Hitler Youth Activities: Military Training

Figure 1.--We think these HJ boys are involved in military training exercizes. We are not sure just what the piece of equipment is. We thought it might be a range finder, important for artillery spotters. Military range finders were often elongated tubes which provided greater accuracy the further apart the two lenses were. Perhaps readers will be able to identify the piece of equipment being used here is.

There was no doubt in Hitler's mind from the point that he learned about the armistice (1918) that war was the solution to Germany's problems. A few years later when he dictated Mein Kampf he goes on at great length about the East and Germany's need for Lebenraum (living space). And although he did not talk about war, Hitler knew and any one with any sence knew that land land in the East could only be obtained through war. The early HJ focus was largely political, teenagers used to promote the NAZI effot, including political violence. After the NAZI seizure of power the focus chahanged. While Hitler continued to insist that he only wanted peace, the HJ program developed by Schirach was to prepare boys for war, both mentally and physically. Commited trained troops would be needed to use the new arms pouring out of German factories as the country remilitarized. HJ Director, Baldur von Schirach, both prepared a program that could train younger boys and which had a significant military component. The HJ program included both indirect and direct military training. Indirect military traing included both phyical training anf hiking to build strength and stamina as well as Wehrsport (war sports) to develop aggressive fighting spirit. Indirect activities were lrgely staples of the geberak youth movement and not much different than what one might find in Boy Scout programs. Boxing was a mainstay of the HJ sports program and the only sport Hitler thought important. There was also direct military training. This was an aspect of the Hitler Youth program that was different from that of other German youth movements and the Boy Scout movement. Direct military training included discipline, military drill and marching, skills (building dugouts, gas defence, map reading, range finding, sending and recieving morse code, setting and penetrating barbed wire, stinging communicatioin lines, trench digging, and much more. [Tunus]

Indirect Training

Indirect military traing included both phyical training anf hiking to build strength and stamina as well as Wehrsport (war sports) to develop aggressive fighting spirit. Indirect activities were lrgely staples of the geberak youth movement and not much different than what one might find in Boy Scout programs. Boxing was a mainstay of the HJ sports program and the only sport Hitler thought important.

Direct Training

There was also direct military training. This was an aspect of the Hitler Youth program that was different from that of other German youth movements and the Boy Scout movement. Direct military training included discipline, military drill and marching, skills (building dugouts, gas defence, map reading, range finding, sending and recieving morse code, setting and penetrating barbed wire, stinging communicatioin lines, trench digging, and much more. [Tunus]

Youth Organization Comparisons

Many activities promoted by the DJ and HJ wee not unlike the Boy Scouts, including physical fitness, hiking, camping, map reading, signaling, and other tasks. The DJ and especially the HJ, however, went far beyound this and carried out training in programs in a variety of military skills including weapons tarining. In the years before the war, the Hitler Youth gradually incorporated more overtly military training into its program. All boys were given firearms training, starting with small caliber rifles and then moving up to regular infantry pieces. They sent those who excelled to sharpshooter and sniper school. The services of these boy snipers were offered to the army and the Waffen-SS. The army snatched them up and placed them in reserve units. All of this military training fostered an aggressive spirit that could be realized only in actual combat. The Hitler Youth was in essence providing Germany with well-trained cannon-fodder for the war.

Sources

Tunus, J.R.