Activity 9: Peer Pressure and the Hilter Youth

Alfons Heck describes his eagerness to join the Hitler Youth (Jungvolk):

Far from being forced to enter the ranks of the Jungvolk, I could barely contain my impatience and was, in fact, accepted before I was quite 10.  It seemed like an exciting life, free from parental supervision, filled with ‘duties’ that seemed sheer pleasure.  To a degree, our pre-war activities resembled those of the Boy Scouts, with much more emphasis on discipline and political indoctrination.  There were the paraphernalia and the symbols, the pomp and the mysticism, very close in feeling to religious rituals.  One of the first significant demands was the so-called Mutprobe: ‘test of courage’, which was usually administered after a six-month period of probation.  The members of my Schar, a platoon-like unit of about 40-50 boys, were required to dive off the three-metre board – about 10 feet high – head first in the town’s swimming pool.  There were some stinging belly flops, but the pain was worth it when our Fahnleinfuehrer, the 15-year old leader of our Fahnlein, a company-like unit of about 160 boys, handed us the coveted dagger with its inscription Blood and Honour.  From that moment on we were fully accepted.”