Aryan Youth

Question 1

What were the Nazi aims for the Aryan youth

Answer 1

Indoctrination

Question 2

How did Nazis control teachers

Answer 2

Nazis wanted to remove any potential critics. The government encouraged teachers to join the National Socialist Teachers’ League and to promote nazism at all all times. They sent primary school teachers to special camps for a month long training course. They also dismissed Jewish teachers and those regarded as unreliable.

Question 3

Name three Nazi changes to curriculum

Answer 3

• In biology pupils studied ‘blood purity’ and eugenics and learned how to recognise Jews. Jewish pupils were humiliated and after 1935 banned from attending school altogether
• maths involved ‘school arithmetic’ where pupils calculated the flight of a missile or the cost of caring for a mentally ill patient
• geography explained Hitler’s claim in his book Mein Kampf that Germany needed to conquer lebensraum from the countries of Eastern Europe

Question 4

What did girls study in school?

Answer 4

• cookery
• housekeeping
• needlework
• PE

Question 5

How much did P.E increase in curriculum

Answer 5

To 15% of the curriculum

Question 6

Name the elite school that boys went to

Answer 6

NAPOLAS - Boys aged 11 -18 could be sent to the National Political Institutes of Education where they were trained to be young soldiers. Many went to the SS

Question 7

What was the Adolf Hitler School

Answer 7

The children were taught by a ‘commander’ and ‘Leaders’ ; four fifths of the curriculum was given to PE and they were also taught German ‘Folklore’

Question 8

Who was the leader of the BDM?

Answer 8

Trude Mohr

Question 9

Who were the groups of the BDM?

Answer 9

Young maidens
League of German Maidens
Faith and Beauty

Question 10

What was the aim of the BDM

Answer 10

It’s activities were designed to teach German girls how to be good mothers and to keep themselves fit for childbirth

Question 11

Name activities of the BDM

Answer 11

‘Home Evenings’ during the week included lessons in cooking and cleaning, but also story-telling, learning about Hitler’s and German folklore and signing patriotic songs around a fire.
Saturdays involved exercise - sports, gymnastics and swimming
Senior BDM members were sent on outward bound courses designed to build character and the organisation also offered skiing and camping holidays
‘Aryan’ girls might be sent to a Lebensborn home

Question 12

What was the aim of the HYM

Answer 12

To indoctrinate racism and develop physical fitness in Germany’s youths

Question 13

Who was the leader of the HYM

Answer 13

Baldur von Shirach

Question 14

Name the HYM groups

Answer 14

Boys: 
- Cubs
- Young German folk 
- Hitler youth 
Girls: 
- Young Maidens
- League of German Maidens 
- Faith and Beauty

Question 15

What was probation

Answer 15

Upon joining the Hitler youth, a boy would be put on probation during which time he was taught about the Hitler youth, and Hitler and had to learn the words of the Horst Wessel Lied

Question 16

Weekly activities of the HYM

Answer 16

Marches, camps and war games. Sang rousing songs and in 1937 rifle practise was introduced.

Question 17

Weekend activities of the HYM

Answer 17

Flying gliders, visits to the hiftwaffe, riding motorcycles, sailing and visits to German training ships

Question 18

War Work activities of the HYM

Answer 18

part of the “Home Guards” manning searchlights and anti aircraft guns

Question 19

What was the Youth Law?

Answer 19

1936 youth law decreed that children must be educated according to Nazi principles, which all but made the HY compulsory.
By 1938 the Hitler Youth became compulsory

Question 20

What were the Order Castles ?

Answer 20

The elite schools for boys. Students were brutally prepared to be SS officers and the curriculum included war games with live ammunition

Question 21

How successful were Nazi Youth Policies ? (5)

Answer 21

• Hitler Youth training was prioritised over homeworks - students may have enjoyed that
• students enjoyed community spirit working with their friends in HYM or BDM
• Young people loved the Hitler Youth and BDM and when marching through town, adults had to salute and stand respectively while the children marched. This may have made them feel special
• 1936 Hitler’s Birthday 1000s of children paraded, during the final war years the Hitler Youth defended Berlin, showing their loyalty
• Patrol Force functioned as internal political police and denouncing anyone who criticized Hitler or Nazism.

Question 22

How unsuccessful were Nazi Youth Policies? (3)

Answer 22

• Changes to subject content, e.g in science led to a decline in the academic standards in schools
• Teachers might have been put off joining the profession as they had to teach just Nazi beliefs
• So standards in the classroom might fall