The Hitler Youth has been a subjected that has fascinated both German and foreign film makers. Here are some of the films that I know of that deal with the Hitler Youth or in which Hitler Youth members have a role of some consequence. The list includes both films made by the NAZIs and films made after the War both in Germany and several different countries. The first film was made by the NAZIs as soon as they seized power, in fact the first NAZI film. Film makers are still making films about the Hitler Youth or films about the NAZIs that incluse the Hitlr Youth. Here are the indicidual films that we have noted.
Blood and Honor is based on a book that is a first person account. The book was published by World Wide, which is/was part of the Billy Graham Ministry. Its primary focus is how
one's faith in Jesus helped him survive the programming and other horrors of
Nazi Germany. "Blood and Honor" is what is written on the Hitler Youth
knives/daggers, if memory serves me. I saw the film, but do not remember enough of it to comment at this time.
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The Bridge featured a cast of young actors who proved supremely talented. It is the last days of the World War II in a small German town. The principal characters are depicted as 15/16 years old schoolboys in shorts and kneesocks at school. Their town is about to confront the advancing American soldiers, and the boys are called up to active service
in the German army. As the Amis (Americans) approach, the boys' are ordered to hold the bridge into town at all costs. The task is futile, and they should have surrendered, but they were, as the SS motto went, "Treu auf bis dem todt" (Loyal unto death). Also, communication with their headquarters was lost. In the end, they are all killed, and the bridge turned out to be meaningless. A really good, post-war, self-examination film. It is based on an autobiographical novel by Manfred Gregor.
One of the most powerful scenes depictung the Hitler Youth is a scene in Cabaret. Ther scene takes place at a idelic Bavarian or Berlin festival. The scene is light hearted. The camera pans to an innocent-looking young blond, blue eyed German boy singing "Tomorrow Belongs to Me". He wears alight tan shirt. The camera slowly pans down until the Hitler Youth uniform with cross-strap and swastika arm band becomes visible. The boy puts on his cap and gives the Nazi salute at the end of the song. He wears below the knee knickerbockers tucked into heavy socks. The shift from pure inosence to the sinister future is the most poweful momment in the film. The inference of the song "Tomorrow Belongs to Me" becomes chillingly obvious. In many ways it encapsulates the Hitler Youth. The opening of the film was the Michael York character arriving in Berlin. By the time he encounters the HJ singer, he has fallen for Sally Bowles and the German baron has fallen for him (eternal triangle). This must be nearly halfway through the movie. The last time I saw Cabaret on stage, the Nazi song formed the powerful conclusion to Act one.
One of the best know German films about the Hitler Youth and World War II is Europa, Europa. It is about a Jewish boy who ends up in the HJ during the war. It is particularly poignent because it is the true story of Solomon (Solly) Perel, a 13-year-old
German-Jewish boy who is separated from his family during the period
between the Hitler-Stalin pact (August 1939) and the German invasion of Russia (June 1941). "You must stay alive!" was his mother's parting admonition. With these words ringing in his ears, 14-year-old Solomon Perel set out from Nazi-occupied Poland hoping to find safety across the new Soviet frontier. Like large numbers of other Jews fleeing the Germans, Perel faced staggering odds against his survival. What actually transpired was far different from what anyone could have imagined. By a twist of fate, the young Jew found unexpected refuge ... as a student in an elite Hitler Youth boarding school. Europa, Europa recounts Solomon Perel's harrowing struggle living in a nightmare from which there seemed no escape.
Hitler Youth Quex was one of the early NAZI films. It was about the sacrificial spirit of the German youth. A German youth faces a conflict of ideals between his Communist father and his
growing allegiance to the Hitler Youth movement which eventually leads to his own death. Directed by K.A. Schenzinger. The Hitler Youth movement played an important role in generating the enthusiasm for Hitler and the NAZIs that allowed them to seize power. They also played a role in the street disorders of the late 1920s and early 1930s. This film idealized a Hitler Youth boy that was killed in those disorders. The film provides a lot of interesting information about the Hitler Youth uniform in the early years of Third Reich and how it was worn.
The film is puportedly about the Hitler Youth. Actually relatively little is shown about the Hitler Youth. The film is more about the love affair between two young adults. Two young people become caught up in the mass hysteria and emotion that propelled Hitler to power. One reviwer describes the film as "A realistic portral of young people caught in the
horror of NAZI Germany." While we agree with the "horror of NAZI" Germany we do not agree that the film is a realistic depiction. The film begins in Berlin at the American colony school which is accrossed the street from the Host Wessle Schule and fights occur between the German boys and the American children. The movie is a powerful, but rather perposterous Hollywood melodrama in which some historically accurate depictions are mixed in with outright false scenes. Other aspects I am unsure about. The German boys wear Hitler Youth uniforms to school and the school is run like a military academy. This is simply a false depiction of German schools. The American and other foreign boys wear knickers and long pants. Their clothing seems plausible. The American school flew an American flag. This would have been unlikely unless it was on Embassy grounds which was not the case. The movie touched on the German concentration camps and euthenasia, Lebensborn, and eugenics program with varying degress of accuarcy. The mention of some of these programs in themselves is an improvement on many Hollywood films. The Holocaust is not touched on with the exception of a Jewish boy taken away from school, but the presentaion does not suggest how the Jews were singled out. Perhaps the most repidulous part of the film is the toleration shown by the NAZIs for the Church.
"Kopf Hoch, Johannes" (Chin Up, Johannes) is a NAZI propaganda film about The Hitler Youth. Johannes, a boy from a privileged family, just the kind the NAZIs reviled as bourgeois. He is not of the "New Order". He doesn't understand the importance of "kamaradeschaft" (comradeship) and sacrifice. It seems he is initially resistant to joining the Hitler Youth (HJ), but ultimately is sent to an HJ camp where at last he becomes a dedicated Hitler Junge. The film is interesting because the NAZIs required children to join the HJ at age 10 (1936). By 1941 only a doctor's excuse could have kept a boy out of the HJ. It is different than 'Hitler Youth Quix' whose father tried to nkeep him out of the HJ. Here the resistance to the HJ comes from the boy. The film was directed by the German film matinee idol, Viktor de Kowa (who was married to a Japanese woman). The Japanese were a problem for the propagandists of the race-obsessed NAZIs. The plot is based on a script by Toni Huppertz, Wilhelm Krug, and Feliz von Edkardt (future Chancellor Adenauer's government spokesman). The chief character, Johannes, is the 14 year-old son of a wealthy German land owner. He was played by Clays Detlief.
These rallies were held in many locations and at different times of the year. The highpoint of the year for NAZI stalwarts and older Hitler Youth was the annual part rally at Nuremburg. Every summer thousands of Hitler Youth marched from their home towns to along countless German roads cinverging en mass at Nuremberg to participate in the annual Nazi
Party Congress. Goebells in 1940 had a film made commemorating this annual event--Der Marsch Zum Führer ("The March to the Führer"). The boys are pictured in their columns as they march through the mountains, forests, fields and towns of the Reich, still untouched by the War. This national pilgrimage is climaxed by the elaborate ceremonies of the Nuremberg
Congress. The boys parade before their Führer and are addressed by NAZI potentates such as youth leader Baldur von Shirach, Rudolf Hess, and of course Hitler himself. Behind the now chilling pageantry of this film and the all to notable discipline of its participants is shown the cleverness of NAZI leaders in preparing German youth, both physically and psychologically, for war.
A French simpleton named "Abel" becomes manservant of Field Marshall Goering during World War I at Goering's hunting estate, and, later, at a Hitler Youth school. "The Ogre" stars John Malkovitch and was directed by Volker Schlondorff. The Ogre is a joint British-French-German production), about a Frenchman during World War II. The German title is "Der Unhold". I believe the French title is something like "The Monster". The film open in a Paris suburb of 1925, at St. Christopher's School for Boys. The boys are shown as wearing brown smocks (over shirts and short pants), fastentened in back with three buttons. "The Ogre", which stars John Malkovich is an intense film. The last half or so of this film is set at a German Napola in World War II. The Napola, were NAZI party training schools. They were boarding establishments which were run like military schools.
The film Reunion was a French/British production starring Jason Robards and Christian Anholt, and should be available on video. The images of clothing through all of the four seasons are quite detailed. The film opens in an antiqued black and white; several men are led onto a platform in handcuffs as Nazi soldiers guard them. The men are hanged. Present day: Now a successful lawyer in New York City, Hans Schwarz prepares to leave for his hometown of Stuttgart, Germany to reclaim the personal affects of his long dead parents and to bury the ghosts still haunting him. After arriving in Stuttgart, Hans seeks out his old school, Karl Alexander
Gymnasium. Thinking it destroyed during the last days of the war, Hans recalls his schooldays--the day he met his only friend. Most of the film takes place at the boys school, Karl Alexander Gymnasium in Stuttgart. The NAZIs are just rising in power, and it is not until halfway through the film that Hitler wins the elections.
Triumph des Willens/Triump of the Will, was the most famous film made in the NAZI era. It was a brilliant piece of propaganda film making. This documentary of the Sixth Nazi Party Congress at Nuremberg It helped fuel the power of the NAZI state. This powerful film had a tremendous impact on Germans, especially young Germans. Its sweeping style was later used by American director Frank Capra for his war documentaries. The director was Leni Riefenstahl. It may well be the classic propaganda film of all time. The power of the film probably was a factor in the Allied decision to hold the war crimes trials in Nuremburg.
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Disney's somewhat sanitised effort Swing Kids is another movie dealing with the Hitler Youth. The evocation of Nazi Germany is not very believable, but the costuming was quite elaborate. Promotions for the film explain that it's 1939 and NAZI Germany has "declared war on freedom", demanding conformity from its youth. Of course this did not occur in 1939. But a group calling themselves Swing Kids rebel with their American "swing" music and dare to stand up against the poweful forces around them. Robert Sean Leonard (Dead Poets Society and Christian Bale (Empire of the Sun) deliver solid perormances in a flawed film. The two friends must choose between individual freedom and loyalty to the thugish Third Reich.
The Tin Drum was a West German-French production. It is a rather fatheful production of Günter Grass' masterpiece. Young Oskar from the age of 3 years refuses to grow. Depicts a young boy's view of a depressing moment in history; Nazi Germany. At age 3, he purposefully maims himself so that he will not grow to be an adult. As planned, he remains a midget the rest of his life and views the grotesque adult world through a child's eyes. Disturbing allegorical look at the outcasts of society. Directed by Volker Schlondorff. The director was Volker Schlondorff. The stars were Mario Adorf and Angela Winkler and featured David Bennent as the boy.
An orphaned Hitler Youth comes to America to live with his mother's brother. The arrogance and contempt inculcated in him by the NAZIs strains his relationship with his new family and schoolmates. Their efforts at rehabilitation are futile until an act un vilonce by the boy causes a belated change of heart. This World War II drama dealt with Hitler's
seduction of German Youth. Few who saw it realized that it only scratched the suface of the Third Reich and how terribly successful the NAZIs were in deluding an entire generation of young people. It was Skippy Homeier's film debut. He had performed this role in live theater the year before. The film and play deal with a Hitler Youth boy who can not accept his father's oppostion to his beloved Führer and the NAZIs. He has one scene in both play and film in an Hitler Youth uniform.
One of the best know German films about the Hitler Youth and World War II is Europa, Europa. It is about a Jewish boy who ends up in the HJ during the war. It is particularly poignent because it is the true story of Solomon (Solly) Perel, a 13-year-old
German-Jewish boy who is separated from his family during the period
between the Hitler-Stalin pact (August 1939) and the German invasion of Russia (June 1941). "You must stay alive!" was his mother's parting admonition. With these words ringing in his ears, fourteen-year-old Solomon Perel set out from Nazi-occupied Poland hoping to find safety across the new Soviet frontier. Like large numbers of other Jews
fleeing the Germans, Perel faced staggering odds against his survival. What actually transpired was far different from what
anyone could have imagined. By a twist of fate, the young Jew found unexpected refuge ... as a student in an elite Hitler Youth boarding
school. Europa, Europa recounts Solomon Perel's harrowing struggle living in a nightmare from which there seemed no escape.
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