Growing Up Female in Nazi Germany

Introduction

Introduction Beginning in the mid-1930s, the Hitler Youth emerged as the largest single formation of the National Socialist Party. It claimed to embrace all of German youth.1 The organization was headed by Baldur von Schirach, who was appointed Reichsjugendführer (Reich youth leader) of the NSDAP in 1931 and Jugendführer des Deutschen Reiches (youth leader of the German Reich) in 1933.2 It was structured by both age and gender. The ‹rst bracket comprised young people ages ten to fourteen : Pimpfe (young boys) were organized in the Deutsches Jungvolk 1. Data on the quantitative development of Hitler Youth membership after 1933 all stem from National Socialist sources and must be viewed critically. Michael Buddrus gives a ‹gure of 3.4 million members at the end of 1934 and 7.7 million at the beginning of 1939. Michael Buddrus, Totale Erziehung für den totalen Krieg. Hitlerjugend und nationsozialistische Jugendpolitik , vol. 1 and 2 (Munich, 2003), 288f. For a critical discussion of National Socialist membership ‹gures, see also chap. 2, section “The Development of the League of German Girls, 1933–1945,” this study. 2. Baldur von Schirach, born in 1907, was the son of a famous Weimar theater director and his American wife. He had earlier contact with National Socialism; initially was active in the Nationalsozialistischer Deutscher Studentenbund (National Socialist German Students’ League, or NSDStB), which he led from 1928 to 1931; and was then involved in the Hitler Youth. Schirach was appointed Reichsstatthalter (Reich governor) and Gauleiter (regional NSDAP leader) of Vienna in 1940 but also remained Reichsleiter of youth education of the NSDAP. Artur Axmann took over his functions as Reichsjugendführer and Jugendführer des Deutschen Reiches, remaining in those posts until 1945. Schirach was responsible for the deportation of the Jews of Vienna. At the Nuremberg Tribunal, his defense was that he had protested unsuccessfully against the “inhuman” treatment of the Jews at the hands of the National Socialists. He was sentenced to twenty years in prison and was released in 1966. Schirach died in 1974. As Reichsjugendführer, Schirach directed the work of the party formation Hitler Youth; as youth leader his power extended in principle to all of German youth. On this topic, see Martin Broszat, Der Staat Hitlers. Grundlagen und Entwicklung seiner inneren Verfassung (Munich, 1969), 334ff. On Baldur von Schirach, see Jochen von Lang, Der Hitler-Junge. Baldur von Schirach. Der Mann, der Deutschlands Jugend erzog (Hamburg, 1988); Michael Wortmann, Baldur von Schirach, Hitlers Jugendführer (Cologne, 1982); the following books by former leading Nazis must be considered part of the literature of justi‹cation: Artur Axmann, “Das kann doch nicht das Ende sein.” Hitlers letzter Reichsjugendf ührer erinnert sich (Dortmund, 1995); Günter Kaufmann, Baldur von Schirach. Ein Jugendführer in Deutschland. Richtigstellung und Vermächtnis (Selbstverlag, 1993); and Baldur von Schirach, Ich glaubte an Hitler (Hamburg, 1967). (German Young Folk, or DJ), while Jungmädel (young girls) were organized in the ranks of the formation by the same name, the Jungm ädel (JM). Jungen ages fourteen to eighteen were organized in the HJ, while Mädel in the same bracket were organized in the BDM.3 The BDM-Werk “Glaube und Schönheit” (BDM section “Faith and Beauty”) had a special position in this con‹guration of youth formations . Established in 1938, it included young women between the ages of seventeen and twenty-one. The three sections for girls—JM, BDM, and BDM-Werk “Glaube und Schönheit”—together constituted the Bund Deutscher Mädel or Mädelbund (League of German Girls). It had a female leader, the Reichsreferentin des Bundes Deutscher Mädel (Reich representative of the League of German Girls). Overall in the command structure, she was subordinate to the Reich youth leader. Nonetheless, the league was autonomous in that its leaders were bound from above only in regard to decrees and instructions incumbent on all German youth. In matters pertaining solely to girls, they had full authority to issue orders and instructions.4 Such a comprehensive youth organization was unparalleled in German history. Even though both boys and girls were included, public discourse on the National Socialist dictatorship and its consequences has tended to ascribe only a secondary importance to the organization of females. In the Englishspeaking world, there is generally very little literature on the National Socialist youth organization as a whole and almost nothing on the League of German Girls.5 Yet the changes that the league brought for 2 Growing Up Female...