Hitler Youth Publications

Figure 1.--Here an older HJ boy is working with some younger chikldren. Perhaps this is a drawing lesson. It came from the 1943 volume of "Jugem: Euhr Welt". This was the last issue of this NAZI series. When the War began to go against the NAZIs, publishing non-essebntiasl materials quickly declined. The swastika on the boy's arm band has been digitally obsvured in compliance with German law.

Hitler Youth Leader Bauder von Schirach stated that, "It was my task to educate the youth in the aims, ideology and directives of the NSDAP, and beyond this to direct and to shape them." [Nizkor Project, 3302-PS.] The Hitler Youth to accomplish this had an elaborate propaganda apparatus which published numerous periodicals, ranging from a daily press service to monthly magazines. Through liaison agents the Hitler Youth Propaganda Office had permanent contact with Dr. Goebbels' Propaganda Office of the NSDAP and with the Ministry of People's Enlightenment and Propaganda. [Nizkor Project, 3349-PS.] The Hitler Youth organization published a series of magazines including Youth and Homeland", The Young World, The German Girl and Girls Your World. Another magazine, Will and Power, was produced for HJ leaders and female guardians. Some of the publications were about youth in general. Othes focused on the boys or girls' program.

Hilter Jungen

Here are some of the Third Reich publications we know of that deal with the boys' program. As far as we can tell, the publications were almost entirely separate for the boys and girls priograms, as were the actual programs. Some are publications about the Hitler Youth rather than published by the Hitler Youth organization itself. Even the publicatiins about the HJ, however, would not have been published without the HJ looking it over before publication. We are slowly expanding our archive of HJ publications during the Third Reich. We welcome reader suggestions about new publications or comments on the publications that we have already archived. The publications provide a good idea of the range of actibities pursued by the HJ. Often there is an emphasis on thge summer dsmp experiednces. Some aspects of the HJ program are not well documented. We see the descipline and physical activities as well as youth leadership depicted. Less well developed is the ideological indioctrinartion and the srtress placec upon boys not atheletically inclined. We welcome reader insights on these publications.

Bund Deutscher Mädel

Here are some of the publications we know of that deal with the HJ's girls' program--the Bund Deutscher Mädel.

Mädel an's Werk

Hrsg. v. d. Reichswaltg d. NS.-Lehrerbundes. - Berlin: Braun 1938.

Mädel, auch im Winter Körperertüchtigung

Breslau: NSDAP., Bund Dt. Mädel in d. HJ., Obergau Schlesien 4 1937.

Mädel im Beruf

Königsberg (Pr.): NSDAP., Bund Dt. Mädel in d. HJ., Obergau Ostland, 1936.

Mädel, dein Beruf!

Krakau: Befehlsstelle Generalgouvernement d. Reichsjugendführg 1941.

Mädel, dein Leben gehört dem Führer!

Königsberg (Pr.): NSDAP., Bund Dt. Mädel in d. HJ., Obergau Ostland 1 1937.

Mädel im Dienst

Berlin: NSDAP., Hitler-Jugend, Reichsjugendführg 1939.

Mädel im Dienst

Jungmädelsport. Hrsg. v. d. Reichsjugendführg. - Potsdam: Voggenreiter 1940.

Mädel im Freizeitlager

Hrsg. im Auftr. d. BDM,-Obergaues Pommern. - Potsdam: Voggenreiter 1936.

Mädel im Gesundheitsdienst

München: Lehmann 1941.

Mädel, komm zum deutschen Schwesterndienst

1938 s. S c h w e s t e r n d i e n s t , Der deutsche.

Mädel, komm zum deutschen Schwesterndienst!

Neustadt a. d. Weinstr.: NSDAP., Gauleitg, Amt f. Volkswohlfahrt 1941.

Mädel machen Werkarbeit

Kiel: NSDAP., Bund Dt. Mädel in d. HJ., Obergau Nordmark (6) 1939.

Mädel im Osteinsatz

Berlin: NSDAP., Hitler-Jugend, Reichsjugendführg 1942.

Mädel im Dritten Reich

Berlin: Freiheitsverl. 1936.

Mädel: eure Welt: Das Jahrbuch der deutschen Mädel

The NAZIs published a similar yearbook for the girls in the Bund Deutscher Mädel (BDM), the girls division of the HJ. The title was Mädel: eure Welt: Das Jahrbuch der deutschen Mädel. That would translate as "Girls: Your World". The subtitle translates, "The Yearbook of the German Girl". Like the boys version it was published by the Zentralverlag Franz Eher Nachfolger GmbH in München. I'm not sure if the girls' version was published in the same years as the boys' versions. The boys' version was published over 6 years from 1938-43. We do note that at least on of the covers was similar. We do not yet have information on the contents.

Mädel am Werk

BDM.-Jahrbuch. - Berlin: Dt. Jugendverl.

Mädel am Westwall

Neustadt a. d. Weinstr.: BDM., Obergau Saarpfalz (25) 1940.

Wir deutschen Mädel

BDM.-Jahrbuch. - Berlin: Dt. Jugendverl.

Die Mädelbücherei

Berlin: Junge Generation.

Mädels arbeiten für Deutschland

Hrsg. v. d. Landesstelle Südwestdeutschland d. nat.-soz. Frauenarbeitsdienstes. - Stuttgart: Der Lager-Kamerad 1936.

Modern Access

A reader wrote us asking, "Are there any reprints of HJ magazins available? I remember years ago seeing an article in an old Hitler Jugend magazine on dental health. I would like to reread this article. Can you help?" This raises the question, do German libraries have collections of HJ and other NAZI publications? And are they open to the public? And also and are they indexed > (either through published indexed or digitally on line). A German reader tells us, "You really expect that to see in open access in Germany? This kind of stuff is 'under the counter'-ware and in our library these kind of things are stored in the "poison" cabinet. I am sure it would be politically impossible to put anything of this stuff online (in Germany). And you can't publish it. It is simply forbidden by law. So there are no (legal) reprints." A librarian reports, "In our library we give out publications of that time (1933-1945) into the reading room only. Neighbrhood public libraries in Grmny do not have historic stuff so no items from that era. However our library is better equipped. We have an important historical archive. What you will find in neighborhood libraries are new history books about Nazi times. There is a lot of that." So I understand the situation in Germany, most German libraries have been purged of HJ and other NAZI publications, but that the larger ones have a collection only open to scholars who have to apply to library administrators for access. As far as I know, there is not national law about access to the publications and that each library considers the requests on an individual basis. But I am not yet sure about this. A German reader tells us, "Nazi publications in Germany is a very difficult and akward thing. It brings strong emotions and lots of criticism. And it easily happens that someone who is interested in anything of that times may be labelled a Nazi very soon. You are correct, scholars can work with the original publications. But they have to provide evidence they are working scientificly." As far as I know, no one has ever indexed this material. Another issue here is German publications during the NAZI era, but not actual NAZI Party publications. Here we are speaking about established magazines and newspapers. As the content was controlled by the Propaganda Ministry and contained a lot of NAZI material, we are not sure about public access.