A Hitler Youth in Poland

Name: A Hitler Youth in Poland
Author: Jost Hermand
ISBN: 0810112914

by Jost Hermand (1997)

Read Free Sample Buy on Amazon Audible Free Trial

About this book

Between 1933 and 1945, millions of German children between the ages of seven and sixteen were taken from their homes and sent to Hitler Youth paramilitary camps to be toughened up and taught how to be "German." Separated from their families and sent to far-away away places like Denmark, Latvia, Croatia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Slovakia, and occupied Poland, these children often endured incredible abuse by the adults in charge. In this memoir, Jost Hermand, a distinguished German cultural critic and historian who spent much of his youth in five different camps, writes about his experiences during this period. After reviewing what others have published about the camps and explaining why previous romanticized views must be corrected, Hermand provides background into the creation and development of the camps. He then devotes one chapter apiece to each of the five different camps to which he was sent: Kirchenpopowo, San Remo, Gross Ottingen, Silesia, and Sulmierschutz. Each was quite different from the other, he writes, and almost every form of behavior existed at each place.The children did sometimes find, with certain adults, parental solicitude, belief in the inherent goodness of human beings, and naive idealism, but by and large they encountered fascistic indoctrination, dreary routine, conscious brutalization, and the worst sort of sadism. In the two final chapters, Hermand focuses on the postwar consequences of his camp experiences for his own development, and his return visit in 1991 to some of the sites. In these chapters, as in the rest of the book, Hermand carefully and skillfully combines his personal story with an analysis of the overall purpose of the camps. An intelligent and persuasive document, this book should be read by anyone interested in psychology, the history of everyday life, and in the story of Germany under Hitler.

Setting / LocationGlobal

Story EraModern Era

Protagonist / CoreA Hitler Youth in Poland Lead Character

Themes & Moods

Politics & Current Affairs Kinderlandverschickung (Organization : Germany)German Personal narratives Hitler-Jugend World War, 1939-1945 History Modern Era

Readers who enjoyed this also loved

The diplomacy of the 'new order'

Arthur Stam

"The New Order was the term the Japanese, German and Italian governments used for their expansive strategies and spheres of influence during the eve and course of the Second World War. Their attack against the status quo was initiated by Japan occupying Mandchuria, preceding Hitler's rise to power. Subsequently Italian agression against Ethiopia shows that the first military adventures of the emerging New Order occurred outside Europe. A main issue in this account is the lack of coordination between the German and Japanese approaches towards the USSR. Consequently the Anti-Komintern-Pact, an overwhelmingly ideological cover-up, implied meagre strategic significance. The Tripartite Treaty, on the contrary, provided Germany with some East European allies in its warfare against the USSR. In contrast to Germany and Japan the Italian military performance was in all the stages of the second World War so poor, that Mussolini's Fascism was downgraded to a humiliating position within the New Order. The author concludes that the common strategy came to naught on different interests and mentalities. Fascist "internationalism" proved to be a sheer impossibility."--BOOK JACKET.

Nazi youth in the Weimar Republic

Peter D. Stachura

"The Hitler Youth (German: abbreviated HJ) was a paramilitary organization of the Nazi Party. It existed from 1922 to 1945. The HJ was the second oldest paramilitary Nazi group, founded one year after its adult counterpart, the Sturmabteilung (SA). It was made up of the Hitlerjugend proper, for male youth ages 14?18; the younger boys' section Deutsches Jungvolk for ages 10?14; and the girls' section Bund Deutscher Mädel (BDM, the League of German Girls)."--Wikipedia.

The dispossessed

Parker M. Nielson

The Dispossessed chronicles the tragic story of the mixed-blood Utes. A leading Utah attorney, Nielson represented this group in its suit against the U.S. government, decided by the Supreme Court in 1972. Although the Court determined that the mixed-bloods had been defrauded, it declined to restore their property. Basing his account on extensive research as well as his own firsthand experience, Nielson brings to light for the first time the disturbing events that led up to the landmark decision.

Cuba

Louis A. Pérez, Jr

Publisher description: Spanning the history of the island from pre-Columbian times to the present, this new study examines Cuba's political and economic development within the context of its international relations and continuing struggle for self-determination. The dualism that emerged in Cuban ideology--between liberal constructs of patria on the one hand and radical formulations of nationality on the other--is fully investigated as a source not only of national tension but of competing notions of liberty, equality, and justice which would eventually determine the form and function of Cuban mobilization. P'erez integrates local and provincial developments with issues of class, race, and gender to give a full, and fascinating, account of the Cuban history of struggle for nationality.