Hitler Youth Membership Book: Identity Information

Figure 1.--This is the identity pages from a HJ membership book. It was issued in October 1933. Notice all the different signatures. It indicates the boy was born December 14, 1916. Click on the image for a full view of the two pages.

The books included identity photographs with the HJ seal stamped over it. The NAZIs were adicted to these stamps on official documents. These pages also included basic information such as the youth's birthdate and when he or she joined the HJ organization. There were numerous signatures on these pages. We do not yet know just who the people signing were. The text of the membership card was written in the old-style German script. This makes it difficult to read the text in the book with the existing scan that we have. We hope to eventually transcribe and translate the text.

Left Side

The left side of the membership booklet has three elements. 1) the boy's photograph, 2) the HJ stamp, 3) some text, and 4) two signatures.
Photograph: The phogtograph looks like a passport photograph. The boy is Günther Faust, an older teenager. He looks to be photographed wearing his HJ uniform.
Seal: The lower left hand part of the photograph is stamped over with the HJ seal in purple ink. I can't read the words inside the circle clearly, but at the top it probably says "Hitler Jugend". I'm not sure what it says at the bottom. A German reader writes, " What I can read is „…BANN – a number – WORMS“. „Bann“ or „Banner“ was a organisational unit name, „Banner“ is a kind of a flag." We can clearly make out the HJ diamond logo flanked by the letters HJ. A HJ diamond pin was worn by HJ boys on their caps.
Text: Readers have provided us two versions of the text which are actually quite close. One version is, "The left side read, "Inhaber dieses Ausweises bekenne ich durch eigenhän= dige Unterschrift, daß ich für die Folgen verantwortlich bin, die der Verlust, die Unterschlagung oder betrügerische Verwendung dieses Ausweises nach sich ziehen können. " The other version is, " Als Inhaber dieses Ausweises bekenne ich durch eigenhändige Unterschrift daß ich für die Folgen verantwortlich bin, die der Verlust, der Unterschlagung oder die betrügerische Verwendung dieses Ausweises nach sich ziehen können". This translates as, "As holder of this certificate/ID I ackknowledge by the signature in my own hand that I take full responsibility for the consequences in case this ID is lost, intercepted or used fraudulently."
Signastures: Undrneath the text are two signatures with associated printed text indicating who should sign there. The top signature is that of the Hitler Youth boy, in this case Günther Faust. The text underneat reads, "Eigenhändige Unterschrift des Inhabers" (Personal signature of holder). Text on top of the bottom signature reads, "Die Ordnungsgemäßigkeit der Unterschrift u.d. Bildes bescheinigt:" (Certified attestation of the signature and picture). It is signed by Heini Seibel. He was the official in charge of Günther's HJ unit, but his rank is not very clear, but probably says, " Eigenhändige Unterschrift des Führers des nachstehenden ..???... ." This means "Personal siganture of the leader of the mentioned below ???".

Right Side

The right side has Hitler=Jugend at te top in bold print. In the 1930s „=“ was used in Germany instead of the „-„). The rest of the page is blanls to be filled in, some times by printed words at the left and in other cases text under the dotted lines.

Name (meaning last or family name): Faust

Vorname (first name): Günther. Note: The correct old spelling of the name „Günther“ is with „th“. Now we would write „Günter“, only „t“, not with the following „h“.

Beruf oder Stand (Occupation or position/Profession or social standing): This appears to have been left blank. I'm not sure what a child or youth would have been expected to write in here. A German reader tells us that "Schüler" (pupil) or "Lehrling" (apprentice) would have been appropriate entries. HBU at first thoought that virtually all HJ boy would be school children. Our reader reminds us that many German children at the time finished school when they graduated from primary school at about age 14. Thus many would be appretices or otherwise employed, such as on the family farm. Another possible entry would have been "arbeitslos" (unemployed), a severe situation in early 1930s Germany. Our reader writes, "I don't understand why nothing was written in, considering the German "exactness" (at least in those days!).

Wohnort (Residence): One reader has suggested Worms is written in here. It looks like something different, but in studying the writing, it does seem to be Worms. A German reader tells us, " It is certainly „Worms“, badly written. Günther's school master would not have been impressed. Worms is an old middle city (about 80 000 population about 25 miles to the west of Heidelberg, across the Rhine). There may be an old relation to Munich as Worms is in the socalled „Pfalz“ which was in former days, before 1919, an exclave of the kingdom of Bavaria (Munich the capital)." The dotted lines extends half way on the next line where the boy has written "Ad. Hitler" which is apperently the street as the printed word "Strasse" follows. (The Ad. is certainly the abreviation for Adolf. On the same line are also words. Günther has crossed out the first one (Platz meanying place) and written in what looks like "Nr.56 (?)". This would be the number of the building. A German reader tells us, "we don’t have street numbers!". Thus it should read fully written: „Adolf Hitler-Straße Nr. 56“ One would assume that Adolf Hitler Strasse was a very important stree in the city center. I'm not sure what the street is named now. It is no more possible without very serious research what the name of the street is now unless a reader frpm Worms provides us that information.

geb. am (birth): 14.12.16 (December 14, 1916). On the same line is printed "in" and Günter has filled in Worms.

ist am (has been admitted): 1. Okt. 1933 has been stamped in followed by the printed text "in die Hitler Jugend aufgenommen und dem Standort"(into the Hitler Youth to the post of). Here Worms has been written in. Then come the words "zugeteilt worden" which means „allotted to“, „assigned to“, „appointed to“. The word order in German and English is of course different.

München, ben (Munich, ???): I am not sure what this means. München of course is the city of Munich. What we do not know is why this partiular city was printed in the HJ membership booklet. Worms was not near Munich, in fact it was about 300 miles to the west. Worms was, however once a dependency of Bavaria as noted above. Were these cards printed on a refional basis. Perhaps each Gau printed their own membership booklets. Here the date January 8, 1934 is stamped in. We do not know what this date signified. Another possibility is that the HJ headquarters was in Munich. München (Munich) was the "Hauptstadt der Bewegung" (birthplace of the NAZI movement). Munich was in the 1920s the city where Hitler was living and building up the party. He staged the abortive Beer Hall Putch was staged in Munich. So perhapps applications for membership, even the membership books themselves, had to be sent there for approval. We are not sure what the approval process involved. The date may have been when the boy's membership was officially approved. We notice he began participating and paying dues a few months earlier in October 1933.

Signatures: There are two signatures at the bottom. The first is "Schirach" Reichsjugendführer (Reich Youth Leader). On the left we see the signature of Baldur von Schirach, the Reichsjugendführer. His signature appeared on all membership IDs while he was the HJ leader (Until 1940). He was the most important HJ leader. His mother was American. I wonder what she thought of her son who became such a super-NAZI. The second signature is unclear but on top read "Der Leiter des Standorts:" (Gerrison commander) and underneath "Obergebietsführer" (HJ Unit Leader). One reader thinks he probably was the HJ leader in Worms.

Signatures

All the many signatures on official documents was typical of the NAZIs. In this case one sees not only the signature of the member, but also on the left the signature of the HJ-leader ( Heini Seibel ) who attested to the correctitude of the member's signature and photo.