Hitler Youth Activities: Fund Raising

Figure 1.--This is a scenevfrom a televiion program about a boy who joins the Hitley Youth much to the disapproval of his father who has communist sympathies. He is seen collecting money on the street. Notice the swastika emblazoned on the collection can. The boys uniform is dpicted accrtely, I'm not sure how accurate the collection can is.

The Hitler Youth boys and girls were extensively used to collect funds. This began befor the NAZIs seized power, but was greatly expanded after the NAZI take over in 1933. The children were a common site on street corners shaking cans toreceive coins. The funds were not to support the Hitler Youth program, but for he NAZI Party. Often some charity was promoyed, but as the funds went to the NAZI Party, no reliable piblic accounting was ever made. Given the number of children involved in the Hitler Youth movement, enormous sums must have been gathered in the fund raising effort. The use of the children to collect funds was quite different to the English Scouts which Baden Powell never let be used to solicit charitable donations. Unfortunately, HBC very little information at this time concerning the Hitler Youth fund raising efforts.

Effort

The Hitler Youth boys and girls were extensively used to collect funds. This began befor the NAZIs seized power, but was greatly expanded after the NAZI take over in 1933. The children were a common site on street corners shaking cans to receive coins. As far as we know, the only procedure was for the children to stand on street corners or other pedestrians areas and solicit funds by shaking collection cans. I'm not sure at this time if they were given slogans to recite. We are not sure at this time if there were certain times of the year when fund drives were more acive. We know they were expected to make a major effort--even in cold weather. A BDM official explained in a radio broadcast, "We do not want to produce girls who are romantic dreamers, able only to paint, sing, and dance, or who have only a narrow view of life, but rather we want girls with a firm grasp of reality who are ready to make any sacrifice to serve their ideals. Our Jungmädel, together with their comrades in the Jungvolk, join in the battle against hunger and cold. As they stand for hours outside in the cold with their collecting tins, they demonstrate true socialism." [Rüdiger] Note: More commonly NAZI spokes persons would say "national socialism" rather than just "socialism".

Charities

The Hitler Youth were extnsively used to pass out leaflets on the street before the NAZIs seized power. After they seized power they were used to collect money for Party charities. I am not sure, but I don't think that they normally collected money just for the Party. Rather they collected for Party charities. We do not have much information on just what those charities were. We do know that Winterhilfswerk (Winter Aid) wasvery important, perhaps the most important. This was reportedly to assist poor families during the Winter. There was of course no public accounting for thse funds. Thus I am not sure just how much of the money collected actually went for charitable purposes. One 1943 report indicated a special allotments for the WHW citizens it cares for, 10 RM per person. Thus, a family with three children received 50 RM. The principal NAZI charity was the National Socialist Volunteers (NSV). There appears to have been other charitable drives, such as for the Red Cross. I think this might have been more important during the War years, but I am not positive of that.

Results

Given the number of children involved in the Hitler Youth movement, enormous sums must have been gathered in the fund raising effort. One would think that if even a small number of Hitler Youth members were collcting funds at any given time, that pedstrians would have had to [pass my mmany children collecting funds.

Purpose

The funds were not to support the Hitler Youth program, but for he NAZI Party. We believe that often some charity was promoted, but as the funds went to the NAZI Party, no reliable public accounting was ever made. It is likely that substantial amounts were siphoned off for Party activitie or even the personal bank accounts of Party members. We do not know of any serious study that was ever made of Hitler Youth fund raising efforts.

Contrast with Scouts

The use of the children to collect funds was quite different to the English Scouts which Baden Powell never let be used to solicit charitable donations. Scouting founder Lord Baden Powell had an aversion to using Scouts to beg or solicit charitable contributions.

Sources

Rüdiger, Jutta. "Die Aufgaben des BDM. im Arbeitsjahr 1938," Das Deutsche Mädel", January 1938, pp. 1-3. This is a transcript of Rüdiger's radio address. Rüdiger was appointed to head the BDM in November 1937.