Hitler Youth: Pageantry -- Parades


Figure 1.--Here we see a HJ parade through a German city. Note that they do not seem to be any adult leaders in evidence. The signs in the background say "Assicurazioni Generali" (an Italian assurance company) and "Reisebüro" (a travel agency). Hence there is no relation to the parade, just the usual business signs on the buildings.

We note quite a few images of HJ boys parading through German streets. We do not know just how common these parades were. Here we are not sure just what is involved. Our information on these parades is limited. Were these parades civic events on special days. Or were they more NAZI Party events perhaps both. It is likely that there were differences in various regions. We do not know to what extenbt they were planned by the HJ Organization itself or if they were ordered by local NAZI official. Nor do we know just who participared in the parades. We seem to notice mostly boys, but a few of the photographs show BDM girls as well. HJ units met once a week. We do not to what extent parading occurred at this time or if the parades were special events held at other times than the meetings. We believe that there were different types of parades. Sometimes single units paraded. We have noticed larger parades involving groups of units. A HJ expert tells us, "Think of their parades along the lines of military parades. The military doesn't parade for no reason, they parade for a purpose, such as holidays or events. They would parade by units - BDM units together, HJ units together, but not mixed HJ / BDM, or mixed between different units, such as for different states. A lot of the time they'd just stand by the site of the road and wave to incoming dignitaries, party leaders, etc. Parades were never done for no reason or for "just parading". They didn't parade at their weekly meetings, but they'd sometimes practice marching at those. They sing when hiking, but not during parades. Marching to and from events they would sing, but not at the actual parades. As for popular activity, I guess that would depend on the person. Some people like being in parades, other people don't. Some boys, of course, liked to get a glimpse of the leaders or the military at the same parades. Some didn't really care for the parading." [Crawford]

Sources

Crawford, Chris. E-mail, June 15, 2005








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Created: 1:15 AM 6/15/20052
Last updated: 1:29 AM 6/16/2005