Hitler Youth Essay

1893 Words8 Pages

The Hitler Youth had been created in the 1920’s and when Hitler came to power in 1933, all other youth movements were abolished, which resulted in the rapid growth of the Hitler Youth membership. By 1936 the Hitler Youth consisted of 4 million members. In that same year, Hitler made it compulsory for all German youth between the ages of 10 and 18 to join the Hitler Youth. Hitler believed that the youth would control the state of Germany in the future, which is why Hitler invested such a great emphasis and importance on attendance for the Hitler Youth. By 1939, Hitler made it compulsory to attend every Hitler Youth meeting. Harsh disciplinary measures were put in place for individuals who refused to attend these meetings. Hitler intended to control the youth in Germany in order to maintain the principles that …show more content…

Making the Hitler Youth compulsory resulted in most youth resistance groups to become increasingly hostile towards the state and motivated them more to resist against the control of the Nazi party. One can therefore confirm that many of the resistance movements arose in response to the over-regimentation and the mandatory subscription of the Hitler Youth. Moreover, the stringent measures that the Nazis adopted to help control the youth resistance proves that the youth were effective in resisting the Nazi’s control. The Nazi party even had to resort to public executions to control the rebellious youth. An example of an execution performed by the Gestapo was in Cologne, in 1944, where leaders of the Edelweiss Pirates were publicly hanged. The Gestapo hanged the youth publicly to make an example of these gang members. This example shows the measures that the Gestapo had to take to try and keep the resistance movements under control. This example is proof that the government thought the youth resistance movements were a major threat to the