Jul 01, · Hitler Youth After Adolf Hitler’s rise to chancellor in , Nazi Germany had over 1 million children in youth movements created to spread fascist ideology throughout younger generations. Hitler was obsessed about using the youth as a driving force in his political agendas. Hitler stated, I am beginning with the young The Hitler Youth Organization Essay Words4 Pages From the time Adolf Hitler came into office in , up to the time when Germany surrendered to the Allied forces and Hitler committed suicide in ; the future for Germany became strongly invested in the hands of the younger generations May 09, · The years were the most influential of the youth movement. These years determined what the organization would become and how much power they would hold. When Hitler came into power as the German Chancellor in , the Hitler youth was not nearly close to an idea of what it was to become. Don't use plagiarized sources
The Hitler Youth - Essay - words
Alfons Heck and Hitler Youth Indoctrination. Book Essay on: Alfons Heck, A Child of Hitler: Germany in the Days When God Wore a Swastika Phoenix: Renaissance House Publishers,hitler youth essay, pages. UCSB: DD H A34 by Kyle Leighton March 23, for Prof. Marcuse's lecture course The Holocaust in European History UC Santa Barbara, Winter I am a senior history major and education minor.
I have had a fascination with history for a long time, especially ancient Mediterranean and 20th century European history. Part of my interest in the Hitler Youth and their education and indoctrination comes from my own interest in pursuing a career in education. Abstract back to top. Alfons Heck hitler youth essay up in Nazi Germany, joining the Hitler Youth in at the age of He became fully indoctrinated in their ideology and claimed to have been a fanatical follower of Hitler.
Before the war had ended, at the age of 16, he was leading more than 2, Hitler Youths in the construction of an anti-tank ditch near the French border.
His book covers his life up until the first weeks following the war, including his thoughts when his world was turned upside down with the fall of Nazi Germany.
He considers himself both a victim of Nazi Germany, hitler youth essay carries the burden of guilt for the Nazi hitler youth essay. It is with this in mind that he warns us not to underestimate the power of indoctrination over children, hitler youth essay, even within a democracy, hitler youth essay.
Essay back to top. Alfons Heck was born inmaking him six years old when Hitler was appointed Chancellor and 17 when hitler youth essay war ended. Nazi Germany hitler youth essay the only Germany Heck had known, and like many other Hitler Youth, he claims he was a product of the Nazi system of indoctrination, and thus a victim of it.
As suggested by the subtitle, Hitler was like a god to him as he grew to become a fanatical follower of Nazism and a leader in the Hitler Youth. Key to this was the idea that they followed the orders of their superiors without question. Heck and his fellow Hitler Youth hitler youth essay themselves as the leaders of a glorious German nation, one that was well worth dying for. Heck grew up in the rural town of Wittlich just 25 miles from the French border.
His family was actually of French descent and had moved to Wittlich in the s. Shortly after the death of his grandfather, his grandmother managed the farm and business, a rare feat in male-dominated German society. He believed his father was uneducated and unpatriotic, but hitler youth essay otherwise Heck may have turned in his own father for speaking so bluntly about the Fuhrer. Heck became a Hitler Youth injust before he was 10 years old.
He was chosen from his town to go to Nuremberg on September 10 to parade and watch Hitler speak to all of the Hitler Youth. In March ofHeck joined the Flying Hitler Youth and was instantly enamored with flying. By the time he was 16 Heck had passed through flight training and became the youngest member of the Luftwaffe. But before he could be called up for battle in the air force, the D-Day invasion of France demanded he lead the Hitler Youth in the construction of an anti-tank trench in the third line of the Westwall.
While hitler youth essay, Heck eventually rose to the rank of Bannfuhrer, leading more than 2, Hitler Youth and meeting Hitler himself. It was during his time at the Westwall that Heck was first told of the mass killing of Jews perpetrated by Hitler and the Nazis.
Heck could not accept that his ultimate leader, Hitler, and his glorious nation could be committing such atrocities. Heck was outraged at such outward hitler youth essay toward the Fuhrer and had planned to report it to higher authorities before Leiwitz talked to him later that night to tell him first-hand accounts of the slaughtering. Hitler youth essay does admit, however, that even if he had known of the genocide it would probably not have affected his loyalty and hitler youth essay obedience to the Nazis and his drive to fight for his homeland.
The importance of obedience in the Nazi system was stressed early on in the Hitler Youth, and Heck emphasizes this point on numerous occasions. It was the only way to avoid chaos. This point was hammered home to Heck while he was in flight school. He was nearly denied a hitler youth essay at getting his license after he did not circle around when his officer directed him to because he thought he did not have enough altitude to complete it.
Heck carried this hitler youth essay him when he became a powerful authority figure in his own right at the Westwall. Although Heck had originally just wanted to be a combat pilot, he grew to enjoy his position of hitler youth essay. He was just 16 or 17, yet he was in charge a group of over 2, hitler youth essay, Hitler Youths. This is what it came down to in the waning months of the war. This late in the war and so close to enemy lines, the boys he presided over were more like men.
This sort of unquestioning obedience, however, seemed to hitler youth essay less strictly enforced among the older generation, just as the unwavering fanaticism was limited primarily to the Hitler Youth. After Heck finished his work at the Westwall he was sent to his home town to build up a militia there. The only people left were old farmers and Hitler Youth.
It was clear to Heck that the older farmers did not want to fight, but deserters were shot and made public examples of. His last task for the Nazis came when he was called up by the Luftwaffe to retrieve a radar device from an outpost before the enemy overran it the next day. It was true in the last few days especially, according to Heck, that in some cases all the Hitler Youth resistance to occupation did was draw unnecessary bombing of a town. This unending resistance of the Hitler Youth, however, did make sense within their worldview.
Nazi Germany was the only world they knew, and without it their world would come crashing down. We have lost the war. Heck finishes with this small exchange, and it leaves us with a feeling that the Hitler Youth were fanatical precisely because it was all they knew. In the aftermath of defeat, Heck was sent to a POW camp in France and sentenced to a month of forced labor among other things. The French forced them to watch documentary films of the death camps, but Heck and the other Nazi POWs dismissed them as fakes, hitler youth essay.
Even though he claims to have known nothing about the genocide, Heck claims to carry a burden of guilt for the part he played in the Nazi system. Rudi was raised by his father, who was clearly hitler youth essay, and, hitler youth essay, according to Rudi himself, viewed Heck as fanatical. As it turned out, Rudi did not become the fanatical Hitler Youth that Heck did, hitler youth essay. It was only after the war that his grandmother spoke more openly about her thoughts during the Third Reich.
Heck noticed a few times her indifference, hitler youth essay, but there was never the direct educating that would have been necessary to counter the indoctrination that Heck received at school and from the Hitler Youth. With his own family as a microcosm for Nazi Germany as a whole, Heck demonstrates that the elders of the Hitler Youth did not just have to stand by and watch passively as their nation walked down a path of destruction.
It hitler youth essay Heck decades to reeducate himself from all the propaganda he had been fed as a youth, and it took a few years for him to even accept that the Holocaust had occurred.
Thus, he considers himself a victim, while also carrying the burden of guilt. It is this burden of guilt that he wishes to share with those elders who failed him and his peers when they were being blindly led. He also sends out a broader message to remind people of how easy it can be to indoctrinate children if they are not presented alternative views by their elders.
This is a review from a customer on Amazon. com who saw Heck give a lecture in the s, hitler youth essay. I would have to disagree with his assertion that it is not very well written.
Herbt discusses his personal experience growing up in Nazi Germany from to He explains how his Prussian military ideals that he inherited from his father drove his desire to become an army officer in Hitler youth essay Germany. His experience in the Hitler Youth and Nazi Germany is a very unique one because of how much he participated in the Hitler Youth, but how little Nazi ideology penetrated his life.
Kater examines the history of the Hitler Youth on a whole scale from a collection of contemporary manuscripts, diaries, letters, and other such documents. He determines that one of the driving factors in the success of the Hitler Youth was its appeal in providing the youth more self-reliance and glory. Perhaps more than anything else, it provides a feminist perspective on indoctrination.
Ursula discusses her hitler youth essay as a Hitler Youth, as well as hitler youth essay with them many years later. This page provides a good brief overview of the history of the Hitler Youth, beginning inhitler youth essay, and places it in context to larger German events during the s to s. The navigation bar on the left has links to a host of other pages with information from H. related to the Holocaust and Nazism.
This gave me a quick reference to refer to as a timeline of the Hitler Youth. This is a section of a site that includes a number of other boy scout-type youth groups in the history of the 20th century.
This section on Hitler Youth provides a wealth of information on various topics, such as Hitler Youth publications, their banners and uniforms, international activities, and personal accounts, just to name a few. However, hitler youth essay, it is a little odd to navigate through. This page covers the history of the Hitler Youth, hitler youth essay, tracing it back to a youth movement that began in the s. It also includes a section on the aftermath of the Hitler Youth, its leader and the Nuremberg Trial, hitler youth essay, and the reformation of the education system.
It provides a solid timeline and overview of what the Hitler Youth entailed and how they contributed to the Nazi cause. This site contains a few different pages on different facts about the Hitler Youth, including their effects, operations, and propaganda, hitler youth essay. Perhaps most interesting about this site is it contains a page about a youth movement called The Edelweiss Pirates who resisted the Hitler Youth, and at times aided Jews or sabotaged Nazis.
It also has a bibliography for further reading. Any student tempted to use this paper for an assignment in another course or school should be aware of the serious consequences for plagiarism. Here is what I write in my syllabi:. Plagiarism —presenting someone else's work as your own, or deliberately failing to credit or attribute the work of others on whom you draw including materials found on the web —is a serious academic offense, punishable by dismissal from the university.
It hurts the one who commits it most of all, by hitler youth essay them out of an education. I report offenses to the Office of the Dean of Students for disciplinary action. Marcuse's homepage. Jurgen Herbst, Requiem for a German Past: A Boyhood Among the Nazis London: The University of Wisconsin Press, Hitler youth essay Mahlendorf, The Shame of Survival: Working Through a Nazi Childhood University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press,
The secret student resistance to Hitler - Iseult Gillespie
, time: 5:33Kyle Leighton on Alfons Heck ()
Hitler Youth Essay Words | 3 Pages future of the German nation depends on its youth and the German youth shall have to be prepared for its future duties” The youth of Germany were an important target for Hitler White Rose Movement Essay Shortly after Hitler took power he established a series of organizations marketed towards the youth of Germany. In Hitler began The Youth League of the National Socialist Workers ' Party. Initially the organization was not quick to take off Essay I thought the most interesting aspect of the Hitler Youth movement was the beginning of it all, when the numbers were small to when the organization held a lot of power. The years were the most influential of the youth movement. These years determined what the organization would become and how much power they would hold
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