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The BDM- HJ Youth


leon21

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The Nazis attempted strictly to segregate boys and girls into their seperate organisations, but theory and practice

appear to have diverged. In 1936, around 100,000 members of the Hitlerjungend and Bund Deutscher Madel went

to the Nuremberg Rally and 900 girls became pregnant. And although their Gretchen uniform of braided hair, snow-white

blouse and ankle-length skirt made them look like somthing out of a German fairy tale, civilians at large were not

so convinced by this charming image- especially after the goings-on at Nuremberg. Some re-christened the BDM as

the German Mattresses League.

 

Pic of three willing recruits for the BDM

post-3823-1321634504_thumb.jpg

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 I have read that the HJ/BDM were quite fanatical up to the Nazi takeover in 1933. After that they became quite anti-establishment, the usual youth rebellion thing. However with the start of the war they fell back behind "Folk und Faterland." During the war they were one of the most loyal and fanatical parts of the NSDAP.

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Also meant to say that the Nazis encouraged propagation of the Aryan race didn't they?

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Yes true, but not all young people were members of Hitler Youth organisations. I refer to the Edelweiss Pirates and

the Swing Youth who formed their own groups. The Pirates liked hiking, camping and beating up HJ patrols whenever

possible for the fun of it, rather than for political reasoning. The Swing Youth liked jazz and jitterbugging. Yet for all

their non-conformism, neither group was anti-Nazi.

The 12 Pirates hanged by the Nazis in Cologne Ehrenfeld in 1944 for their contribution to underground resistance

were exceptions. So to were Hans and Sophie Scholl, leaders of the the White Rose anti-war group who openly

expressed political opposition to the war. They were decapitated in 1943. ;)

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Thats a nice photo there Leon, gives you an overall idea of what the summer BDM uniform looked like.

I don't have any BDM items in my collection right now, mainly just DJ and HJ.

 

It became mandatory in 1936 that all Aryan children must of been apart of the youth. It is said that only about 15 to 20% of all children avoided being apart of it, quite a low figure when you think that there was roughly 7/8 million members by 1940.

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Ive always been surprised that even 20% avoided which i think is a high number in a regulated totalitarian state.

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Here's a picture of three jungvolk getting accustomed to wearing steel helmets and gasmasks engaged in a game

of tug of war in the square ,in the old city of Worms.

post-3823-1321910615_thumb.jpg

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Ah this was the photo that got me onto buying the civil German gas mask that I was worried about :D

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  • 9 years later...

Apparently 13 members were hanged, see under Wikipedia

 

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  • 1 month later...

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