Hitler Youth Activities: Racism

Figure 1.--Here SA men and a HJ boy have seized and shut down a synagogue. (A dealer has obscured the NAZI swastika arm bands.) The photograph is undated, but was apparently taken before Kristalnacht. Older HJ boys were used in actions like this against Jews. They are apparently setting up a guard to make sure Jews don't take their signs down. They are also publicizing who was still buying from Jewish merchants. A German reader has helped translate the sign to the right which unfortunately is mot very clear. "It is very blurred and difficult to read in any language. But I am trying. If the right translation is correct than it only shows you how stupid and mean the Nazis were. German text: 'Bricht die Judenmacht, dann ehret ihr die Menschheit. Wer vom Juden kauft, der steht hier.' English translation: 'Break Jewish power. then you honor humanity. The one who buys from the Jew, is listed below. I am not sure about all this. It is too stupid."

Racism was an important part of the HJ program. A range of racist ideas were common in Germany as they were in many other countries, including America. It is impossible to quantify this, but elections before the NAZI take over suggest that virulent racism was a minority view. Thus Hitler needed the HJ to bring German youth along to his point of view. The focus was on anti-semitism, but the Jews were only one of the groups targeted by the NAZIs. We think that the great bulk of the racist activity as part of the HJ program was aimed at the Jews, but here actual information is limited. There are two aspects of the HJ racist activities: 1) training and 2) actual racist activities. We know that the ideological training program included instruction in anti-Semitism or other aspects of NAZI racist doctrine. This complimented actual school work. In the HJ I don't think there was actual school work. R ather it was mostly lectures and guided discussions. This occurred in weekly meetings as well as summer camps. We are less sure to what extent the boys engaged in anti-Semetic activities. And here it is difficult to destinguish between the individual actions of HJ and organized activities of HJ units. We know that after the NAZIs seized power that attacks on Jewish boys in and outside of school increased. This was primarily in the early years (1933-36) when Jewish children were still permitted to attend state schools. Boys and girls were pressured to break off friendships with Jewish boys and join in taunting of Jewish children. Not all of this came from the HK. Parents and teachers were also involved to varying degrees. To what extent HJ units actively pursued the ostrization of Jewish children or attacks on them we do not know. There are many reports from the Jewish children of their friends refusing to speak to them or of being attacked. Some Jewish children, as a result, left sch ool before they were legally expelled. An example from a Hamburg Jewish orphanage (Boys' Orphanage at No. 3 Papendamm) reads, "For some time they [the orphans] had not been able to move so freely as before in the small streets, passages and yards of the Grindel quarter. Older boys, with the peaked caps of the Hitler Youth, lurked behind the archways leading to the houses in the yards at the rear. They would suddenly appear in front of the Jewish children, blocking their way, jostling and abusing them. This occurred ever more frequently." HJ racist actions were not limited to these school boy actions. Older HJ boys were mobilized for more overt actions. We know that HJ older boys joined SA squads for Kristalnacht actions. Large numbers of people were needed to ran sack Jewish shops, destroy synagogues, break into homes, and arrest adult male Jews and older teenagers. We have also read about HJ boys joining community groups in hunting down Jews trying to escape during the War. We also know that BDM girls were used to assist in the deportation of Poles from occupied areas during the War. They engaged in activities ensuring that they did not remove anything of value as they were forced from their homes.