by Heath, Tim
Our education was built around five menial principles: physical exercise, cooking, washing, cleaning and babies, though they never told you anything directly about sexual intercourse. Yes, it was a joke really and it does make me angry. I remember one of our teachers lecturing us one morning on the virtues of womanhood. She started to go on about how our bodies were receptacles of moral importance to the Third Reich, that we were divine and had no equals, and that lust should not define our thinking or soil our wombs in any way whatsoever. As youngsters we trusted these people, and we believed and we followed, and did our best to absorb what we were being taught.
Though we had so little creative freedom and that is something all children should not be denied. Everything within us as individuals had to evolve around either Hitler or Nazism or both. Friction often developed in the home as a result of this, as our loyalties became divided between the Jung Madel and our parents; fathers in particular did not like their daughters to have attitudes of their own. There were many arguments in our home and I frequently received a beating for being disrespectful to my father. Even now I deeply resent the way that he hit me for silly things and I could never find it in my heart to forgive him. Though my disrespect was never honestly intended, it was something that came about from events that were happening around me and the environment with its increasing tensions. A girl’s life back then was hard and it saddens me a great deal when I look back over those years. One BDM girl later summed it up very perfectly by saying that we girls were no more than ‘the sugar on the dog shit’.
From the previous testimonies, we can see very clearly how narrow the Nazi education system had become for the young girls, especially when compared to that of the old system, which offered the student much more both socially and creatively. The old system had been completely replaced, as perfectly reflected in one of Hitler’s many quotations on the subject of Third Reich youth education:
My theory of education is harsh. All weakness must be hammered out. The youth who grow up in my academies will terrify the world. I want a youth who is violent, masterful, intrepid, cruel and they must endure pain.
In another one of his famous rants, Hitler boasted, ‘No boy and girl must leave school without having been led to an ultimate realisation of the necessity and essence of blood purity.’
The issue of ‘blood purity’ was of prime importance to Hitler, especially as applied to girls. German girls had the responsibility to understand just how important racial purity was to the Nazis and Hitler, so much so that it became the burden of girls to ensure that they would make the right choices later in life.
While the same ‘racial purity’ regulations were made clear to young males, it appears that they did not suffer too greatly from the severe restrictions that had been placed upon the womenfolk. There are accounts of young German males, well after Hitler came to power (especially within conquered territories), having sexual relationships with girls of non- Germanic origin, including Jews, and in some rare cases gypsies. Though a good many were able to get away with such ‘crimes’, if caught they could face the death penalty.
Kirsten Eckermann recalls:
Racial purification we were told could only be achieved when the weaker races of Slavs, Jews and gypsies had been destroyed. Hitler had said that much damage had been done to the German race as a direct result of breeding between the races. For example, Jewish and gypsy sperm was referred to as a venom and a poison, which created weakness and mongolism, which in turn led to ineptitude, greed and self-destruction. Through propaganda, the message was soon spread to every individual. Girls in particular had come to accept certain male role models as the ideal man. Usually these role models came from the ranks of the SS and girls were told that they should strive to marry an SS soldier and have babies of racially pure Aryan origin, who in turn would go on and reproduce.
To be honest, at that time I did not know what the word ‘Aryan’ meant. Our education evolved around those biological and domestic theories of home and husband keeping and baby rearing. These days it would be a lot like a farm of prized cattle, where no foreign beasts would be allowed, even if they were perfect in every sense. Our education became a kind of human cattle market designed to meet one particular need – we were to be birth machines and vessels for sexual gratification where life became a kind of impasse. As we grew older and perhaps a little wiser, some of us became aware of this, and I do say some of us. Many of us were mesmerized by Hitler and were captivated by what the Hitler Youth offered us, and obeisance seemed to be the only price and we did exactly as we were told in every way. I don’t think that many knew, myself included, just what was going to happen in the future. We may have had our own suspicions but at the age of ten you question very little and tend to put your hand in the honey pot and just go with the flow – that is what made the Hitler Youth and the educational format set out for its students such a successful organization.
Nazi education for the Jung Madels was clearly based upon the propaganda and beliefs of their country’s leaders, and was therefore designed to poison the minds of youth against the better judgement of both their own consciousness and that of their parents. It was designed to create a kind of ‘pit-bull’ individual that, through an instilled intelligence and almost insane belief, would be prepared to suffer intolerable hardship in the pursuit of the creation of their preferred ideological society. A ‘factory education’, it was perhaps one of the greatest exercises in mass-mind poisoning ever devised, and would create many problems that would extend far beyond the years preceding the end of the Second World War in Europe.
Chapter Four
An Audience with the Devil
Perhaps the most well-known of the Nazi pageants was the Nürnberger Parteitag (Nuremberg Party Day). This huge rally, the first of which was held in Nuremberg, Bavaria, in September of 1923, was the primary propaganda tool of the Hitler regime. Carefully staged, the rally encompassed society and the armed forces together in a huge exhibition of Germany’s political, military and social muscle. The quaint medieval setting of Nuremberg was ideal, providing a powerful backdrop for the nationalistic pageantry. Set against a fairytale landscape of ancient buildings and castles, it created a unique atmosphere.
Planning, as usual, was of immense importance. Preparations were set in motion well before the event to ensure that everything and everyone would be ready. Nuremberg possessed an almost religious atmosphere during the party days, attracting hordes of visitors from all over the world, all eager to experience the atmosphere, and to get a glimpse of Hitler and other leading figures within his government.
Nuremberg became the standard against which all future Nazi Party rallies would attempt to emulate. It became a constant headache for the organizers, who had to ensure that the townsfolk lived up to Hitler’s expectations. It became compulsory that flags bearing the Swastika be hung from every possible building, along with portraits of Adolf Hitler and various other forms of Nazi Party insignia and iconography. Flower arches and other decorative floral schemes were created to blend in with the flags and insignia to make the whole event as colourful as was possible.
The local Nazi Party officials prepared speeches while the Hitler Youth practised their part in the rally. Again, the girls featured prominently in the rally, their gymnastic displays breathtaking in skill and precision. Helena Vogel reflects on Nuremberg in 1934, a year by the end of which the Hitler Youth – boys and girls – would boast a combined membership of 1,500,000.
I came from a fairly wealthy upper-class family and was born and raised in Nuremberg. My father owned a share of a small but productive metal-working business making fittings such as nuts, bolts and bits for furniture and things. My father, being a businessman, became a member of the Nazi Party, but only because he was under pressure to do so by other companies and local Nazi Party officials. Though he generally supported the Nazi Party because it had rejuvenated the economy and he felt Hitler was doing a very good job.
I joined the Jung
Madel at the age of thirteen for one year before joining the Bund Deutscher Madel. The big rallies held at Nuremberg were really quite something to all of the youngsters who lived there, and the girls Hitler Youth were always considered an important element of the rallies. I can only describe the events at Nuremberg as I remember them, a little like a national celebration day in England I suppose, but lasting several days to a week. I had always liked gymnastics and sports at school and my abilities were recognized by the teachers there. The best girl athletes were selected to perform special routines and our best routine was the Swastika formation. We would practice as a group for hours until we had honed our routine to perfection; only then would we focus on the days of the rally itself. I remember the colours and the soldiers in their beautiful uniforms, and the masses and masses of people who came to watch. It was good for Nuremberg in many ways as the foreign visitors brought much needed revenue with them. Of course it was a political event in reality, but to us it was one great happy time. We practised doing our Swastika formation some weeks before the event and it was something which required much discipline to get right.
On the actual day, we would be a little nervous, but very eager to do our bit. The gymnastic displays were held at sporting arenas or Zeppelin fields, so as the crowds could see us properly. We would file out into the arena flanked by two girls carrying flags. The girls with the flags, who would sometimes wear a Nordic style traditional dress, would peel away from us and leave the arena and we formed up into a line and began to move around into a circle. We had to keep perfect timing as we moved and at the critical moment we would very mechanically form into a Swastika. Some girls would stop while others formed up to make the Swastika shape. Once this was completed, we moved around in a circle and the crowds would roar with delight.
After completing our routine, we would again form up into a line and the girls with the flags would return and escort us out of the arena. As we moved off, other Jung Madels were preparing to come out for their routines. We often watched them and cheered them on, as they were our friends and comrades. It was amazing some of the things we did without apparatus, things like human pyramids. The human pyramid was something which took extreme concentration and sometimes faith. We performed this routine at the same rally two days later. The strongest girls formed the base of the pyramid while the not so strong ones climbed and formed the top. There were many times when a girl lost her balance or slipped and we all ended up in a large giggling heap on the floor.
I remember seeing Hitler for the first time at the Nuremberg rally giving a speech and the reaction of the crowds to his words were wild. Other members of the Nazi Party took to the stage to address the people including Goebbels the propaganda minister. The most exciting parts of the rally for us were the marches. We watched the soldiers of the Wehrmacht goose step followed by tanks and big guns. We would cheer at them and wave these little Swastika flags in the air.
Afterwards, sometimes Hitler would mingle with the crowds and come and talk to us. Very often when he came to talk to us, it would be at special presentations and the press would be there taking photographs of him shaking our hands, and it would be broadcast on the radio also. Hitler’s speeches often captured the imagination and we listened to him intently. ‘The Jews,’ he would tell us, ‘are your enemies,’ and that the Jews threatened the stability of Germany. Racial purification was also of great importance to the Nazis. I was one of the girls that Hitler spoke with at Nuremberg in 1934, and he said to me something about ‘making a fine German wife for a fine young German man,’ which struck me as a little odd, as I was only very young and was not sure what I really wanted from my life at that stage. Hitler congratulated me and the other girls for our ‘breathtaking efforts’ and he told us that he was honoured and proud to have seen us again. I remember discussing the events with my mother and father at the time, and it was made clear to me by both of my parents that when I come of age I should find a suitable man and settle down and get married. Even as a thirteen-year-old, I often lay awake thinking to myself ‘is this what life is and what it is all about?’
I felt for the Jews in Germany at that time; they were being very cruelly treated everywhere and Hitler made clear at Nuremberg that they would not be tolerated. They just did not fit into his thinking at all. I can remember talking or trying to talk to my parents about Hitler’s verbal attacks on the Jews. In the end my mother and father forbade any of us to talk about or even mention Jews in their presence. My father said to me that ‘the Jews were the responsibility of the politicians and I should not concern myself with such politics.’ Fearing the wrath of my parents, I never mentioned the word ‘Jew’ again in our household. The lives of children, particularly females, evolved around absolute obeisance and that is the way it was and we accepted it.
Though quite a long way from Berlin, many Berliners travelled to Nuremberg to take part in the celebrations staged usually in August or September. Nazi Party officials and members and their families travelled all over Germany to attend rallies, and as the economic situation improved, many working-class Germans were also able to travel, at least by train, to other parts of the country. As a result, Germans from all over the Reich territory attended Nuremberg, along with the other Nazi pageants held over the years. Melissa Schroeder and her family travelled from München (Munich) to experience and enjoy Nuremberg.
Even by steam train it seemed to take a long time to get to Nuremberg. When we arrived, we got a taste of things to come. The place was packed with people from all over the world and there was an atmosphere of hustle and bustle. I travelled to Nuremberg with my mother, father, three sisters and one brother. We had packed our clothes into small suitcases and I had my Hitler Youth uniform with me, which I wanted to wear when we went out. My brother had also brought his uniform with him as it was required of us to wear uniform on all party occasions. My father, being a member of the Nazi Party, was able to get us rooms in a lovely hotel near the centre of Nuremberg. It was a beautiful place and very gothic, looking just like in the picture books of knights in armour.
The street celebrations had already begun and there was a kind of party atmosphere and the weather was pleasantly warm even during the evening. My three sisters and myself shared two single beds in our own room which had this balcony. When our parents put us to bed in the evening and turned out the lights, we could lie and watch the stars and listen to the people outside singing and dancing. Every so often, our door would open as my father had instructed one of the maids to keep an eye on us. We were soon fast asleep, exhausted by our journey, even though we were all excited about what we would see and do over the following days.
We awoke at 8.00am and washed ourselves in the bathroom before joining our parents in the dining room for breakfast. It was very lavish in that hotel and I often wondered how my father managed to get us in such a place, as he was not exactly rolling in money as you say.
We went out into the town and all sorts of things were going on and we wore our uniforms. We watched a huge parade of soldiers and although it was very difficult to see, we got a glimpse of Hitler as he drove past in a huge black car flanked by members of his staff. People went hysterical when Hitler came along, and women fainted and had to be carried away. I thought it was quite funny and wondered what all the fuss was about really. We saw Hitler again the day before we left for the journey back to München, as a group of press photographers wanted to photograph Hitler with members of his Hitler Jugend. I was there by pure chance and my father pushed me forward to join the handful of boys and girls who were to stand with Hitler for the photograph. We gathered around Hitler and he put his arms around our shoulders and smiled very broadly at the camera. I remember looking around at him and smiling and his eyes looking into mine. The pressman shouted something, then with a flash of silvery light, the photograph was taken. The bodyguards quickly moved back to Hitler’s side and I could see clearly their collar tabs with the two SS runes on. These soldiers were the crack SS troops we had l
earned about at school and Jung Madel. Hitler talked briefly to us and asked if we were enjoying ourselves at Nuremberg, and he patted our heads in a gesture of affection. There were no strong sentiments like those delivered in his speeches, and this surprised me. He came across as being very warm, caring and quite normal, though his eyes were different in a way I cannot explain. I asked him for his autograph and he obliged with a broad smile, and I was the envy of all my friends because I had got the Führer’s autograph. I had it for many years but it was lost many years ago along with other possessions.