"Hitler has made the youth and the youth are ruling Germany," one British Army chaplain, who had been a prisoner of war, said in 1943
time.com
As Adolf Hitler put it at the annual Nazi party rally in 1935, “He alone who owns the youth gains the future.” (This quote has also been paraphrased as “Whoever has the youth has the future.”)
The development of youth organizations meant to groom the future leaders of his Nazi Party dated back to the establishment of the party in the early 1920s. Membership was voluntary until 1936, when all boys and girls in Nazi Germany were required by law to join a Nazi youth group. All boys over 10 years old joined the Jungvolk (meaning “Young People”), and then graduated to the Hitler Youth when they turned 14. Likewise, girls joined the Jungmädel (“Young Girls”) and then graduated to Bund Deutscher Mädel (the “League of German Girls” or BDM for short).
When Adolf Hitler assumed power in 1933, about 100,000 girls and boys were members of all the organizations combined. By the end of 1933, there were over 2 million, and over 5.4 million by the end of 1936. Youths who were discovered not to have joined could be sent to “re-education” camps or their parents were fined and imprisoned.
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