by Heath, Tim
On Sunday, 14 September 1936, the ceremony of the Hitler Youth was held at Nuremberg stadium. This was an important event for the whole of Germany’s Hitler Youth. Thousands came from all over the Reich to attend what was clearly one of the pinnacle youth gatherings for many years in Germany.
Starting from the early hours of the morning, huge columns of Hitler Youth marched into the stadium. It was an awesome spectacle, as each respective youth organization marched in like soldiers. The Jung Volk, Jung Madel, Bund Deutscher Madel and boys Hitler Youth filed into the arena with military precision. It was a warm day and the girls wore their easily recognizable uniform of white blouse, black tie and navy-blue skirt. Each regiment wore the cloth arm patch of its particular borough of origin, stating the town or city. Standard bearers carried their regimental pennants. It was a marvellous sight for the German and foreign press photographers, who greatly admired the sheer discipline and strength of the Hitler Youth organization. One photographer commented:
It was easily one of the most memorable things I had ever witnessed at that time during my career as a photographer. The girls in particular looked beautiful in their white blouses and dark skirts marching like soldiers. There was something about them which set them aside from the boys’ regiments, perhaps because they were an unusual organization. Nowhere else in Europe could boast of creating such an admirable institution. My main job on that Sunday was to photograph the girls; everyone wanted pictures of the girls.
Other high-ranking Nazis who would be joining Hitler on the platform that day were Max Amann, Martin Bormann, Dr Ley, Dr Dietrich, and the leaders of the individual Hitler Youth regiments. Military representatives were also present in the form of Hermann Goering, the commander of the Luftwaffe, General Fritsch of the Wehrmacht, and Admiral Raeder of the Kriegsmarine. There were, however, a great many army, navy and Luftwaffe officers present, along with numerous other and lesser-known Nazi Party leaders and officials of the state and diplomatic corps. These people were seated behind the Reich ministers. Standing proudly just in front of the Hitler Youth leaders was the easily recognizable, pug-faced form of Heinrich Himmler, the Reichsführer of the SS (Schutzstaffel), and the SA’s (Sturmabteilung) Viktor Lutze.
By 9.30 am, the whole stadium awaits the arrival of Adolf Hitler with the usual anticipation. Girls of the Jung Madel and Bund Deutscher Madel stand and quietly swap words with one another. Just before the strike of ten, a command booms out across the stadium. There is an instant silence and the regiments of the army, navy, Luftwaffe and Hitler Youth stiffen to attention. The silence was then broken by a sea of cheering men, women and children as Adolf Hitler arrives, surrounded by his guard. Hitler walks slowly through the lines of the SS with Reich minister Rudolf Hess at his side, pausing every so often to raise his right hand in acknowledgement of the crowd’s cheers. He makes his way up the flight of steps onto the platform, and the roar of the crowd dies down.
The Reich Youth leader steps forward to the microphone to introduce the Führer. He then steps back as Hitler walks towards the microphone. Hitler stands silent for what seems like an eternity to the boys and girls who eagerly await his words. He gazes around expressionless, his eyes as black as coal, building the air of anxiety and excitement before delivering his greeting: ‘Heil, my youth.’ There is a momentary roar as the thousands of girls and boys return their greeting to their beloved Führer. Many have waited a very long time for this moment, but the sight of their Führer gazing down upon them is too much for some – already girls are fainting. Groups of the SS quickly lend assistance and take them to receive first-aid treatment.
Trumpets from the towers, which flank the stadium, announce the beginning of the ceremony. A band under the direction of Bannführer (band leader) Spitta begins the song aptly titled, ‘The Freedom Song of the Youth’. The youth of Germany are as familiar with the lyrics as British children were with the words of the ‘Lord’s Prayer’.
As the song fades, there is an atmosphere of building emotion, which reaches out and touches everyone. The press and hordes of photographers try desperately to capture the uniqueness of the moment. A song titled ‘A Young People Rises Up’ is the next hymn to be sung, and as the crowds of boys and girls sing, the field banners of the Hitler Youth and their bearers enter the arena as the crowds roar their welcome. Some of these bearers, it is reported, have marched across Germany for weeks with these flags of faith in Adolf Hitler, their Führer. They came from all corners of the Reich, from the mining towns, the industrial Mitte, from coastal towns, and from where the mountains puncture the skies. The idea of such a march was to reaffirm the love, obedience, and loyalty to the Führer. The flags are special in the way that they were sanctified upon the very tomb of Frederick the Great. A Hitler Youth also carries the bloodied flag of Herbert Norkus, the fifteen-year-old martyr and member of the Hitler Youth who had been murdered by German Communists on 24 January 1932. The flags were carried across the country, through rain, sun and snow, and it is with great pride that these flags arrive at the stadium. Hitler steps forward to make a closing speech – he pauses, adding to the building tensions of his audience. When he delivers this last speech, he does so with venom and with anger. His words, in hindsight, reflect a little of what was to come:
We are used to battle, for out of it we came. We will plant our feet firmly in our earth, and no attack will move us. You will stand with me, should such a time come! You will stand before me, at my side, and behind me, holding our flags high! Let our old enemies attempt to rise up once more! They may wave their Soviet flags before us – but our flag will win the battle.
With that closing statement, Hitler steps back and salutes as the masses shout Sieg Heil!
A barely audible command is called, and the columns line up once again in perfect precision as the presentation march sounds out. At that moment a roar seems to fill the entire arena, only this roar is not that of the crowds, but of the German Luftwaffe. Everyone gazes skyward as waves of Messerschmitt 109s, Heinkels and Dorniers pass over in an aerial salute of magnificent proportions.
Hitler, along with Schirach and Hess, walks slowly down the columns of the Hitler Youth boys and girls. He stops and gazes at them every few paces, visibly proud of his new generation and their discipline. He shows particular interest in the Jung Madel and Bund Deutscher Madel girls, spending many minutes talking to them and shaking their hands. For the girls this is a moment they will never forget in their lives. Some of them have a total adoration for their Führer, others have brought him flowers. There are more and more scenes of genuine emotional outpourings for the Führer. One girl kisses Hitler’s hands with tears streaming down her face. Hitler cups the girl’s face with his hands and smiles broadly at her. Other girls seem to fall under the same spell and burst into tears. Hitler’s SS guards, following close behind, are visibly bemused by the spectacle of all these young girls kissing Hitler’s hands and uttering words of love and devotion. Some are so overcome by the experience that the guards have to hold them back. Helga Bassler was one of the girls who received an audience with the Devil. She recalls the experience:
My knees began to shake and I had butterflies in my stomach as I watched Hitler slowly make his way down the row of girls towards me. I watched how girls cried and reached out to him and how some had brought flowers especially for him. When he came and looked at me I instinctively held out my hands, but quickly remembered I had not saluted him, so I pulled back my right hand very quickly and thrust it in the air and gave a loud ‘Heil Hitler.’ I think this impressed him and he thanked me very much for being there to honour him that day, and he told me that he had hoped that he had expressed his honour and respect for us on this special day for us. I nodded my head as I could not speak I was so happy. His eyes seemed to smile and he was radiant, and as he walked on along the row I could not take my eyes off him, I was transfixed. From that day on I looked upon Hitler as a saviour, a personal saviour. It was a little bit like how modern girls look up to their fav
ourite pop stars; many of us became infatuated after meeting him, and we were in a way in love with him, even though few of us really understood our own emotions, we were too young.
There can be no doubting the importance of the ceremony of the Hitler Youth on that warm Sunday in September 1933. It was the Nazi way of cowing the young masses support. There were many other important occasions in which the Hitler Youth and the Nazi regime would honour itself, other than Nuremberg.
Another day of extreme importance, particularly to Hitler, was 12 August, as this was the date of his mother Klara’s birthday. This date was declared a public holiday, and although solemn in some ways, the masses were again urged to celebrate the memory of the dictator’s mother. On this day, Hitler would award the Cross of Honour of the German Mother (Mutterehrenkreuz) to all fertile mothers. A woman who has borne four children would receive a bronze cross, while the one with six would receive one in silver. The highest class of this award was in gold, which was awarded to all women who had eight children. The awards themselves had no particular value other than the fact that Hitler usually presented them to the women in person. Hitler totally adored his mother, so declaring this day to her was his way of keeping her memory alive. He never got over the death of his mother, something that would haunt him until his suicide in 1945.
On 8 November, there was also the commemoration of the Beer Hall Putsch, Hitler’s failed attempt to overthrow the German government in 1923. This commemoration was to honour the Hitler supporters who were killed by the authorities on that fateful day. Flags were draped across the tombs of those who were killed, as they were reconfirmed as heroes of the cause of National Socialism.
The Berlin Olympics of 1936, where German athletes competed in a magnificent multi-national event, winning the majority of the gold medals, was described as one of the most atmospheric events to have taken place in Europe for many years. However, even this spectacular event was soured with both hatred and racism.
Chapter Five
Young Women, Sex and the Führer
Adolf Hitler’s emotional and sexual attitudes towards young females are worth exploring, as these attitudes – though maybe inadvertently – essentially influenced his ideas on the role that young girls and women were to fulfil in his Third Reich. A great deal of myth surrounds Hitler, his sexuality, and his sexual encounters with women. Hitler’s sexuality became the subject of much private talk, especially during the early years of the Nazi Party, where many homosexuals found positions of authority within its ranks.
Ernst Röhm was said to have been homosexual, possessing sexual preferences for young boys, though Röhm’s sister has always denied that her brother was a homosexual, contending that this accusation was orchestrated by Nazis who wanted him eliminated as leader of the SA. Rudolf Hess, the one-time deputy Führer, was also believed to have been homosexual or possessing homosexual preferences, being nicknamed ‘Fraulein Anna’ by members of the Nazi Party. Martin Bormann gained a reputation for having an eye for anything wearing a skirt. It was Bormann who asked his wife’s permission to keep a mistress. She later suggested that they alternate in childbearing so that one of them would always be available to him for sexual intercourse. SS chief Heinrich Himmler and propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels also had a history of sexual deviance, also taking mistresses.
In later years, Hitler was forced to purge the Nazi Party of its undesirable elements, which inevitably led to the murder of people like Ernst Röhm, who had served Hitler well over the early years and had been indispensable. It was all very hypocritical and contradictory, as Hitler had previously insisted that the private lives of members of his party were of no concern to him at all. His general attitude had been ‘do what you like, but don’t get caught doing it’.
Over the years, it has become very difficult to separate fact from fiction when dealing with the subject of Hitler and his sexuality. There is a great deal of evidence to suggest that at least some of his generals disapproved of many of the antics that went on. The conservative General Hermann Rauschning commented:
There is a reeking miasma of furtive sexuality that fills and fouls the whole atmosphere around what I can only describe as an evil emanation. There are so many secret lusts and relationships that nothing in this man’s surroundings is genuine, and nothing has the openness of a natural instinct.
Some of the fiction attached to Hitler and his sex life can trace its origins from the obscene propaganda material derived from the wartime psychological profiles on the Führer. Much of the obscene propaganda material came from the British Special Operations Executive, SOE. Some of the material was considered so obscene, that at first even British prime minister Churchill questioned the morality of it all.
The material came in a variety of forms, ranging from cartoon-type caricatures of Hitler, through to specially touched-up photographs, including one showing Hitler holding his erect penis in his hand! There were, of course, the radio broadcasts, which were so cleverly orchestrated, that many German listeners were convinced that the transmissions were coming from inside Germany, when in reality they were emanating from Britain. The radio broadcasts were primarily aimed at the German soldiers who were known to tune into that particular radio band. The programmes revealed many invented sexual perversions in which prominent members of the Third Reich had been involved, Hitler included. There were stories of sadomasochistic orgies involving Hitler’s generals, homosexuality and bestiality. Hitler himself was accused of having a fondness for wearing women’s knickers, a subject to which there is a degree of truth attached.
As a propaganda tool, such things were worth their weight in gold, perhaps even if in a time of war they did go a little too far. There is, however, a very good degree of truth surrounding Hitler and his staff, and their personal conduct once out of the limelight of public adoration. Homosexuality was said to have been rife within the SA and Hitler Youth. There are those who will testify to the fact that there probably existed as big a paedophile ring within both ranks as would not be out of place in our modern society.
Young boys and young girls were easily bribed, and there were those within the Hitler Youth who kept silent and allowed themselves to be abused by their elders. Some of the girls will here attest to the fact that there were many sexual encounters between BDM girls and their leaders, and indeed between each other. One of the primary causes of lesbianism within the BDM was the fact that girls were very rarely allowed to mix with boys in any natural context. As a result, lesbianism became a natural resulting regression amongst some of the girls.
Girls had always been taught that it was considered unclean to have any form of sexual thoughts or feelings towards members of the opposite sex, or indeed their own. Sexual intercourse was primarily for the purpose of producing offspring, and not something that one would partake in for the purpose of pleasure and fulfilment. That was the basic Third Reich sexual doctrine as taught to the Hitler Youth, particularly the girls. It was completely hypocritical when one compares it with the sexual conduct of both Hitler and some of his most high-ranking staff.
Women, who made up the major part of the electorate in Germany, were viewed by Hitler as being more influenced by image, profile and the general superficialities of their leaders, and not necessarily by their political qualities and abilities. Both young and old women alike found that Hitler possessed a strange allure, finding themselves strangely attracted to him sexually.
Hitler became aware of his ‘magnetism’ early on in his political career, something that is strongly reflected in later years in his relationship with and attitude towards his mistress, Eva Braun. Hitler was by no means an attractive man, yet girls often admitted to have become sexually aroused in his presence. These girls, in reality, were aroused on a subconscious level more by the immense power he had over them and the rest of Germany, rather than by his own physical being. He had over the years become a domineering bully where women were concerned. He dominated them socially, mentally and sexually, in a way that
he had to be in total control at all times.
During the First World War, Hitler’s comrades in the trenches often thought him odd. Whenever they had the chance to get some much-needed respite away from the frontlines, they usually found comfort with prostitutes, but Corporal Hitler never once went with them. He much preferred his own company. This led some of his comrades to assume that Hitler was homosexual, though none of them ever approached him directly with such an accusation.
When it came to relationships, Hitler chose young, naïve and often vulnerable women. It was women with these characteristics that he discovered were easily dominated, thus posing no threat to him. Hitler had sexual encounters with many young girls, one being a certain Maria Reiter. Hitler met Maria Reiter while they were both walking their dogs in a Munich park in 1924. Reiter was only sixteen at the time, while Hitler was thirty-six, yet he became totally smitten with the young girl. During their relationship, she often complained that Hitler was overbearing, suffering from extreme bouts of jealousy and a frightful temper. Reiter desperately wanted Hitler to marry her, but these plans were scuppered by him in favour of his political ambitions. After a period of some two years, their relationship ended. Reiter, like so many girls that would fall under the Hitler spell, attempted suicide, but was saved in the nick of time by her brother. She never talked openly about her sex life with Hitler, but she commented that he was very passionate when it came to the sexual act itself.
It was also during the 1920s that Hitler began a relationship with Winifred Wagner, the daughter of an English father and German mother. Wagner became obsessed with Hitler and although she may have denied it, their relationship was undoubtedly sexual. Wagner never once showed any regret for her relationship with Hitler, even during the years after the Second World War, when the horrors perpetrated by Hitler and the Nazis had been fully exposed.