Hannsjoachim Wolfgang Koch - The Hitler Youth: Origins and Development 1922-1945

THE HITLER YOUTH

Origins and Development 19221945

Origins and Development 19221945

H. W. KOCH

First Cooper Square Press edition 2000

Copyright 1975 by H. W. Koch

This Cooper Square Press paperback edition of The Hitler Youth is an unabridged republication of the edition first published in New York in 1975.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Koch, H. W. (Hannsjoachim Wolfgang), 1933

The Hitler Youth : origins and development 1922-19451st Cooper Square Press ed.

p. cm.

Originally published: New York : Barnes & Noble Books, 1975.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-8154-1084-3

1. Hitler-JugendHistory. I. Title.

DD253.5 .K6 2000

943.086dc21

00-034617

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992. Manufactured in the United States of America.

Dem Gedchtnis
meines Bruders
Wolfgang Koch
19241944

Acknowledgments are due to Bayrisches Haupstaatsarchiv, (BHSA), Bundesarchiv Koblenz (BA), Sddeutscher Verlag (SV) and Ullstein (U)

Maps: Regional Organization of the Hitler Youth in 1939 (

Personal experience apart, the origins of this book lie in a study begun several years ago and suggested by my friend Professor Gwyn Williams. The study proved both enlightening and depressing, for it revealed how Herders concept of the Volk, which offered an alternative approach to popular democracy from that provided by the ideas of the French Revolution, changed in fact mutated year by year and decade by decade until it became one of the component strands of National Socialism.

My original intention had been to call this book Youth in Bondage, for it ultimately required the cataclysm of the Second World War to break Germans, and especially Germanys youth, from what was the last and strongest perversion of the concept of the Volk. This perversion was very much part of the ideological make-up of the Hitler Youth and other German nationalist youth movements. (Whether of course the end of National Socialism has liberated German youth in general from ideological shackles is doubtful, for in our own day the ideological landscape is littered with very much the same elements as is the consumer market: namely substitutes and synthetics.)

No pretence is made here of supplying a definitive history of the Hitler Youth. For one thing the sources are far from satisfactory. Such as there are help us to gain a fairly coherent outline, but although the bureaucratic apparatus of the Hitler Youth was as inflated as that of any other NSDAP organization, its administrative methods, certainly at the regional and local level, left much to be desired. Thus knowledge of what happened in a Hitler Youth Gebiet in part depends on how dedicated an administrator its head was. Furthermore much material must have fallen victim of the systematic destruction that took place shortly before the arrival of the Allies. Whether the latter collected all they could of the remainder is doubtful. In the late autumn and winter of 194561 transported home several cartloads of files which were scattered over the administrative premises of the Gebiet Hochland. Alas, this action was not carried out in the interests of historical investigation but simply in order to keep the stove going in temperatures of about 30C. However, in recent years I have been fortunate in acquiring a number of relevant documents from private sources. These and other materials will in due course be made available to the Bundesarchiv in Koblenz.

I have deliberately omitted any detailed treatment of the relations between the Hitler Youth and other German Youth Leagues. To have done this would have meant writing a different book as well as adding immeasurably to the length of this one. As it happens the entire complex of the Bndische Jugend will receive treatment in a different volume.

One major problem concerned the translation of a number of terms. Since many of these proved virtually impossible to translate they have been left in the original. Thus, for example, the significance of Hitler Youth ranks can easily be established by looking at the diagram on page 271 setting out the organizational structure of the Hitler Youth at the Obergebiets level and below. A distinction has been made in the use of the terms Hitler Youth and HJ, the former applying to all youth organizations within the NSDAP, the latter only to the senior branch of the Hitler Youth, to those aged 14 to 18.

Obviously I am indebted to many people for their help, advice and assistance. First I must express thanks to those friends in Germanys other half who have been kind enough to supply me with relevant materials which otherwise would not have been accessible to me. But it is for the time beingin their interest and in compliance with their wishes that they shall remain nameless. Herr Dr Bauer, Frau Dr Schlichting and Frau Bayer of the Bayrisches Hauptstaatsarchiv, were helpful to a degree far beyond the call of duty, as were Frau Dr Kinder, Herr Dr Haupt and Herr Regler of the Bundesarchiv. I must also express my gratitude to Dr Schwebel of the Staatsarchiv Bremen, Dr Johe of the Forschungsstelle fr die Geschichte des Nationalsozialismus in Hamburg and Herrn v. Lwis of the Textarchiv der Sddeutschen Zeitung, Munich. And I doubt whether anyone working in the Institut fr Zeitgeschichte has ever come away from a conversation with Herr Dr Anton Hoch without considerable profit. The Bayrische Staatsbibliothek, and the Library of the University of York have also been of considerable assistance. For editorial help I must thank Mr and Mrs Terry Beechey.

Then I must express thanks to my maternal friend Frau Karla Zapf of Munich, whose Wurstsalat and Bierle kept occasionally flagging energies going. My thanks are also due to the Sailer families of Haag and Kirchdorf who provided the necessary tranquil environment for work; in fact I should extend my thanks to the people of Haag/Obb generally for their hospitality.

I am grateful to Eyre & Spottiswoode (Publishers) Ltd for permission to quote from Nazi Seizure of Power by W. S. Allen; to Rowohlt Verlag GmbH for the extract from Die Letzten Tage der Reichskanzlei by Gerhard Boldt; and to Deutsche Verlagsanstalt GmbH for the quotation from Fazit by Melita Maschmann.

Above all I am indebted to my wife and family, including of course my daughter Freya who helped prepare the diagrams.