Hitlerjugend, HJ#

Hitlerjugend (Hitler Youth, HJ), the NSDAP´s youth organisation, set up December 1, 1936 in Germany "for the physical, mental and moral education of young people", given priority over the family and school by law; from 1939 gave pre-military training. After the Anschluss in 1938 the HJ was introduced in Austria (all other youth organisations were abolished), membership was practically compulsory. The HJ was divided into the Deutsches Jungvolk and the Jungmaedelbund (10-14-year-olds) and the actual HJ and the Bund Deutscher Maedel (BDM) for 14-18-year-olds. Until 1940 the HJ was led by B. v. Schirach, the later gauleiter and Reich governor of Vienna.

Literature#