How Did War Affect Young People?

• 1989 - membership of Nazi youth movement was made compuslory

  • by this time, the youth movements were going through a crisis
  • many experienced eladers drafted in German army and other leaders had been replaced by keener Nazis
  • many of the movements were now run by older teenagers who enforced rigid Nazi rules -forbade other teenagers to meet informally with their friends
• As the war progressed, the activities of the youth movements focued increasingly on the war effort and military drill

  • popularity of the movement decreased and anti-Hitler Youth movements begin appearing
  • Nazis identified 2 distinct groups of young people who they were worried about - the Swing movement and Edelweiss Pirates
  • ‘
• Swing Movement’ - made up mainly of middle-class teenagers

  • went to parties where they listened to English and American music and sang English songs
  • danced American dances such as the ‘jitterbug’ to banned jazzmusic
  • accpeted Jews at their clubs and talked about sex
  • deliberately ‘slovenly
  • Nazis issues a handbook helping the authorities to identify these degenerate types, showing them having unkempt, long hair and exaggeratedly English clothes
• Eddelweiss pirates - working-class teenagers

  • not an organised movement and had groups in various cities withd ifferent names e.g. ‘The Roving Dudes’, ‘The Kittelbach Pirates’
  • Pirates were mainly aged between 14 to 17 - Germans could leave school at 14 but they did not have to sign on for military service until they were 17
  • they went camping on the weekends
  • they sang songs like the Hitler Youth but changed the lyrics to mock Germany
  • taunted and attacked Hitler Youth
  • the Pirates included boys and girls
  • much freer in their attitude towards sex
• December 1942 - the Gestapo broke up 28 groups containing 739 adolescents

  • they couldn’t exterminate them or put them in concenrating camps because they wanted workers for industry and future soldiers
  • they would sometimes arrest the pirates and sometimesignore them
• 1944 Cologne - Pirate activities escalated

  • helped shelter army deserters and escaped prisoners
  • stole armaments and took part in ana ttack on the Gestapo during which its chief was killed
  • Nazi responded by rounding up the ‘ringleaders’
  • 1944 November - 12 publicly hanged
• Neither of the two groups had strong political views

  • not political opponents of the Nazis but they resented and resisted Nazi control in their lives