Book Cover Photo Source, Barnes and Noble: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Hitler-Youth/Bartoletti/e/9780439353793/?itm=1, accessed November 9, 2009.
Bibliography
Bartoletti, Susan Campbell. 2005. HITLER YOUTH: GROWING UP IN HITLER’S SHADOW. New York, NY: Scholastic Inc. ISBN 0439353793
Critical Analysis
In this unique non-fiction work, Susan Bartoletti introduces us to another angle of the Nazi Party, the Hitler Youth. The book begins with pictures and short biographies of the twelve main characters in the book, many of who end up losing their lives over the course of the war. Officially formed in 1926, “the Hitler Youth offered its members excitement, adventure, and new heroes to worship.” Hitler seemed to understand that young people were a potentially powerful political force that could help to shape Germany’s future. “I begin with the young. Are there finer ones anywhere in the world? Look at all these men and boys! What material! With them I can make a new world.”
Bartoletti offers us a compelling perspective on WWII by centering the story around the young people who followed Hitler from 1933-1945. During this time, the Hitler Youth, the boys, and the Bund Deutscher Madel or DBM, the girls, grew into “the largest and most powerful organization for young people ever known.” Their stories are told with such realism that you feel as if you are there with them. The powerful black and white photos draw you in to a time in history that still is not fully understood.
One of the most riveting chapters of this book entitled “Where One Burns Books,” is about the education of children during this time. Teachers were forced to join the Nazi Party or face harsh consequences far beyond losing their jobs. We are told about one beloved teacher that refused to join and was sent to a concentration camp. Schools were allowed to only study curriculum that was approved by Hitler. These included such new subjects as racial science and eugenics. In racial science lessons, students were taught, “Aryans belonged to a superior master race”, and in eugenics they were taught, “Aryans should marry only healthy Aryans.” Hitler once said that his system of education was harsh, but central to his goal. One of the most disturbing quotes from Hitler included in the book was in this chapter. It reads: “A violently active, dominating, intrepid, brutal youth-that is what I am after. Youth must be indifferent to pain. There must be no weakness and no tenderness in it.” What a sad existence these children must have led.
On April 30, 1945, the American soldiers marched into Munich. Hitler was dead by now and the Hitler Youth vowed to fight, but decided to surrender when they realized how many tanks were coming. The next day the Americans took the captured boys to the liberated concentration camp of Dachau. What they saw there was more than they could have imagined. It would take many years for them to be able to come to terms with the role that they played in the Holocaust. Heinrch Heine, a German poet of Jewish origin whose books were burned by the Nazi’s, was quoted in the book as saying, “Where one burns books, one will, in the end, burn people.” No one could have known how true that statement would turn out to be.
Robert F. Sibert Honor Book
Review Excerpts
PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY: “Bartoletti's portrait of individuals within the Hitler Youth who failed to realize that they served "a mass murderer" is convincing, and while it does not excuse the atrocities, it certainly will allow readers to comprehend the circumstances that led to the formation of Hitler's youngest zealots.”
KEVIN BEACH – VOYA: “This book offers through simple and powerful primary sources an important though tearful lesson in history, citizenship, and responsibility.”
KIRKUS REVIEWS: “Case studies of actual participants root the work in specifics, and clear prose, thorough documentation and an attractive format with well-chosen archival photographs make this nonfiction writing at its best.”
Classroom Connections
This book could be used when studying about WWII, particularly the early part of the war and how Germany came into power. It could also be used as a guidance lesson on how easy it is to get caught up in something that is bad and the consequences of our actions.
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