Figure 1.--Here the boys are on sa cycling outing. I'm not sure if this was just the boys who had bikes or if the HJ provided bikes for the boys who did not have them. Notice the single rune banner. The boys are touring through Brandenburg. Notice how flat it is. The caption read, "Die Radfahrer der Landstraße". This meant, "The bikers of the country road".

The album is not a complete record of his HJ experiences. We don't see much in the way of local events or marches. Nor do we see much in the way of daily meetings and lining up for inspections. These local activities must have be a large part of the HJ experiene. Rather focuses on the trips that he and his HJ unit took. The albumn suggests that HJ got the opportunity to take many different trips as well as several bikeing and skiing trips. We note visits to: Berlin, Brandenburg, Hamburg, Kiel, Laboe, Turingen, Timmendorf, and other places. One can see from these photographs many of the boys would have greatly enjoyed their HJ experience. ll these trips must have been very exciting. Boys from working class families at the time would have had very little opportunity to travel or organized activities. Most of the photograph have interesting captions in old German script.

Local Activities

The album is not a complete record of his HJ experiences. We don't see much in the way of local events or marches. Nor do we see much in the way of daily meetings and lining up for inspections. These local activities must have be a large part of the HJ experiene. Trips were special events. But there could be only so many of them. There is one photograph that loks to be a unit meeting at the home of one of the boys. Notice that there are no adults present. There is a caption, but we cannot make yet it out. This is the only local HJ activity that we find depicted in the album.

Trips

Rather focuses on the trips that he and his HJ unit took. The albumn suggests that HJ got the opportunity to take many different trips. We note visits to: Berlin, Brandenburg, Hamburg, Kiel, Laboe, Turingen, Timmendorf, and other places. There are photogrphs of the sites in Berlin such as Reichstag (an empty shell at the time) and the Brandenburg gate. There are many photographs from Hamburg and perhaps other se ports. Our HJ boy seems particularly interested in ships. The Berlin sites are easy to identify. There are other scenes that I can't recognize, but [erhaps our German readers will recognize. This boy was able to see quite a bit of Germany as a result of his HJ trips. I'm not sure how common this was. Perhaps he was more active ans involved in the movement than most boys.

Outings

We also see HJ boys in this album on several outings. There were bikeing and skiing trips. Surely there much have been hiking expeditions. You would think they would be the mot common. In our HJ boy;s album, however, we mostly see the boys on biking expeditions. Not every German boy had a bike in the 1930s. These would have been mostly middle-class boys. Most working-class boys would not have hd a bike. Actually many workers used bikes to go to work. The HJ was a mass movement which eventually involved almost all German boys. Thus I'm not entirely sure where the bikes came from. We also see a skiing outing. Skiing was not something every German boy did. But it was something that some working-class boys mighthave anopportunity to do because of theHJ. We would guess that the skiiing equipment probably belong to the HJ, but we have not details on this.

Camping

We note some camping activities. We most associate the Hitler Youth with large summer camps. e do not see any large camps. The HJ had some excellent camping facilities and sites because they took over the assetts and faclties of other German youth movements. Rather the photographs in the lbum seem to be more small camp sites set up by this unit alone. They seem to be mostly beach camp sites, presumably on Germny's Baltic Coast. The boys looked to have camped somewhere along Germany's Baltic coast. We also see the boys swimming, presumably from these beach camp sites. You might think that adults would be alone for these camping expeditions, but again se see no evidence of it. They have some rather modern looking tents. And at the end of the day is a rip-roring bondfire, making them look rather like Boy Scouts.

Impressions

One can see from these photographs many of the boys would have greatly enjoyed their HJ experience. ll these trips must have been very exciting. Boys from working class families at the time would have had very little opportunity to travel or organized activities. Not only do the trips and excursions look interesting, but the HJ program provided the opportunity to form many close personal friendships. The HJ hs been justifably criticised for helping to prepar a generation of German youth for war and genocide. The HJ was extremely effective in doing this, in part by helping to separate German youth from their parents. Unlike Scouting, parents were not involve in the HJ movement. Often loss in the condemnation of the HJ is just how effective it was. One study suggests that many boys had trouble in the HJ because of the hypermascline atompshere. [Kater] I am sure that this ws true. But it is seems also true thsat many boys formed close friendships and had very enjoyavle experiences in the HJ. The album here is not a propagannda piece. It is one boy's expeience. The images to us show boys that were enjoying each pther's company and having enjoyable healthy experiences.

Captions

Most of the photograph have interesting captions in old German script. This has made it difficult to even figure out the German words, let alone translate the text. A German reader has graciously helped us with this effort. The captions don't answer all of our questions, but they do tell us a great deal and povide many valuable insghts to help us understand this view of one HJ Troop through the eyes and camera of one boy.

Sources

Kater, Michael H. Hitler Youth (Harvard University Press: Cambridge, 2004).