Hitler Youth: Innocent or Evil?

Hitler Youth: Innocent or Evil?

The Hitler Youth was a branch of the Nazi party. It invited all young Germans to join, which millions of German youth did. It held parades in the street and it was similar to the boy scouts, with camping trips, hiking and sports competitions, but with more emphasis on discipline and politics. So I can see why the millions of German teenagers joined, it was like a fad, the "cool" thing to do. These people were just children, brainwashed into thinking like their leaders. Just as we see groups of teenagers today joining together to rally for things that matter to them, this is what the German Teens did. Although these kids committed awful war crimes, can children and teenagers really be held accountable for their actions when this is what they were taught to believe and to do? This question will be the basis of this paper. It makes me think of famous people today. Take for example someone like Marilyn Manson who once had huge amounts of fanatical teenagers worshipping him, copying what he did, almost like a cult leader. I can imagine that Hitler had this sort of power over the young gullible minds, one hundred times greater than today's rock stars.

The First chapter of the book introduces us to Alfons Heck, a young German boy who grew up in the Rhineland region of Germany. Alfons never knew a Germany without Nazis. In schools they were taught by Nazis and never did they question what they were taught. Alfons was taught to hate Jews, Communists, Gypsies, and Jehovah's witnesses. He was also taught that his own race (Germanic-Nordic) were to one day rule the world. When you are a child you learn from what adults are teaching you, so if they are teaching you to hate other people and that you are a superior race, then this is what you believe. This makes me feel sorry for Alfons and his peers, as they were brainwashed from an early age, and not given a choice to develop their own ideas and values, other than Nazi ideas. Adolf Hitler was now in power in Germany and promised the German people a way out of the depression, by providing jobs and restoring the German sense of pride in themselves and their country. If today in America, a person was to promise us a way to lower unemployment rates and improve the quality of life for the people; of course they would be listened to. Well, this is what Hitler did. The German people didn't see him as a dictator or as a killer, but as someone who was doing something positive for the country.

"I listened to Adolf Hitler, and obeyed", were the words of Alfons Heck as a child. He grew up in Germany as a young boy and turned into one of Hitler's creations. When he turned 10 years old, Alfons was picked to attend the Nuremberg Reichsparteitag, an annual mass of the Nazi regime. During this time, Alfons was a member of the Jungvolk, a junior branch of the Hitler Youth. At the Reichsparteitag, he listened with thousands of others to hear Adolf Hitler speak to the nation. Adolf said, "You, my youth, "are our nation's most precious guarantee for a great future, and you are destined to be the leaders of a glorious new order under the supremacy of National Socialism!" (Pg. 22) This statement was just one of the gimmicks used by Hitler to "brain-wash" the young children of Germany. After this statement, Alfons is convinced of Hitler's beliefs and states: "For minutes on end, we shouted at the top of our lungs, with tears streaming down our faces: "Sieg Heil, Sieg Heil, Sieg Heil!" (Pg. 23) This moment in time is when Alfons decides to belong to Adolf Hitler with all his body and soul. The children of the Hitler Youth had no idea what Hitler had in store for them, but undoubtedly were under an incredible spell.

Alfons was just one of the young children of many thousands that were recruited into the Hitler Youth into a world of hate. The children of the youth were innocent children that were warped into thinking Jews were the enemy. They were taught to live and die for their country. Hitler made sure that all the Catholic children of Germany believed that the Jews killed Jesus Christ and many of them were filled with hatred. The children were given very tough military orders each day and strictly followed Hitler's way of life. Hitler was like a "god-like" figure to the children of the Youth and they thought he was their hero. Hitler used to say, "Today, Germany belongs to us and tomorrow the world." Heck said in the book, "We trumpeted this in our anthem, "We believed it." (Pg. 207) This was the anthem that all of the children in the Youth were raised on. The children of Germany would shout out "Sieg Heil, Sieg Heil" when Hitler took the stand to speak. They believed in his words and through his faith, they justified the