Policies Towards the Young

• Topics covered in the text

  • Life in Nazi Germany
  • Nazi youth organizations
  • Nazi education policies
  • Effectiveness of the policies
• Adolf Hitler aimed to create a reich that would last for a thousand years
• Policies towards the young were designed to strengthen Germany and the Nazi party
• The Nazis believed young Germans should be brought up to support a strong independent Germany and be educated to believe in Nazi policies
• Hitler believed that young people could be taught to support him and secure the future of the thousand-year reich
• Hitler set up a system of youth organizations and an education curriculum to teach young people their role in life and indoctrinate them with Nazi ideals and racial hatred
• Hitler became chancellor


  1933
• In 1933, there were various youth organizations including the scouts, church groups, and the Hitler Youth
• In 1933, the Hitler Youth had around 150,000 members
• In 1933, the Nazis banned all youth organizations except the Hitler Youth and Catholic youth groups
• From 1936, membership of Nazi youth organizations became compulsory for young people aged over 10
• The Nazis believed that girls and boys were of equal importance but had different roles in the thousand-year reich
• Roles of girls and boys in the thousand-year reich

  • Girls should be brought up to have healthy babies
  • Boys should be brought up to be workers and join the armed forces
• Joining the Hitler Youth for boys

  1. Pimp or Little Fellows at age 6

  2. Deutsche Young Volk at age 10

  3. Full membership in Hitler Jugend at age 14
• Primary aim of Hitler Youth groups

  • Educate young people to believe in Nazi policies
• Members of youth organizations were expected to report disloyalty to the Nazis


  This included reporting parents, friends, and teachers
• Training for young men in Hitler Youth

  Rap reading, coding, shooting, specific skills like sailing, driving, flying, harsh drills, teamwork, loyalty, competitiveness, ruthlessness
• Hitler Youth activities focused on teamwork, loyalty, competitiveness, and ruthlessness to train soldiers fiercely loyal to the Nazis
• Failure to attend a Hitler Youth meeting was seen as a failure of duty and a sin against the nation
• Girls could join

  • The Young Model or Young Maidens from the age of 10
  • The Bund Deutsche Model League of German Maidens from the age of 14
• Activities for girls in the youth groups

  Similar to those of the boys, focused on political training including taking the oath of allegiance, expected to be strong and healthy with sporting and camping activities, received domestic training in cooking, baby care, sewing, bed-making, and first aid, taught about racial hygiene
• Lessons for young women aimed at encouraging them to choose a suitable husband, ideally an Aryan with blonde hair and blue eyes
• Young people were split in their opinion of the Hitler Youth groups, some enjoyed the outdoor and sporting activities and became committed to the Nazi ideals while others hated the activities and being forced to learn about the Nazi idols
• Parents' opinion of the Hitler Youth groups

  Many disliked the activities and teachings as they felt it undermined their own authority with their children
• Impact of the police state on objections to the Hitler Youth groups

  Ensured that most objections were kept to themselves
• Use of schools by Hitler to teach Nazi beliefs

  After 1933, Hitler used the existing structure of schools to teach young people the Nazi beliefs
• In 1934, Bernhard Rust was appointed as Education Minister and stated that the whole purpose of education is to create Nazis
• Changes to schools by Bernhard Rust


  Changes about teachers and the curriculum to achieve the goal of creating Nazis
• In April 1934, the Nazis passed a law giving them the power to sack any teachers they thought were anti-Nazi or held beliefs the Nazis were suspicious of
• All teachers had to swear an oath of loyalty to Hitler and join the Nazi Teachers League which ran political education courses
• Teachers began to follow Nazi beliefs by teaching students to do the Nazi salute, starting and ending each lesson with "Heil Hitler," and displaying the swastika and portraits of Hitler in classrooms
• The Nazis gained control of the curriculum, introducing new subjects such as race studies and amending traditional subjects like maths and history to focus on Nazi goals and beliefs
• Math problems included calculations on military equipment and spending, and on the cost of supporting disabled people, while history classes taught a biased view of German history focusing on Germany as a great and powerful nation
• Physical fitness of young people was of paramount importance, with the Nazis increasing the amount of physical education students did each week to 1/6 of all lessons
• Lessons for girls and boys

  Girls studied domestic science while boys learned skills for work in the military
• In 1935, all new textbooks had to be approved and "Mein Kampf" became a compulsory text to be studied at school