*** Hitler Youth: Austrian youth groups










Austrian Youth Groups: Hitler Youth (1930?-38)

Hitler Youth in Austria
Figure 1.--This is a Hitler Youth unit in the Austrian city of Graza, just before or during the Ansscluss (March 1938). Note thar the unit is all older teens. They wear white shirts rather than the trade-mark brown shirts the German Hitler Youth boys wore. Most of the boys seem to be wearing Lederhosen, but without the haltars. White knee socks seem popular for the Austrian Hitler youth.

The Hitler Youth movement did not begin with the Anchluss. There was a great deal of support for the NAZIs in Austria. A Hitler Youth movement was organized in Austria although we know little about the early organization. There were probably a few units organized in the 1920s, but this probanly inceased aftyer the NAZIs begam to become amajor party(1929) and then seized power in Germnany (1933). It was one of the few countries outside of Germany with a Hitler Youth movement. We believe that most of the members were teenagers even older teens. We have few details here, but available photographs mostly show older tenagers. This probably reflects the reluctance of most parents to allow younger boys to join an illegal group involved in street brawling. The HJ began in Germany as an offshoot of the SA. Before the Annchluss there was probably close coordinaion between the underground SA and underground HJ organizations. The Austrian HJ did not have caps. Thy wore white shirts, black neckerchiefs, and a variety of pants, often Lederhosen. Note that they are regular white shorts without the military syling of the German brown shirts. Also there are no badges. The HJ was eventually banned by the Austrian Government, but continued to operate sureptitiously. After the Anschluss the Hitler Youth became the only permitted youth group. Austria itself was annexed by the Reich so there was no Austrian Hitler Youth, but rather only one comprehensive German Hitler Youth movement. We this do not know of any difference between the Hitler Youth program in Austria and the rest of Germany. Of course after the Anchluss they were part of the same country. Austrian boys could be identified by the triangular shoulder patch which read "Ostmark" (Eastmark) and the name of the city such as Vien (Vienna) below. With the Anschluss and subsequent anexation by the Reich, AustriAns became subject to NAZI laws. This included the 1936 Hitler Youth law making menbership in the HJ compulsory for all Aryan children 10-years of age and older. Propaganda Mimister Goebbels ordred a thin poetry book written by Hitler Youth members in Austria 'during the years of persecution'published in the Reich. [Unknown Austrian HJ Members] The poems are worshipful, almost religious in tone. Goebbels awarded it the National Book Prize for 1937-38.

Sources

Unknown Austrian HJ Members. Das Lied der Getreuen. Verse ungennanter �sterreichischer Hitler-Jugend aus den Jahren der Verfolgung 1933-37 (Leipzig: Philipp Reclam jun., Verlag, 1938). The title translates into English as, 'The song of the faithful. Poems by anonymous Austrian Hitler youths from the years of prosecution 1933-37.' You can read an essay by Willi F. K�nitzer.






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Created: 8:44 AM 12/9/2012
Last updated: 3:49 PM 1/15/2013