Sometimes a hobby, or other
outside interest, can unintentionally lead to areas far a field. My strong interest in stamp collecting
includes the block of three countries: Austria, Germany and Poland. My collecting interests go beyond the stamps
alone and include much historical information.
And so it was that I found the information that forms the basis for this
essay from the contiguous relationship of Germany with Poland and Austria.
During the early days of
Hitler’s Third Reich when he was still vulnerable, when Frick was the minister
of the interior and Goering controlled the Prussian police, Hindenburg signed
an emergency decree, which gave the Nazis extraordinary legal powers. In the subsequent Reichstag elections on March 5, 1933, the people
voted the Nazis 43.9%: the Nazis had hoped for 50%. After the elections, using the Hindenburg
decree and the Reichstag fire of February 27as an excuse, the Nazis arrested
the Communist deputies to the Reichstag or prevented them from attending
sessions. These actions gave the Nazis a
majority of the seats.
On March 23, the Nazis
dominated Reichstag passed the Enabling Act, which gave the government full
dictatorial powers, suspending basic civil and human rights for four
years. By July, the government had
outlawed freedom of the press, all labor unions, and all political parties
except the Nazis. Hindenburg died in
1934 and Hitler ruled Germany
completely, assuming the title Fuhrer und
Reichskanzler (leader and Reich chancellor). Goebbels flooded the nation with propaganda
praising the New Order, under which
Hitler would reorder German society and the rest of Europe. Jews were forced out of civil service, universities
and other schools, and professional and managerial positions. In 1935, German Jews were declared citizens
of lesser rights.
This was the climate under
which Hitler and the Nazis party established the Hitler Jugend (Hitler Youth). In his book Philately of the Third Reich, Alf Harper, in referring to a first
philatelic appearance of the Hitler Youth in Munich on August 19-21, 1933 writes, “Hitler believed
that the survival of his Third Reich depended upon the education of youth. He said, ‘A violently active, dominating,
brutal youth – that is what I am after.
Youth must be indifferent to pain.
I will have no intellectual training.
Knowledge is ruin to my young men.’”
Comparable to the Hitler Youth was the Bund DeutscherMädel (League of German Girls).
Young people between the ages
of 6 and 18 were included in Hitler’s plans:
The Hitler Youth for boys and the League of German Girls for girls, all
14 years and older. Balder von Schirach
was head of all German youth programs.
By 1935, almost 60 percent of German boys were enrolled. By 1936, it became a state agency and all
young “Aryan” Germans were expected to join.
The Encyclopaedia Britannica
reports that, “Upon reaching his 10th birthday, a German boy was
registered and investigated (especially for ‘racial purity’) and, if qualified,
inducted into the Deutches Jungvolk
(German Young People). At age 13, the
youth became eligible for the Hitler Youth, from which he was graduated at age
18. Throughout these years, he lived a
Spartan life of dedication, fellowship, and Nazi conformity, generally with
minimum parental guidance. From age 18
he was a member of the Nazi Party and served in the state labor service and the
armed forces until at least the age of 21.”
During their service in these
groups, all German children wore uniforms, marched, exercised, and learned Nazi
beliefs. They were thought to spy on
their own families, neighbors and friends, and report anti-Nazi criticism they
might hear. This network of spies and
spying kept watch on the German people and maintained an atmosphere of terror. During the years that followed the formation
of the different children groups the Nazi government issued many philatelic
items of postcards, posters, postmarks and stamps in support of the youth
movement. This publicity and support
continued through 1945. Alf Harper shows the “…last official photograph of
Hitler. Taken outside the bunker of Berlin just before the
end, it shows Hitler thanking a Hitler Youth member for his heroic fighting
[note the young age of the child].
Hitler Youth were among the most fanatical fighters in the battle of Berlin.”
Is it no wonder, when one
considers the years of fanatical indoctrination and training that the children
of Germany
received from their masters? For a more
detailed discussion of the training of young German girls, see the writer’s
essay “Motherhood and the Third Reich.”
That was then: What about
now. Doesn’t much of what has been
described sound familiar?
In today’s world, rogue
nations and groups have replaced Hitler and the Nazis, but the recruitment of
children for violence continues. In the
December 2002 issue of National Defense, Sandra
I. Ewin reported on a seminar of the Marine Corps’ Center for Emerging Threats
and Opportunities, describing possible tactics for engaging forces employing
child soldiers. For a complete copy of
this article and the writers’ response, see the essay, “Child Soldiers: A
Growing Threat to U.S. Troops.”
In the report the United
Nations estimate that 300,000 boys and girls under the age of 18 are not only
fighting as soldiers, but are also serving as spies, informants, couriers, and
sex-slaves in more than 30 conflicts going on today. Why?
Consider the lonely and
hungry child. No parents or foster
parents to take care of him, living where he can, mostly in the streets,
fighting to stay alive. Along comes his
benefactor who promises food, companionship and shelter. All that he is expected to do is to fight for
his new master, something he was doing anyway.
Now multiply this one child by the tens of thousands of others, and you
have the child army.
Then we have the misdirected
patriotism or the family in need. A
young person listens to the constant flow of propaganda (just as Goebbels
generated in the 1930s and thereafter) and joins a terrorist group to help what
he has been led to believe is his cause.
Another young person sees his family in need and joins a terrorist group
to help. Both know that the going rate
for such help is currently $25,000 paid by the supporters of the terrorist
group. Enter the suicide bomber.
The play is the same: Only
the players have changed. I the 1930s and
40s, it was Germany. Today, it is Africa, Asia and the Middle East. The
results are the same. Many innocent
civilians are killed in the name of some cause.
It may be freedom from real or imagined oppression; it may be an effort
to obtain that which will not or cannot be negotiated; and then, of course,
there are those people or nations willing to spend lives for land, wealth and
power, both personal and national.
In the midst of this
instability and carnage are the nations, not involved directly in the
terrorism, but willing to stand by while others make an effort to resolve
differences. How can they lose? Either way, they plan to step in and harvest
benefits for their own interests.
The United Nations, hampered
by other interests, has demonstrated mixed ability in resolving the very tasks
that it was formed to resolve. Look no
farther than the current events of genocide now common in the Sudan.
Prepared from material edited
from, Philately of the Third Reich, Encyclopaedia
Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite – 2004 CD, World Book 2002 CD, and essays
prepared by the writer.
April 2004
LFC
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