Paper Summary:

The paper explores how so many of Germany's best and brightest young people could become swept up in the machinations of a hate-filled and destructive Nazi regime. The paper provides evidence to show that the Hitler Youth's members were very committed to the objectives of the Nazi government because of their integration with the SS, the SA and the frightfully brutal SS-Totenkopfverbande. The paper then discusses how the situation in pre-war Germany and German youth's exposure to wide-spread indoctrination made it easier for them to be implements of the Nazi regime.

From the Paper:

"As much as some might wish to deny it, there is strong evidence that the Hitler Youth (the Hitlerjugend or HJ) was well-integrated within the Nazi apparatus. For one thing, it was sometimes said within Nazi Party circles during the midst of the Second World War that the HJ actually walked in lock-step with Himmler's SS (Schutzstaffel). As if this involvement was not troubling enough, it appears as though the Hitler Youth was intimately associated with both the SA (Sturmabteilung) and the SS - though the SS influence and relationship did grow stronger over the course of the 1930s. In any case, the SA did begin training HJ members (under Hitlerjugend auspices) at the age of 17, thereby preparing them for military roles in the war just ahead (Rempel, 19-20)."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Becker, Howard. German Youth: Bond or Free? New York: Oxford University Press, 1946.
• Brustein, William. Roots of Hate: Anti-Semitism in Europe before the Holocaust. England: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
• Koch, H.W. The Hitler Youth: Origins and Development, 1922-1945. New York: Stein & Day.
• Peutkert, D. "Youth in the Third Reich." Life in the Third Reich. Ed. R. Bessel. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987. 25-40.
• Rempel, Gerhard. The Hitler Youth and the SS. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1989.

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