The Hitler Youth and the NAZI Party

Figure 1.--

Within a short time after becoming Chancellor, Hitler moved to make the NAZI Party the only political party permitted in Germany. After President Hindenburg died (1934), Germany was made a one-party state and the NAZI Party flag became the German flag. The dividing line between the Government and the Party faded, but never ntirely disappeared, making NAZI Germany a very complicated place to do business. The Hitler Youth movenment while a national mass organization, was not a Government agency. It was a unit of the NAZI Party. HJ members were taught to respect the NAZI party and live up to the National Socialist creed by learning from the NAZI Primer, which was the group's official handbook. The Party was presented as more than a political party. It was made into an integral aspect of German patriotism. And the Party saw the HJ as its own private recruiting grounds for future Party leaders. This included not only the Party itself, but Party organizations like the SS.

NAZI Party Organization

The NAZI Party was organized on a hierarchial basis. At the top of the Party structure was German Führer Adolf Hitler. This was both a party and government post Hitler assumed in the death of President Hindenburg (1934). Hitler thus combined the Party leadership and Chancelor positions he already held with that of the presidency. His title at that time became Führer. Hitler's successor designate was first, Hermann Goering (until the last weeks of the Reich), and second, Rudolf Hess (until his flight to Scotland in 1941). The leadership corps of the Party began with Hitler as was divided into six levels below him: 2. Reichsleiter (ministers) 3. Gauleiter (3 through 7 known collectively as Hoheitstraiger) | 4. Kreisleiter 5. Ortsgruppenleiter 6. Zellenleiter 7. Blockleiter. The Party was also organized into several leadership groups and associated federations. These varied somewhat over time, both in numbers and responsibilities.

Recruiting Future NAZI Leaders

HJ Director Baudar von Schirach moved to make the HJ a reservoir of talent for the NAZI Party and its affiliated organizations. The Party Chancellery specifically directed HJ leaders and NAZI Party units to look to the HJ as future Party leaders. Only HJ members who distinguished themselves were to be admitted to the Party. Nazi leaders were instructed to use "properly qualified full-time Hitler Youth leaders ... for the continuation of their political work in the Party service," so that a necessary succession of full-time leaders in the Leader Corps (Fuehrerkorps) of the Party would be secured. The Party manual also discusses the HJ as a recruitment agency for future Party leaders and members of affiliated organizations of the NSDAP: "To secure for the Party valuable and trained recruits for leadership, suitable Hitler Jugend boys of over 17 can be assigned for education and training to leaders from local unit leaders on upwards."

Progression

The Party manual explained the expected prorgression, "Besides the above mentioned conditions for selections in general, a process of elimination results from the fact that from youth on the German is cared for, guided, and educated by the Party. First they are assembled in the Young Folk [Jungvolk] from which the young people are transferred into the HJ. The boy of the HJ enters the SA, the SS, the NSKK or the NSFK or participates in the work of the affiliated organizations of the Party. After labor and army service, he returns for service to the Party and its affiliates, respectively."

Party Dynamics

The NAZI Party claimed to be superior to the democratic parlimentary rule because of its slimed down organization which enabled the Führer's decesions to be quickly executed. There were many Party organizations andthe rivalries and juridictions overlap made the Party a miulti-headed hydra. The major foirce in the Party besides Führer Adolf Hitler was the Gauleiters (regional governors) he appointed, most of whom proceeded to over see their gaus as regionsal fiefoms. Hitler chosde trusted old colleagues foir these posts and only in the most egrigous cases doid he interfere or replsace them. They were essentially the backbone of the Party. The most powerful Party unit was at first the Sturmabteilungen (SA). The HJ had in fact first been organized by the SA. It was a massive para-military group iover a million strong at one point. To placate the Army and to ensure his control of the Psrty, Hitler used the still very small Schutzstaffeln (SS) to supress the SA in the Night of the Long Knives (1934). This was the beginning of the rise of the SS to become virtually a state within a state. With the rise of the SS, tensions developed between the SS and the Party Gauleiters.

Special Arrangements with the SS

Schirach negotiated a special arrangement with Himmler concerning the recruiting of SS men from the HJ. A special HJ unit was establish for future SS men--the Streifendienst (Patrol Service). The group appears to have been established in 1938 and became the main recruiting tool for the SS. The HJ also establoished a Farm Service which was also used to funnel members o the SS.