Purpose: The HJ served to educate young people in National Socialism and integrate them into the propagated “people's community.” It was an instrument of total control and ideological conformity.
Structure: The HJ consisted of the Jungvolk (10–13 years old) and the actual HJ (14–18 years old). For girls, there was the League of German Girls (BDM).
Pimpf was the official term for 10- to 14-year-old members of the German Jungvolk, a youth organization of the Hitler Youth in National Socialism. The term was introduced as a rank in 1934 and was not originally pejorative – as early as the 1920s, the youngest members of the youth movement were called “Pimpfe.”
The League of German Girls (BDM) was the female youth organization of the Hitler Youth during National Socialism and was founded in 1930. It organized girls and young women aged 10 to 18, with the Jungmädel (10–14 years) and the BDM (14–18 years) existing as separate groups. From 1936 onwards, membership was compulsory by law, which meant that by 1944 the BDM had over 4.5 million members – the largest female youth organization in the world at that time.
There was no physical coercion to join, nor were children taken away from their parents. Children usually joined entirely voluntarily because of the program (e.g., camping trips without parental supervision), which many parents from lower social classes could not afford in the Weimar Republic.
I´m German.
Brave:
Purpose: The HJ served to educate young people in National Socialism and integrate them into the propagated “people's community.” It was an instrument of total control and ideological conformity. Structure: The HJ consisted of the Jungvolk (10–13 years old) and the actual HJ (14–18 years old). For girls, there was the League of German Girls (BDM).
Pimpf was the official term for 10- to 14-year-old members of the German Jungvolk, a youth organization of the Hitler Youth in National Socialism. The term was introduced as a rank in 1934 and was not originally pejorative – as early as the 1920s, the youngest members of the youth movement were called “Pimpfe.”
The League of German Girls (BDM) was the female youth organization of the Hitler Youth during National Socialism and was founded in 1930. It organized girls and young women aged 10 to 18, with the Jungmädel (10–14 years) and the BDM (14–18 years) existing as separate groups. From 1936 onwards, membership was compulsory by law, which meant that by 1944 the BDM had over 4.5 million members – the largest female youth organization in the world at that time.
There was no physical coercion to join, nor were children taken away from their parents. Children usually joined entirely voluntarily because of the program (e.g., camping trips without parental supervision), which many parents from lower social classes could not afford in the Weimar Republic.
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"The HJ served to educate young people in National Socialism"
Sounds like our Department of Education!