Information AboutHitler Youth |
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The Hitler Youth ( organization of the Nazi Party that existed from 1922 to 1945 . The Hitler Youth was the second oldest paramilitary Nazi group, founded one year after the '' Sturmabteilung '' (SA) Stormtrooper s. ORIGINS The Hitler Youth was founded in 1922 as the Jungsturm Adolf Hitler. The group was based in Munich, Bavaria , and served as a recruiting ground for new ''Stormtroopers'' of the SA. The group was disbanded in 1923 following the abortive Beer Hall Putsch but was re-established in 1926 , a year after the Nazi Party had been reorganized. The second Hitler Youth began in 1926 with an emphasis on national youth recruitment into the Nazi Party. Kurt Gruber, a law student and admirer of Hitler from Plauen in Saxony, home to many blue-collar workers, initiated the reconstruction of the League. Then in 1933, Baldur Von Schirach served as the first '' Reichsjugendführer '' (Reich Youth Leader) and devoted a great deal of time, finances, and manpower into the expansion of the Hitler Youth. By 1930, the group had over 25,000 members with the '' Bund Deutscher Mädel '' (BDM) (League of German girls), for girls aged from fourteen to eighteen). The '' Deutsches Jungvolk '' was another Hitler Youth group, intended for still younger children, both boys and girls. DOCTRINE The Hitler Youth had the basic motivation of training future " Aryan supermen" and future Soldier s who would serve the Third Reich faithfully. Physical and military training took precedence over Academic and scientific education in Hitler Youth organizations. Youths in ''HJ'' camps learned to use weapons, built up their physical strength, learned war strategies, and were indoctrinated in Anti-Semitism . After outlawing the Boy Scout s in all the lands Germany controlled, the Hitler Youth appropriated many of the Scouts' activities, though changed in content and intention. A limited amount of Cruelty of the older boys toward the younger was tolerated and even encouraged, since it was believed this would weed out the unfit and harden the rest. Members of the Hitler Youth wore paramilitary uniforms very similar to those of the Nazi Party, and the Ranks And Insignia Of The Hitler Youth were similar to the Ranks And Insignia Of The Sturmabteilung . ORGANIZATION The Hitler Youth was organized into corps under adult leaders, and the general membership comprised of boys aged fourteen to eighteen. After 1938, the Hitler Youth was a compulsory organization, mandatory for all young German men. The group was also seen as a recruiting ground for several Nazi Party paramilitary groups, with the '' Schutzstaffel '' (the SS) taking the most interest in the Hitler Youth. Members of the HJ were particularly proud to be bestowed with the single Sig Rune (victory symbol) by the SS. The SS utilized two Sig Runes as their mark, and this gesture served to symbolically link the two groups. The Hitler Youth was organized into local cells on a community level. Such cells had weekly meetings where various Nazi Doctrine s were taught by adult Hitler Youth leaders. Regional Hitler Youth leaders typically organized rallies and field exercises in which several dozen Hitler Youth cells would participate. The largest Hitler Youth gathering usually occurred once a year at Nuremburg , where Hitler Youth members from all over Germany would converge for the annual Nazi Party rally. The Hitler Youth also maintained training academies comparable to Preparatory School s. Such academies were considered breeding grounds for future Nazi Party leaders, and only the most radical and devoted Hitler Youth members could expect to attend. Several corps of the Hitler Youth also existed to train members who wished to become officers in the Wehrmacht . Such groups were usually devoted strictly to officer training in the particular field to which a Hitler Youth hoped to become an officer. The Marine Hitler Youth was the largest such corps and served as a water rescue auxiliary to the Kriegsmarine . THE FLAGS FOR THE HITLER YOUTH The basic unit of the Hitler Youth was the ''Bann'', the equivalent of a military regiment. Of these ''Banne'', there were more than 300 spread throughout Germany, each of a strength of about 6000 youths. Each unit carried a flag of almost identical design, but the individual Bann was identified by its number, displayed in black on a yellow scroll above the eagle's head. The flags measured 200 cm long by 145 cm high. The displayed eagle in the center was adopted from the former Imperial State of Prussia. In its talons it grasped a white coloured sword and a black hammer. These symbols were used on the first official flags presented to the HJ at a national rally of the NSDAP in August 1929 in Nürnberg. The sword was said to represent nationalism whereas the hammer was a symbol of socialism. The poles used with these flags were of bamboo topped by a white metal ball and spear point finial. The flags carried by the HJ "Gefolgschaft", the equivalent of a company with a strength of 150 youths, displayed the emblem used on the HJ arm band: a tribar of red over white over red in the centre of which was a square of white standing on its point containing a black swastika. The Gefolgschafts-flag measured 180 cm long by 120 cm high with the three horizontal bars each 40 cm deep. In order to distinguish both the individual Gefolgschaft and the branch of HJ service to which the unit belonged, each flag displayed a small coloured identification panel in the upper left corner. The patch was in a specific colour according to the HJ branch. For example there was a light-blue patch, a white Unit number and a white piping reserved for the Flying-HJ (Flieger-HJ). The flag poles were of polished black wood and had a white metal bayonet finial. |
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