Hitler Youth Activities: Military Training

Figure 1.--Hitler Youth boys are seen here practicing with rifles. There was considerable overlap betweem HJ and Scouting activities. Our inutial assessment, however, was that the HJ program, especially for the older boys, had a substantial pre-military focus that Scouting did not have.

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.

Boy Scout Military Activities

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. Scouting was of course founded by an army general--Lord Baden Powell. A major reason for his interest was the poor quality of recruits joining the British Army. Rifelry and hunting were an important part of the Boy Scout program in the United States, especially with Scouts in rural areas. I can remember even in the 1960s, rifle advertisements were still common in Boys' Life, the American Scout magazine. This varied by country. Hunting and rifelry we do not believe was as common in the Scoting roblems of other countries.

HJ Military Activities

The DJ and especially the HJ 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. This varied with the age of the boys. It was limited in the DJ, but much more advanced with the HJ. There were a range of military exrcizes, such as laying communications cable. All boys were given firearms training, starting with small caliber rifles and then moving up to standard infantry rifles. 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.

Destinctiveness

An observer writes, "As for the pre-military training, the Hitler Youth was not the only youth organization doing this at that point in history. US Boy Scouts also learned orienteering, rifle shooting, etc. It's nothing that was unique to the Hitler Youth." [Crawford] Here we do not entirely agree. We do agree there was overlap and in some cases there is a fine line. Target shooting is an example here. Our information is still limited here, but our initial assessment is that the HJ program was much more strongly oriented toward actual pre-military training then the Boy Scouts. There was certainly programs like orienteering and rifelry in the Boy Scouts. We think, however, the context was different. The activities were not put in a military context by the Boy Scouts. The HJ did put them in a military context. In addition, Scouts were never given military exercizes to perform like laying commuication lines. Nor were there any attempt to glorify war like staging mock funerals for fallen warriors. Rifelry was always in the context of marksmanship and hunting. The HJ not only put rifelry in a military context, but exposed older boys to other weaponry.

Sources

Crawford, Chris. E-mail message, June 5, 2005.