THE COMING GERMANY, THE EDUCATION OF THE YOUTH IN THE REICH OF ADOLF HITLER [Das Kommende Deutschland, Die Erziehung der Jugend in Reich Adolf Hitler] Kaufman.
The Task of the Reich given to the Hitler Youth. [Page 21]
The Youth laws or paragraphs of the Weimar State did not go beyond the protection. of and the care for the single Youth. In the nationalsocialist State a State Youth Law is added to the common Youth law. "By State youth law is understood the sum of all legal rules which regulate the building up and inner struc- _ ture of the total Youth organizations of the nationalsocialist state" (Menzel in the "Administration Gazette"). With this it is already stated that the legal provisions of the Hitler Youth concerning their service and organization are State Youth law in the broadest sense. Therefore it is not astonishing that the nationalsocialist State does not go beyond general and basic decrees and leaves the execution of the multitudinous tasks of education to the youth movement itself. Mindful of the principle of self-leadership of the youth the state takes care to protect from "bureaucratization," which avows itself to it and places itself in its service. This principle is also preserved in the directives for execution of the Reich law on the Hitler Youth of December 1, 1936.
All the more has the Hitler Youth received a legal position in the State, which provides it with governmental authority for the carrying out of its task.
The statistics of the membership of the Hitler Youth show the following picture:
HJ1 DP BDM3 JM* Total
End of 1932 55,365 28,691 19,244 4,656 107,956
End of 1933 568,288 1,130,521 243,750 349,482 2,292,041
End of 1934 786,000 1,457,304 471,944 862,317 3,577,565
End of 1935 829,361 1,498,209 569,599 1,046,134 3,943,303
End of 1936 1,168,734 1,785,424 873,127 1,610,316 5,437,601
1 End of 1937 1,237,078 1,884,883 1,035,804 1,722,190 5,879,955
End of 1938 1,663,305 2,064,538 1,448,264 1,855,119 7,031,226
Beginning of 1939 1,723,886 2,137,594 1,502,571 1,923,419 7,728,259
and the BDM-Werk5 : 440,189
1 HJ: Hitler Youth.
a DJ: German young hoys (10-14 years). aBDM: German girls (14-18 years).
4 .I'M; young girls (10-14 years).
5 BDM-Werk: girls from 18-21 years.
* *
*
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[Pages 36-38]
The number of 765,000 male and female leaders could easily lead to wrong conclusions. If our organization is firmly consolidated today we owe this without doubt to the commitment of these forces. For the greatest part, however, they work honor-arily. The principle of young leadership and self- leadership of youth results in the elimination and transferring to the Labour-Service and to the Armed Forces of all comrades who have proved and shown their quality as leaders in the Hitler Youth.
Fully active in the Hitler Youth are 8,017 male and female leaders who all have served their military training. In the school which provides for eight classes we find however 234,345 teachers in full service. For one full-time Hitler Youth or BDM-leader there are 1,450 youths while for a full-time teacher there are only 37 pupils. School can occupy the youth about three times as long as the Hitler Youth in the course of a week. While the Hitler Youth has for about 3,000 boys, only two full-time leaders at its disposal, the school can employ 81 teachers for the same number of pupils. Even if we take into consideration the three times higher number of hours, still 27 persons in full service remain for
3,000 youths. A similar situation exists for the budget. The work of the national-socialist leadership, considering the small number of leaders in full-time service, is based upon the unselfish willingness to send of the many comrades working only honor-arily. The comparison with school was mentioned here only to find a measure for the achievements which are effected by the Hitler Youth under the above-stated conditions.
The vocational education as a youth leader has taken place since April 1939 in the Academy for Youth leadership in Brunswick. At the end of 1937 the professional composition of the whole Hitler Youth leadership showed the following picture:
16.4% elementary-school students. 25.5% commercial professions, 8.7% technical professions, 3.4% agricultural professions, 20.9% young workers, 5.9% College students, 5% teachers, 11.3% other professions, 2.5% without profession. * * *
[Pages 100-101]
The training of the units is preceded by the training of the leadership. The lower ranks of leadership, i.e. from Kamerad-schaftsfuehrer to Scharfuehrer; from Jungenschaftsfuehrer to Jungzugfuehrer; from Maedelschaftsfuehrerin to Maedelschar-fuehrerin; from Jungmaedelschaftsfuehrerin to Jungmaedel-scharfuehrerin, perform the training work in the formations. This training work is accomplished at the home-evenings, [Heim-
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abende] in the camp, and on hiking-trips. The male and female leaders of the small units must be able to utilize the training material at the home-evenings and to present it to the boys and.girls in such a manner that they feel it as their own living experience. Weekly about 200,000 home-evenings take place in Germany.
The leaders of the units are trained in the leader-schools of the districts and regions [Obergaue] in courses of three weeks. 35 district leader-schools and 43 regional leader-schools for female leaders are already at disposal in the Old-Reich. In 1933, 7,000 leaders, male and female, went through the schools; in 1934,
13.000 male leaders and 8,000 female leaders; in 1935, 14,000 male leaders and 9,000 female leaders; in 1936, 15,000 male leaders and 12,000 female leaders; in 1937, 15,000 male leaders and
14.000 female leaders; in 1938, altogether 13,398 male leaders and 27,441 female leaders.
Since 1937 there has been, in addition, the leader training work of the Hitler Youth. In voluntary ideological-political working-communities male and female leaders of the units come together under the guidance of experts from politics and science to complete their education. In 112 towns of the Reich, with altogether
1.000 working-communities, already a total of about 25,000 members participating was attained. The higher leader corps of the Hitler Youth, too, and the girl leaders of the subregions [Untergaue] receive an extensive ideological preparation for their tasks at the Reich leader schools. The approval of admission into the leader corps depends upon successful attendance at a Reich Leader School of the Hitler Youth. Starting in 1939 the first candidates for the Leader Corps of the Hitler Youth will attend the school of the Academy for Youth Leadership in Brunswick. * * *
[Pages 104-105]
Propaganda and Press
The film in the service of the education of the Youth.
In the sphere of the ideological training of the national-socialist youth the film plays an important part. For its employment in the national-socialist youth the Press and Propaganda Office is responsible. While formerly, at the beginning of the development of the film, it was often attempted to prevent the attendance at movies by juvenile persons and in the course of development of the Film Industry numerous films came before the public whose corrupting influence on the development of youth could be recognized by the inscription "Forbidden for juveniles," the nationalsocialist youth has attained a positive relationship to the film. The Hitler Youth regards it a valuable means of education. It
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can thrill and fill the young person with enthusiasm ; it is a splendid means of enlightenment and education ; it can be a model and elevating demonstration. From this attitude it can be explained why the Film-Reviewing Office, in which two representatives of the Reich Youth Leadership have seats, confers the designation "Youthworthy" upon films whose educational power for the young generation has been established. While formerly only the designation "Free for juveniles" was known, which did not yield any opinion whether the film was useful for the youth or whether it could be of educational importance or not, the designation "Youthworthy" has the purpose of telling the public that here excellent film is of special value for the youth of the nation. At the instigation of the Reich Minister for Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda the Press and Propaganda Office of the Reich Youth leadership made an arrangement with the president of the Reich Film Chamber to show the best German films to the whole German youth. For that purpose, in the winter semester 1934/35, the first community performances of films were given before juveniles, which since then have formed a fixed component of the educational program of the Hitler Youth as "Youth film hours." In the winter semester 1934/35, already 300,000 boys and girls experienced good German films in these youth film hours; in 1936/37 it was already more than a million, and in the winter semester of 1937/38 the attendance number at the youth film hours had already increased to 3 millions. Attendance at these performances is voluntary; it is not even duty for members of thé Hitler Youth. By the purchase of tickets at the extremely low admission price of 20 pfennigs, the juvenile must decide on his participation in the film performance. The parents of course extensively support the attendance at worthwhile films for juveniles at such a reasonable price. The film which is useful for the work of the Hitler Youth should present contemporary themes rather than escape into the past. The Hitler Youth produces cultural films for the public from time to time which give an insight into its work. At the beginning of November 1939 the following newly worked out program existed:
A film of the Adolf-Hitler-march, a Land-service film, a film on "Faith and Beauty" as well as a film on the War-commitments of the Hitler Youth in the first weeks after the start of the war.
The organization created by the Hitler Youth for furthering the attendance at good films shows its good relationship to this modern means of education. This attitude has the effect that many individual creative forces can be mobilized for the German
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film from the youth as a whole. A great number of 16-mm films originating in the Hitler Youth, is the first success of the appeal to the individually creative cooperation on the part of youth. * * *
[Pages 109-110]
Today the work originating from the Press- and PropagandaOffice of the Reich Youth leadership and from the regional press departments gives aid to the political leadership and the ideological education and enlightenment. For the daily press a press-release the "Reich Youth Press service" is issued daily. Here all themes of the youth work in the Reich are treated. For reporting on the ethnic-German youth abroad a special press-release is in existence, the Press Service Eastern Areas [P.D.O.] An extensive newspaper organization for all units of the National-Socialist Youth provides a journalistic support of all tasks of the Hitler Youth. The magazine "The Pimpf" (small boy) is directed to the members of the Jungvolk (small boys) in the Hitler Youth. The magazine "Das Deutsche Maedel" (the German girl) is the organ of the girls, while the Hitler youths read the Reich magazine "Junge Welt" (young world). The leading organ of the Hitler Youth, which at the same time also finds great attention abroad as the mouthpiece of the young generation of our Reich, is the magazine "Wille und Macht" (Will and Power) published by the Reich Youth Leader himself. Besides that, as official organ of the Reich Youth leader, the magazine "Das junge Deutschland" (Young Germany) is published, which treats particularly the technical questions of youth education, of social policy, vocational education, hygiene, youth law etc. Finally the "Handbuch des gesamten Jugendrechts" (Manual of the Entire Youth Law) is published by order of the Reich Youth leader and contains a collection of all legal provisions that concern the young person and will guide him on his path of education, beginning from his parental home, the school, the Hitler Youth, to the labor service and the armed forces. All regulations up to the founding of his own family are collected here and give information to all those whose vital tasks life work it is to educate and advise the youth. Numerous specialized magazines support separate tasks of the Hitler Youth in a special manner. Thus, the Youth Hostel Association publishes the magazine "Jugend und Heimat" (Youth and Homeland), the Cultural office of the Reich Youth Leader the magazine "Musik im Jugend und Volk" (Music in Youth and People) as well the magazine "Die Spielschar" (The Band) as a collection of material.
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Even for the deaf a special magazine was founded, "Die Quelle" (the Fountain). For the boys especially talented and interested in sport a special organ has been created, the weekly "Sport der Jugend" (Youth's Sport). To the tasks of the Press and Propaganda office belongs the enlightenment of the public on work and aims of the national-socialist youth movement, the production of posters, pamphlets, publications. It promotes the rising generation of young editorial writers by entrusting wide-awake youths skilled in writing with elementary journalistic tasks, while they are preparing themselves for their future profession. Through a picture office which also has offices in the districts, Hitler Youth provides for the employment of illustrations to give public information on its work. * * *
[Pages 129-30]
The Reich cabinet on 30 Jan. 1939 has resolved on the "Law to promote the providing of homes for the Hitler Youth" (Reichsgesetzblatt (RGBL.) 17 Febr. 1939).
This law decrees:
Art. 1
The building and maintaining of homes for the Hitler Youth is the obligation of the communities. "Party and State" participate in the building expenses in accordance with the means at their disposal.
Art. 2
Insofar as the communities cannot provide the means for the construction of homes directly from the ordinary budget they are obliged to accumulate a reserve, according to the provisions of the decree on reserves of 5 May 1939 (RGBL. I p. 435).
Art. 3
The counties [Landkreise] have to accumulate and invest at interest an annual reserve for the promotion of home procurement. The means for the accumulation of this reserve will be raised by a county assessment.
Art. U
Section 1—The county will grant the communities subsidies from the home procurement reserve to bear the building expenses. The amount of the subsidies can be given completely or partly as an interest-bearing loan.
Art. 5
Section 1—The Reich Treasurer of the Nazi Party, in agreement with the Reich Youth Leader, will grant for a single build-
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ing project at least a subsidy of one-half of the amount granted by the county to the community according to Art. 4.
Section 2—Art. 4, section 2 is to be applied accordingly.
Art. 6
The Reich Minister of the Interior, in agreement with the Deputy of the Fuehrer, the Reich Minister of Finance, and the Reich Youth Fuehrer, will issue the necessary legal decrees and general administrative regulations for the executing and supplementing of this law.
Extract from a book on education, on the establishment and programs of Hitler Youth, including films and periodicals
Authors
Kaufmann (author of Das Kommende Deutschland)
Guenter Kaufmann
German legal author; bank director
- Born: 1913-09-05 1913-01-01 (Dresden)
- Died: 2001-01-01 2000-01-01 (Füssen)
- Occupation: editor-in-chief; functionary; journalist; jurist
- VIAF ID: https://viaf.org/viaf/28130056
- ISNI: https://isni.org/isni/0000000082108955
- Library of Congress authority ID: https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n95097887
Date: Date Unknown
Literal Title: The Task of the Reich given to the Hitler Youth.
Total Pages: 9
Language of Text: English
Source of Text: Nazi conspiracy and aggression (Office of United States Chief of Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality. Washington, D.C. : U.S. Government Printing Office, 1946.)
Evidence Code: PS-2435
Citations: IMT (page 255), IMT (page 259)
HLSL Item No.: 450294
Notes:The author is not stated in the document; the document book table of contents identifies the book as Kaufmann, "Das Kommende Deutschlan" (The Coming Germany." No publication date is stated; the latest date in the text is 1939.