Dbq Essay On Hitler Youth

Under the leadership of Adolf Hitler, the Nazi Party grew into a mass movement. The Nazis ruled Germany through a dictatorship and instilled ideals that are inhumane and unjust. After Germany’s defeat in WWII the Nazi Party was outlawed and the top leaders of the party convicted of war crimes. As the citizens of Germany tried to cope with the horrors brought on by WWII, many stories were published by minorities who were targeted by the Nazis. While these stories were being released, many people who supported the Nazis say that they too were victims of the party. People who supported the Nazi regime can not say that they were victims of the Nazis because their experiences were not as bad as the other minority groups who were targeted by Hitler.

Jutta Rüdiger was the leader of a part of the Hitler Youth called the League of German Girls In a speech to the league, she says that The Hitler Youth was the only youth movement to acknowledge “that the death of two million soldiers in the World War signified a responsibility... [of] serving Germany through deeds” (Doc. 24). She and the rest of the organization advocated for having youth who were “politically conscious” (Doc. 24). She believed that the Hitler Youth helped teenagers establish their own opinions in ways that no other organization has done in the past. A politically right German teenager named Melita Maschmann felt the same way. She wrote a letter to a Jewish friend of hers about why she voted for Hitler. The main reason was because, like many teenagers, she “wanted to follow a different road from the conservative one prescribed for me by family tradition” (Doc 9).

Unfortunately, the outcome of Hitler’s plans for Germany wasn’t considered. The country became more war-torn as time went on and became a place of mass destruction and suffering. In the same letter to her friend, Melita Maschmann also wrote about how she witnessed a man being beaten after possibly making a hostile comment (Doc. 9). A German painter named Käthe Ricken said that she and her family had to hide in a tiny cellar to protect themselves from bombs (Doc. 41). Germany also dealt with Red Army soldiers who left a path of destruction which caused many Germans to leave the country and seek refuge (Doc.