Gerhard Rempel - Hitlers Children: The Hitler Youth and the SS

This book has been long in the making. Since Professor Robert Koehl first suggested the idea as a dissertation topic, there have been a number of changes. While this has not been a labor of love in any sense of that phrase, it has been a compelling topic in more ways than one. The aftermath of the Third Reich is still very much with us and from time to time surfaces in the attention of the general public, as in the Hitler diary hoax and the Bitburg controversy. A recent visit to the Yad Vashem Memorial in Jerusalem made me keenly aware of how immanent still is the frightful legacy of Hitler and his generation of young disciples. I have attempted to be as objective as it is possible to be, assigning responsibility where evidence clearly indicates it, and avoiding sweeping moralization. Melita Maschmann, Alfons Heck, and Horst Krger, whose memoirs strike me as particularly authentic, remind us all how easy it was for young people to become entangled in the phenomenon of their time. In that sense I hope this book will serve both sound scholarly purposes and as a cautionary tale against political impetuosity at any age. Simplistic solutions to the problem of socialization, always fraught with emotional and psychological pitfalls, are not the exclusive preserve of the Nazi mentality.

Many individuals have aided and supported my efforts. Robert Koehl, who introduced me to the profession, has been a solid supporter, shrewd advisor, and good friend. I owe him more than he realizes. The late Harold Gordon gave an early version of the book a thorough examination and made many useful suggestions. Professor Theodore S. Hamerow has been more than kind in his advice and support. I should also like to thank Robert Bock, Alan Bosch, Frank Broderick, George Browder, Fred Brown, Albert Carter, Beaumont Herman, Harold Heye, Claudia Koonz, Patricia Miller, Richard Reed, Ronald Smelser, Peter Stachura, Charles Sydnor, Bernd Wegner, James Weingartner, Michael Wells, and Rachel Wilcox, who, in different ways, gave useful advice and needed encouragement. The late Richard Bauer of the Berlin Document Center was most helpful in providing copies of otherwise unavailable documents. Over the years Robert Wolf of the National Archives has never failed to provide assistance.

Without the services of an efficient interlibrary loan system books like this could not be written. The staff of DAmour Library at Western New England College, especially Suzanne Garber, Olive Lambert, Kay McGrath, and May Stack, went beyond the call of professional duty to respond to my numerous and impatient requests for often esoteric printed sources. My wife Ann and my children Hans and Lise have for years patiently tolerated my preoccupations and deserve as much credit for the conclusion of this project as I do. Finally, I should like to thank the readers and editors, especially Lewis Bateman, Ron Maner, and Margaret Morse, who gave the manuscript painstaking attention and made many helpful suggestions. What errors of fact and judgment remain are of course entirely my own.

Longmeadow, Massachusetts

September 1988