THE HITLER YOUTH
The Hitler Youth or (Hitler-Jugend) involved boys and girls aged 10-18 and consisted of different groups for different ages. In 1936 it became compulsory to join the Hitler Youth and had an outstanding 4 million members. The Hitler Youth Members were forced to participate in training camps where they underwent harsh physical training and learnt map reading, sports, gymnastics and Nazi ideology.
'The weak must be chiseled away. I want young men and women who can suffer pain. A young German must be swift as a greyhound, as tough as leather, and as hard as Krupp's steel - A.Hitler
Source I
This primary source highlights the total population of the members in the Hitler Youth. It conveys all the different types of youth groups and is relevant because it effectively portrays how Hitler was able to manipulate innocent children into his camps to infiltrate their minds. It is unclear when and where the source was created however it can be found in 'Hitler and Germany, B.J. Elliot, 1991'
This source is reliable because it provides historically accurate information and statistics about how many children were forced into the Youth Camps. |
Source II
The primary source to the right captures the raw lifestyle of the children at the Hitler Youth Camps. The homogeneous tents express the ideology of uniformity and provides connotations of a strict environment. This source was selected to be included in my exhibition because the loudspeaker in the image captures the immediate and direct control over the Youth Camps. It was evidently relevant because it highlights exactly how many tents and therefore children were being held in one Hitler Youth Camp. The source was taken from a Hitler Youth Camp at Nuremberg in 1934 (Hitler's Germany, Josh Brooman, 1985)
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Source III
A twelve mile march was considered nothing for boys who are trained until they can make a march of fifty miles without any food other than the concentrated rations they carry in their packs. Nupp was recovering from a heavy cold but he was not excused from the hike. He had a severe relapse as a result...Later the doctor confided to me that often after one of these lengthy marches he had as many as thirty boys in the hospital A German mother describing the training that her son (Nupp) had to do
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This primary source conveys the absolute physical training the young men had to conquer through in the Hitler Youth Camps. It captures the mother's trauma as she is forced to see her son's health deteriorate. This source is relevant and reliable to this exhibition about the Hitler Youth Camps because it captures the severe conditions the children were forced to undergo. The quote was a description from a German mother who watched her son wind up in hospital. It is unclear what year the source was established in however it was featured in 'Hitlers Germany' written by Josh Brooman in 1985.
The quote evidently relates to the exhibition and provides a useful insight into the historical investigation about the Hitler Youth Groups |
Source IV
The propaganda poster to the right is a primary source and translates to "All Ten-Year-Olds Belong to Us". This demonstrates the immediate control the Hitler Youth Camps had over every child as they reached the age of 10. It is relevant because it depicts how the posters were created to promote the camps which aimed to manipulate their mindsets and indoctrinate Hitler's beliefs into the youth. This source is originated in 1938 after a drive by Baldur von Schirach in 1936 to recruit all ten-year-old year-olds into the Hitler Youth Camps.
This source is useful to the exhibition because it conveys the persuading propaganda posters which conveyed fresh-faced, smiling young girls in uniform, to depict the Hitler Youth Camps as fun and exciting. |