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The Hitler Youth, and the Children Who Defied Hitler

Khalid Elhassan March 7, 2025 15 min

Hitlerjugend - Enthusiastic indoctrinated children at a Nazi rally — Enthusiastic indoctrinated children at a Nazi rally. K-Pics

13. The Age and Gender Divisions of Nazi Youth Organizations

The Nazi youth organization was divided into sections, based on age and gender. There was the Hitlerjugend, or Hitler Youth proper, for boys aged fourteen to eighteen. Its junior branch, Deutsches Jungvolk, or German Youngsters, was for boys aged ten to fourteen. German girls had a parallel organization. There was the Jungmadelbund, or Young Girls’ League, for girls aged ten to fourteen, and the Bund Deutscher Madel, or League of German Girls, for girls aged fourteen to eighteen. The aim was to imbue children with the “correct” ideology in order to Nazify German society. Nazi youth groups sought to impose conformity on Germany’s young, and to that end, there was plenty of uniformity. Not least of all literal uniformity, as kids throughout Germany were made to wear the same uniforms, sing the same Nazi songs, and participate in similar activities calculated to mold malleable young minds into ideal Nazis.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.