Figure 1.--This is the photographic album compiled by a Hitler Youth boy, we think about 1936-38 before the War. Unfortunately we do not know the boy's name. We do believe that he was from Saafeld (Saale). This is a town in the Saalfeld-Rudolstadt district of Thuringia, a state in southern Germany.

HBU has found a fascinating photographic album kept by or for a HJ boy. This is a difficult album to assess because so few of the images have captions and the captions that do exist are very cryptic. The album covers the full sweep of the Third Reich from 1933 through to the later part of the War. There are, however, no post-War photographs. We are not even sure that the album is about one boy. We do note several photographs of the same boy who went into the Luftwaffe. We see a school phortrait and many HJ images followed by World War II photographs. This may have been more of a family album because there are mny photographs that do not relate to the images of the HJ at the front of the book. We see another HJ boy and his BDM sister. We think they may be isters. Some of the photographs may be another family son or other members of the family. There are several adult photograpgs, inclluding military groups, and even a SS group. We are not entirely sure how to weave the story together. We suspect this is a family album, but we do not know the name of the family.

School Portraits

Early in the album we see a school group. This seems to be the earliest photograph in the album. It looks like a class of younger secondary boys. We know the portrait was taken in 1933, we think the earilest photograph in the album. The problem is that we do not know which of the boys in the portrait is the boy in the family album. We think the first boy is in there somewhere, but e are not sure. The 1933 portrait is labeled Reform - Real - Gymnasium zu Saalfeld. The boys and teacher are named. We also notice photographs taken at the Oberschule Saalfeld. Boys at the school are shown building gliders during the 1930s. We are not sure at this time if these were the same school.

First Boy

The album begins with what looks to be a newly minted HJ boy, probably 10 years old. This means we would have entered the DJ. The portrait is undated, but we would guess was taken about 1935 or so. One reason we think he has just ebtered the DJ is his age and the fact that he does not yet have any badges sewn on this shirt. He certainly looks rather proud of himself. Unfortunately there is no caption on the page providing any clues as to his name. We do believe that he was from Saafeld (Saale). This is a town in the Saalfeld-Rudolstadt district of Thuringia, a state in southern Germany.

HJ/BDM Group

Here we see a group of German children. We are not sure about the relationship to the rest of the photographs in the album. It is interesting becuse it shows a mixed group of HJ boys and BDM girls. This is unusual as almost all the HJ photographs we have noted show the HJ and BDM involved in separate activities. We note the HJ and BDM involved in parades and civic events, but alwats as separate units. We very rarely see the children and youth mixed together. An exception here was the KLV World War II evacuations. Some KLV camps were single gender, but we also notice mixed groups.