Background: Das deutsche Mädel was the Nazi Party’s illustrated magazine for girls. At ten, girls joined the Deutsche Mädel, the German Girls, part of the Hitler Youth organization. This article from summer 1943 tells girls that they have duties to Germany.
The source: Hilde Breitfeld “Ihr habt die besten Vorbilder,” Das deutsche Mädel, March-April 1943.
Only firmness of character, will, and tough determination can master the challenges and swings of fate. Demonstrate these characteristics in your everyday life and use them above all in war service for the homeland. That is how you prove your unlimited love and thankfulness to the Führer.
— Reich Youth Leader Artur Axmann
In a time at which our German Reich is in the midst of the hardest battle for its freedom, our ten-year-old girls might perhaps think themselves less likely to become part of the community of the Hitler Youth, where they could help and join in doing the will of the Führer.
For a long time they have known that we are at war. Their fathers and brothers are at the front, and their mothers go to work, perhaps filling the job of a man. But they have to stay home and help with the smaller children and do the things that mother normally did.
Such a little girl soon realizes what all her mother has to do. Without having to say much about it, she understands that the work of the family must go on, even if the father is serving in the field. And the family may even be stronger and closer, since one has to write to the father and bring him happiness.
Ten-year-old girls are war children again, just as there were war children in the previous war. Be sure than people can see your enthusiasm, that your fathers and brothers at the front may be proud of you.
Over ten years ago at the first Reich Youth Rally in Potsdam, the Führer said to his boys and girls: “There may have been times in the past when the life of the youth seemed easier because they had more outward pleasures. But you have the joy of participating in the early years that will decide the fate of the nation.”
It is as if the Führer had spoken you to you ten-year-old girls as well, who are now joining the community. From this day on, your small strength, too, will contribute to winning the war and building a greater and more beautiful Reich. For you, the Hitler Youth is a strong organization like the school, one that your bigger brothers and sisters, neighborhood boys and girls, and your cousins belong to. None of you think about the fact that this great organization that bears the name of the Führer marched for the first time as a community and as the Führer’s youth just twenty years ago. A small troop of brave, passionate boys were the first, soon joined in Saxony and Munich by the first girls, though they served as nurses. They wanted to help. They prepared the food for the SA and HJ who were fighting day and night. They darned and knit and did whatever could be done, for many of the men of the SA and the boys of the HJ were unemployed and had not even the means to eat after the dangers they daily endured during the period of struggle.
The Hitler Youth grew. New groups developed everywhere in the Reich. Everywhere they risked all they had for a great cause that had to win in the end. The 21 members of the Hitler Youth who died are witnesses of the contribution the youth made to the Reich.
As you become part of the community, remember that this community was built by absolute loyalty and the most determined action, and that your comrades include those who sealed their loyalty by their deaths.
You do not have to be a perfect Young Girl from the beginning, for you must of course grow into your new responsibilities. You will have to prove yourself in your new circle of comrades before one can say of you: “She is a Young Girl.”
One thing is expected of you. During your six month probationary period, during which you may not wear the scarf and tie, you must do everything you can to reach your goal. That may be in small things one asks of you, or in your eagerness to prepare for the Young Girl test [a physical fitness test], or during the achievement week during the summer vacation. You will constantly be able to prove your total commitment in service, sport, trips, meetings, war duty, etc. Even in the little things of every day life, be loyal and dependable! You who want to become Young Girls must do all you can to be able to wear the scarf and tie as the outward signs of your membership in the Hitler Youth on 2 October, the anniversary of the first Reich youth rally in Potsdam.
No youth in the world has such examples as you do. Think about the soldiers who on land, sea and air are fighting for Germany’s freedom.
You are living in a great age. Prove yourself to be girls who are worthy of our soldiers, no matter how young you are. Be as brave and loyal as they are.
[Page copyright © 2002 by Randall Bytwerk. No unauthorized reproduction. My e-mail address is available on the FAQ page.]
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