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Unlock This CourseAdults in Germany had grown up before Hitler. Many had voted for other parties, and propaganda could only change their minds so far. Children were different. Hitler believed that if the Nazis shaped a child's thinking from the start, that child would be loyal for life. He spoke of a Reich that would last a thousand years, so he needed a new generation to carry it on.
The Nazis also had clear plans for what young people would become. Boys were to be soldiers. Girls were to be wives and mothers of large, healthy families. So the Nazis set out to control both halves of a young person's day: school in the morning, and a youth group in their free time. Teaching people to accept a set of beliefs without questioning them is called indoctrination.
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Under the Weimar Republic each state had run its own schools. In 1934 the Nazis put all of them under one Reich Minister of Education, Bernhard Rust. Now the same orders reached every classroom in Germany.
A law of April 1933 let the Nazis sack Jewish teachers and teachers they did not trust politically. The rest were pushed to join the Nazi Teachers' League. By 1937 about 97 per cent of teachers belonged to it. The League sent teachers on training courses in Nazi ideas. Lessons began and ended with the 'Heil Hitler' salute, and classrooms were hung with swastika flags and pictures of Hitler. Pupils were encouraged to report teachers who seemed disloyal.
Textbooks were rewritten and had to be approved by the government. History taught that Germany was 'stabbed in the back' in 1918 and saved by Hitler. Biology included race studies, which claimed that 'Aryans' were superior and Jews inferior. PE was given far more time, to make boys fit for the army and girls fit for motherhood. Even maths problems carried the message, for example by asking pupils to work out the range of a bomber. Girls were also taught cookery, needlework and childcare.
Jewish children were bullied and humiliated in class, and in November 1938 they were banned from state schools altogether. You will study this in Nazi Racial Policy and the Persecution of Jews, 1933-39.
For future leaders, the Nazis opened special boarding schools. The 'Napolas' (National Political Institutes of Education) began in 1933, and the Adolf Hitler Schools followed in 1937. They put sport, military drill and Nazi beliefs far ahead of academic work.
You met the early Hitler Youth in The Lean Years: Rebuilding the Nazi Party, 1924-28. After 1933 it grew into a huge organisation covering boys and girls from the age of 10. In June 1933 Hitler made Baldur von Schirach the Youth Leader of the German Reich. Almost all rival youth groups, such as the Scouts and the youth clubs of other political parties, were banned or taken over in 1933. Catholic youth groups lasted a few more years before they were closed too.
Boys joined the German Young People at 10 and moved up to the Hitler Youth from 14 to 18. They wore uniforms, swore an oath of loyalty to Hitler and went to weekly meetings where they learned Nazi ideas. Most of all, they were trained for war: marching, map reading, camping, long hikes with heavy packs and rifle shooting. In a speech to the Hitler Youth at Nuremberg in September 1935, Hitler said German boys must be 'swift as greyhounds, tough as leather and hard as Krupp steel'.
Girls joined the Young Girls' League at 10 and the League of German Maidens from 14 to 18. They also wore uniforms, went camping and hiking and did a great deal of sport, because the Nazis wanted healthy mothers. The rest of their training looked ahead to the home: cooking, sewing, housework and caring for babies. Like the boys, they were taught Nazi beliefs about race and loyalty to Hitler.
Pressure to join grew steadily. Members had a better chance of jobs and training places, and children who stayed out were picked on at school. Membership rose from over 2 million at the end of 1933 to about 5.4 million by the end of 1936. In December 1936 the Hitler Youth Law said that all young Germans were to be educated in the Hitler Youth, giving it equal status with home and school. In March 1939 membership became compulsory. By then there were over 7 million members.
Many young people enjoyed the Hitler Youth. It offered camps, sport, music and trips that poorer families could never have paid for, and a feeling of belonging and importance. Huge numbers joined before they were forced to. Children heard the same message at school and at their youth group, with few other views allowed, so many became sincere believers in Hitler. Some even reported their own parents or teachers for criticising the Nazis.
Not everyone was won over. Millions had still not joined by 1936, which is why the Nazis had to pass a law and then make membership compulsory. As the group grew, the fun faded: many teenagers found the endless marching and drill boring and disliked being ordered about by leaders barely older than themselves. Some paid their subscriptions but skipped meetings. Parents and teachers complained that children were tired, behind with schoolwork and cheeky to adults.
By the late 1930s a small number of teenagers were forming their own groups outside the Hitler Youth. You will meet them in Opposition to Hitler in Wartime. Overall, most young people accepted the Nazi message, and some believed it deeply, but the Nazis never won over all of them.
Do not write that every young German joined the Hitler Youth from 1933. Membership only became compulsory in March 1939. Also, do not describe boys' and girls' training as the same. Boys were trained to be soldiers and girls to be mothers, and examiners reward answers that show the difference.
(b) Explain two effects of Nazi policies on the lives of young people in Germany in the years 1933-39. [8 marks]
One effect was that what young people learned at school changed. The Nazis rewrote textbooks and the curriculum, so history lessons taught that Germany had been 'stabbed in the back' in 1918, and biology included race studies, which claimed that 'Aryans' were superior. Because about 97 per cent of teachers had joined the Nazi Teachers' League by 1937, pupils heard these ideas from almost every teacher. This meant that school no longer taught children to think for themselves. Instead it indoctrinated them to accept Nazi beliefs.
A second effect was that young people's free time was taken over by the Nazis. Almost all rival youth groups were banned or taken over in 1933, and the Hitler Youth Law of December 1936 said that all young Germans were to be educated in the Hitler Youth. By 1939, when membership became compulsory, there were over 7 million members. As a result, boys spent evenings and weekends marching, camping and shooting to prepare them to be soldiers, while girls in the League of German Maidens learned cooking and childcare to prepare them for motherhood. Young people therefore had far less time with their families, and less freedom to choose their own interests.
What lifts this to the top level: it gives two separate effects, backs each with precise facts (dates, names, figures), and uses linking phrases such as 'this meant that' and 'as a result' to show how Nazi policy led to each effect.
This question asks for effects on young people's lives, so do not just list what the Nazis did. For each paragraph, state the effect first, then prove it with a fact such as the 1936 Hitler Youth Law, then explain how the policy changed things for young people. One effect alone, however detailed, cannot score more than 4 of the 8 marks.