Nazi Youth

How successful were the Nazis in carrying out the aims of their policies towards education and youth in the years 1933 – 1945?
Most of the information and evidence surrounding Youth Policy in Nazi Germany suggests that the early years of Nazi Rule were the most successful and popular as the beginning of the 1930’s saw organisations such as the Hitler Youth grow and expand and it was not a secret that the majority of young people enjoyed attending and participating in various activities. However there were many opposition groups which also grew, and by the end of the 1930’s enthusiasm seemed to have waned and the number of young people in attendance declined, so in this aspect the Nazis had seemingly failed to totally indoctrinate their youth and not all of the aims of their policies were totally successful and absolute.
However the Nazi Party did have some success surrounding youth and education for a variety of reasons. The Nazis took advantage of the need for German youth groups and used what teenagers wanted and craved to slip in Nazi ideals, took over the education system to portray Nazi views, and used the school system to glorify war; they also often alienated children from their parents. The Hitler Youth group played a major role in Nazi control of youths especially in 1939 when it became compulsory to attend. The Nazis took what the children wanted such as group activities, hiking, camping and singing and added in extra activities such as marching, learning about Nazi policies and practicing military exercises. Many of the members were merely drawn to the youth group due to the leisure opportunities it offered and some just did not have a choice as other organisations were shut down and made illegal. The fact that the Nazis made the Hitler Youth Compulsory and essentially made other Youth Groups illegal is a possible sign of weakness or fear, as the need to make the organisation compulsory, perhaps shows it was not as successful as originally thought to be, and did not totally carry out the aims of their Youth Policy.
As the Nazis wanted to control each aspect of a child's life they realised that education played a very important role. They altered textbooks to include Nazi history and also Nazi views of History. Students were taught about the injustice of German government and how the Jews were slowly taking over. The National Socialist party also managed to glorify the military in each school subject. They also made sure that the students had to study race and ideology every day. As the Nazis needed to control each aspect of a child's life to have full hold on the child they realised that it was a necessity to control a child's home or family life, in many cases this meant isolating a child from his/her family. It became increasingly common in Germany for the children of the household to be much more pro-Nazi than their parents. This is because the children grew up being controlled by Nazi forces and therefore found such things as routine household checks normal, whereas older family members found it an invasion of privacy. This often resulted in family disputes and caused disrupt, which again makes us wonder to what extremes the Nazis would go to in order to achieve the aims in their policies.
During the late 1930's the number of members in the Hitler Youth group drastically increased however as the war progressed the number of enrolments dropped as the group became more war centred rather than leisure activities. In fact anti-Hitler Youth groups were set up. One of the three main opposing groups was called the "swing" movement. This was a group of teenagers who rebelled against the Nazi regime by listening to banned music from the US and England and also dressing in a more western fashion. Perhaps one of the policies that infuriated the Nazis the most was the fact that the "swing" movement members allowed Jews in their clubs. Another group which the Nazis greatly feared was the Edelweiss Pirates. This group of Youths carried out some very similar activities to the Hitler youth group such as singing however the Edelweiss Pirates' songs were criticising the Nazi regime and mocked their ideas of the German superpower. They also often attacked Hitler Youth group members and indulged in activities that the Nazis looked down upon such as the act of sex and making the group include both male and female members.
To conclude, it is difficult to say exactly how successful the Nazi policies were with the youths of Germany however we do have evidence to show both the positive and the negative results of these policies. Generally, Nazi Youth Policies were not particularly successful in the sense that they did not achieve their primary aims of indoctrinating the German Youth to create a generation of people who would worship Hitler and be totally loyal to the party. Indeed there were a number of young people who were grateful for the opportunities Hitler gave them and they did internalise the Nazi ideology. However there were a sizeable number who did not accept what was happening even to the point where death was a more viable option than living under such a regime and those who secretly rejected the party and did not even try to achieve Nazi aims. Even amongst those who appeared loyal there were many who had their own reasons for supporting the Nazis, some wished to further their careers, other were desperate to please and impress superiors and some were merely apathetic to what was going on. The Nazis were not infallible and allowed the youth to observe their mistakes, the young people were given the opportunity for disillusionment which prevented them from the giving the party the total loyalty and idolisation that was desired. Whilst there were all these other options to total internalisation it is difficult to say that The Nazi Youth Policies were successful, there were a number of aims set out but mostly they were not achieved in the space of time the Nazis had. Indeed it had limited success but not enough to claim that the policies overall were successful.