nazi indoctrination on german youth

“I am beginning with the young, we older ones are used up, we are rotten to the marrow. We have no unrestrained instincts left. We are cowardly and sentimental. We are bearing the burden of a humiliating past, and have in our blood the dull recollection of serfdom and servility. But my magnificent youngsters! Are there finer ones anywhere in the world? Look at these young men and boys! What material! With them I can make a new world.” – Adolf Hitler

All throughout my life, I had always heard about the occurrences of World War II and the Holocaust. Adolf Hitler has always been portrayed to be as evil as the devil himself for what he did to the Jews living in Europe during the early twentieth century. Of course, he was not alone in his terrifying quest to empower the Third Reich and rid the world of the “destroyers of culture,” as he had thousands upon thousands of eager and devoted supporters to his cause. The Nazi party effectively took over Germany with totalitarian tactics and anti-Semitic ideals. The same question I’ve always heard uttered is, however, how did people ever allow this to happen? It seems incredibly ridiculous to any sane person with a conscience to imagine anybody agreeing with such radical and hateful beliefs. How and why were the Germans willing to follow the Nazi regime? Did they naturally agree with Hitler or were they influenced by the indoctrination that was being instilled into their everyday lives? Although everyone had been directly affected during this period, those who might have been most vulnerable and influenced by the Nazi regime were, in fact, the youth. Throughout the years, there have been many accounts by historians such as Edward J. Kunzer, Gregor Ziemer, I.L. Kandel, and many more, that have...

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...ctive, fat, brunette, big-nosed people while Germans were seen as proud, hard-working, tall, fair, blonde-haired, blue-eyed mensch. As these inferiority and superiority complexes were constantly drilled into the minds of children and teenagers, the youth started to realize that it was in their best interest to act on these beliefs. They were better and their race needed to be preserved.

Hitler charismatically expressed his views and often tried to make them relatable to his audience. A reason as to why militarism could have been appealing to the youth at the time can be seen through what Hitler proves by saying “the young girl [prefers] the soldier to the non-soldier” (413). Hitler Jugend was also the perfect way to get young boys involved in the Nazi movement. The HJ was an organization founded in 1922, and was essentially the child version of the SA Brownshirts.