L009 Primary Sources Look Back and Hitler Youth PDF

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Download L009 Primary Sources Look Back and Hitler Youth PDF

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Melita Maschmann Looks Back: - “No catchword has ever fascinated me quite as much as that of the Volksgemeinschaft… What held my allegiance to this idealistic fantasy was the hope that a state of affairs could be created in which people of all classes would live together like brothers and sisters.” - The Nazi parade is taking place and a street fight happens. Melita as a little girl experiences a feeling of horror but also excitement over the violence that she is witnessing. - Pleasure, consent, and joy shown here. Ursula Mahlendorf Looks Back: - My enthusiasm for the Hitler Youth would have been dampened had I not understood the idea of a German people’s community. - Volksgemeinschaft. Volksgemeinschaft: - Concept preceded the Nazis. - Enjoyed broad legitimacy as its advantage. - Melita and Ursula’s Accounts: - Overwhelming feeling of involvement and nationalism. Inclusive and familiar nationalistic values. - There is a big focus on being in German culture but it is also racial in that it focuses on the body of the community. - Egalitarian. - Mobilizing. - Unifying. - Exclusionary. - Violent. - “Yet Exclusionary and Ruthless”: - The starting point is not of the individual. - You should not help the needy, you should help the all. - Socially minded. - A performance society. - If you do not belong then you have no business in the Volk. - The “Volk” is a racial concept defined by common blood. What sustained the Nazis in power? Was it coercion or consent? - Nazis came to power as people’s choice. - Enthusiasm for Hitler and a general desire for German greatness. - Appeal of Volksgemeinschaft. - Promise of German community. - Regime sought to enact the conception on a constant and daily basis by mobilizing the entire Aryan population- and by excluding “others”. - Removal of opposition and isolation of potential resistance.

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- Taking the Jews down slightly would benefit Germany. Violence was considered welcome. Gestapo surveillance makes great use of popular participation. Admiring the jack boot: The popularity of terror. Violence and repression being “positive” attributes that attracted supporters.

How was the Volksgemeinschaft enacted in the Hitler Youth? - Blonde-hair and blue-eye girl is kicked out of her gymnastics club is kicked out because her father is Jewish and thus makes her not Aryan. - Blond boy is on the tram and gives up his seat for an old lady. She says he is a good Aryan but he is actually Jewish. - Nazis present a distinction between Aryan and Non-Aryan by physical appearance but there are many other factors that do not reflect the physical evaluation. Hitlerjunge Quex: - Propaganda film, working class boy with a communist father. Boy is invited to youth outing with communist youth group. - Shows communists as classless and Nazis as extremely organized and superior. - Communists are morally loose. - Communists are instigators of violence. - Lack of discipline. - Nazis are very structured. - Nazis have tons of discipline with exact lines and formations. - Nazis share their food and have a plan. Attributes of the Nazi Youth: - Centrality of youth in Nazi ideology. - Youth are considered the vital force of the race. - Participation in the movement gives autonomy to youth. (Generational conflict.) - Opportunities for working-class children. - Career within the movement and beyond. - Gender image versus experience. - Gender-specific. - Girls as comrades to boys. - Girls are to be politically minded and well-informed, yet they are not meant to debate or contradict men. - They are meant to make babies. - Exaltation of sports. - Physical fitness and health. - Involvement in racial persecution. - Active protagonists in Kristallnacht....