The Nizkor Project: Remembering the Holocaust (Shoah)

Nazi Conspiracy & Aggression
Individual Responsibility Of Defendants

Baldur Von Schirach

(Part 4 of 6)


[Page 883]

(6) Through the Hitler Youth, Schirach assisted the Nazi conspirators in developing leaders and members of the NSDAP and its affiliated organizations, including the SA and the SS. Sometime before the launching of aggressive wars, the Hitler Youth had become the principal source of zealous members for the NSDAP and its affiliated organizations. Orders of the Party Chancellery concerned with "successor problems" of the Party emphasize constant attention to Hitler Youth members as future Nazi leaders, thus attempting the perpetuation of the Nazi regime and Nazi ideology for the immediate future and even into future generations. Only Hitler Youth members who distinguished themselves were to be admitted to the Party. Nazi leaders were instructed to use "properly qualified full-time Hitler Youth leaders *** for the continuation of their political work in the Party service," so that a necessary succession of full-time leaders in the Leader Corps (Fuehrerkorps) of the Party would be secured.

The Party manual also discusses the Hitler Youth as a recruitment agency for future Nazi leaders and members of affiliated organizations of the NSDAP:

"To secure for the Party valuable and trained recruits for leadership, suitable Hitler Jugend boys of over 17 can be assigned for education and training to leaders from local unit leaders on upwards."

*******

"Besides the above mentioned conditions for selections in general, a process of elimination results from the fact that from youth on the German is cared for, guided, and educated by the Party. First they are assembled in the Young Folk [Jungvolk] from which the young people are transferred into the HJ. The boy of the HJ enters the SA, the SS, the NSKK or the NSFK or participates in the work of the affiliated organizations of the Party. After labor and army service, he returns for service to the Party and its affiliates, respectively."

Special arrangements existed between Himmler's SS and Schirach's Hitler Youth concerning the recruiting of members of

[Page 884]

the Hitler Jugend for later service in the SS. Within the Hitler Youth was a special group called the Streifendienst (Patrol Service). Concerning this special group, an official handbook on youth laws states:

"Organization of the Streifendienst.

"1. Since the Streifendienst in the HJ has to perform tasks similar to those of the SS for the whole movement, it is organized as a special unit for the purpose of securing recruits for the general SS; however, as much as possible, recruits for the SS special troops, for the SS Death Head Troops, and for the officer candidate schools should also be taken from these formations."

*******

"4a. The selection of Streifendienst members is made according to the principles of racial selection of the Schutzstaffel [SS]; the competent officials of the SS, primarily unit leaders, race authorities, and SS physicians, will be consulted for the admission test."

*******

"5 To insure from the beginning a good understanding between Reich youth leadership and Reich SS leadership, a liaison office will be ordered from the Reich youth leadership to the SS main office starting 1 October 1938. The appointment of other leaders to the SS sections is a subject for a future agreement.

"6 After the organization is completed, the SS takes its replacement primarily from these Streifendienst members. Admission of youths of German blood who are not members of the HJ is then possible only after information and advice of the competent Bann leader." (2396-PS)

Shortly afterwards, on 17 December 1938, Schirach and Himmler entered into and signed another agreement for recruiting SS members from the ranks of the Hitler Youth:

"To secure full success for the common effort of the SS and the Hitler Youth by strict cooperation, to stem the flight from the land, to build a new peasant class, to bring the best part of the people into contact with the earth of the homeland the following arrangement has been made in connection with the agreement of 26 August 1938.

"1. The farm service of the Hitler Youth is according to education and aim, particularly well suited as a recruiting organization for the Schutzstaffel (general SS and the armed sections of the SS; SS special troops and SS death head battalions) .

[Page 885]

"2. Boys who suit the special demands of the SS according to physical conditions and moral attitude are preferably admitted into the farm service of the Hitler Youth."

*******

"5. All farm service members who pass the general admission test of the SS will be taken over into the general SS after leaving the farm service." (2567-PS)

Thus, by the end of 1938, the Hitler Youth had become the main source for future SS members. (For the criminal activities the SS formations for which Hitler Youth members were recruited, see Section 5 of Chapter XV of the Schutzstaffel (SS).)

(7) Schirach actively engaged in militarizing the Hitler Youth. In June 1933, under an agreement between Hitler and Franz Seldte, which was negotiated in the presence of the Reich Minister of War, the "Steel Helmet League of Front Line Soldiers" (Stahlhelm, Bund der Frontsoldaten) was incorporated into the Nazi movement. The Scharnhorst, the youth organization of the Stahlhelm, was integrated into the Hitler Youth. (2260-PS)

The Hitler Youth was generally set up along military lines with uniforms, ranks, and titles. It contained divisions called Naval Hitler Youth, Motorized Hitler Youth, Hitler Youth Flyers, and Signal Hitler Youth. According to an official document published by the Reich Youth Leadership under Schirach, the object of these divisions within the Hitler Youth was to prepare boys, respectively, for the German merchant marine and Navy, the National Socialist Motorized Corps (NSKK), for civil and military aviation, and for service with signal troops. (2654-PS)

On or about 11 August 1939, just before the invasion of Poland, an agreement was entered into between Schirach and Wilhelm Keitel, then Chief of the High Command of the Wehrmacht, which was declared by Das Archiv to represent "the result of close cooperation" between these two conspirators. The agreement itself stated:

"while it is exclusively the task of the Hitler Youth to attend to the training of their units in this direction, it is suitable in the sense of a uniform training corresponding to the demands of the Wehrmacht to support the leadership of the Hitler Youth for their responsible task as trainers and educators in all fields of training for defense by special courses *** A great number of courses are in progress." (2398-PS)

The agreement stated that it "gives the possibility of roughly redoubling the same 30,000 leaders in the Hitler Youth schools

[Page 886]

for directing shooting practice and field training. Under the agreement, specific arrangements were made for messing and billeting the Hitler Youth leaders at Wehrmacht installations Former Hitler Youth leaders in the Wehrmacht, who were specially selected volunteers, were to be assigned as liaison officers and deputies for carrying out this military training. (2398-PS)

Hitler, in a speech in February 1938, represented that thousands of German boys had received specialized training in naval, aviation, and motorized groups within the Hitler Youth, and that over 1 million Hitler Youth members had received instructions in rifle shooting from 7,000 instructors. (2454-PS)


The original plaintext version of this file is available via ftp.

[ Previous | Index | Next ]

Home ·  Site Map ·  What's New? ·  Search Nizkor

© The Nizkor Project, 1991-2012

This site is intended for educational purposes to teach about the Holocaust and to combat hatred. Any statements or excerpts found on this site are for educational purposes only.

As part of these educational purposes, Nizkor may include on this website materials, such as excerpts from the writings of racists and antisemites. Far from approving these writings, Nizkor condemns them and provides them so that its readers can learn the nature and extent of hate and antisemitic discourse. Nizkor urges the readers of these pages to condemn racist and hate speech in all of its forms and manifestations.