Youth and Youth groups in Nazi Germany (Essay Sample)

Youth and Youth groups in Nazi Germany; Name Institution Date of submission Youth and Youth groups in Nazi Germany Introduction Youths can simply be described as young people, usually in the transitional age between childhood and adulthood. The youths are often high-spirited individuals with high spirit and vigor. The future of a nation is mostly dictated by the status and health of its youths. It is a time when the individuals have their unique value and beauty. Youths are always brought together in unity as a group for various reasons. They can exist together as a church group or a political group. They can also come together due to other various ideologies that they share or have in common. The youths can also be separated by the difference in their beliefs and thoughts. The Nazi state came to exist when Germany was under the dictatorial rule of Adolf Hitler from the Nazi party. This state is otherwise known as the Third Reich. The Hitter youth group can be backdated to the 1920s when the youth organization was formed for recruitment of children in support of the Nazi movement. By this time, there already existed Catholic youth movements that allowed the Catholic Church to provide purely spiritual and charity services to the children. Over the years, the Hitler movement absorbed most of the other youth movements, and this raised conflict between the Nazis and the Catholic Church (Kolinsky, 2014). The membership of the Hitler organization was later declared a law, mandatory for each and every youth to be a member, leading to the dissolution of the other youth groups. Adolf Hitler knew that having youths was vital for his support and the acceptance of the Nazi views. There were different groups for the boys and the girls. Before the Hitler group expanded, it started as a Munich-based. Kurt Gruber was then declared the youth leader after he impressed Hitler with his zeal and organizational skills. Kurt Gruber sorted out the corps under grown-up pioneers, and the general participation involved young men matured fourteen to eighteen. Gruber started new rules stipulating that all Hitler Youth individuals over age 18 were to be members of the Nazi party and that they required Party endorsement. They had to comply with all orders issued by any Nazi Party leader. A Bann was the primary unit of those youth groups; it can be compared to a military regiment. They were more than 300 all through Germany, each with a capacity of around 6000 children. Each unit conveyed a banner of verging on the same configuration; however the individual Bann was distinguished by its number. The banners measured 200 cm long by 145 cm high (Geerling, Magee, & Brooks, 2015). Gruber later resigned as the leader of Hitler youths following the pressure he obtained from Adolf Hitler. A newly appointed Reich's youth leader was named to replace him. It was made mandatory in 1936, for all German youths starting from age ten to attain education according to the philosophies of National Socialism. A Hitler youth rifle school was later established in 1937, where the boys were trained in rifle shooting and other military field activities. On Saturday, September 10, more than 80,000 Hitler Youths walked into the city stadium and performed military-style parade moves, which they had been rehearsing for a whole year, finishing with a great finale in which they delineated the name 'Adolf Hitler' in the show-off. These youths held Adolf Hitler in high regards The Hitler youth groups helped in the rescue of German cities that experienced bombing. They became active in the German fire brigades. They also served in the Reich postal services, Reich radio services and served in the anti-aircraft defense team. Though it is true that most youths were followers of Adolf Hitler and that this was even made mandatory at some point, there still existed some Nazi German youths who were adamant and brave enough to stand against and oppose the Hitler youths. A protest movement known as the Edelweiss Pirates was started in Rhineland in 1937 (Epstein, 2015). It was made mainly by the male youths who were thought to be in the working class. They would always carry themselves in a manner such that they would make angry the local Nazi youth leaders. Whenever the Hitler youths were required to wear a given type of clothing, the Edelweiss Pirates would make sure to wear differently (Mann, & Mann, 2014). They would as well play and listen to music that had been banned by the Nazis. However, they were never considered a disturbance to the Nazi regime since they were always viewed as just but irritants. They were seen as rebellious youths who were just at some awkward stage of their youth. Apart from the Edelweiss Pirates as an opposing youth group, there was also the swing group which was made of youths from more upper-class backgrounds. They also acted in a way that irritated the Nazis through their music and dressing. The regime, however, changed from the opposing groups being irritant to being threats during the World War II, where maximum obedience to the state by everyone was required. The swing groups were, therefore, to be stopped through brutality and their parents were also to face the cons...