All language subtitles for m.m.n.g.i.w.s01e07.1080p.web.h264-cbfm_track3_[eng]

[MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR: The new Nazi
Youth League attracted

very few members at first.

They competed against numerous
other well-established youth

groups.

In May 1922, the Nazis held a
meeting at the Bürgerbraukeller,

a large beer hall in Munich.

At this meeting, the foundation
of the Nazi Youth League

was proclaimed.

However, that meeting
attracted only 17 youths.

Membership into the
Jugendbund was only

for qualified Aryan
German youths who were

between 14 and 18 years of age.

All foreigners, adherents
of the Jewish faith,

and other racially
inferior people

were automatically
excluded from joining.

Every approved
Jugendbund member had

to swear his personal allegiance
first to Adolf Hitler,

second to the 11 covenants
of the Jugendbund,

and finally to the political
program of the NSDAP,

or Nazi Party.

Weekly meetings were
held, which featured

lectures and discussions.

Every second Sunday was spent
in mandatory hiking trips

across the countryside.

The League also established its
own libraries for members that

excluded trashy literature.

The first uniforms were copied
from the brown-shirted SA.

This caused resentment among
the younger SA members,

who sometimes were confused
with Youth League members.

The Jugendbund's earliest
public appearance

occurred on 2 September
1922 at the Sedan

Remembrance Day in Nuremberg.

It is estimated that
about 900 Jugendbund

members attended this event.

At this rally,
Jungsturm Adolf Hitler

marched past Adolf Hitler and
other high-ranking Nazi Party

leaders.

During the course of
the day, Adolf Hitler

presented his Jugendbund
with its first flag.

The Nazis were based in Munich,
in the German state of Bavaria.

Munich was a hotbed of political
groups violently opposed

to the German
democratic government,

known as the Weimar Republic,
which was based in Berlin.

By November 1923, the Nazis,
with 55,000 followers,

were the biggest and best
organized political party.

Nazi members demanded
revolutionary action.

The result was
Hitler's Beer Hall

Putsch, in which he attempted
to seize power in Bavaria.

On November 9, the column of
3,000 Nazis, led by Hitler,

marched toward the
center of Munich but soon

encountered a police blockade.

Shots rang out.

16 Nazis and three
police were killed.

Hitler fled the
scene, then hid out

in the attic of a
friend's home, until he

was arrested two days later.

Other Nazi leaders were
arrested or fled the country

to avoid prosecution.

Hitler went to prison.

The German democratic
government officially

disbanded the Nazi Party
and its Youth League.

Most observers thought they
had seen the last of Hitler.

Following the failed Beer Hall
Putsch and Hitler's arrest,

the Nazi Party and the Youth
League of the Nazi Party

were outlawed.

After his release
from prison, Hitler

announced he would
reform the Nazi Party

and invited all
German nationalists

to join the revitalized
party with him

as its undisputed leader.

In 1924, Kurt Gruber, a
21-year-old law student

who had joined the
Nazi Party in 1923,

became leader of the youth.

Gruber introduced the first
Hitler Youth style uniforms.

These uniforms featured a
brown shirt, black shorts,

and a unique armband with
a Nazi swastika, minus

the white circular background.

The armband also had a
white horizontal stripe

attached to it.

This was so the
youth members were

easier to distinguish from
brown-shirted stormtroopers

or SA.

The SA resented being
confused with the youths.

For Hitler, 1925 was a year
spent successfully rebuilding

the Nazi Party and
consolidating his position

as its absolute leader.

Amid the success, Hitler
called for his first mass rally

since his release from prison.

He chose the city of Weimar,
located in the German state

of Thuringia, which was one
of the few states where he

could legally speak in public.

On 3 July 1926, a two-day Nazi
rally began and was attended

by youth group members.

On Sunday, 4 July, at the
suggestion of Julius Streicher,

Gruber's Greater German
Youth Movement was

renamed as the Hitler-Jugend.

Thus, the Hitler Youth was born.

Kurt Gruber was officially
proclaimed as its first leader.

All other independent National
Socialist youth associations,

including groups in
Austria, were now

absorbed into the Hitler
Youth organization.

New guidelines stipulated
that all Hitler Youth members

over age 18 had to be Nazi
Party members, that appointments

to high-ranking positions
required party approval,

that Hitler youths must
obey all commands issued

by any Nazi Party leader, that
they would pay a membership

fee of four pfennigs per
month, and that they would wear

standardized uniforms
designed to avoid confusion

with stormtrooper uniforms.

To raise money, the Hitler
Youth went on long marches,

where they asked
for contributions

from the local citizens.

These marches always included
the attention-getting, rousing

singing of Hitler Youth boys.

[NON-ENGLISH SINGING]

NARRATOR: Their songs, borrowed
mainly from the prewar German

Youth Movement, were
based on old ballads and

traditional German folklore.

They also borrowed tunes
from other nationalist groups

and other political
organizations,

even the communists, and
simply changed the lyrics.

At the Nuremberg
party rally in 1927,

about 300 Hitler Youth members
marched alongside 30,000

brown-shirted stormtroopers.

This was the first appearance
of the Hitler Youth

at the annual Nuremberg rallies.

Adolf Hitler took notice
of his young followers

and paid special
tribute to them.

Due to a lack of
money, many of the boys

had walked all the
way to Nuremberg.

At the end of 1928, a separate
branch was established

in the Hitler Youth for girls.

This was later called
the Bund Deutscher

Madel, which translated as the
League of German Girls, or BDM.

Although Gruber was
enjoying much success,

competition for
his position soon

arose from an ambitious
young upstart.

Baldur von Schirach had joined
the Nazi Party at age 18,

after hearing Hitler
speak for the first time.

Schirach was the son of a
wealthy Prussian army captain

and an American
mother, whose ancestors

included two signers of the
Declaration of Independence.

He was educated at the
best German schools

and quickly came to
the attention of Hitler

after joining the party.

The ambitious
young Schirach soon

set his sights on gaining
control of the Hitler

Youth organization.

The Hitler Youth organization
had grown from 80 branches with

700 members in 1926
to about 450 branches

with 13,000 members in 1929.

But it was still a tiny
organization, considering

that throughout
Germany, there were

a total of 4.3 million
young people involved in

a wide variety of youth groups.

But the Hitler Youth movement,
like the Nazi Party itself,

would soon experience
enormous growth

as a result of the economic
catastrophe brought

on by the Great Depression.

The severe economic hardships
of the Great Depression

destabilized the democratic
government in Germany,

spurring antidemocratic
groups into action,

including the Nazis
and communists.

On March 20, 1930, Hitler
Youth gathered in Berlin for

their first solo mass rally.

It had the theme "From
Resistance to Attack"

and featured
inflammatory speeches

by Berlin Gauleiter
Joseph Goebbels

and Hitler Youth leader Gruber.

JOSEPH GOEBBELS:
[SPEAKING GERMAN]

NARRATOR: The radical
tone of the speeches

attracted the attention of local
police and public authorities

and resulted in a crackdown
on the Hitler Youth.

Propaganda marches were
banned, and German schoolboys

were prohibited from joining.

Penalties included possible
expulsion from school and fines.

The official crackdown
had little overall effect

and actually made this
forbidden organization more

appealing to adventurous teens.

Parents tried in vain to
discourage their children from

associating with Hitler youths.

The Roman Catholic church, which
had its own extensive youth

organization, restricted young
parish members from joining.

To keep boys from defecting,
Catholic youth groups

copied some of the practices
of the Hitler Youth,

such as target shooting
with small caliber rifles.

Hitler Youth marches, rallies,
and meetings continued

despite the opposition.

Political activities
of the boys included

disrupting the first
showing of the antiwar film

All Quiet on the Western Front.

In the movie, a schoolboy
enthusiastically

joins the German
army in World War I,

only to discover the murderous
realities of modern warfare.

In several German cities and in
Vienna, disruptive Hitler youths

inside theaters caused film
showings to be canceled.

The film was then taken out of
general circulation in Germany.

1930s was a landmark year in
the rise of Hitler, and Hitler

Youth played an important role.

Throughout Germany, along
with Nazi stormtroopers,

they tirelessly
campaigned to get Nazis

elected to the Reichstag
in the now faltering

democratic government.

In the election held
on 14 September 1930,

Nazis received 18%
of the vote and won

107 seats in the Reichstag.

They instantly became
the second largest

political party in Germany.

In October 1931, Nazi Party
headquarters in Munich abruptly

announced Gruber
was gone, replaced

by the 24-year-old Schirach.

As one of the earliest
members of the Nazi Party,

Schirach was among
Hitler's inner circle

and was personally well
regarded by Hitler.

Schirach was a romantic
and a self-styled poet

who had worshipful
admiration for Hitler.

He expressed blind devotion
in sentimental writings.

He described Hitler as "this
genius grazing the stars"

and stated that "loyalty is
everything, and everything

is the love of Adolf Hitler."

Schirach's flattery was also an
effective means of furthering

his own advancement.

Hitler had a notable weakness
for flattery, which was well

known to members of his
inner circle that included

Goering, Goebbels, and Himmler.

They constantly try to outdo
each other in lavishing

praise upon him, but none
was better skilled at it

than Schirach.

In 1932, Hitler Youth,
along with the SA,

took part in four separate
election campaigns--

two Reichstag elections and
two presidential elections.

Hitler's goal was to
achieve power democratically

and then eliminate democracy.

To the average German, their
elected democratic leaders

seemed unable to cope with
the enormous daily sufferings

brought on by the
Great Depression.

Throughout Germany, thousands of
businesses and banks had failed.

People lost their life savings.

Millions were now
unemployed, struggling

just to put food on the
table to feed their children.

As the democratic
government in Berlin

slowly unraveled under
this pressure, the Nazis

and other rival
political groups,

especially the
communists, positioned

themselves to seize power.

The communists were
the Nazi's main rivals

and had their own stormtrooper
organization, the Red Front.

Members of the Red Front
were always willing to fight

Nazis in the streets.

Violent street incidents
also erupted between Hitler

youths and young communists.

Uniformed Hitler youth,
like the brown-shirted SA,

were a visible force in the
streets, campaigning for Hitler

and conducting frequent
propaganda marches.

Street battles between communist
youths and Hitler youths

occurred regularly.

They battled with fists and
sticks but increasingly resorted

to the use of firearms.

Between 1931 and
1933, 23 Hitler youths

were killed in the streets.

[SPEAKING GERMAN]

[NON-ENGLISH SINGING]

NARRATOR: Hitler
and the Nazis were

now close to achieving power.

In the parliamentary elections
held on July 31, 1932,

the Nazis became the largest
political party in Germany.

They received 13.7 million
votes, which granted them

230 seats in the Reichstag.

The tireless propaganda
activities of the Hitler Youth

had helped enormously
to achieve this.

All over Germany, they had
handed out millions of pamphlets

and special editions
of Nazi newspapers

and conducted countless
propaganda marches.

In October, to celebrate
Hitler's success

and the growing strength of
the Hitler Youth movement,

Schirach asked the entire
membership to gather for a Reich

Youth Day rally at Potsdam.

Although there were initial
concerns over the number that

would actually show up, over
80,000 members traveled on foot,

by bus, and rail.

They converged on Potsdam
and overwhelmed the city.

On 2 October, they staged a
parade beginning at 11:00 AM,

lasting until 6:00 PM.

A teary-eyed Hitler stood on the
reviewing stand, saluting them.

He was deeply impressed
by their resolve

and their overwhelming turnout.

The organization now had
about 107,000 members.

It would soon number
in the millions.

Youth organizations have
been a part of most cultures

for generations.

Seldom have they been
organized for total war.

[CHEERS, APPLAUSE]

[NON-ENGLISH SINGING]

NARRATOR: On the night
of January 30, 1933,

Nazis in Berlin celebrated the
appointment of Adolf Hitler

as chancellor of
Germany by conducting

massive torchlight parades.

Hitler Youth units were among
those in the columns passing

under the watchful
gaze of Hitler

and Paul von Hindenburg, the
elderly president of Germany.

[NON-ENGLISH SINGING]

NARRATOR: Within
two months, Hitler

acquired dictatorial
powers resulting

from the Enabling Act passed by
the Nazi-controlled Reichstag.

Hitler's acquisition
of power meant

the Hitler Youth and all
other Nazi organizations

now had the official power
of the state on their side.

The period of Nazi
Gleichschaltung,

or forced coordination,
immediately began.

All German institutions
and organizations were

either Nazified or disbanded.

ADOLF HITLER: [SPEAKING GERMAN]

NARRATOR: Hitler Youth leader
Baldur von Schirach now

sought to eliminate all 400
of the other competing youth

organizations, large and
small, throughout Germany.

Schirach soon introduced a new
structure to the Hitler Youth

based on age.

Little boys, aged 6
to 10, were allowed

to hang around the older boys
and participate informally.

Boys 10 to 14 belonged to the
Jungvolk, and then from 14 to 18

were in the actual HJ, the
commonly used abbreviation for

Hitler-Jugend or Hitler Youth.

Each boy was given a performance
booklet, recording his progress

in athletics and
Nazi indoctrination

throughout all of
his years in the HJ.

Girls 10 to 14 joined the
Jungmadel, and from 14 to 18

belonged to the BDM,
the commonly used

abbreviation for
Bund Deutscher Madel,

or League of German Girls.

The girls wore a
schoolgirl style

uniform with skirts and
blouses, along with army

style hiking boots.

A few of these girls,
once they were older,

became female SS guards in
Nazi concentration camps.

Having been taught anti-Semitism
from their time in the BDM,

women such as Irma Grese,
a former fanatical member

of the BDM, entered the SS
female helpers training camp.

She watched and learned how
to practice cruelty on inmates

and engaged in promiscuous
sex with male SS guards.

Such discipline was designed to
rob the girls of any vestiges

of conventional morality.

Grese shortly thereafter became
the Beautiful Beast of Auschwitz

and was later hanged
by the British

for crimes against humanity.

The BDM, like its
male counterpart,

was extremely effective
in educating girls

for life in Hitler's Germany.

However, the Hitler
Youth organization

was primarily male
oriented and would

remain so throughout the
duration of the Third Reich.

The HJ and BDM did share common
traits that included a very

heavy emphasis on competition.

Just about every task, no
matter how big or small,

was turned into an individual,
team, or unit competition.

This included boys'
and girls' sports,

the quality of singing
during propaganda marches,

and winter aid collections.

Boys and girls were
kept constantly busy.

The Nazis capitalized on
the natural enthusiasm

of young people, their
craving for action,

and desire for peer approval.

They hoped that ultimately,
each young person

would come to regard his or
her HJ or BDM unit as a home

away from home or perhaps
as their real home.

Activities for
boys included games

of hide-and-seek called "Trapper
and Indian" and war games.

In the war games,
the boys formed

platoons, put on red
or blue armbands,

then were supposed to
hunt down the enemy

and rip off the
other color armbands.

This often resulted in
fistfights and outright brawls

between platoons.

Younger, weaker
boys got pummeled,

while platoon leaders stood by
or even encouraged the fighting.

Ripped shirts, along
with scrapes and bruises,

were common during these
field exercises, which were

intended to toughen them up.

By the end of 1933, the Hitler
Youth organization had absorbed

20 German youth leagues and
totaled over 3.5 million

members, an enormous
increase from a year earlier,

before Hitler's acquisition
of power, when it

had numbered just over 100,000.

But this rapid increase also
brought big problems, namely,

the lack of trained, politically
reliable local youth leaders.

To resolve this
problem, reichsführer,

or leadership schools, were
established throughout Germany.

They offered
three-week cram courses

on Nazi racial principles
and German history,

along with practical leadership
training, rigorous physical

activity, and rifle shooting.

By August 1934, Schirach
reported that over 12,000 Hitler

Youth leaders and
24,000 Jungvolk leaders

had completed these courses.

Schirach labeled 1934
as the year of training

and proclaimed during a speech,
"Whoever marches in the Hitler

Youth is not a
number among millions

but the soldier of an idea.

The individual member's
value to the whole

is determined by
the degree to which

he is permeated by the idea.

The best Hitler youth,
irrespective of rank and office,

is he who completely surrenders
himself to the national

socialist worldview."

Vocational training
was also emphasized,

as Schirach and Nazi
labor leader Robert Ley

initiated the annual
National Vocational

Competition for Hitler Youth.

In this competition, teens
learned various trades

and were judged and rewarded.

As a prize, the winners in each
category got to meet Hitler.

In September, Hitler Youth
made a notable appearance

at the annual Nuremberg rally,
an event well documented

in the propaganda film Triumph
of the Will by Leni Riefenstahl.

A 10-minute sequence shows
Hitler's emotional appearance

before the enthralled assembly
inside the sports stadium,

amid frequent shouts of heil.

[SPEAKING GERMAN]

NARRATOR: In his
speech, he told them,

"Regardless of whatever
we create and do,

we shall pass away.

But in you, Germany
will live on.

And I know it
cannot be otherwise,

because you are flesh of our
flesh, blood of our blood,

and your young minds
are filled with the same

will that dominates us.

And when the great columns
of our movement marched

victoriously through
Germany today,

I know that you will
join these columns,

and we know that
Germany is before us,

within us, and behind us."

In October, amid the
slogan "Blood and Soil,"

the Reich's land
service was introduced,

offering young city dwellers
the opportunity to experience

life on German farms.

All HJ and BDM members were
expected to participate,

helping to bring in the
harvest while learning

the value of hard work
and the simple life.

An ominous new
development within the HJ

was the appearance of
Streifendienst or patrol force

units, which functioned as
internal political police,

maintained order at meetings,
ferreted out disloyal members,

and denounced anyone who
criticized Hitler or Nazism.

In a few cases, this
included their own parents.

[SPEAKING GERMAN]

NARRATOR: One case involved a
teenaged HJ member named Walter

Hess, who turned in
his father for calling

Hitler a crazed Nazi maniac.

His father was then
hauled off to Dachau

under schutzhaft or
protective custody.

For setting such an
example, Hess was promoted

to a higher rank within the HJ

The close working relationship
between the HJ Streifendienst

and the Gestapo aroused
the attention of SS

Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler.

Members of the
Streifendienst were

targeted for
recruitment into the SS

and proved to be very
valuable recruits.

Many entered directly into
SS officer training schools.

Others join the SS
Totenkopfverbande, the Death's

Head brigades that operate at
Dachau and other concentration

camps and later operated
the extermination

centers in occupied Poland.

By 1935, about 60% of
Germany's young people

belonged to the Hitler Youth.

Schirach declared it the
year of physical training

and introduced the
second major annual HJ

event, the sports competition.

Medals were awarded
to youths who

performed rigorous
athletic drills

and met strict physical
fitness standards.

Every summer, a day was set
aside as the day of the state

youth for these events.

"Physical fitness,"
according to Hitler,

"was much more important for
his young people than memorizing

dead facts in the classroom."

In his book Mein Kampf, he
stated that "a less well

educated but physically healthy
individual with a sound,

firm character, full of
determination and willpower is

more valuable to the
Volkisch community

than an intellectual weakling."

School schedules were
adjusted to allow for at least

one hour of physical training
in the morning and one hour

each evening.

Prior to this, only two hours
per week had been set aside.

Hitler also
encouraged young boys

to take up boxing to heighten
their aggressiveness.

Hitler believed tough physical
training would instill

confidence, and that
this self-confidence

must be instilled from
childhood into every German.

His entire education
and training

must be designed to convince
him of his absolute superiority

over others.

He viewed education
as a means of raising

nationalist enthusiasm
in German boys

while teaching them to
be ready to sacrifice

themselves for the fatherland.

Special assemblies were
often held in school halls,

featuring themes of heroism and
readiness to die for the cause.

A portrait of Hitler
hung in every classroom.

Particular emphasis was paid to
the subject of history, which

was rewritten to emphasize
Nazi themes of racial struggle

and German pride.

"It is the task of the racial
state," Hitler declared,

to ensure that at long last,
world history will be written,

and that within its context, the
racial question will be elevated

to the dominant position so
that a generation will emerge

capable of facing the
final and decisive

decisions on this globe."

Racial indoctrination
in the classroom

included teaching young children
how to spot a Jew by describing

the physical traits,
which Nazis believed

were associated with
inferior peoples.

In some classrooms, where
Jews were still present,

a Jewish child would
be brought to the front

of the class as an example.

The teacher would then use
a pointer, highlighting

certain facial characteristics.

Hitler Youth songs also
contained anti-Semitic lyrics,

including one song
that said, "Yes,

when the Jewish blood
splashes from the knives,

things will go twice as well."

Over the years, the
Hitler Youth organization

would gradually supplant the
traditional elementary and

secondary school system
and become the main force

educating German youth.

And the quality of that
education would get worse.

Students emerging from the
elite Adolf Hitler schools

were in superb
physical condition

and thoroughly drilled
in Nazi ideology

but lacked basic skills
in math and science.

Biology, for example, had been
completely corrupted to advance

Nazi racial doctrine.

Under Hitler, a school system
that had once been considered

among the finest
in the world became

substandard almost overnight.

Nazi scientists educated before
Hitler would later complain they

were partially hindered in
developing new super weapons

by the recruitment
of young graduates

from the elite Nazi schools.

Schirach's goal in 1936 was to
enroll the entire population

of 10-year-olds
throughout Germany

into the Hitler Youth
as a present for Hitler

on his 47th birthday.

After first joining
the organization,

the boys spent a few months
on probation while undergoing

training by older HJ members.

A test was then given in
which they had to recite all

the verses of the
"Horst Wessel Song"

and answer basic questions
concerning Nazi ideology

and the history of the party.

They also had to prove
physical fitness by running

60 meters in 12 seconds and take
part in a cross-country hike

lasting a day and a half.

A courage test was then
given, such as jumping

from a first or
second-story ledge

into a large canvas
held by older HJ.

After passing all of the tests,
each boy was entitled to wear

the brown shirt bearing
the Jungvolk insignia,

with a leather shoulder strap
and the coveted Hitler Youth

dagger bearing the
inscription "Blut und Ehre,"

"Blood and Honor."

On December 1, 1936, Hitler
decreed the law concerning

the Hitler Youth, which
mandated that all young Germans,

excluding Jews, would
be educated physically,

intellectually, and morally in
the spirit of national socialism

through the Hitler Youth
from the age of 10 onward.

Parents who prevented
their children

from joining the Hitler Youth
were subject to heavy prison

sentences.

Because of this, membership
grew to nearly 6 million.

To add more
excitement, a new phase

began for the Hitler Youth,
with increased emphasis

on paramilitary training
in direct association

with the Wehrmacht or Army,
the Luftwaffe or Air Force

and the Navy or Kriegsmarine.

In 1937, a Hitler Youth rifle
school was also established.

About 1.5 million boys were
trained in rifle shooting

and military field exercises
over the next few years,

with over 50,000 boys
earning a marksmanship

medal that required
near-perfect shooting

at a distance of 164 feet.

Special Hitler Youth
paramilitary formations for boys

eventually included the
Flieger-HJ in which aviation

enthusiasts built gliders,
participated in annual glider

flying competitions, visited
Luftwaffe facilities,

and went for rides in
fighters and bombers.

Also included was the Motor-HJ
for boys 16 and older, in which

they acquired their
driver's license

and learned to ride motorcycles,
and the Marine-HJ, in which they

obtained sailing certificates,
learned river navigation,

and participated
in naval exercises

aboard German training ships.

In 1938, Hitler expanded
Germany's borders

by absorbing neighboring
Austria and the Sudetenland,

or western portion
of Czechoslovakia,

with their large populations
of ethnic Germans.

As a result, Hitler
Youth membership

swelled to 8.7 million.

In November, Kristallnacht,
or the Night of Broken Glass,

occurred in which
Nazi stormtroopers,

the SS, and Hitler
youths attacked

Jews throughout the Reich.

Police stood by and crowds
watched as Jews were beaten,

while their shops and
synagogues had their windows

smashed and contents wrecked.

Special pleasure was
taken in the desecration

of sacred religious scrolls.

Over 25,000 Jewish
men between the ages

of 18 and 65 were hauled
off to concentration camps.

Local Hitler youths
participated in the violence

voluntarily but had not been
officially instructed to do so.

Schirach, on hearing of the
extent of their participation,

called a meeting of all
high-level group leaders

and expressly forbade
further participation

in such criminal actions.

But the violence
was just beginning.

Germany was on the path
toward achieving Hitler's two

main goals, which he had stated
years earlier in Mein Kampf--

the forced acquisition of living
space to the east of Germany

and destruction of
international Jewry.

By 1939, about 82% of eligible
youths within the Reich

belonged to the Hitler Youth,
making it the largest youth

organization in the world.

A new law was issued
on March 25, 1939,

conscripting any remaining
holdouts into the organization,

amid warnings to parents
that their children would

be taken from them and placed in
orphanages unless they enrolled.

These young Germans could
be manipulated and put

into service for the
good of the Third Reich

and would also go on to become
the future warriors that would

carry out the total
war policies of Hitler

and his loyal henchmen.

In time, many of
these youthful Germans

would become fanatically devoted
to the Nazi cause themselves.

The Nazis molded the Hitler
Youth into an effective

organization for total war
through its racist and martial

education of young Germans, the
pressing of Hitler Youth members

into an impressive labor force,
and the creation of the 12th SS

Panzer Division,
or Hitler-Jugend,

which was famed for its
ferocity on the battlefield.

[MUSIC PLAYING]