Youth Programs
Hitler youth, League of German Girls
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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.
Origins
The Hitler Youth was founded in 1922 as the Jungsturm Adolf Hitler. The group was
based in Munich, Bavaria, and served as a recruiting ground for new Stormtroopers of the
SA. The group was disbanded in 1923 following the abortive Beer Hall Putsch but was
re-established in 1926, a year after the Nazi Party had been reorganized.
The second Hitler Youth began in 1926 with an emphasis on national youth recruitment
into the Nazi Party. Kurt Gruber, a law student and admirer of Hitler from Plauen,
Saxony, home to many blue-collar workers, initiated the reconstruction of the League. In
April 1932 the Hitler Youth (as part of the SA) was banned by Chancellor Heinrich
Brüning to stop the widespread political violence. But by June the ban was already lifted
by his successor Franz von Papen as a way to appease Hitler, whom he wanted to support
his government. Then in 1933, Baldur von Schirach served as the first
Reichsjugendführer (Reich Youth Leader) and devoted a great deal of time, finances, and
manpower into the expansion of the Hitler Youth. By 1930, the group had over 25,000
members with the Bund Deutscher Mädel (BDM) (League of German Girls, for girls
aged from fourteen to eighteen). The Deutsches Jungvolk was another Hitler Youth
group, intended for still younger children, both boys and girls.
Doctrine
The Hitler Youth had the basic motivation of training future "Aryan supermen" and
future soldiers who would fight for the Third Reich faithfully. Physical and military
training took precedence over academic and scientific education in Hitler Youth
organizations. Youths in HJ camps learned to use weapons, built up their physical
strength, learned war strategies, and were indoctrinated in anti-Semitism. After outlawing
the Boy Scouts in all the lands Germany controlled, the Hitler Youth appropriated many
of the Scouts' activities, though changed in content and intention. A limited amount of
cruelty of the older boys toward the younger was tolerated and even encouraged, since it
was believed this would weed out the unfit and harden the rest.
Members of the Hitler Youth wore paramilitary uniforms very similar to those of the
Sturmabteilung, or SA, and the ranks and insignia of the Hitler Youth were similar to the
ranks and insignia of the Sturmabteilung. Many of the boys' activities resembled soldier
training, including throwing grenade-like objects, crawling under barbed wire, learning to
jump off high platforms into the sea, and climbing over tall obstacles..
Organization
The Hitler Youth was organized into corps under adult leaders, and the general
membership comprised boys aged fourteen to eighteen. After 1938, the Hitler Youth was
a compulsory organization, mandatory for all young German men. The group was also
seen as a recruiting ground for several Nazi Party paramilitary groups, with the
Schutzstaffel (the SS) taking the most interest in the Hitler Youth. Members of the HJ
were particularly proud to be bestowed with the single Sig Rune (victory symbol) by the
SS. The SS utilized two Sig Runes as their mark, and this gesture served to symbolically
link the two groups.
The Hitler Youth was organized into local cells on a community level. Such cells had
weekly meetings at which various Nazi doctrines were taught by adult Hitler Youth
leaders. Regional Hitler Youth leaders typically organized rallies and field exercises in
which several dozen Hitler Youth cells would participate. The largest Hitler Youth
gathering usually occurred once a year at Nuremberg, where Hitler Youth members from
all over Germany would converge for the annual Nazi Party rally.
The Hitler Youth also maintained training academies comparable to preparatory schools.
Such academies were considered breeding grounds for future Nazi Party leaders, and
only the most radical and devoted Hitler Youth members could expect to attend.
Several corps of the Hitler Youth also existed to train members who wished to become
officers in the Wehrmacht (German Army). Such groups were usually devoted strictly to
officer training in the particular field to which a Hitler Youth hoped to become an officer.
The Marine Hitler Youth was the largest such corps and served as a water rescue
auxiliary to the Kriegsmarine (German Navy).
The flags of the Hitler Youth
Flag of the Hitler Youth (General flag)
The basic unit of the Hitler Youth was the Bann, the equivalent of a military regiment. Of
these Banne, there were more than 300 spread throughout Germany, each of a strength of
about 6000 youths. Each unit carried a flag of almost identical design, but the individual
Bann was identified by its number, displayed in black on a yellow scroll above the eagle's
head. The flags measured 200 cm long by 145 cm high. The displayed eagle in the center
was adopted from the former Imperial State of Prussia. In its talons it grasped a white
coloured sword and a black hammer. These symbols were used on the first official flags
presented to the HJ at a national rally of the NSDAP in August 1929 in Nürnberg. The
sword was said to represent nationalism, whereas the hammer was a symbol of socialism.
The poles used with these flags were of bamboo topped by a white metal ball and spear
point finial.
The flags carried by the HJ Gefolgschaft, the equivalent of a company with a strength of
150 youths, displayed the emblem used on the HJ armband: a tribar of red over white
over red, in the centre of which was a square of white standing on its point containing a
black swastika. The Gefolgschafts flag measured 180 cm long by 120 cm high with the
three horizontal bars each 40 cm deep. In order to distinguish both the individual
Gefolgschaft and the branch of HJ service to which the unit belonged, each flag displayed
a small coloured identification panel in the upper left corner. The patch was in a specific
colour according to the HJ branch. For example, there was a light-blue patch, a white
Unit number, and a white piping reserved for the Flieger-HJ, or Flying-HJ. The flagpoles
were of polished black wood and had a white metal bayonet finial.
Bannfahne for the HitlerJugend
HJ Gefolgschafts
Flag
DJ Jungbann Flag DJ Fähnlein Flag
The flags for the Deutsches Jungvolk (DJ)
Boys aged 10 to 14 years became members of the Deutsches Jungvolk (DJ). The
Jungbann flags of this suborganization of the HJ were generally in the same design as
that of the Hitler Youth. However, there were a number of differences: The
Jungbannfahne had an all-black field. The eagle was the "negative" of the HJ-eagle:
white with a black swastika. The scroll above the eagle's head was in white with the Bann
number in black. The sword and the hammer as well as the beak, the talons, and the left
leg of the eagle were in silver-grey colour. The flags eventually measured 165 cm long by
120 cm high. The flagpoles were of black polished wood topped with a white metal,
spear head-shaped finial. It displayed on both sides an eagle bearing on its breast the HJ
diamond.
The flag carried by the DJ Fähnlein was of a very simple design. It displayed a single
runic S in white on an all-black field. The Fähnlein number appeared on a white patch
sewn to the cloth in the top left-hand corner. It was piped in silver and had black unit
numbers. The size was 160 cm long by 120 cm high. The flagpoles were of polished
black wood with a white metal unsheathed bayonet blade.] Membership
The original membership of the Hitler Youth was confined to Munich, and in 1923, the
organization had a little over one thousand members. In 1925, when the Nazi Party had
been refounded, the membership grew to over 5,000. Five years later, the national Hitler
Youth membership was at 25,000, at the 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 increase largely came from the members of several other youth
organizations that were more or less forcefully merged with the HJ. (The sizable
Evangelische Jugend, the Evangelical youth organisation of 600,000 members, was
integrated on February 18, 1934).[1]
In December of 1936, Hitler Youth membership stood at just over five million. That same
month, membership in the Hitler Youth became obligatory and 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.
Many German children of this 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 1936, there was little effort to blacklist political figures who had once
been members of the Hitler Youth, since it was considered that they had no choice in the
matter.
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, philosopher Jurgen
Habermas, and the late Prince Consort of the Netherlands Claus von Amsberg. The April
2005 media frenzy involving then-14-year old Joseph Ratzinger's membership in the
Hitler Youth drew angry responses from the German government, which felt that Pope
Benedict XVI's Second World War activities had little bearing on his religious
convictions or his ability to lead the Roman Catholic Church.
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.
Hitler Youth in World War II
In 1940, Artur Axmann replaced Schirach as Reichsjugendführer and took over
leadership of the Hitler Youth. Axmann began to reform the group into an auxiliary force
which could perform war duties. The Hitler Youth became active in German fire brigades
and assisted with recovery efforts to German cities affected from Allied bombing. The
Hitler Youth also assisted in such organizations as the Reich Postal Service, Reichsbahn,
fire services, and Reich radio service, and served among anti-aircraft defense crews.
By 1943, Nazi leaders began turning the Hitler Youth into a military reserve to draw
manpower which had been depleted due to tremendous military losses. In 1943, the
12.SS-Panzer-Division Hitlerjugend, under the command of SS-Brigadeführer Fritz Witt,
was formed. The Division was a fully equipped Waffen-SS panzer division, with the
majority of the enlisted cadre being drawn from Hitler Youth boys between the ages of
sixteen and eighteen. The division was deployed during the Battle of Normandy against
the British and Canadian forces to the north of Caen. During the following months, the
division earned itself a reputation for ferocity and fanaticism. When Witt was killed by
allied naval gunfire, SS-Brigadeführer Kurt Meyer took over command and became the
youngest divisional commander at age 33.
As German casualties mounted with the combination of Operation Bagration and the
Lvov-Sandomierz Operation in the east, and Operation Cobra in the west, members of the
Hitlerjugend were recruited at ever younger ages. By 1945, the Volkssturm was
commonly drafting Hitler Youth members into its ranks as young as 12 years old. During
the Battle of Berlin, Axmann's Hitler Youth formed a major part of the last line of
German defense, and were reportedly among the fiercest German soldiers. Although city
commander General Helmuth Weidling ordered Axmann to disband the Hitler Youth
combat formations, in the confusion, this was never carried out.
Post World War II
The Hitler Youth was disbanded by Allied authorities as an integral part of the Nazi
Party. Some members of the Hitler Youth were accused of war crimes; however, as the
organization was staffed with children, no serious efforts were made to prosecute these
claims. While the entire Hitler Youth was never declared a criminal organization, the
Hitler Youth adult leadership corps was deemed to have committed crimes against peace
in corrupting the young minds of Germany. Many top Hitlerjugend leaders were put on
trial by Allied authorities, with Baldur von Schirach sentenced to twenty years in prison.
Schirach was convicted on crimes against Humanity for his actions as Gauleiter of
Vienna, not his leadership of the Hitler Youth.
League of German Girls
The League of German Girls (German: Bund Deutscher Mädel or BDM), was the only
female youth organization in Nazi Germany.
It was the female branch of the overall Nazi party youth movement, the Hitler Youth. At
first, the League consisted of two sections: the Jungmädel, or Young Girls League, for
girls ages 10 to 14, and the League proper for girls ages 14 to 18. In 1938, a third section
was introduced, the Belief and Beauty Society (BDM-Werk Glaube und Schönheit),
which was voluntary and open to girls between the ages of 17 and 21.
The BDM was founded in 1930 as the female branch of the overall Nazi Party's youth
movement, the Hitler Youth (HJ). Its full title was the League of German Girls in the
Hitler Youth, (Bund Deutscher Mädel in der Hitler-Jugend). It did not attract a mass
following until the Nazis came to power in January 1933, but grew rapidly thereafter,
until membership was made compulsory for eligible girls between 10 and 18 in 1936.
Members had to be ethnic Germans, German citizens, and free of hereditary diseases.[1]
The BDM was run directly by HJ leader Baldur von Schirach until 1934, when Trude
Mohr, a former postal worker, was appointed to the position of BDM-Reichsreferentin, or
National Speaker of the BDM. After Mohr married in 1937, she was required to resign
her position (the BDM required members to be unmarried and without children in order
to remain in leadership positions), and was succeeded by Dr. Jutta Rüdiger, a doctor of
psychology from Düsseldorf, who was a more assertive leader than Mohr but
nevertheless a close ally of Schirach, and also of his successor from 1940 as HJ leader,
Artur Axmann. Rüdiger led the BDM until is dissolution in 1945. She joined Schirach in
resisting efforts by the head of the Nazi Women's League (NS-Frauenschaft), Gertrud
Scholtz-Klink, to gain control of the BDM.[2]
As in the HJ, separate sections of the BDM existed, according to the age of participants.
Girls between the ages of 10 and 14 years old were members of the Young Girl's League
(Jungmädelbund, JM), and girls between the ages of 14 and 18 were members of the
Bund Deutscher Mädel (BDM) proper. In 1938, a third section was added, known as
Belief and Beauty (Glaube und Schönheit), which was voluntary and open to girls
between 17 and 21 and was intended to groom them for marriage, domestic life, and
future career goals. Ideally, girls were to be married and have children once they were of
age, but importance was also placed on job training and education.
While these ages are general guidelines, it should be noted that a girl, once she held a
leadership position (either honorary or a paid position), could remain in the League for as
long as she liked, provided she neither married nor had children. Rüdiger became BDM
Leader at 26, while Clementine zu Castell, the head of Belief and Beauty, was 47 when
she took the position in 1938. Eventually, approximately 80% of BDM leaders who left
the League did so to get married and start a family, and only 20% left to pursue careers.
The BDM used campfire romanticism, summer camps, folklorism, tradition, and sports to
educate girls within the National Socialist belief system, and to train them for their roles
in German society: wife, mother, and homemaker. Girls had to be able to run 60 metres in
14 seconds, throw a ball 12 metres, complete a 2 hour march, swim 100 metres and know
how to make a bed.
The programs offered to girls often appeared very interesting and seemingly allowed the
girls more freedom within society than they had previously known. Prior to the BDM, it
was nearly unheard of that girls would travel without their parents, or do such "boyish"
things as camping, hiking, and playing sports. Some of the BDM's work even drew harsh
criticism from Nazi party leaders, such as Heinrich Himmler, who felt that these activities
were not befitting young girls. Said Himmler in a speech at Bad Toelz: "When I see these
girls marching around with their nicely packed backpacks - it's enough to make me sick."
All accounts agree that before the outbreak of war, the BDM was very popular with
German girls, more popular than the HJ, with its rigorous paramilitary training, was with
boys. The program offered much that was appealing to the girls, asides from being able to
go on trips and have a "life" outside of school or their parental homes, such as singing,
arts, crafts, theater, and to some extent even fashion design, community work, etc.
The Belief and Beauty organizations offered groups where girls could receive further
education and training in fields that interested them. Some of the works groups that were
available were arts and sculpture, clothing design and sewing, general home economics,
and music.
The outbreak of war altered the role of the BDM, though not as radically as it did the role
of the boys in the HJ, who were to be fed into the German Wehrmacht (armed forces) or
the National Labor Service (Reichsarbeitsdienst, RAD) as soon as they turned 18. The
BDM helped the war effort in many ways. Younger girls collected donations of money,
as well as goods such as clothing or old newspapers for the Winter Relief and other Nazi
party charitable organizations. Many groups, particularly BDM choirs and musical
groups, visited wounded soldiers at hospitals or sent care packages to the front.
The older girls volunteered as nurses' aides at hospitals, or to help at train stations where
wounded soldiers or refugees needed a hand. After 1943, as Allied air attacks on German
cities increased, many BDM girls went into para-military and military services where
they served as Flak Helpers, signals auxiliaries, searchlight operators, and office staff.
Unlike male HJs, BDM girls took little part in the actual fighting or operation of
weaponry, although some Flak Helferinnen operated anti-aircraft guns.
In the last days of the war, some BDM girls, just like some boys of the male Hitler Youth
(although not nearly as many), joined with the Volkssturm (the last ditch defense) in
Berlin and other cities in fighting the invading Allied armies. Officially, this was not
sanctioned by the BDM's leadership which opposed an armed use of its girls even though
some BDM leaders had received training in the use of hand-held weapons (about 200
leaders went on a shooting course which was to be used for self-defense purposes). After
the war, Dr. Jutta Rüdiger denied that she had approved BDM girls using weapons, and
this appears to have been the truth.
Some BDM girls were recruited into the Wehrwolf groups which were intended to wage
guerilla war in Allied-occupied areas. A former BDM leader, Ilse Hirsch was part of the
Wehrwolf team who assassinated Franz Oppenhoff, the Allied-appointed mayor of
Aachen, in March 1945. [4]
One should note that by the time they joined the Red Cross, Luftwaffe Helferinnen,
Volkssturm or Wehrwolf, they were no longer BDM members, but members of those
respective organizations.
Article 2
The Bund Deutscher Mädel, which was also known by its abbreviation of BDM, was the
female branch of the overall German youth movement in the Third Reich, the Hitler
Youth. Membership in the Hitler Youth was open to all German girls and boys who were
at least ten years old or older. Membership requirements were simple: prospective
members had to be Germans who were of no more than one-eight Jewish heritage, and
had to be physically and mentally sound.
Once a girl reached 18 years of age she was expected to join the national labor service,
the Reichsarbeitsdienst, but she was allowed to remain a member in the BDM until she
either got married, had children, or decided to quit the BDM and go on to other pursuits.
The majority of BDM leaders on the regional and national level, as well as the BDM’s
medical staff consisted of ladies with university degrees and job training who were in
their late twenties or thirties.
In 1936, membership in the Hitler Youth officially became compulsory under the Hitler
Youth Law.
However, this was often not enforced until after the outbreak of the war because the
voluntary membership already included most eligible girls in Germany. The Hitler Youth
Law mainly served to originally recognize the Hitler Youth as part of the German regime,
which opened up the possibilities of monetary contributions from the government,
without which a lot of the Hitler Youth’s activities and programs might not have been
possible.
Besides preparing the young women in the Bund Deutscher Mädel for what were meant
to be their future tasks in the community, the BDM also offered a wide variety of other
activities that were attractive to potential members and that were very similar to what is
offered by youth organizations today. BDM members were able to get reduced rates at
movie theaters, go on field trips, and attend camps that lasted anywhere from one day to
several weeks. They were also able to compete at local, state-wide, and national sports
festivals, and attend youth festivals with international participants.
Local BDM groups usually held two get-togethers each week, one of which was a sports
afternoon, the other of which was called Heimatabend, or home evening. During the
home evening, girls played music, learned and sang folk songs, played games, or did arts
and crafts. After the outbreak of the war, they also used this time to write letters to
soldiers at the front, or prepare care packages for them.
The BDM placed big importance on the girls’ educations and expected that they would
finish school and learn a trade, which was something that was often unheard of for
women at that time, many of which worked as untrained helpers or secretaries. Many of
the ladies who became regional and national leaders of the BDM were successful women
who held degrees and doctorates, and served as a positive example to the girls they led.
BDM leaders were always supposed to set a good example, and as such were discouraged
from smoking or drinking in public.
The aspect of learning a trade appealed to many of the young women who joined the
organization, and it made the BDM appear progressive and emancipating. In the Hitler
Youth, girls were almost equal to their male counterparts, which was very unusual for its
time. They were able to partake in many of the same activities such as traveling, sports,
and regional and national vocational competitions. Only few activities, such as the
motorized Hitler Youth, remained closed to girls, although the national youth leadership
allowed groups to get additional programs started if interest and funds were available.
It was only until shortly before the outbreak of the war, that the BDM began including
programs that were geared more toward the “traditional” roles of the women. The Glaube
und Schönheit, or Belief and Beauty Society, was founded in 1939 and many of its
courses were geared toward house-holding and child care, and “feminine” sports such as
eurythmic dancing.
The Early Years
After the First World War, while Germany was suffering through a horrible depression
and the strict sanctions imposed on it by the Treaty of Versailles, the German Youth
Movement went through a revival and many new youth groups were formed. Some of
them were scouting groups while others were mainly nature or hiking clubs.
It comes as no surprise that even in the early days of the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche
Arbeiterpartei, the NSDAP or Nazi Party, which was originally founded in 1920, youth
groups played an integral role was well.
Although none of these groups were centrally organized within the Nazi party at first and
started out with only a few members, they quickly gained popularity and their numbers
grew.
Out of all these groups, the Grossdeutsche Jugendbewegung (Greater German Youth
Movement), which was founded by 20-year-old law student Kurt Gruber, became active
as early as 1923 and was eventually christened the Hitlerjugend at the 1926 party rally at
Weimar. Although there was now a male youth organization, there was not yet an official
female organization, but plenty of young women whose brothers were members of the
Hitler Youth had begun forming their own groups which became known as Hitlerjugend
Schwesternschaften, or Hitler Youth Sisterhoods.
The girls’ groups still remained widely overlooked and it wasn’t until 1930 that the actual
Bund Deutscher Mädel was officially founded. Although the group was now official,
membership was still much lower than in its male counterpart, and the BDM would never
be able to reach quite the same numbers that the Hitler Youth had. By the end of 1932,
directly before Hitler’s takeover, the BDM was only about 25,000 members strong.
From the official inception of the Hitler Youth in 1926 throughout most of the existence
of the Hitler Youth and the Bund Deutscher Mädel, Baldur von Schirach served as the
head of the organization with the title of Reichsjugendführer, which literally translates to
National Youth Leader. Von Schirach reported directly to Hitler. From the very
beginning, the female part of the Nazi party, the Nationalsozialistische Frauenschaft
(NSF), tried to gain control of the female youth which it thought better taken care of
under the heading of the female section of the party than the male leadership of the
overall Hitler Youth, but Hitler himself decided otherwise.
The head of the BDM was the BDM Reichsreferentin, who reported to Baldur von
Schirach, but who was in charge of the BDM without having to wait for “male” approval
for their decisions. According to Jutta Rudiger, who held the rank of Reichsreferentin
from November 1937 through the end of the war in 1945, both Baldur von Schirach and
his late-war successor Artur Axmann, let the BDM leaders run their own organization
and only offered advice and an open door if there ever were any concerns or problems.
The BDM’s Work
While the male Hitler Youth’s work consisted of mainly paramilitary training, the work
of the Bund Deutscher Mädel consisted mostly of the very same things girl scouts enjoy
today – sports, camping, orienteering, first aid, and arts and crafts. Some of the BDM’s
activities included the following:
Sports – Physical training didn’t play as important a role as it did in the male Hitler
Youth, but it was still an important part of their work. Each BDM group held one weekly
sports afternoon that was instructed by older BDM girls, and sometimes Hitler Youth
leaders. Sports generally included track and field events as well as gymnastics. Some
regions also offered fencing, ice skating, or rowing clubs.
Organized trips– At a time where few people traveled on their vacation, organized trips
and summer camps were an exciting opportunity for the girls of the BDM. Trips were
organized to local events and sights, as well as to national, and even some international
events. Other times, foreign youth groups visited BDM girls at home in Germany, which
was a great opportunity for youth from many different countries to get to know each
other.</p>
Charity work – Similar to girl scouts today, BDM girls back then also helped with
charitable work, such as collecting work for the Winterhilfswerk which supported poorer
families by providing them with heating coal and warm clothing during the colder winter
months, or collecting old clothing or old newspapers for new uses.
With the outbreak of World War II in fall of 1939, the Bund Deutscher Mädel found
itself in a delicate position. On one hand, the Nazi party now wanted the girls to be
educated more toward the traditional roles of women – to be mothers and homemakers -,
but at the same time the war ironically placed women in the position of having to fill jobs
formerly taken by men in both civilian life as well as in the armed forces. Women now
became air raid wardens, military signals auxiliaries and stenographers, but they also
served in more traditionally female wartime roles as nurses, troop supporters, or stayed
home with the children.
For the BDM, the war also necessitated some changes to their schedule. When local
groups met now they often spent time sending letters and postcards to soldiers at the
front; knitting scarves, wool socks, or ear warmers for the troops; or making care
packages.
Group choirs now often practiced songs that they would later perform for wounded
soldiers at hospitals throughout Germany, and girls would wait for trains with soldiers to
arrive to welcome them with flowers, sandwiches, or coffee.
“Train station services”, in particular, became an important part of the work with the
BDM Gesundheitsdienst, or health service, where girls – many of whom had little more
than basic first aid training – would welcome injured soldiers and refugees at the train
station and make sure they were taken care of. Most of the time, they provided hot drinks,
hot soup, or sandwiches; helped people find their way around the station, and helped with
some nursing care if it was needed. The girls of the Gesundheitsdienst wore white nurses’
aprons with the Hitler Youth diamond insignia and a kerchief-style head covering with
the insignia of the Gesundheitsdienst, a runic insignia shaped similar to the letter “Y”.
Many of the older BDM girls also took job positions and placements that would be
considered full-time jobs in addition to school, to help as nurse aides, substitute teachers,
or factory workers. The BDM’s own publication, Das Deutsche Mädel (The German
Girl) magazine, featured ads for stenographers, and nurses once the war had started, and
had articles about girls working as ticket agents on trains, or as nurses, that were meant to
get them excited about “doing their part” as well.
Unlike the male Hitler Youth which took a very active part in the last-ditch defenses at
the end of the war, the girls in the BDM generally did not take part in the fighting,
although many helped to fortify towns or dig trenches to stall the advancing Allied
troops. Although Martin Bormann had sent a letter to the regional leaders suggesting that
women and girls should also be trained in the use of weapons for self-defense, many girls
took up arms against the Allies, and those who did mainly did so against the Russian
army in the East which, they were told, was raping and killing any women they came
across.
The Hitler Youth and the Bund Deutscher Mädel, together once the largest youth
organization in Europe – maybe the world – found itself in ruins and disbanded at the end
of the war, just like the political party they’d originated from.
Glossary of German Terms

BDM Reichsreferentin – literally, National Speaker of the BDM

Bund Deutscher Mädel (BDM) - League of German Girls

Gesundheitsdienst – Health Service

Glaube und Schönheit – Belief and Beauty Society

Grossdeutsche Jugendbewegung – Greater German Youth Movement

Heimatabend – home or folk evening

Hitlerjugend – Hitler Youth

Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP) – National Socialist
German Workers’ Party

Nationalsozialistische Frauenschaft – National Socialist Women’s Society

Reichsarbeitsdienst (RAD) - National Labor Service

Reichsjugendführer – National Youth Leader

Winterhilfswerk – Winter Relief Society
Italy
Opera Nazionale Ballilla
http://histclo.com/youth/youth/org/nat/ita/natit.htm
Opera Nazionale Balilla (ONB) was an Italian Fascist youth organization functioning,
as an addition to school education, between 1926 and 1937 (the year it was absorbed into
the Gioventù Italiana del Littorio, GIL, a youth section of the National Fascist Party).
It was named after Balilla, the moniker of Giovan Battista Perasso, a semi-legendary
Genoese character who would have started the local revolt of 1746 against the Austrian
Habsburg forces that occupied the city in the War of Succession. Perasso was chosen as
the inspiration for his supposed age and revolutionary activity, while his presence in the
fight against Austria reflected the irredentist stance taken by early Fascism, and Italy's
victories in World War I.
After the March on Rome that brought Benito Mussolini to power, the Fascists started
considering ways to ideologize the Italian society, with an accent on schools. Mussolini
assigned ex-Ardito and deputy-secretary for Education Renato Ricci the task of
"reorganizing the youth from a moral and physical point of view". Ricci sought
inspiration with Robert Baden-Powell, the founder of Scouting, meeting with him in
England, as well as with Bauhaus artists in Germany.
The ONB was created through Mussolini's decree of April 3 1926, and was led by Ricci
for the following eleven years. It included children between the ages of 8 and 18, grouped
as the Balilla and the Avanguardisti.

Balilla (boys) and Piccole Italiane (girls) - ages 8 to 14

Avanguardisti and Giovani Italiane - 14 to 18
In time, a section named Figli della Lupa ("Children of the She-Wolf", alluding to the
myth of Romulus and Remus; ages 6 to 8) was added.
Between the ages of 18 and 22, young men and women would join additional groups of
the ONB - Fasci Giovanili di Combattimento (see Fasci di Combattimento) and Giovani
Fasciste, respectively. Male students in all forms of higher education were enrolled in the
GUF.
The organization surpassed its purpose as a cultural institution that was intended to serve
as the ideological counterpart of school, and served as a paramilitary group (training for
future assignments in the Italian Army), as well as education in the career of choice,
technology (including postschool courses for legal adults), or education related to home
and family (solely for the girls). It carried out indoctrination with a message of Italianness and Fascism, training youths as "the fascists of tomorrow". During the years
following its creation, ONB was left without real competition, as the regime banned all
other youth movements - including Scouting - with the exception of the Roman Catholic
Church group Gioventù Italiana Cattolica (which was forced to limit its activities).
Moreover, the ONB took charge of all activities initiated by schools, and pressured
teachers to enlist all students. Aside from the usual "Fascist Saturdays", children would
spend their summers in camps (which included the national-level Campi Dux, reunions of
Balilla and Avanguardisti).
Male children enrolled wore a uniform adapted from that of the Blackshirts: the
eponymous black shirt, the fez of Arditi tradition, grey-green trousers, black fasces
emblems, and azure handkerchiefs (i.e.: in the national colour of Italy). During military
exercises, they were armed (the guns were replaced with toy versions for the Figli della
Lupa).
In reality, ONB never enlisted more than 50% of Italy's youth (not even after 1937, when
inclusion in the GIL was supposed to be mandatory).
Children were taught at school, that the great days of modern Italy started in
1922 with the March on Rome. Children were taught that Mussolini was the only
man who could lead Italy back to greatness. Children were taught to call him "Il
Duce" and boys were encouraged to attend after school youth movements. Three
existed.
Organisation
Age
Group
Uniform
Sons of the She Wolf
4 to 8
Black shirt
Balilla
8 to 14
Black shirt, black cap, shorts, grey socks
Avanguardista
14 to 18
Same as Balilla except knickerbockers
instead of shorts.
Boys were taught that fighting for them was a natural extension of the normal
male lifestyle. One of the more famous Fascist slogans was "War is to the male
what childbearing is to the female." Girls were taught that giving birth was natural
– while for boys, fighting was the same – natural.
Children were taught to obey those in charge. This was not an unusual move in a
dictatorship. Once the OVRA had dealt with those adults who challenged the
authority of the state, all future adults of Fascist Italy would be model civilians
and not a challenge to those in charge.
Boys took part in semi-military exercises while members of the Balilla. They
marched and used imitation guns. Mussolini had once said "I am preparing the
young to a fight for life, but also for the nation."
Members of the Balilla had to remember the following:
"I believe in Rome, the Eternal, the mother of my country……I believe in the
genius of Mussolini…and in the resurrection of the Empire."
The glory of the old Roman Empire always lurked in the background of much of
what children did. A child in a youth movements was a "legionary" while an adult
officer was a "centurion" – a throw back to the days of when the Ancient Roman
army dominated much of western Europe.
USSR
Little Octobrists, Young Pioneers, Komsomol
http://www.answers.com/topic/young-pioneer-organization-of-the-soviet-union
Little Octobrists
Little Octobrists is a Soviet term that first appeared in 1923-1924, and at that time
referred to children born in 1917, the year of the October revolution. Later, the term was
used as the name of a youth organization for children between 7 and 9 years of age. After
the age of nine, in the 3rd grade, Little Octobrists would typically join the Young Pioneer
organization.
Little Octobrists were organized in groups each representing one school grade level. The
group was divided into subgroups called little stars, of 5 children each. Each group of
Little Octobrists was under the leadership of one Young Pioneer from the Young Pioneer
detachment. Every Little Octobrist wore a ruby-colored five-pointed star badge with the
portrait of V.I.Lenin in his childhood. The symbol of the group was the little red flag.
Young Pioneers
Its main grouping of members until 1942 was the "Young Pioneer detachment," which
then typically consisted of children belonging to the same secondary school. From 1942
to October 1990 (when the organization was broken up) the "detachment" was made up
of children belonging to the same class within a school, while a school was referred to as
a "Young Pioneer group."
There was also an age-scale structure: children of 10-11 years were called Young
Pioneers of the first stage; 11-12 years were Young Pioneers of the second stage; 13-15
years were Young Pioneers of the third stage. Young Pioneers of 15 years could join
Komsomol, with a recommendation from their Young Pioneer group.
The main governing body was the Central Soviet of the Young Pioneer organization of
the Soviet Union, which worked under leadership of the main governing body of
Komsomol. Its official newspaper was Pionerskaya Pravda.
Although membership was theoretically optional, almost all the children in the Soviet
Union belonged to the organization; it was a natural part of growing up.
The main symbols of Young Pioneers were the red banner, flag, Young Pioneer's red tie,
the badge. Attributes: the bugle, the drum, the uniform (with badges of rank). Some of
rituals were: salute, Young Pioneer parade, banner bearing, raising of the flag. Most
common traditions were the Young Pioneers rally (usually round a bonfire) and festivals.
On the day a child joined the Young Pioneer organization of the Soviet Union, he or she
would have to recite the following Solemn Promise in front of a group of other Pioneers
(1986 revision is presented below). After reciting, the new member had the Pioneer's
scarlet tie tied by an older Pioneer, and thus, becoming a full-fledged member of the
organization.
I, (last name, first name), joining the ranks of the V. I. Lenin All-Union Pioneer
Organization, in the presence of my comrades solemnly promise: to love and cherish my
Motherland passionately, to live as the great Lenin bade us, as the Communist Party
teaches us, as require the laws of the Young Pioneers of the Soviet Union.
The motto of the Young Pioneers of the Soviet Union consisted of two parts, the
summons and the answer.
Summons: Young Pioneer, be prepared to fight for the cause of the Communist Party of
the Soviet Union! Answer: Always prepared!
Rules:

Young Pioneer is a young communism builder, labours for the welfare of the Motherland,
prepares to become its defender.

Young Pioneer is an active fighter for peace, a friend to Young Pioneers and workers' children of
all countries.

Young Pioneer follows communists' example, prepares to become a Komsomol member, leads
Little Octobrists.

Young Pioneer upholds the honor of the organization, strengthens its authority by deeds and
actions.

Young Pioneer is a reliable comrade, respects elder, looks after younger people, always acts
according to conscience.

Young Pioneer has a right to elect and be elected to Young Pioneer self-government institutions,
to discuss the functioning of the Young Pioneer organization on Young Pioneer gatherings,
meetings, gatherings of Soviets of Young Pioneer detachments and Young Pioneer groups, in the
press; to criticize shortcomings; to submit a proposal to any Soviet of the Young Pioneer
organization, including the Central Soviet of the V. I. Lenin All-Union Pioneer Organization; to
ask for a recommendation of the Soviet of Young Pioneer group to join VLKSM.
Komsomol
Organization in the former Soviet Union for young people aged 14-28 years. Primarily a
political organ for spreading Communist teachings and preparing future members of the
Communist Party, it was organized in 1918. Members participated in health, sports,
education, and publishing activities and various industrial projects. They were frequently
favoured over nonmembers for employment, scholarships, and the like.
The Communist Youth Organization (Komsomol) was the major vehicle of political
education and mobilization for Soviet youth. Founded in November 1918, and disbanded
in 1991, the All-Union Leninist Communist League of Youth was one of a series of
Soviet institutions dedicated to educating and regulating Soviet citizens at every life stage
- the Little Octobrists, the Young Pioneers (ten to fourteen), the Komsomol (fourteen to
mid-twenties), and the Communist Party.
The Komsomol was founded as an elite and "self-standing" organization of communist
youth. Over the course of the 1920s and 1930s the Komsomol was gradually transformed
from a select organization of activist proletarian youth into a mass organization
subservient to Party policy. By March 1926, there were approximately 1.75 million
young people in the Komsomol; more than half of the working-class youth in Leningrad
and Moscow were members. A few years later, the Komsomol was almost twice the size
of the Party. Nonetheless, as of 1936, still only about 10 percent of eligible youth
belonged to the Communist Youth League. In response, and at Josef Stalin's direction,
the Komsomol was formally relegated this same year to the role of a propaganda and
education organization open to almost all youth regardless of class background. By 1985,
the year Mikhail Gorbachev acceded to general secretary, the Komsomol reported that it
had 42 million members between the ages of fourteen and twenty-seven.
Young people joined the Komsomol for many different reasons. In the first decades of
Soviet power, the Komsomol provided a community of peers for urban youth, especially
as all other youth groups - the Boy Scouts, religious youth organizations - were
suppressed. Komsomol clubs in factories, schools, and institutes of higher education
organized sports activities, drama groups, and concerts, as well as literacy and
antidrinking campaigns. The Komsomol offered a new identity as well as new
opportunities; some young people experienced the exhilaration of the Revolution, the
struggle of Civil War, and the rapid industrialization of the Stalin era, with a sense of
great personal involvement. Like joining the Party, becoming a member of the
Komsomol could also confer economic and political benefits. It helped pave the way to
eventual Party membership, and Komsomol members were often awarded important
political and agitational positions. The Komsomol was not equally relevant or available
to everybody, however. Proletariat males were at the top of the ladder of Bolshevik
virtue, while peasants, students, and women of all classes were on lower rungs. Women
of all classes made up just 20 percent of the Komsomol in 1926. Although their numbers
increased throughout the Soviet period, they remained underrepresented in leadership
positions.
The energetic participation of some Komsomol members in the dramatic industrialization
and collectivization campaigns of the early 1930s did not protect either the rank-and-file
or the Komsomol elite from the purges. In 1937 and 1938, the entire Komsomol bureau
was purged and the first secretary, Alexander Kosarev, was executed along with several
others. During World War II, the Komsomol was deeply involved in patriotic campaigns
and was effective in this period of national defense at attracting members and
encouraging enthusiastic response to patriotic propaganda. The war was the final high
point of the Komsomol, however. After the war, the Komsomol was increasingly trapped
between the Party's demands for political conformism and young people's increasingly
diverse and internationally informed desires for relevance and for entertainment. The
conservatism of the Komsomol was reflected in the aging of its leadership. In 1920, the
median age of a delegate to a Komsomol Congress was twenty. In 1954, it was twentyseven. By the years of stagnation (the period of Leonid Brezhnev's leadership) the
Communist Youth League was mired in bureaucracy and corruption, and unable to
remake itself; it had become a mass membership organization to which few truly wanted
to belong, but many felt they needed to join in order to advance professionally and
politically. The Komsomol's irrelevance to a changing Soviet Union was even more
evident during the transition to Mikhail Gorbachev's presidency. The Communist Youth
League lost millions of members per year (1.5 million in 1986, 2.5 million in 1987) and
disbanded itself at a final Komsomol Congress in September 1991.
Japan
Imperial Youth Federation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_Youth_Federation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_Youth_Corps
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Imperial Youth Federation
The Imperial Youth Federation or Imperial Young Association was a political
organization charged with guiding all nationalist and militarist indoctrination of young
people in Japan during World War II. This political entity was the "Youth Branch" of the
nationalist Imperial Way Faction party. It was the Japanese equivalent to the Hitler Youth
in Germany and the Balilla and Jioventude del Littorio, fascists youth groups in Italy.
The Federation's leader was Lieutenant Colonel (later Colonel) Kingoro Hashimoto, who
was in charge of leading the political and military training of the young students and
children. Membership in the organization was obligatory for young Japanese people
through the university level.
Theoretical Indoctrination Plan

Political and cultural lessons, to promote the importance of local culture, religion, and history, as
well as the importance of the country in the sacred mission to liberate local areas.

Theoretical military lessons with respect to the use of maps, manned aircraft, military handbooks,
use of military weapons, etc.

Ideological training in nationalist and militarist doctrines; these lessons were exceptionally
profound in the idealistic young people of the Kodoha party.
Practical Training

Combination of morning military exercises and training in martial arts, e.g. jiu-jitsu, karate,
taekwondo, kendo, ninja, the use of Japanese weapons, e.g. katana, nunchaku, bo, kendo, the
wooden sword, and others, hand-to-hand fighting against enemy ambushes, and countermeasures
in case of air strikes.

In advanced stages, training continued in military schools led by military officers, in the use of
manned aircraft, training tanks and armored vehicles, cannons, mortars, light machine guns, and
light anti-aircraft weapons. All pupils were required to know the use of weapons such as the
Nambu pistol, Arisaka rifle and Type 38 carbine.

Children 12 years and older received training in the use of bayonet-lace rifle, praticing on wooden
or grass puppets. Young women received self-defense and first-aid training.

The most advanced and fanatical of these pupils were entered in the Imperial Youth Corps, the
para-military branch of the organization.
Political Actions
Under orders of the supreme chief, all members aided ideological efforts in Japan, along
with the Nation Service Society (the government official syndicate) in requiring all
workers to offer voluntary service in weapons and munitions factories, included in their
obligatory three free days of vacation. The young women's unit of the Imperial Youth
Federation took on a similar mission in Yokohama, where many young women preferred
working in cafeterias and bars to working on rice farms. A similar mission occurred in
Osaka when the respective youth branch of the political entity with local police suggested
to all young women workers that they abandon "pernicious and bad costumes" to work on
the rice farms to replace the farmers and industrial workers mobilized to the combat
front.
These organizations aided in civil defense measures in assisting antiaircraft refugees, first
aid, etc., along with military aid such as watching for hostile aircraft over cities, or for
enemy vessels or suspicious activity along the coasts.
Endings
The Imperial Youth Federation was disbanded, along with other Japanese nationalist
organizations, by Allied occupation authorities in 1945, and the supreme chief and other
leaders were arrested and charged with war crimes.
The Imperial Youth Corps was the elite para-military unit of pre-war Japan's Imperial
Youth Federation.
The branch was marked by the most loyal and fanatical membership. Members received a
deep political indoctrination and extensive military training. Their responsibilities
included being the first line of defense of their own organization and national defense
along with official authorities. They were obliged to use weapons provided by the
organization under orders from their Chief Kingoro Hashimoto in case of defense against
exterior aggression.
They also had the responsibility of watching, along with the Tonarigumi (Resident
Committees) organization, their local area, and to find any local or foreign ideological
enemy. They were also asked to work in civil defense or support local military
countermeasures; the most advanced pupils were transferred to the Military Academy or
made local political leaders in the Kodoha Party.
In the last stages of conflict the membership of unit receiving military training in the use
of special anti-tank weapons "Lunge AT Mine" (anti-tank mine in Bamboo pole), light
machine guns, etc for conversion into potential reserve units in the decisive combat in the
Japanese homeland. It is possible that some members in the group took part in real
combat in the South Pacific Mandate, Okinawa, Chosen, Karafuto, and Kwantung during
the end of the Pacific War, alongside Japanese military forces.
The Imperial Youth Corps organization was accused of committing war crimes or
collaboration with Kempeitai and Unit 731 in Manchukuo and allegedly aided in
experiments on humans in such lands and also in Japan proper.
The Imperial Youth Corps was the elite para-military unit of pre-war Japan's Imperial
Youth Federation.
The branch was marked by the most loyal and fanatical membership. Members received a
deep political indoctrination and extensive military training. Their responsibilities
included being the first line of defense of their own organization and national defense
along with official authorities. They were obliged to use weapons provided by the
organization under orders from their Chief Kingoro Hashimoto in case of defense against
exterior aggression.
They also had the responsibility of watching, along with the Tonarigumi (Resident
Committees) organization, their local area, and to find any local or foreign ideological
enemy. They were also asked to work in civil defense or support local military
countermeasures; the most advanced pupils were transferred to the Military Academy or
made local political leaders in the Kodoha Party.
In the last stages of conflict the membership of unit receiving military training in the use
of special anti-tank weapons "Lunge AT Mine" (anti-tank mine in Bamboo pole), light
machine guns, etc for conversion into potential reserve units in the decisive combat in the
Japanese homeland. It is possible that some members in the group took part in real
combat in the South Pacific Mandate, Okinawa, Chosen, Karafuto, and Kwantung during
the end of the Pacific War, alongside Japanese military forces.
The Imperial Youth Corps organization was accused of committing war crimes or
collaboration with Kempeitai and Unit 731 in Manchukuo and allegedly aided in
experiments on humans in such lands and also in Japan proper.