1. How did the Nazis try to control young people?

2. Learning objective – to be able to explain how the Nazis tried to control young people. I can describe some of the features of how the Nazis tried to control young people. Grade D I can explain the impact of the Nazis policy towards young people. Grade B I can explain and assess the impact of Nazis policy towards young people. Grade A

3. Starter – What five questions could you ask this source?

4. What were the aims of the Nazis policies on young people? Hitler wanted young people to turn into loyal Nazi adults. Nazis aimed to control all aspects of young people’s lives. This included – Education. Family lives. Leisure time.

5. How did the Nazis use established youth culture to control young people? Youth Movements were very popular in Germany for a long time. These groups offered young people a variety of events, such as hiking and camping. Most of these groups had a religious or political link to them. The Hitler Youth was the Nazis youth movement and it was formed in 1926 and became steadily popular until 1933 when it had 50,000 members. Such was the importance Hitler placed in controlling the young that in December 1936, he passed the Hitler Youth Law which brought all youth movements under the Nazis control under the leadership of Baldur von Schirach. Compulsory membership to the Hitler Youth was enforced from March 1939.

6. What did the Hitler Youth offer young people? The Hitler Youth was for boys only and full membership was for those that were 14 years old and over. There was a younger version called the Jungfolk for those boys aged between 10 and 13. Activities emphasised physical fitness and military training and boys were taken to camps in the countryside. Class did not matter and for many going to camps was the first taste of a holiday in their lives.

7. What was League of German Maidens? Girls were expected to join the youth movement – the League of German Maidens – from the age of 14. Like the Hitler Youth, there was a similar emphasis upon outdoor activities and physical training. However, the Nazis felt that girls should not have military training like boys but instead be trained in practical domestic skills to be a good wife and mother.

8. Were the Nazi youth movements popular? By 1939, 80% of boys were members of the Hitler Youth before it was compulsory to join. Many were attracted to the physical activities on offer but, to be honest, there was little else on offer for young people. However, after 1939 growing resentment towards the Hitler Youth grew. More boys resented the propaganda talks they were forced to attend, the fact that Hitler Youth activities took precedence over school and generally being bossed around. There was a growing trend for young people to form alternative youth movements which were mixed gender, listened to banned music and picked fights with Hitler Youth members.

9. How far did youth opposition to Hitler grow with the swing movement? Youth opposition towards the Nazi Party began to intensify when the Hitler Youth became compulsory to join in 1939. During the war, ‘swing’ groups emerged in the major German towns and cities which encouraged the rejection of Nazi values through enjoying jazz music at secret nightclubs and drinking alcohol. They even made anti-Nazi jokes by greeting each other with the salute ‘Swing Heil!’ mocking the ‘Heil Hitler’ salute. These were rebellious rather than violent groups with specific aims, although they were pursued by the Gestapo who saw them as a irritant.

10. How far did youth opposition to Hitler intensify with the Edelweiss Pirates? The Edelweiss Pirates were a more violent youth group which emerged from dissatisfied youths wanting a more confrontational approach to opposing the Nazis. They were not a coherent organisation but more a loosely connected group from a variety of towns and cities in western Germany. Their main form of opposition was daubing anti-Nazi slogans, sheltering deserters and beating up Nazi officials. In 1944, some members of the Edelweiss Pirates in Cologne were involved in the killing of the Gestapo chief. 13 were hanged. After this point, the Edelweiss Pirates provided little opposition.

11. How did the Nazis reshape education? School was compulsory until the age of 14. After that school was voluntary. Boys and girls went to separate schools. New subjects were added to the curriculum, such as Race Studies, which aimed to spread Nazi opinions. Teachers had to swear an oath of loyalty to the Nazis and teach the redesigned curriculum. If they refused, they were sacked. The Nazis despised academic education and their changes in education led to a fall of university students by 50% between 1933 and 1939.

12. How did the Nazis redesign the school curriculum? The whole curriculum was used to teach what the Nazis wanted the young people to think. Subjects were compulsory dependent on gender. For example, Domestic Science was compulsory for all girls. Physical Education was given much more focus with three double lessons a week. Race Studies focused upon the superiority of the Aryan Race, according to the Nazis. Traditional subjects, such as History and Geography, were given the Nazi treatment. For example, Geography focused upon the land that was once German, which needed to be retaken.

13. Tasks Use the information provided to complete the following – Read the different terms in the worksheet and write a definition for each term and how it relates to the role of the young people in Nazi Germany. Complete the main task of the worksheet in grouping the terms in to threes and explaining the common link between them.

14. Plenary – a touch of Scrabble What are the three key words from this lesson that sums up your learning? Which word has the highest value if you used in a game of Scrabble? Compare with the person next to you. Which word has the highest value?