Online

Champion, Elisabeth Noelle

History

2023

M.A.

This thesis examines gender, sex, and sexuality in the Hitler Youth and how the Nazis policed and controlled adolescents and their sexuality. First, an examination of twentieth-century European youth movements shows how these organizations molded adolescents into obedient citizens and to fit national political agendas. The German Wandervogel, Boy Scouts, Fascist Italian youth movements, Young Pioneers, and Hitler Youth are explored. By the onset of World War Two, dictatorships like Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany educated and indoctrinated adolescents to help support and sustain racist and nationalistic regimes.Under National Socialism, officials monitored and controlled adolescents in the Hitler Youth and League of German Girls. Once Hitler came to power and made Baldur von Schirach chief of all youth activities, Schirach sought to monopolize adolescents by attempting to consolidate all youth movements into the Hitler Youth. As a result, the Nazis increasingly policed teenage sexuality. Youth criminality began to increase as early as 1933, which included moral and sexual offenses committed by teenagers. Young boys and girls socializing in the Hitler Youth formed sexual relationships; girls frequented train stations and barracks for one-night stands with soldiers; unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) were on the rise, and homosexuality in the boys' branch of the organization ignited fears about a moral crisis and "sexual problem" in the Hitler Youth. How Hitler Youth leaders monitored teenage sexuality and handled such situations depended on each teenager's gender, racial status, and situation at hand.