Figure 1.--Here are five of the Irish boys involved in the 1936 exchange visit to NAZI Germany. Note how two of the boys have adopted Hitler Youh dress which tells you something abot the boys' mindset.

We see youth exchanges with the NAZIs during the 1930s. This is interesting because it occurred at a time that international travel was not common. What international travel that did occur was the province of rich and very affluent families. This obviously was the case in America because here was an ocean to cross. But even in Europe where countries were smaller and packed closer together, international travel was not common. We see Hitler Youth (HJ) groups going to Britain and we think other European counties. We note HJ groups in Britain and Italy. There wee presumably other countries visited that we do not know about. We see youth groups visiting Germany. This usually was Scout groups. Ireland was a little different because Scouting had a Britrish taint to it--the same reason that Scouting was not as popular in Germany as in many other European countries. We don't see Irish Scouting groups visiting NAZI Germany. We do see a contingent of Irish secondary school students, Catholic teenagers participating in an exchange, organized through Irish-German cultural groups. We do not have a lot of details, but there seem ti have been about 15 students--all boys. They seem to have selected boys with favorable attitudes toward the NAZIs. It was described as an educational experience to promote goodwill and learn about German (NAZI) youth culture. It was timed to coincided with the Berlin Olympic Games (1936). his permitted the boys to experience the Olympic spectacle. This included the opening ceremony at the Olympic Stadium with Hitler famously opening the Games with swastika banners flying. The now standard torch relays were introduced by the NAZI planners. The boys engaged in group activities with the Hitler Youth (figure 1). We are not sure how language was handled. Perhaps the boys were studying German. One source suggests that there were discussions on topics like 'sports, nationalism, and anti-colonialism'. Here the focus was on British colonialism, not the German colonialism described in Mein Kampf. We are not sure if anti-semitism entered the discussions. Interestingly, Ireland did not participate in the Berlin Olympics. The e International Olympic Committee (IOC) insisted that there be a unfed Irish team, which did not go down well in Dublin and Belfast.

Created: 12:44 AM 4/1/2026
Last updated: 12:44 AM 4/1/2026