Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow

1. BIBILIOGRAPHY

Bartoletti, Campbell Susan. 2005. HITLER YOUTH: GROWING UP IN HITLER’S SHADOW. New York, NY: Scholastic Inc. ISBN 0439353793

2. PLOT SUMMARY

In Hitler Youth, Susan Bartoletti delves into how Hitler gained the loyalty and trust of numerous German young people (which would ultimately create Hitler Youth). Including Herbert Norkus who was murdered due to his involvement with the Hitler Youth movement in its early years. This book includes interviews with members of the Hitler Youth organization that survived. It also gives profiles on some of the Jews that were targeted by the group. Hitler Youth follows a chronological order from the time that Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany to his rise in power as Dictator, the Holocaust and the annihilation of the Jews and anyone else who didn’t fit Hitler’s Aryan’s race to the emancipation of the concentration camps. The end of the book provides and Epilogue that gives the reader an account of what happened to the young people that were profiled.

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS

In the award winning book, Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler’s Shadow, Barloletti explains that she began researching Hitler’s Youth because of an article called, “Nazis under Twenty-One by Karl Paetel. This sparked Barloletti’s curiosity so she delved deeper and began a two year pilgrimage researching in Washington D.C., Germany, and Berlin where she held interviews with former members of the Hitler Youth, looked through hundreds of documents, diary entries, letters and other personal accounts . After all the researching and interviewing, Barloletti concluded that; “Adults taught young people to hate, kill and to feel superior over others.”

This book is well organized and provides readers with a table of content with chapter headings. After the table of content, Bartoletti provides brief facts and photographs about twelve young people who were affected by the Hitler Youth Movement in Germany during World War II. This non-fiction book is done in a chronological order that helps readers understand the progression and the rise of Hitler’s Youth and the power they carried through World War II. Hitler Youth touches on key events including the murder of Herbert Norkus whose death helped him become a martyr for Hitler’s Youth organization, laws that would change what the schools taught and the banning of Jewish children from them, Hitler’s rise to Fuher’, the implementation of the euthanasia program (mercy death), the Holocaust and the invasion of the Allied forces and the liberation of the concentration camp laborers.

Not only is this book filled with facts and information but it contains authentic dialogue taken from interviews and correspondence of former members of the Hitler Youth. These dialogues help the reader gain understanding into the thoughts and feelings of these young people. An example of this is when Alfons Heck describes the Storm Troopers and SS doling out pain and destruction by stating, “The brutality of it was stunning, “said Alfons, “but I also experienced an unmistakable feeling of excitement.”(Bartoletti, pg. 55)

Throughout the book, Bartoletti selected black and white photographs that were taken from family photo albums, staged photographs by Heinrich Hoffman(Hitler’s official photographer), and soldiers on both sides. These photographs depict how life was for Germany and the young people during World War II. Included in these photographs are of Herbert Norkus with other Hitler Youth members, Hitler Youth learning to throw grenades, young members in uniform trying to get a glimpse of Hitler, and many more eye-opening pictures. These photographs combined with the text provide a clear image of the brainwashing, harshness and terrorizing technique that Hitler created through his reign and the young people of Germany.

4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S)

Voice of Youth Advocate: “This book offers through simple and powerful primary sources an important though tearful lesson in history, citizenship, and responsibility.”-Kevin Beach.

School Library Journal: “The final chapter superbly summarizes the weighty significance of this part of the 20th century and challenges young readers to prevent history from repeating itself. Bartoletti lets many of the subjects' words, emotions, and deeds speak for themselves, bringing them together clearly to tell this story unlike anyone else has.”-Andrew Medlar

Publisher 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.”

5. CONNECTION

Other books to read:

Kater, H. Michael. HITLER YOUTH. ISBN 9780674019911

Heck, Alfons. CHILD OF HITLER: GERMANY IN THE DAYS WHEN GOD WAS A SWASHIKA. ISBN 9780939650446

Heck, Alfons. THE BURDEN OF HITLER’S LEGACY. ISBN 9780939650804

Metelmann, Henry. A HITLER YOUTH??? GROWING UP IN GERMANY IN THE 1930’S.

ISBN 9781862272521