From the rise of the Third Reich and into the post-war era, the Hitler Youth were molded to be faithful devotees of the Nazi regime — and to turn on even their own parents if they spoke ill of Hitler.
Despite the Nazis’ surrender in May 1945, a small but violent faction of the Hitler Youth known as the Werwolf fought on against the Allied powers.
So-named for a German novel of the same name, Werwolf — or “war wolf” — was comprised of some members of the Nazi SS, as well as some volunteers, but also a significant number of the Nazis’ youngest fighters sourced from the Hitler Youth.
While most modern historians contend that the Hitler Youth group was largely ineffectual and valuable mostly as a propaganda tool, the small force may (though reports are thin and varied) have succeeded in carrying out a handful of bombings and assassinations of Allied personnel in Germany in the months and even years immediately following the war.
But why, of all people, would children have the zeal to forge ahead to the bitter end for such a violent cause even after defeat?
That story begins more than 20 years earlier with the formation of the Hitler Youth.
Adolf Hitler poses with young men at a Hitler Youth gathering, 1935.Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images Hitler Youth parade, circa 1936.Universal History Archive/Getty Images Hitler Youth members force Jews to clean a street as a crowd looks on in Vienna, Austria in 1938.Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images Adolf Hitler shakes hands with Hitler Youth member Harald Quandt, stepson of Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, in Berlin, 1936.-/AFP/Getty Images Eleven-year-old boys of the Hitler Youth learn how to fire a rifle, circa 1935.Keystone/Getty Images Four boys of the Hitler Youth stand in front of the Nazi flag at an unspecified location, circa 1935.Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images Adolf Hitler poses with a member of the Nazi Youth, date unspecified.© CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images Hitler Youth members burn books at an unspecified location, 1938.Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images Hitler Youth members undergo boxing training, circa 1934.ullstein bild via Getty Images Hitler Youth members pose in uniform at an unspecified location, 1933.German Federal Archives/Wikimedia Commons Adolf Hitler and Hitler Youth leader Baldur von Schirach (to Hitler's left) arrive at the stadium in Nuremberg for a Hitler Youth rally, 1934.Heinrich Hoffmann/ullstein bild via Getty Images Members of the Hitler Youth train with gas masks at an unspecified location, June 1939.Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images Hitler Youth members cheer and salute the Führer during May Day festivities at the Berliner Post stadium in Berlin on May 1, 1936.Heinz Fremke/ullstein bild via Getty Images Adolf Hitler addresses a crowd of Hitler Youth at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin during a May Day celebration on May 1, 1939. The crowd's contrasting blue and white uniforms spell out the words "We belong to you."Heinrich Hoffmann/New York Public Library A boy wearing his Hitler Youth uniform poses with his mother and siblings in February 1943.German Federal Archives/Wikimedia Commons Hitler Youth members train with rifles. Date and location unspecified.Hamann/German Federal Archives/Wikimedia Commons A crowd of Hitler Youth gives the Nazi salute during Hitler Youth Day at one of the parties rallies in Nuremberg, circa 1930s.© CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images Hitler Youth member Horst Hoppe jumps a motorcycle on a pony during the Hitler Youth Games in Berlin on July 12, 1936.Hulton Archive/Getty Images Boys practice fighting moves during a Hitler Youth training session, date unspecified.© CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images Hitler Youth members who had been wounded while on duty during an air raid receive decoration for their actions, September 23, 1943.German Federal Archives/Wikimedia Commons Adolf Hitler smiles while uniformed youths salute him in Erfurt, Germany, 1933.Hulton Archive/Getty Images A member of the Hitler Youth cries after being captured by U.S. forces, date unspecified.© CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images Hitler Youth members engage in chicken fights at an unspecified location, 1933.C. Weinrother/German Federal Archives/Wikimedia Commons A soldier trains a Hitler Youth member in the art of shooting. Date and location unspecified.German Federal Archives/Wikimedia Commons Adolf Hitler sits with a large group of Hitler Youth members at the Nazi Party national headquarters in Munich, circa 1935.Heinrich Hoffmann/Hulton Archive/Getty Images A Hitler Youth member poses at an unspecified location, 1933.German Federal Archives/Wikimedia Commons A massive crowd attends Hitler Youth Day during one of the Nuremberg Nazi Party rallies, date unspecified.© CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images Hitler Youth members pose in a tent during a camping trip at an unspecified location, 1933.German Federal Archives/Wikimedia Commons Adolf Hitler receives a bouquet of roses from a member of the Hitler Youth, 1932.ullstein bild/ullstein bild via Getty Images Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels speaks to a member of the Hitler Youth at an unspecified location, 1936.Heinrich Hoffmann/ullstein bild via Getty Images Hitler Youth members pose on a motorcycle at an unspecified location, 1944.German Federal Archives/Wikimedia Commons Four Hitler Youth members salute while riding on bicycles in Berlin, 1932.German Federal Archives/Wikimedia Commons Hitler Youth members cheer on the Führer as he exits Olympic Stadium in Berlin after giving a speech to the group there on May 1, 1938.Herbert Hoffmann/ullstein bild via Getty Images Hitler Youth members play tug of war while training with gas masks in Worms, 1933.German Federal Archives/Wikimedia Commons Accompanied by their parents, ten-year-olds are forcibly enrolled into the Hitler Youth on March 1, 1940.Heinrich Hoffmann/New York Public Library Hitler Youth members help clean up the ruins following an attack at an unspecified location, 1943.German Federal Archives/Wikimedia Commons Hitler Youth members receive a charitable contribution to the Nazi Party's Winter Relief charity (to provide food, clothing, and the like for the less fortunate) from Adolf Hitler in Berlin, circa 1935.FPG/Hulton Archive/Getty Images Crowds of Hitler Youth salute as they listen to a speech given by Adolf Hitler at a rally at Nuremberg in 1937.© Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images Hitler Youth members ceremonially jump over a fire during a summer solstice celebration in Berlin on June 27, 1937.German Federal Archives/Wikimedia Commons Hitler Youth members line up in recognition of the birthday of leading Nazi Hermann Goering (right) in Berlin on January 12, 1935.German Federal Archives/Wikimedia Commons Hitler Youth members salute the arrival of Minister of the Interior Wilhelm Frick in Poznań, Poland, 1939.German Federal Archives/Wikimedia Commons A Hitler Youth member on horseback salutes his comrades as they parade by at an unspecified location on April 10, 1934.Photo12/UIG via Getty Images In Worms, Hitler Youth members dress as metal tubes in a demonstration to encourage the collection of scrap metal, 1938.German Federal Archives/Wikimedia Commons The Führer inspects members of the Hitler Youth at an unspecified location, circa 1940.Keystone-FranceGamma-Rapho via Getty Images
44 Unsettling Images Of Life Inside The Hitler Youth, The Nazis’ Army Of Brainwashed Children View GalleryThe Origins Of Hitler Youth
Birthed in its first incarnation in 1922 and officially christened the Hitlerjugend ("Hitler Youth") in 1926, this was the only official youth group of the Nazi Party. By 1939, "official" became "mandatory," increasing the group's ranks to some 8 million and leaving just a tiny fraction of eligible members who managed not to join despite immense social and legal pressure.
With so many members in the fold, the Hitler Youth's purpose was to indoctrinate boys into the Nazi worldview, prepare them for combat, and thoroughly transform them into effective cogs in the Nazi machine.
As Adolf Hitler himself said in 1938:
"These boys and girls enter our organizations [at] ten years of age, and often for the first time get a little fresh air; after four years of the Young Folk they go on to the Hitler Youth, where we have them for another four years ... And even if they are still not complete National Socialists, they go to Labor Service and are smoothed out there for another six, seven months ... And whatever class consciousness or social status might still be left ... the Wehrmacht [German armed forces] will take care of that."
Indeed, the aim of the Hitler Youth group was to take an incoming 14-year-old and systematically mold him into the person that the party needed him to be by the time he was 18.
How These Programs Worked
That molding took many forms, some of them much more benign, even pleasant, than others: weapons training, physical exercise, camping, officers' training, athletic competitions, academic schooling, music performance, and more.
Through these activities and Hitler's own personal addresses to the children, the Hitler Youth became some of the most committed members of the Third Reich.
"Hitler said we will be one people, one nation, and you, my youths, you are going to be that people and that nation," recalled one former Hitlerjugend. "After he had uttered this sentence, I belonged to Hitler, body and soul."
Indeed, Hitler deftly motivated his nation's youths to fight for him by starting with them as elementary schoolers, teaching them race theory in class and eventually requiring them to join in other nationalist youth activities.
"Two months after Hitler became the chancellor of Germany I started elementary school," that same former Hitlerjugend remembered. "I believe this is an aspect that is totally overlooked in our history books. Almost immediately, the Nazis exercised their very first priority, which was to captivate the young."
Indeed, and when it came time for Hitler to call on these youths, they were eagerly awaiting him.
Mobilizing The Children Into Combat
While the Hitler Youth started out by emphasizing more of the benign activities — the group even took some early inspiration from the Boy Scouts — they began to privilege the more violent and hateful ones as the war drew closer and ultimately dragged on toward its destructive end.
As the war reached Germany's borders and the fading Nazi war effort grew more and more desperate for bodies to throw at the approaching enemy, the Hitler Youth placed more and more emphasis on military training and even began sending some of its children, even those as young as 10, into battle.
By the time D-Day rolled around in 1945, Hitler was becoming desperate. One of the last times Hitler appeared in public before killing himself was to address his youth groups, telling them that they were the only Germans he still trusted to die for him.
And so, despite their age, many of these young soldiers fought until the very end — and some, like those who made up the Werwolf, continued to fight even after that, preferring to die than to live in a world without their Führer.
After years of intense indoctrination, it's easy to believe that these boys, even with the war over, knew little else besides fighting for the cause in which they'd been immersed for virtually their entire lives.
See what life was like inside the Hitler Youth in the photos above.
After learning about the Hitler youth, have a look at 33 photos of everyday life in Nazi Germany. Then, view this collection of Holocaust photos that reveal both the tragedy and perseverance of this horrific historical period.
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