"HITLER YOUTH"

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 68, 17 September 1936, Page 25

"HITLER YOUTH"

SIX MILLIONS OF NAZIS

THEIR AIMS AND METHODS

MARTIAL VIRTUES

Ten years ago, on July 4, 1926, the organisation known today as the Hitler Youth was founded, says a writer in the "Manchester Guardian." The movement . contains , upwards of 6,000,000 German children of both sexes; only 10 per cent., it is estimated, of German youth is outside the movement. This figure of 10 per cent, comprises Jewish children, who are disqualified from joining the Hitler Youth, and members of Catholic Youth organisations, which are so restricted today as to be rendered inactive. The membership of over 6,000,000 may be compared with that of the Boy Scout movement, which numbers all over the world just 3,000,000. The leader for some time past has been Baldur yon Schirach, a man in his thirties and one of the very few members of the Neo-Pagan movement —apart from Rosenberg—to hold high office. The Hitler Youth naturally invites comparison with other youth movements directly or indirectly controlled by the State, such as the Young Pioneers of the Soviet, the Balilla of Italy, and the Sokol of Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. But the Hitler Youth is different from these organisations in several important respects. It was not founded under the patronage of the State, for its purpose was to furnish a basis on which the Third Reich could, be founded. It knows neither of the two ' restraining influences at work in the Fascist Balilla, the family and religion; Yon Schirach repeatedly .emphasises in his speeches that the movement stands above denominations, arid indeed Catholicism is more viciously attacked in the organs of the Hitler Youth ("Das Junge Deutschland," "Wille und Macht," "Die , Fanfare," and "Jungvolk") than in any other ' propaganda circulated in Germany. , ' / "YOUTH LED BY YOUTH." "Youth must be led by youth," ont, of Hitler's dicta, is the slogan-of the movement. The conception of leadership has become a fetish and is ceaselessly inculcated. The organisation of the movemnt resembles to a certain degree our own Boy Scouts, for there are units which correspond to the Cub pack, the Scout patrol, the troops, and so on. Whereas in the Scouts, however, it is an adult who is in charge, it is invariably a boy who controls the , unit in the Hitler Youth, and a lad of eighteen or nineteen may be responsible for as many as 1000 boys. This emphasis that is placed up6n the young being led by the young is offset by the bureaucratic naturft of the movement. Its headquarters, in: the Kronprinzen:Ufer, house nothing less than a Ministry of Youth. Welfare, juvenile law, and hygiene are all assigned to various departments, and there is-^-as might be expected—-a cardindex, register, similar to that in use at the Brown House in Munich, containing ths . minutest particulars of each member. From the headquarters come all orders, and in case a young patrol leader should lack the imagination to think of an evening's programme for his patrol he can be supplied -with one—uniform for the whole Reich—weekly from headquarters. SPECIAL INSTITUTES. In order that there should be no dearth of "leaders,- .-special institutes have been founded,' the so-called leaders' schools, where the more promising boys are sent for a course of instruction in "self-reliance and i leadership." The chief of these schools at Potsdam, which the writer has I visited, resembles one of the pre-war 1 German Cadet Schools, both in th,e discipline maintained and the:emphasis laid upon physical culture. The complexity of the organisation may be realised whan it is known that there are special departments for the youth hostels (these were introduced, it should be remarked, under the Republican. Government) for German youth in Europe (whose chief activity is the supplying of Pan-Germanist .propaganda) and a department for : "relations with foreign youth." This last department is' especially interesting since it is to England that German youth looks today with unconcealed admiration and the desire to win our approbation, above all. The young German in charge of this department, Herr Bcncmann, makes constant visits 'to England, lecturing and organisms Anglo-German exchange visits. In its ideals and tendencies the Hitler" Youth absorbs in its entirety the ! political philosophy of the Nazi move-' | ment. In the. course of one evening lin August, 1935, I visited four Heimi abende, or evening meetings, of dif- ! ferent patrols in the Berlin suburbs, jln the first of the "dens" a boy of ! about 17 was holding forth to his pat- ! rolon the correct- method of wearing ! the' uniform; this, it may be remarked !in passing, is very similar to the I Scouts' brown shorts and shirt, black I neckerchief, with a swastika armband; ! and a dagger inscribed with "Blut und ! Ehre". ("Blood and Honour") upon theI blade. | THE LIGHTNING FLASH. j The distinctive sign, incidentally, of ! : the Hitler Youth is a flash of lighti ning, which in other circumstances in | Germany, it is sometimes cynically re- ; marked, is used as a danger-sign to in-.. ! dicate highly-charged currents. The ! walls of the room were decorated ! with the usual photographs of Nazi ! leaders, together with a portrait of ! Herbert Norkus, a Hitler youth killed !in a street affray with Communists, i who now occupies a position as nai tional martyr, second' only to that of ! Horst Wessel. :In another "den" was a group of ! the Bund Deutscher Madel (the female counterpart of the Hitler Youth, of ! which, however, it is a corporate part). i After some singing—upon which no l aspersions can be cast—a short talk ! was given on the position of the I Siidetic (Bohemian) Germans in I Czechoslovakia and the desirability of ! corresponding with them, so that they I might be kept in touch with the ! achievemftits of the Third Reich. ! The scope of the Hitler Youth far i »exceeds that of any other youth moveI ment, for it embraces every activity ! deemed suitable for the future citizen. ; There are mounted troops as well as I the equivalent of Sea Scouts. Military i training is anticipated, and it may be ; said that every boy in the movement i after the age of sixteen is capable of i passing both the Certificate A and .Certificate B of our 0.T.C.. There is nothing of the Red Indian about the Hitler lad, but much of the soldier. There is no attempt in the movement to recapture the romantic, carefree attitude that characterised the pre-war Wandervogel. "Shooting at fifty yards range is of more direct service to the Fatherland than any other form of sport"—this is a quotation from the handbook which is possessed by every member of the Hitler Youth. Handgrenade throwing, gliding, and gas protection are all included in the compulsory curriculum. Frequent references to Sparta colour the propaganda. WORKS CAMPS NEXT. The Hitler Youth is one stage only in the life of the German boy, a preparation to be followed by the works camps (Arbeitsdienst), conscription, and then the S.A., the S.S. guards, or the Labour- Front. Yet the enthusiasm, amounting almost, to ecstasy, of the members is indubitable. When it is manifested in some of their rituals'

—there is - much symbolism. -in the movement—it is . almostI'frightening.: This enthusiasm may be explained by the fact.that it is, after, all, for boys, very good fun to, be taking part in a revolution,very Satisfying:•,to feel, however: humdrum or prosaic your work, that you personally, are fulfilling: the trust that the Leader' has placed in you. : . •' :...-■ ..,., -; At present a bureaucracy from Berlin directs the movement. But howlong this control will last—irrespective of the fortunes of National Socialism -—is a moot question. Under the direction of old leaders of the Wandervogel movement—who constitute today a, large portion of the intellectual opposition (working-class opposition^ has been too securely battened under): -—the Hitler.Youth would constitute;a very dangerous force. For Prussian military stiffness and the "leader" principle conceal an emotional malleability such as no other nation can show. :..'■--"■'■■: '■■ .■■'■■• ■'■'■ "'/:!:■ ■:,-' .