose (Weiße Rose), was also a member of the Hitler Youth. This fact is emphasised in the film The White Rose which speaks of how Scholl was able to resist Nazi Germany ideals while still serving in a Nazi organization. The Thomas Carter film Swing Kids also focuses on this topic.

Related Topics:
Hans Scholl - White Rose - Thomas Carter - Swing Kids

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