Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow

It has been such a long time since I sat down and read a piece of non-fiction work for non-class purposes (and by non-class I of course mean curriculum prep for teaching).  I guess I was not expecting to enjoy this so much.  Usually when I read this type of literature I am more focused on my reading from a teacher’s perspective that I don’t just look at it as a reader (which is much more pleasurable I assure you).  Anyhow, I read my choice book first – Hitler Youth:  Growing up in Hitler’s Shadow by Susan Campbell Bartoletti.  The Holocaust period in history has fascinated me, as it does many people, since I first heard of its grisly truth.  I have always been drawn to the individual stories regarding the Holocaust.  The numbers “3 million Jews…” do not register for me – it is just too massive to wrap my mind around; I believe it is for this reason that I am intrigued by the individual stories.  Having taught Night for the past eight years, I am constantly looking for more material, new material, interesting material that will speak to my students.  Anne Frank and Elie Wiesel have incredible tales, but they are just two of millions.  Reading Hitler’s Youth I was not sure how I would feel about looking at things from this “side”.  I found myself completely engrossed.  This book is wonderful in that it moves chronologically (sort of) through what life would be like for a young German at the time of Hitler’s rise to power.  Reading things from this perspective, one cannot help but imagine they too would be drawn to the promises and power Hitler put forth.  Each chapter was thematic and chronological – fitting historically the thoughts/struggles of Hitler’s youth.  Some of Hitler’s youth held firmly to their belief in the mighty Hitler – others began to question and reject his messages and actions – and this book is about those who acted out because of their biases one way or the other. 

While reading the chapter, “The Brown Pest,” I felt their enthusiasm about what they were working for “A Greater Germany” who wouldn’t want that right?  If the words were not vivid enough to embrace the excitement and patriotism of these youth, the pictures filled any doubt.  Eventually the chapter “Long Live Freedom:  Hitler Youth and Resistance” grabbed me with tales of the Scholl siblings and their White Rose group which led to many young deaths for speaking against Hitler.  This chapter also focused on three young male friends who illegally listened to non-German broadcasts, discovered Hitler was not being truthful, and felt compelled to distribute leaflets to let others know the truth as well.  When caught – they knew they would be used as “examples” and so one fell for the group, knowingly costing himself his very life.  And for every story of a youth against Hitler’s ways, there is a different story of heroics for Hitler.  Reading the story of Emil Durr, a soldier who despite countless gun shot wounds kept fighting and eventually, in a last ditch effort to disarm a tank, ran up to it with a bomb and held the explosive to the tank until it went off, though fanatical, also impressively devoted, made me think – he should be proud of himself for never giving up.  Then I stop and recall which side he was on – does that make his devotion without merit?  Tough question.  Then I realized, because I forgot while reading, that these were teenagers.  All these tales were about individuals the same ages as my students.  Fascinating.

Overall I greatly enjoyed this book. It was not a difficult read and was interesting from beginning to end.  I know my students would enjoy it from cover to cover, although I imagine I would only use sections of it.  My son (I always bring my kids in, sorry…) read most of it – he too is very interested in Hitler and the Holocaust.  I would recommend anyone who teaches anything World War II to read this.  I suggest any student who is interested in war stories to read this as well.  It won’t take long and it is well worth the time.