The Nazi child army
Child soldier’s last stand
My life in Hitler’s Germany
The Hitler Youth. For more than a century Germany has had a tradition of Youth Organizations. By far the most successful and controversial of these was the ‘Hitlerjugend’ or ‘Hitler Youth’. This film documents the rise and fall of an organization led by the Nazi Party, which changed the lives of over 18,000,000 Germans under the age of 18. Hitler once stated, ‘I want young people to grow up so they will frighten the world, a violent, dominant, cruel youth...I do not want intellectual education, knowledge is ruin to my young men...with them I can make a new world.’
Life in Nazi Germany - Animated History
William L Shirer Talks About the Hitler Youth (1945). A short film about the Hitler Youth and their activities in Nazi Germany.
What was life like for young people in Nazi Germany? Part 1
What was life like for young people in Nazi Germany? Part 2
After the surrender in May 1945, Germans wanted to start a new life – to clear away the rubble and forget 12 years of National Socialism. But just months earlier, 17-year-olds were being sent to fight as "a last resort."
How the Hitler Youth Turned a Generation of Kids into Nazis
Hitler’s war against Boy Scouts fuelled the Third Reich’s ideology—and its military might.
Shaping the Future: Indoctrinating Youth
“These boys and girls enter our organizations [at] ten years of age, and often for the first time get a little fresh air; after four years of the Young Folk they go on to the Hitler Youth, where we have them for another four years . . . And even if they are still not complete National Socialists, they go to Labor Service and are smoothed out there for another six, seven months . . . And whatever class consciousness or social status might still be left . . . the Wehrmacht [German armed forces] will take care of that.”
—Adolf Hitler (1938)
The German Teens Who Rebelled Against Hitler
These adolescents, aged between 12 and 17, hang around late in the evening with musical instruments and young females. Since this riff raff is in large part outside the Hitler Youth and adopts a hostile attitude towards the organization, they represent a danger to other young people. — Nazi Party Report, Dusseldorf, Germany, July 1943
Transforming Germany in the 1930s
Learn how the Nazis destroyed democracy, targeted minorities and political enemies, and encouraged conformity and consent within German society in order to build the Third Reich.