Life in the Hitler Youth

My parents lived during the WW II in Poland. The war stories shaped my childhood, especially since my mother's family lived in Silesia, close to the boarder with Germany. My family was dealing with "bad" and "good" Germans all the time. I always wanted to understand people on the other side, their mindset, since I realize that these people were like us. They were just born on the other side of the boarder. This book gives a right perspective. It does not demonize Germans or German youth. It just shows how the totalitarian system affect people. Very interesting, very informative and with good pictures. The author uses the personal accounts to help to understand young people in Germany in that time. This is not the account of "good" versus "bad". It helps us to learn from the mistakes of Nazi generation.

I second "historian0"'s review, and I have to add that the numerous first person accounts from letters and interviews make this an excellent choice for a logic-staged child studying this time period. My 6th and 8th graders will be reading this to get an understanding of how their lives would have been ordered if they were born into Hitler's Germany.

In purchasing this book, I was looking for a quick glance into the lives of German youth during the Third Reich and I got just that. The book thouroughly explains the HItlerjugend mindset and mentality. It has a great educational value because a lot of terms and historical events are explained so that everybody understands what they're reading. It is an afternoon read with a very inside depth. I recommend this book to people of all ages and educational backgrounds.