How Hitler managed to turn educated youth into ruthless Nazis

The German National Socialists positioned themselves as ideologists of the youth movement. In 1937, speaking at the Berlin May Day, Hitler emphasized this. The Fuehrer said that ideological work should be started with the youth, bringing up new Germans. Propaganda experts still wonder how the Third Reich was so effective in turning the educated younger generation into ruthless assassins.

Nuremberg's young defendant and ostentatious remorse

One of the youngest fascist defendants on the Nuremberg bench was Hitler's leader Baldur von Schirach, who led the Nazi youth organization Hitler Youth. During the court hearings, he showed deep remorse for what he had done. However, the question remains how sincere the German was. Schirach shared in detail the essence of his blind faith in Hitler, every word of which he perceived as truth. And only after the fall of the Reichstag, according to Baldur, his eyes opened, and he realized how wrong he was.

However, Schirach completely denied his personal involvement in the crimes: he did not kill anyone and did not know anything. And maybe he wasn't even lying. The fascist ideologue was involved in a much more ambitious activity. It was he who was responsible for instilling racial hatred ideas in the circles of German youth, preparing the younger generation for Nazi crimes in the territories occupied by the Nazis. He may not have killed anyone personally. But it was he who prepared young people to commit mass atrocities in the occupied territories. It was he who realized Hitler's wishes, inspiring adolescents to sophisticated atrocities with the gleam of a predatory beast in his eyes.

The formed Hitler Youth and Hitler's meetings with youth

Fundamentally, the divisions of the so-called Hitler Youth (the youth wing of the National Socialist German Workers' Party) took shape by 1938, at first resembling the structures of the Soviet pioneer-Komsomol organizations. The only fundamental difference was the gender division. For German girls, the Third Reich created a special unit - Bund deutscher Mädel. The weaker half were prepared to fulfill their sacred duty to the party and the people - the birth of future soldiers loyal to Germany. In addition, the girls went in for sports, shooting and mastered the national ideology.

As for the young men, at the age of ten they were accepted into the younger group - Jungvolk (Young guys). The boys' gala reception was timed to coincide with the birthday of Adolf Hitler. And upon reaching the age of 14, adolescents entered the group for seniors, fulfilling the Nazi norms of the TRP and passing an exam in party history.

One of the veterans of the youth movement, the owner of the highest Hitler Youth insignia, was Franz Schall, whose diaries were preserved and published. According to his recollections, at the end of the 1930s, Hitler often met with representatives of the youth "sect", pathetically instilling their racial exclusivity in immature minds. For members of the Hitler Youth, regular trips around the country, hiking trips, visits to theaters and film premieres were organized.In addition to the main occupations, young people were given a musical education, those who wished were engaged in painting, aircraft modeling, and amateur performances. All this, naturally, strengthened in the collective a sense of community and belonging to a great state under the leadership of a great leader. It is noteworthy that when the Gestapo arrested Franz Schall's own father for criticizing Hitler, the son disowned the parent without hesitation.

Ideologically committed Sonderkommando and minors' service

By 1939, at the time of Hitler's attack on Poland, German boys were ideologically ready to die for a great Germany, volunteering for the front in hundreds of thousands. As for attracting members of the Hitler Youth to the battles with the Red Army, this happened after the failure of the Battle of Stalingrad. In January 1943, the Germans legislated the service among citizens of pre-conscription age. As a rule, high school students were involved in the ranks of anti-aircraft artillery units, and the Hitler Youth were controlled by their own Jugendführer. In theory, they were not considered soldiers, but in fact they fully served the Wehrmacht. These were the lowest paid soldiers of the German army, even girls were taken into their ranks at the end of the war.

According to the military historian Zalessky, teenagers also served in the Air Force (in 1944, the Hitler Youth sent 92 thousand young men there), and attracted young fascists to the navy. Even experienced Soviet front-line soldiers were amazed at the courage and belligerence of the members of the Hitler Youth. According to the memoirs of the veteran of the Great Patriotic War Alexander Martyshko, still quite children from the Nazi ranks fearlessly rushed under the tank tracks. And in some places groups of teenagers even managed to effectively repel the attacks of the rank and file of the Russian army.

German teen crimes and live targets

The young Germans, corrupted by Nazi appeals, went to any crime without a twinge of conscience. Raised in an atmosphere of racial hatred, they obeyed the orders of their command like robots. Shirach and his henchmen managed to train hundreds of thousands of zombie SS men who cold-bloodedly dealt with the inhabitants of the occupied Soviet territories. In Lvov, people from the Hitler Youth have repeatedly practiced shooting at live targets. There is evidence of how they lined up the civilians and practiced their shooting skills. Girls who were mastering rapid-fire weapons also took part in these exercises. In a similar way, a mass execution was organized in the Ukrainian city of Rovno, where women, old people and children became victims of young fascist predators.

Later, after the occupation of Germany and Austria by the allies, Soviet military units were stationed in these countries for a long time. Communication with local women took place in a natural way, which is why they gave birth to children. This is how the children of Austrians born of Soviet soldiers were called, and this is how they were treated at home.