HITLER YOUTH: GROWING UP IN HITLER'S SHADOW

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bartoletti, Susan Campbell. 2005. HITLER YOUTH: GROWING UP IN HITLER'S SHADOW. New York, NY: Scholastic Nonfiction: an imprint of Scholastic, Inc. ISBN 9780439353793.

PLOT SUMMARY
The horrors of World War II, retold with chilling detail through the voices of German young people who served Hitler in his youth organization is the focus of this book. Journals, diaries and interviews of those who served are researched and detailed from a different viewpoint than most books on the subject of World War II. Ten stories are portrayed in chapter form.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Can you imagine turning in your own parents to authorities because they resisted Hitler's ideology? Elizabeth Vetter reported her parents to Hitler youth leaders and they were arrested. Thousands of children were caught up in the notion of obtaining power to exert over others through allegiance to Adolph Hitler. Hitler realized the impact youth could have on his path to power. Those children who participated and survived the war cannot believe how they were caught up in the movement.

Bartoletti uses actual photographs to personalize the stories. Most of the black and white photos show proud children in Nazi uniform. Not only does she utilize pictures of the youth, there are actual photographs of streets and areas depicted in the stories. Students can turn the page and read the captions under the numerous photographs before continuing with the riveting stories.

Some of the stories told are ones not often heard when studying the history of WWII. A mercy death program to improve the Aryan race was authorized in 1939 by Hitler. This program targeted those mentally and physically unstable, living in hospitals and institutions. The program, code named Aktion-T4 has been estimated to have killed as many as 100,000 before protesting by German citizens halted the practice. The White Rose - a group who printed leaflets denouncing Hiter resulted in the student leaders being beheaded (something difficult to comprehend today).

Bartoletti handles a very delicate subject with great diplomacy. She manages to relate the horror of war through the eyes of youth who participated in it without making the subject intolerable. Each of the ten chapters has a different story to tell, which makes the reader want to continue until the end of the book. The epilogue tells what happened to the youth portrayed. A time line of the Hitler Youth and the author's note at the back wants us to make sure this is a story we must repeat to future youth so history can never repeat itself.

PERSONAL OPINION
This book is a must read for both children (older than elementary age) and adults. This book of history is told through the eyes of people reflecting on what they did for their leader Adolph Hitler. It is easy to be an outside viewer and judge their behavior but I wondered what my reaction would have been to the youth program if I were in that situation myself.

REVIEW EXCERPTS
From School Library Journal
" Grade 5-8–Hitler's plans for the future of Germany relied significantly on its young people, and this excellent history shows how he attempted to carry out his mission with the establishment of the Hitler Youth, or Hitlerjugend, in 1926. With a focus on the years between 1933 and the end of the war in 1945, Bartoletti explains the roles that millions of boys and girls unwittingly played in the horrors of the Third Reich. The book is structured around 12 young individuals and their experiences, which clearly demonstrate how they were victims of leaders who took advantage of their innocence and enthusiasm for evil means. Their stories evolve from patriotic devotion to Hitler and zeal to join, to doubt, confusion, and disillusion."

From Booklist
" What was it like to be a teenager in Germany under Hitler? Bartoletti draws on oral histories, diaries, letters, and her own extensive interviews with Holocaust survivors, Hitler Youth, resisters, and bystanders to tell the history from the viewpoints of people who were there. Most of the accounts and photos bring close the experiences of those who followed Hitler and fought for the Nazis, revealing why they joined, how Hitler used them, what it was like. Henry Mentelmann, for example, talks about Kristallnacht, when Hitler Youth and Storm Troopers wrecked Jewish homes and stores, and remembers thinking that the victims deserved what they got."

AWARDS
2005 Newbery Honor Book
2006 Sibert Information Book Honor
2005 Parent's Choice Gold Award
Audiofile Earphones Award

CONNECTIONS
After reading this book together as a class (or assign individual chapters to groups to read), ask students to write a journal entry about a day in the life of a Hitler youth.

Research if any survivors from this book are still alive and where they are living.

Students who like this book might like:

Lehmann, Armin D. and Tim Carroll. IN HITLER'S BUNKER: A BOY SOLDIER'S EYEWITNESS ACCOUNT OF THE FUHRER'S LAST DAYS. ISBN 9781592285785

Hunt, Irmgard A. ON HITLER'S MOUNTAIN: OVERCOMING THE LEGACY OF A NAZI CHILDHOOD. ISBN 0739458116