From: Susan Ferrill (sferr@ONRAMP.NET)
Date: Sun Feb 04 2001 - 11:33:26 PST
Hi, I am a lurker here, but I have something to add to these questions, from at least 2 former members' experiences. I recently met 2 elderly cousins from Germany, Berlin and Hildesheim, that I didn't even know were still alive until I found some information on the Internet. We talked a little about what life was like for them during WWII. For one thing, they said they were raised to love all people, including Jews. They said they loved the Jewish people and counted them among their friends----but they had to keep quiet about it in order to remain alive. I wonder how many Germans were in the same boat. As for the Hitler Youth movement, they told me that they had to join. It was compulsory unless you wanted to get into trouble. They were promised field trips, outings, parties, etc. In reality, they said all they did was stand in line, arms raised, spouting slogans for hours and hours. They never had a party, they never went on a field trip. These were just promises made to lure people into the Hitler Youth. They said they quietly stopped going one day as a result of the broken promises. I never learned why they didn't get into trouble for dropping out, but I have sneaky suspicion that one of their uncles who was in the SS helped them out. He would have been the same person who kept my great uncle and 2nd cousins on the other side of my family out of jail in WWII--they were avid Communists back then and from what I heard he was always getting them out of trouble. At 06:27 PM 2/4/01 +0000, you wrote: >. >Gabriella Taylor said.... > > >Thank you so much for your personal information, experience, and analysis >of > >Hitler Youth. Though I have a fairly good general idea of what it was >about, > >I'm unsure about the question of "personal information, experience" since, >as far as I'm aware, Eddy was not a member of Hitler Youth. However, several >subscribers to this MEMORIES list were, and perhaps we can look forward to >other views. > >A search on our archives at >http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/memories.html for the term (hitler >jugend) gives several accounts which may help Gabriella Taylor. Also, the >many personal stories found at http://timewitnesses.org/english/stories.html >(now available in French and German as well as in English) might yield >further information. > >================ >Tom Holloway >tom.holloway@u3a.org.uk >tom@holloways.org <=== private email >http://timewitnesses.org >01926-771772 Houston, Texas, USA http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Pointe/3487