From: E. Blaschke (eblaschke@sprint.ca)
Date: Tue Feb 29 2000 - 19:03:11 PST
----- Original Message ----- From: Monica Drake <erdahl@IDIRECT.COM> Hi Monica, > Good morning. I am working on my mother's genealogy and can see that it will > be both interesting and troubling. I will give some background before I ask > my question. My mother was born in 1940 in Greifenberg, Austria (in > Karnten). Her own mother was only 14, so mom was raised by her grandparents. > Mom knew her mother and saw her occassionally around town, but basically > considered her grandparents to be her parents and didnt have much more of a > family. I lived in Vienna during the war and I'll try to answer your main questions to the best of my recollection. (I was 9 years older than your mother). > In interviewing her for my genealogical research, she has only vague > memories of her mother's family but has supplied me with the following: Her > mother had a brother who was part of the Hitler Youth. My mom's > understanding (what she was told) is that anyone who wished to attend > University had to join but that besides his name being on a piece of paper, > he didn't do anything involving the group. As a boy, I was under the impression that at a certain age (around 10) one joined the DJ (deutsche Jugend), then at 14 the HJ (Hitler Jugend) and at 18 one was drafted into the German army. I may be wrong, but I don't think that belonging to the Hitler Youth was in any way indicative of one's political support of Hitler, any more as the average German soldier was necessarily a Nazi supporter. It so happened that when I was old enough to join the DJ I was told I would not be welcome because my mother was considered Jewish. But all my schoolfriends were members and their main activities were sports, marches, and of course they had to attend political indoctrination sessions. The Nazis knew the value of propaganda and certainly were out to instill their doctrine into boys 14-18 who were at an age when boys tend to join groups (here it would be boy scouts or church-groups or gangs). These sessions no doubt turned some of the youths into Nazis, others were largely unaffected by the talks. It is true that at most political rallies Hitler Youths were present and usually marched past, and many of them were very proud of being in that organization, it was also a fact that, like the boy scouts in this country, they were supposed to help the elderly, stand on streetcorners in the winter time and sell tokens, raising money for the "Winterhilfswerk" (a type of charity). > I have been trying to research this organization and have found much, very troubling information about the HJ in Germany but nothing specifically about Austria. Does anyone know if the HJ was run differently in occupied Austria or was my mother told about the University angle to squelch guilt that perhaps the family had? No doubt there is a great deal of troubling information to be found about the Hitler Youth, as there is about the German army. But there were also many ordinary people in both organiztions who were not taken in by the Nazi propaganda, although the youth is generally more susceptible to indoctrination than are adults. Now the SS or SA troops are a different matter. They were convinced Nazis and had to make an effort to join and be accepted in those "elite corps". To answer your question about whether the HJ was run differently in "occupied Austria": First of all "occupied Austria" is a phrase that suggests that Austria was overrun by German troops and occupied much like the Netherlands or Poland or many other countries in Europe. In fact Austria was "annexed" to Germany (by a vote with German troops at the border poised to march in in the event the vote didn't go their way), but it did, and Austria became a province of Germany (the "Ostmark") and as such it was one country with the same rules and regulations for the HJ and any other institutions in Germany. Now, having said that, there were regional differences in many parts of Germany in how specific rules were interpreted. There were also differences in urban and rural settings, so what I saw and lived through in Vienna may not have been the same as your mother encountered in Carinthia (Kärnten), which is a more rural area. >What I have read seems to contradict what my mom was told. My grandmother had one other brother whom my Ggrandparents sent over the mountains into Switzerland right at the beginning of the occupation, so I have questions about why one son left to attend school there and the other chose to remain in Austria. Fleeing to Switzerland in 1938 would suggest that the person was considered an "undesirable" by the Nazis. That might have been nothing more than a Jewish connection in the family, or perhaps participation in anti-German rallies while Austria was still independent. Choosing to stay at home (the other brother) should not be construed as him supporting the Nazi regime. You took great risks trying to leave the country illegally and most people wouldn't have tried it. regards, Ernest.