Young People and Women

YOUTH GROUPS

The Nazis knew that loyalty from young people was essential if they were to remain powerful in the future.  Boys aged 14 and upwards were recruited to the Hitler Youth, which was made compulsory from 1939.  Girls aged fourteen and upwards joined the League of German Maidens.  The boys wore military-style uniforms and took part in lots of physical exercise.  Girls were mainly trained in domestic skills such as sewing.  The boys were being  prepared as future soldiers and the girls were being prepared to be wives and mothers.

Many of the boys in the Hitler Youth loved the experience - it gave poor children a chance to go in to the countryside on camps, for example.  Many of the members liked the sense of belonging and unity that came with the Hitler Youth.  Apart from the physical exercises, there was a particular emphasis on Nazi theory: the injustices of the Treaty of Versailles and why the Jews were inferior.

EDUCATION

Schools began teaching Nazi propaganda.  Jews were…