Bund Deutscher Mädel: HJ Camp

Figure 1.--Here we see a group of BDM girls at their summer camp, probably in the late 1930s. The sign has the HJ symbol and reads, "Schwab HJ: Lager. JM - Untergau 125. Lager Staufenburg." Lager means camp and Gau was a NAZI administrative unit. JM means Jung Mannschaft.

Here we see a group of BDM girls at their summer camp, probably in the late 1930s. The sign has the HJ symbol and reads, "Schwab HJ: Lager. JM - Untergau 125. Lager Staufenburg." Lager means camp and Gau was a NAZI administrative unit. JM means Jung Mannschaft. Note the name of the camp, Lager Staufnburg. World War II history buffs will recognize the name. It was Col. Count von Staufenburg that attempted to assasinate Hitler (July 1944). The camp was probably still operating at the time. Presumably it got a quick name change. A reader writes, "Staufenburg is a castle in Southern Germany. The word Burg means castle. Berg is mountain. Staufenberg of course was not yet famous when this picture was taken. By the way, I saw the movie "Valkyrie" with Tom Cruise as Count von Staufenberg. Fascinating. I remember when it happened in 1944. Many aristocrates were involved in the plot to kill Hitler. Too bad it failed!"

Photograph

Here we see a group of BDM girls at their summer camp, probably in the late 1930s. The long skirts probably were more common in the 30s than 40s. The photograph, however, is not dated so we are not sure just when it was taken. Notice the small accordian one of the girls brought along. Also note the one girl's sandals. That suggest to us that the girls did not go on a long hike to reach the site here where the photograph was taken. All the girls wear BDM uniforms except for one. We suspect she may have been a local girl rather than a camper. The girls could be campers or girls from the local village. The girls are clear;y outside the camp. We think, however, that the HJ in the sign here probably means the overall organization and not that the camp was a specifically boys camp. I think it unlikely that the HJ leaders would allow a group of girls to set up outside a boys camp. Noe woulld the girls' parents be too impressed. But of course one never knows.

Sign

The sign tells us quite a lot about the camp. The sign has the HJ symbol and reads, "Schwab HJ: Lager. JM - Untergau 125. Lager Staufenburg." Lager means camp and Gau was a NAZI administrative unit. JM means Jung Mannschaft. The full text would read "Schwäbisch Hitler Jugend Lager. Jung Mannschaft - Untergau 125. Lager Staufenburg. In English: Swabian Hitler Youth Camp. Young Team - Sub District 125. Camp Staufenburg."

HJ symbol

The sign has the HJ diamond symbol in the red and white HJ colors. We always thought that this symbol was for the entire HJ organization and not just the boys' segment. We see girls with the diamond symbol on their uniform. A good example is an unidentified BDM girl. We note that the BDM did have a separate, destinctive symbol of its own, an eagle with a swastica. So we are not entirely sure that the sign was for a HJ boys's camp, but it was possible. We have not yet found a sign for a girls' camp.

Schwäbisch Hitler Jugend Lager

The top of the sign reads, "Schwäbisch Hitler Jugend Lager", meaning Swabian Hitler Youth Camp. This not only tells us that it is a HJ camp, but that it was located in Swabia. This is an area of Germany. Swabia or Suabia (Schwaben) was a medieval duchy in southwest Germany. Swabia in German is known as Schwaben and in Latin as Suevia. The capital of the duchy was Augsburg. The duchy covered the area of what is now southwestern Germany. The duchy included modern Baden-Württemberg (the location of the Black Forest) and areas of western Bavaria (as far as the Iller River) and northern Switzerland. It was located strategically in cental Germany in the headwaters of Europe's two most important rivers--the Danube and the Rhine.

Jung Mannschaft

JM meant Jung Mannschaft. This would translate to Young or youth team. We are not sure, however, what that actually meant. It seems to suggest that this was a special kind of HJ camp, but we do not know what made this special.

Untergau 125

The Gau was a new administrative unit introduced by the NAZIs. The NAZI Gaus were like provinces or states and headed by a Gaulietier or governor personally appointed by Hitler and serving at his pleasure. Thus the term Untergau here might be translated as sub-district. Note the number 125 here. We are not entirely sure what that mean. It perhaps refers to the number of sub-districts in Swabia, meaning that there 125. There were large numbers of HJ camps in Germany. They had been seized from the other youth groups in 1933 and subsequently. And the HJ had opened new ones. The NAZIs required all German children to join the HJ at age 10 and most attended summer camps. So large numbers of camps were needed. We do not know if each Untergau had a camp. There would have been quite a number of HJ camps located throughout Swabia.

Lager Staufenburg

Note the name of the camp, Lager Staufenburg. World War II history buffs will recognize the name. It was Col. Count von Staufenburg that attempted to assasinate Hitler (July 1944). The camp was probably still operating at the time. Presumably it got a quick name change. A reader writes, "Staufenburg is a castle in Southern Germany. The word Burg means castle. Berg is mountain. Staufenberg of course was not yet famous when this picture was taken. By the way, I saw the movie "Valkyrie" with Tom Cruise as Count von Staufenberg. Fascinating. I remember when it happened in 1944. Many aristocrates were involved in the plot to kill Hitler. Too bad it failed!"

BDM Camps

HBU knows less about the BDM than the boys' section of the HJ. We do know they were BDM camps, quite a number of them as many of the BDM girls did go to summer camp. (The BDM was part of the overall HJ organization.) Before the NAZIs it was not nearly as common for girls to attend summer camp as boys. The NAZIs made this much more accepted in German society. What we do not know is how separate the two groups were. You never see mixed groups marching about, although in a large parade there might be HJ and BDM groups. By the same token you always see either boys or girls in the camp photographs, not mixed groups. The same is true of meetings. I also do not know if the boys and girls had separate area in the same camp or totally separate camps. My guess is that they were very well separated. The HJ was rather prudish about such matters and I think this is what the parents would have expected.

Staufenburg

Note the name of the camp, Lager Staufnburg. World War II history buffs might recall the name. It sounds like the name of Col. Count von Staufenberg that attempted to assasinate Hitler (July 1944). I didn't notice at first that the sign read "burg" and not "berg". A reader corrected us, "Staufenburg is a castle in Southern Germany. The word Burg means castle. Berg is mountain. Staufenberg of course was not yet famous when this picture was taken. By the way, I saw the movie "Valkyrie" with Tom Cruise as Count von Staufenberg. Fascinating. I remember when it happened in 1944. Many aristocrates were involved in the plot to kill Hitler. Too bad it failed!" Another German reader provides more information. "It is incorrect to relate camp here to the World War II officer who attempted to assasinate Hitler in 1944. His correct name was Claus Philipp Maria Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg. One has to differentiate the names "Stauffenberg" and "Staufenburg"/"Staufenberg". There is a castle "Staufenburg" located at "Staufenberg" in Southern Baden, now in Baden-Württemberg. The Family "von Stauffenberg" comes from the Suebian part of Bavaria, Claus von Stauffenberg was living for some time in his youth in Stuttgart, the capital of Suebia. The Staufenberg family associated with the Staufenburg didn't belong to Suebia. I am wondering whether the name of the Suebian HJ camp is related to the castle Staufenburg in Baden - the Nazis tried to be historically correct and there is a different explanation: The old name "Staufer" is related to an imperial family of the 12th/13th century. They came from the castle "Stauf" located at top of the "Hohenstaufen", a volcanic, cole-shaped hill near to Göppingen in Suebia, about 30 miles to the East of Stuttgart. Probably the camp was named in memory of this old German imperial family and located within in sight of Hohenstaufen. "