Figure 1.-- Here we see two parents with their proud son outfitted in his Hitler Youth uniform. They look like a middle-class family. Most younger boys we think were excited about joining. Older boys had more varied opinions. This boy seems very pleased with himself. He is a DJ boy who is probably 10 years old and joined the movemnent a few month earlier. Or perhaps he is 11-years old and been in the DJ for a year. Notice his knife. How the boys felt can often be read on their faces. This boy is obviously proud and pleased weith himself. Notice the cocky way he wars his cap.

This photograph is similarto ones being taken all over Germany during the late-1930s. The snapshot is undated, but looks to us to have been taken in the summer of 1938 or 39. We see two parents with their proud son outfitted in his Hitler Youth uniform. They look like a middle-class family in the back garden of a subsrtantial home. Most younger boys we think were excited about joining. Older boys had more varied opinions. This boy seems very pleased with himself. He is a DJ boy who is probably 10 years old and joined the movemnent a few month earlier. Or perhaps he is 11-years old and been in the DJ for a year. Notice his knife. How the boys felt can often be read on their faces. Children are more willing to reveal their emotiinds or have not yet learned to do so. This boy is obviously proud and pleased with himself. The parents are harder to read. The boy looks to be their only son so their dreams and future happiness are all wrapped up in this boy. Some parents were committed NAZIs and would have thus been pleased. Many others had not supported the NAZIs, but were impressed with the results of NAZI rule. Both ending the Depression and regaining international stature. (Few Germans were aware that NAZI economic policy was unstainable and had Hitler not chose war in 1939, the country faced a massive economic crisis.) And there of course were others who were anti-NAZIs, but were prident enough to keep quiet. Just where these parents fell into this spectrum we do not know. They do not look too pleased. But of course even ardent-anti NAZIs could have predicted what was about tgo occur. And this boy is old enough that he would probably be in the War at the end. Whatever their political orientation, one thing that all parents would have noted is the degree that their child's time was being taken up with HJ activities. This often made church attendance impossible. It was not, however, something they could complain about, even if they were disturbed.

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Created: 1:31 AM 2/6/2011
Last updated: 1:31 AM 2/6/2011