From: E. Blaschke (eblaschke@sprint.ca)
Date: Sun Feb 04 2001 - 19:05:26 PST
----- Original Message ----- From: Gabriella Taylor To: MEMORIES@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU Sent: Sunday, February 04, 2001 7:06 PM Subject: Re: Specifics on H_tler Youth, Please Hi There, Thank you, one and all, for your contributions. I must strongly differ and disagree with the lady from Austria. Hitler Youth was nothing like the "Girl Scouts" and it WAS totally affiliated with the SS and Hitler... eventually at 17 (even younger during desperate times), the kids were released from school early so that they could join in combat, etc. Hitler youth was in some way similar to boy scouts, it had a political instead of religious orientation. Hitler youth were helping in disasters, sometimes in harvesting crops, I believe, - they sold tokens for the "Winterhilfswerk", a charity helping people in winter-time, just like apples are sold by boy-scouts in this country. There were large sports rallies in which the Hitler youths took part and enjoyed them I am sure. When you speak of kids being released from school for combat, this is what actually happened: They were given an hour during school hours to be trained in target practice with guns. It wasn't "combat" (with an enemy). As to torture, I am sure that many of my older friends would have told me about it, if there was any. You must expect the same "torture" as in basic military training in the US, I am sure it is no picnic. And when you suspect sexual abuse you can be sure that there was none. It would have been totally contrary to the military ethics and Nazi propaganda, and if the Germans were anything, they were thorough and dedicated to their (peculiar) standards of ethics. While a Jew would have been easily subject to sexual abuse, no Hitler Youth would have been so abused in my view. Finally it was "natural" to join the Hitler youth at a certain age, and later the army. There is safety in numbers. Only "leaders" would have any connection with the SS, other than that Hitler Youth meant no more party allegiance than being a soldier in the German army would have. Of course, young people are often more dedicated to a cause, such as the communist Kosomol was in Russia, but all in all I believe Gabriella's research led her to much too dark a picture. Just for your info, I lived in Vienna during the war, was 14 when the war ended, was told to join the DJ (Deutsche Jugend - young HJ), took part in selling tokens on the street for good causes, then attended the first training session with guns. At that point I was told by a leader to not bother coming back, since they found out that my mother was classified as Jewish. But all my school-friends were part of the organization and I spent much time with them and would have heard about any problems or abuse. Hitler Youth, from what I've researched and from what I've been told personally was a "German" training ground of indoctrination and even torture in order to make sure that the children were capable of being real, true, strong Germans who could tolerate anything, any kind of physical or mental pain. Thank you everyone for the web sites. with all best, gabriella =========== ===========