“HITLER YOUTH”

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23045, 23 November 1936, Page 16

“HITLER YOUTH”

SIX MILLION YOUNG' NAZIS Ten years ago on July 4, 1926, the organisation known to-day as the Hitler Youth was founded. 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, (says a correspondent of the Manchester Guardian) comprises Jewish children, who are disqualified from joining the Hitler Youth and members of Catholic Youth or ganisations, which are so restricted to-day 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 von 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 Jugoslavia. 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; von Schirach repeatedly emphasises in his speeches that the movement stands above denominations, and indeed Catholicism is more viciously attacked in the organs of the Hitler Youth than in any other propaganda circulated in Germany. "YOUTH LED BY YOUTH"

" Youth must be led by youth," one 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 movement resembles to a certain degree our own Boy Scouts, for there are units which correspond to the cub pack, the Scout patrol, the troop, 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 18 or 19 may be responsible for so many as 1000 boys. This emphasis that is placed upon the young being led by the young is offset by the bureaucratic nature of the movement. Its headquarters 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 card-index register, similar to that in use at the Brown House in Munich, containing the minutest particulars of each member. PRELIMINARY MILITARY TRAINING

In its ideals and tendencies the Hitler Youth absorbs in its entirety the political philosophy of the Nazi movement. Its scope far exceeds that of any other youth movement, for it embraces every activity deemed suitable for the future citizen. There are mounted troops as well as the equivalent of Sea Scouts. Military training is anticipated, and it may be said that every boy in the movement after the age of 16 is capable of passing both the Certificate A and Certificate B of the British O.T.C. There is nothing of the Red Indian about the Hitler lad, but much of the soldier. " Shooting at 50 yards range is of more direct service to the Fatherland than any other form of sport"—this is a quotation from the hand book which is possessed by every member of the Hitler Youth. Hand-grenade throwing, gliding and gas protection are all included in the compulsory curriculum. Frequent references to Sparta colour the propaganda. 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 almost 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.