NAZI Education: Schoolwear--Hitler Youth Uniform


Figure 1.--Here we see a primary class in 1934. Here 10 of the children have orn their their HJ uniforms. This is more than we normally see and note that it was in 1934 when membership was not yet compulsory. And looking at the children, many may have not yet been 10 years old. We suspect here that the teacher encouraged the children to wear their uniforms. One of the pins on the teacher's lapels may be a NAZI-Party pin.

The children did have their Hitler Jugend (HJ) uniforms which they sometimes wore to school. We note many school portaits at the time with none or only a few of the children wearing their HJ uniforms. Some photographs show quite a few chldren wearing their HJ uniforms. There seems to have been no national policies on this. Some parents may have encouraged or discouraged this. Teachers or school authorities may also have had some impact. And the children themselves surely had some say in the matter. There does ot seem to have been a special day, as was common in America when children periodically wore their Scout uniforms. One German reader tells us that this was uncommon, although he remembers older boys wearing their HJ uniforms to school on occasions when there was some special event. Some boys did wear their black DJ/HJ short pants to school as they were a utilitarian garment with many pockets. [Wellershaus] Of course all the insignias and badges were on the brown shirt. We have only a few images of school cildren wearing their HJ uniforms and do not yet fully understand how to interpret them.

Prevalence

The children omce they reached age 10 years did have their Hitler Jugend (HJ) uniforms which they could wear to school. We note many school portaits at the time with none or only a few of the children wearing their HJ uniforms. HBC notes that most of the available images of Geman school children taken during the NAZI era that we have archived show the children wearing their ordinary civilian clothes. We notice a few images suggesting that some of the children wore their Hitler Youth (HJ) to school. One report indicates that this was not common, but we have only limited information at this time. Some photographs show quite a few chldren wearing their HJ uniforms. There seems to have been no national government policy on this. We have only a few images of school cildren wearing their HJ uniforms and do not yet fully understand how to interpret them.

Chronology

There are chronological features here. The NAZIs only seized power in 1933. We believe that very few students wore their uniforms to school before Hitler was appointed Chancellor (January 1933). And until this point, most HJ members were teenagers, often older teenagers, some of which were no longer in school as only a minority of German children attended secondary schools. This changed after Hitler was appointed Chncellor, although only a ninority of children were Hitler Youth members until membership was made mandatory (1936). Another factor is that the children could only join when they reached 10-years of age.

Parents

Some parents may have encouraged or discouraged this reflecting their political outlook. And of course some children were more enthisiastic than others.

Teachers

Teachers or school authorities may also have had some impact. And the children themselves surely had some say in the matter. The Hitler Youth unlike the Soviet Young Pioneers was not a school-based program. This was in part because the NAZIs did not trust the schools. Germany had a fine public school and most teachers were anti-NAZI or apolitical. TThis of course change after the NAZIs seized power. Anti-NAZIs or those no willing to come onbaord were fired. Vocal anti-NAZIs were arrested. they were replaced with Party loyalists. Even so the public schools never became a school-based program.

Special Day, Ceremonis, and Events

There does ot seem to have been a special day, as was common in America when children periodically wore their Scout uniforms. I recall that Thursday at my elementary school was Scout Day in the 1950s when we wore our Cub uniforms during the 1950s. A good many of us did so as did the girls wearing their Browine uniforms. One German reader tells us that this was uncommon, although he remembers older boys wearing their HJ uniforms to school on occasions when there was some special event. While we do not see many school images with large numbers of children wearing their HJ uniforms. We do note what seem to be ceremonies or special ecents when the children are wearing their uniforms. We note some instances where the children are wearing their uniforms. After 1936 virtully all the childrem would hav been Hj members as membership was required by law. Here some of the images may be the NAZI party schools where the boys wore their HJ uniforms as a school uniform. . We are a little uncertain about this as most of our images are not identified.

KLV

Once the World war II evacuations began because of the allied bombing, we do see many KLV children wearing their uniforms. Once the children were were evacuated to KLV facilities, school ceased to be a serious activity.

Utilitarian Choices

Some boys did wear their black DJ/HJ short pants to school as they were a utilitarian garment with many pockets. [Wellershaus] The brown shirts were a different matter. Of course all the insignias and badges were on the brown shirt. The same occurred after the War during the occupation. We see many boys wearing the black vord shorts, but not the briwb shirts.

Sources

Aryaman Stefan Wellershaus, e-Mail, July 30, 2002.







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Created: 5:00 AM 5/1/2008
Last updated: 10:08 AM 5/10/2017