Figure 1.--These appear to be recently inducted RAD boys in 1937. They appear to have been issued their uniforms, but not their boots yet. Notice that two of the teenagers are wearing strap shoes. We really can't tell if the strap shoes on the youth at the front of the leftmost line are canvas; but those on the person behind him look to me as if perhaps they might be. I was not sure what they are carrying, but after comments from a HBC reader, we think they are stools. (If you look cloesly you can see the tips of some of the back legs.) That suggests that they are going to an outdoor lecture. One paert of the NAZI program was political indoctrination. Unlike later RAD groups, many of these youths would have not goine through the Hitler Youth program.

These shoes outdoor activity shoes were for older boys and youths. They were essentiually the same as the play shoes younger boys and girls wore. They were a summer style for warm weather. Older boys were of course involved in more strenous activities, but apparently the shoes held up. They were not as common as the ones worn by younger children, but we do see some older boys and even teenagers wearing them. They do not seenm ti have had the same girlish or little boy image that the shoes now have. They were worn for camping, hiking, and other outdoor activities rather like American boys would wear canvas rubber-soled sneakers. We see boys in youth grouos wearing them, including the Hitler Youth. This was most common in the junior DJ division. But we even see boys in the Reich Labor Service (RAD) wearing them, apparently before their uniforms were issued.

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Created: 2:26 AM 3/27/2012
Last updated: 2:26 AM 3/27/2012