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Hitler’s main ways of indoctrinating and controlling young people were through:

• Education
• Youth movements
• Propaganda and censorship

Schools and universities were to:

• Indoctrinate young people into the racial ideas of Nazism and make children loyal to Hitler - this was in effect a form of brainwashing.
• Train girls to be good Aryan wives and mothers, and prepare boys to be effective soldiers.
• Make young people “swift as a greyhound, as tough as leather, and as hard as Krupp steel”.

Teachers

All teachers had to join the Nazi Teachers’ Association, which vetted them for political and racial suitability.

Textbooks

Textbooks were rewritten, especially in history and biology, to promote Germany’s 'greatness', Aryan 'supremacy' and anti-semitism.

Curriculum

The curriculum in schools was altered to reflect Nazi ideology and priorities.

• The importance put on subjects like chemistry and mathematics was reduced.
• By the end of the 1930s, religious education was banned.
• Fitness was vital so children had at least five one-hour sessions of physical education (PE) every week, often for two hours per day.
• Eugenics (race studies) was added to the curriculum.
• Boys mostly studied history, eugenics and PE. Boxing was compulsory.
• Girls primarily studied home economics, eugenics and PE.

Jewish children were humiliated at school and then, in 1938, banned from education.

Adolf Hitler Schools

Boys with potential to be future leaders were sent to special Adolf Hitler Schools. These were free boarding schools, run on military lines, for boys aged 12 to 18 years.

Castles of Order were set up for young men of talent, usually in their mid-twenties. There they completed their military and leadership training. Live ammunition was used and the frequent endurance tasks were brutal.

In 1933, the Hitler Youth (HJ) took over all youth movements in Germany, except Catholic ones - which were eliminated in 1936.

The Youth Law in 1936 made membership practically compulsory for Hitler Youth.

The HJ aimed to:

• Control the activities of young people outside the classroom.
• Make them loyal to Hitler.
• Train boys to be soldiers and prepare girls to be wives and mothers.
• There were separate organisations for boys and girls, and for different age groups.

There were also different activities for boys and girls, although both undertook fitness and indoctrination classes.

• Boys enrolled in the movement at six years old, and joined the main group, Hitler Youth (HJ), at 14. By 1939, 90% of German boys aged 14 and over were members.
• Boys fired guns and marched in preparation for the army.
• Girls enrolled in the movement at the age of ten. They moved into the main wing, the League of German Maidens (BDM), at the age of 14.
• Girls learnt how to look after a family.

Positives

• Young people got to experience a range of new activities, like hiking weekends, in the Hitler Youth.
• They had more freedom from their parents. Slogans like “Youth must be led by youth” appealed to them.

Negatives

• The quality and breadth of education in schools deteriorated.
• Girls' educational opportunities decreased. Their curriculum was limited to home-making subjects and very few went to university by 1939.
• Jewish children were persecuted at school and then excluded.

The Nazis’ youth policies had mixed results.

Successes

• Seven million joined the Hitler Youth (HJ) movement.
• Most young people did not oppose the Nazis. Indeed, many obeyed the Nazis rather than their parents.
• Germany had a more disciplined youth than in other European countries.
• The Nazis succeeded in ending most rival organisations, such as the Catholic Youth Movement in 1936.

Failures

• Some young people established their own rival groups, such as the Edelweiss Pirates, the Jazz Group and the Swing Group.
• Young people became more disillusioned with the youth movements as the years passed.
• Indoctrination was not totally effective. It reinforced existing beliefs but was less successful in getting young people to accept new ideas.