From: Eberhard Weber (glosys@PSNW.COM)
Date: Tue Aug 21 2001 - 20:00:22 PDT
----- Original Message ----- From: <hmemor@YOUTH.NET> To: <timewitnesses@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Tuesday, August 21, 2001 3:10 PM Subject: [timewitnesses] Hitler Youth Dear Rosie - As to your mothers age and Hitler Youth - the minimum age for joining any organized and uniformed youth group was ten. For boys there were two age groups. From 10 to 14 they were called "Jungvolk" or young people. Upward of 14 years of age they were part of the Hitleryouth. To be accurate, I was part of the Jungvolk, but most people lump both together, and at times I say I was part of the Hitleryouth in order to preclude essentially meaningless discusions about the differences. As to young girls, I only know about the BDM - or "Bund Deutscher Maedel". I tend to believe they were the equivalent to the Hitleryouth for boys, not the equivalent to the Jungvolk - or the below age 14 set. It is because my sister was five years older than I am that she was already in the BDM. So basically that is all the experientila reference I have. So your mother's age, close to mine, would have placed her into a separate girls-organization if indeed there was one. I know Soest - my mother and sisters lived nearby for a some years. The fact that Soest and other localities were small and thus different - I don't think the size of the town mattered as much as did the conviction of those who were placed in charge of those youngsters. Those who led local movements had considerable authority, and also usually exercised it. Anyone more "lenient" in a big city would, however, more likely to have been found out about and replaced. So perhaps that may have been a factor IF, indeed, smaller communities were less strict in their dogma and methods. Membership in the Hitleryouth and the BDM was very much compulsatory, usually. But the kids would not know about that - the pressure was put on the parents instead. In my case, however, and I am sure many other boys felt the same way, I WANTED to be part of the Hitleryouth and Jungvolk. Naturally one looks at the same reality differently today. But then it was something very attractive to belong to. I can give ytou many reasons why that is, none of them have anything at all to do with the Nazi movement, with dogma, with coersion, brainwashing, compulsion and such. We usually WANTED it more than our parents did. If the brothers were up to ten years older - and depending upon what year that was, they could very likely have been involved in the Hitleryouth. After all, the leadership was considerably older than 14, 16 or 18 - magic years all of them, in a boys life. It surprises me that her parents were not under pressure. But there is an answer for that, a "probable" answer. Kids are very naive in many ways - the parrot things they hear - they blabber things out without having and idea about what consequences may arise out of such innocent blabbering. But in those day, there were consequences. As a result, parents did NOT discuss anything in fron t of their children that in any way could be construed as not favorable to the regime or any of its institutions. Do you think that this is horrid? Yes - I would agree. But that is why I think today, and in a democracy, I see very much the same behavior even though the enforcing machine of a regime is not uniformed. I am referring here to "piolitical correctness" which we applaud so much here in the US as a "safe-speak" environment to avoid steeping on the fragile sensibilities of people. I find that "political correctness", no matter how noble the intent for having it, is by far more perverted behavior than it ever was under Hitler. There it was enforced. Here is is "believed in". Once a people actually believe in something, the show is all but over. If they only comply, i.e. if at least they have inner reservations, then there is hope. Given what many of us went through, I think "political correctness" packs more vennum than any dogma ever did, Hitlers despicable dogma not withstanding. Now then, some of what I voiced here may see to be very biased, very slanted. But that is what I think the purpose is of those of us who participate in this project that Tom started years ago. We can talk about all kinds of things, personal experiences and such. We all have seen the pictures, read the stories in so many types of media formats. What we see so little of is the "meaning" of things. And that sense of Meaning - that which does not show up in pictures but is as powerful as all the bombs that were dropped in that war, it is Meaning that shapes and shakes the world. And from what I have seen and experienced, I tend to think of our current atmosphere of guarded language as being far more sinister, and far more lethal to the spirit of a people than all the dogma spewed about by the leadership of the Third Reich. Sorry for this editorializing, my dear, but I see it as my mission to not just narrate but to rattle minds. That is what I sought to achieve by editorializing here. My best wishes to you. And Rosie? Think your own thoughts. Even if they are not on target, they are thoughts. So many of us no longer think - we parrot. And in that sense, not much has changed since those days - except that we now are voluntarily misguided while then we were compulsed into misguided behavior and thought. Eberhard The Berlin School Boy ------------------------ Yahoo! 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