Children's propaganda in Nazi Germany

In 1933, leaders of the Hitler Youth decided to integrate boys into the Nazi national community and prepare them for service as soldiers in the Schutzstaffel (SS, also stylized as ).

[1] When boys reached age 18, they were required to enlist in the armed forces or into the Reich Labour Service[1] and "were put through three weeks of rigorous training.

"[3] Girls, on the other hand, were sent to Poland to help German farmers cultivate the land that had been seized from the Poles during the course of World War II.

Often these new soldiers fought in units alongside seniors who were over the age of sixty in the national militia (Volkssturm, literally People's Storm).

As the war continued to turn in the Allied force's favor, the Nazi Party became desperate and began training boys as young as ten to handle and operate military-grade weaponry (machine guns, hand grenades, bazookas, etc.).

[3] Hitler Youth tank divisions were formed to fight in the Battle of the Bulge;[3] the number of casualties rose steeply as "barely trained fifteen-year-olds [were] led by sixteen-year-olds".

By April 1933, there were no Jewish teachers remaining in schools attended by 'Aryan' students, a racial term used by the Nazis to describe the Germanic peoples.

Jewish children would be told to stand at the front of the class, whilst teachers pointed to their eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and hair, comparing these to characteristics on Nazi propaganda sheets".

"[3] Textbook passages like this consistently reiterated the message of the racial inferiority of Jews, as well as the superiority of the German peoples they called the Aryan race.

"[6] Furthermore, books such as Trau Keinem Fuchs auf grüner Heid und keinem Jud aufi seinem Eid (in English, Trust No Fox on his Green Meadow and No Jew on his Oath), written by Elvira Bauer [de], aimed to reiterate to German children that the war "was being fought to save the Aryan world from the Jewish alien invaders within the midst".

Additionally, after-school activities and weekend trips were regularly sponsored by the Hitler Youth and the League of German Girls.

Authorities wanted these sports and activities to encourage "young men and women to abandon their individuality in favor of the goals of the Aryan collective".

In the last days of the war in Berlin, the Hitler Youth members of Werwolf could be heard singing, "Heute gehoert uns Deutschland und morgen die ganze Welt" (Today Germany belongs to us, and tomorrow the whole world).

[6] In the ensuing years, Allied occupation authorities required German youths to undergo denazification programs that were designed to counter the adverse effects of the Nazi propaganda.