Hitler Youth Uniforms: HJ Pins

Figure 1.--Here are some sample HJ pins. On the top row are: 1) Hitler Youth Proficiency Badge in neusilber, 2) Hitler Youth Ski Proficiency Badge in neusilber, and Gold Hitler Youth Leader Proficiency Badge. On the botom row are: 1-2) ordinary HJ membersho pins in red and blue, 3) Gold Leader Membership pin, and 4) Hitler Youth Marksman in Gold.

In addition to patches, HJ boys also wore a variety of pins. Our information is limited, but we believe there were two kinds of pins: 1) membership pins and 2) proficiency pins. There may have been others, but these are the ones we know of at this time. The membership pins were worn on caps. There were diamond-shaped ordinary menbership pins done in different colors. These were worn by both DJ and HJ boys. We note red and blue, but there may have been other other colors. I'm not sure what the different colors meant. There were also youth leader membership pins. They were like the ordnary membership pins, but with a gold border. There were also a variety of proficiency pins. These would have mostly been awarded to the older HJ boys. We don't have a complete list, but there were quite arange of these pins. They seemed to have been done in bronze, silver, and gold, indicating a level of proficency. We're not sure that all badges were made in these three grades. I'm also not sure where the proficency pins were worn. Some reports suggest that young Wehrmact soldiers wore their HJ profiency pins on their uniforms. There were HJ leadership proficency baddges. We also note ski and marksmen badges.