Nazi Youth Policy Flashcards
Describe the Nazi youth organisations for German boys. (4)
Boys joined the German Young People from the ages of 10 – 13. From age 14, they transferred to the Hitler Youth and remained there until they were 18.
In 1933, there were 560,000 boys in the Hitler Youth. This increased to 1.2 million in 1936.
Boys learned how to read maps, throw grenades, get under barbed wire and took part in marching and bayonet drills.
Describe the youth organisations for German girls. (4)
Girls, at the age of 10, joined the Jungmadelbund (League of Young Girls)
and at the age of 14 transferred to the Bund Deutscher Madel (League of German Girls).
Girls had to be able to run 60 metres in 14 seconds, throw a ball 12 metres, complete a 2 hour march, swim 100 metres and know how to make a bed.
Describe the swing youth (4)
The Swing Kids (also known as Swing Youth, German: Swingjugend) were a group of jazz and swing lovers in Germany in the 1930s, mainly in Hamburg and Berlin. They were composed of 14 to 18-year-old boys and girls in high school, most of them middle or upper-class students, but with some apprentice workers as well.
Describe the Eidelweis Pirates (4)
They were a youth protest movement from the Rhineland area.
Members were mainly working class male youths.
They would gather together and act in a manner that they would know would anger the local Nazi leaders. E.g. bohemian clothing, singing banned songs, playing jazz and blues tunes.
They created areas within a town or city where members of the Hitler Youth were not tolerated.
Not a threat to Nazi control - more of an irritant. But there existence did indicate a failure to inculcate all German Youth.
