How did young people react to the nazi regime?

The Hitler youth, implemented in 1933, was designed to make young boys good, disciplined soldiers by giving them basic military training. The vast majority of young people joined and enjoyed attending the Hitler youth, engaging in a range of activities such as map reading, camp crafts, hiking and cross country.

Those in the Hitler youth learnt about the ‘unjustness’ of the Treaty of Versailles and the ‘november criminals. They were taught a biography of Hitlers life and they learnt to feel a great sense of hatred and mistrust toward Jewish people.

By 1936 it was compulsory for ‘Aryan’ youth over the age of 6 to join a youth group. The Hitler youth was only for boys aged 10-18.

They were extremely successful as by 1939 82% of the population aged 10-18 attended Hitler youth.

If you were a girl you would have attended ‘The League of German Maidens’ which prepared girls for motherhood.

They were taught domestic skills such as cooking, cleaning, fixing a household budget and sewing.

Most boys claimed to feel a genuine loyalty and sense of admiration toward Hitler.

All schools were placed under the control of the ministry. Jewish teachers were fired and to ensure that teachers could be relied upon to spread the nazi message, they took a loyalty oath to hitler.

The curriculum was changed to ensure that the Nazi ideologies were reflected in the teachings of subjects such as biology, history, and mathematics by re-writing textbooks to be anti-jewish and pro Hitler. Additionally all religious education was removed from the curriculum.

The Swing movement was an anti-nazi movement, made up of middle class teenagers who were much more interested in being normal teenagers, partying and growing up. This group accepted Jewish people. Those in the swing movement were deliberately “slovenly” and wanted nothing to do with politics.

The edelweiss pirates were a gang of working-class teens, aged around 14-17 who were against the controlling Nazi regime. This was not an organized movement although it extended right throughout Germany. Groups in various cities took different names, such as; ‘The Roving Dudes’ in Essen and ‘Navajos’ in Cologne.

The groups had a lot in common with one another, all rejecting the Nazi Regime. The groups would sing songs, similar to the songs the Hitler youth sung, only changing the lyrics to mock Hitler and Germany. These groups would even taunt and sometimes attack the Hitler youth kids they encountered, and were therefore classified as ‘The edelweiss pirates’ by the Nazi

As Germany wanted more able bodied workers they would not arrest / kill every edelweiss pirate they saw, they would only exterminate ring leaders.

In 1942 the Gestapo broke up 28 groups containing 739 youth.

In 1944, the Pirates stole armaments, attacked the Gestapo, killing a chief, and helping to shelter escaped prisoners. As a punishment, the Nazi’s rounded up tweleve ‘ringleaders’ of the operation and publicly executed them.

As Germany was in need of more able-bodied workers and soldiers, the Nazi’s would not arrest or kill every Edelweiss pirate they encountered, sometimes ignoring them and other times arresting them. Only ringleaders were exterminated.

Neither of the teenage rebel groups had strong political views. Neither group was a political opponent of the Nazi’s, the simply resented and resisted the Nazi control of their life.