Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow (Scholastic Focus)

A person could well pontificate for several pages here over this particular work. I will spare you that. This is a well researched book and should be read by any young person in the study of WWII and that era. No, this work does not go into some of the agonizing details of this particular Nazi program, it was not meant to do so. This is an introduction for you young reader and is a wonderful tool to stimulate further reading and research on the readers part. If a young person is bright enough to read this work, the same young person is bright enough to ask all the right questions upon it's completion. The photographs in this work are quite good. Recommend this one highly.

I borrowed this book from the library and read it in TWO days! Not that I am a wonderful reader, but it truly is a gripping and fascinating book. I could not put it down. I am familiar with the events leading to WWII, the purpose of the deadly and unforgettable Holocaust, and a lot of the propaganda of the socialistic movement. I was not, however, familiar with the youth that Hitler motivated to do most of the work behind the war and the holocaust. It is a part of history that I never knew and was amazed to find out, This book is very well documented with excerpts from diaries and touching photos of a handful of youth that belonged to Hitler's regime, the jews, and some who's scales fell from their eyes and escaped the yoke of Nazi brain washing. The pictures are clean as far as not seeing some of the more atrocious pictures that you would probably see at the Holocaust museum. Like I said, the focus of this book is more on the youth of Hitler, and not of the war or the holocaust itself. There is absolutely no one-sided persuasion in this book. You do not get the feeling of hatred toward the German youth, you honestly feel sorry for these children. Almost to the point of understanding why they did some of the things that they did. But still one must ask why they still did it. This book may be a little harder to read for a child. Perhaps, it is more high school level. It definately deserves a place in your history section of your own personal library.

The greatest strength of this book is laid out in the very first line, when author Susan Campbell Bartoletti says, "This is not a book about Adolf Hitler". Instead, she says in her introduction, it is a book about the young people "that followed Hitler", about the children who grew up in his zenith and who had to negotiate a childhood shaped by his life and death. The youth corps or simply Hitler Youth are examined in a clarifying detail that showcases their positive and attractive elements like camping and companionship as well as early troublesome activities like Nazi propaganda distribution and eventually munitions training. The book is exceptionally well rounded, including the voices of those children who couldn't join, opposed, or were excluded from the Hitler Youth in addition to its most vigorous supporters. The stories interweave and co-exist, giving the reader a sense of the broad responses to Hitler's regime and the various roles of young people in that regime. Hitler Youth is outstandingly researched and makes excellent use of primary sources, such as photos, letters, diaries, books, and oral histories in attractive and informative ways without ever overwhelming the reader. She places everything in a context of German history post-World War I that allows the reader to understand the Hitler Youth as a product of particular historical circumstances and not just something that happened autonomously. Her use of German words gives the book cultural authenticity. Another great success of the book is the way that it slowly ratchets up the tension and terror as it explores the issues of war, terrorism, resistance, and authoritarianism. Stories and persons from the early chapters constantly reappear, and the changes over time are not simply a matter of grandiose historical events, but the reader can see these changes in the lives of people that they have come to know. And some of these children that we have come to sympathize with are clearly not innocent. They become soldiers and killers, they betray their parents, and at the end of the book, are complicated and traumatized individuals who must cope with the truth of Hitler's Final Solution, and their complicit or explicit role in it. But Bartoletti is not content to simply tell us a story about the past; she also calls into question its implications for the future. Her final sentence of the book calls upon children and adults to ask themselves "What are you willing to do?" and that message resonates with the reader long after the book itself has been closed.

I cheered when this book when this book won a Newbery Honor. It is an excellently-written, well-researched, deeply moving book. In the beginning, Bartoletti states that this book is the story--the true story--of the millions of young Germans who joined the Hitler Youth. For them, the Hitler Youth offered excitment, adventure, and an opportunity to participate in the rebirth of Germany. And what a story Bartoletti tells! Drawing upon oral histories, diaries, letters, interviews, and other first-hand accounts, the reader is transported into the twelve terrible years of the Third Reich. You will read stories from the Hitler Youth and the Jews, from devoted Nazis and Nazi resisters. Some stories will make you angry. Some will make you cry. Others will reaffirm your belief in humanity. But no story will leave you unmoved. As a result, this book is heart-wrenching. It is no wonder that this book has received so much critical acclaim. It is a must-read for anyone who believes we must learn from the past.