Hitler Youth: Growing up in Hitler's Shadow by Susan Campbell Bartolette

Hitler Youth: Growing up in Hitler’s Shadow by Susan Cambell Bartoletti

*Review created for Texas Woman’s University graduate level class*

1.       BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bartoletti, Susan Campbell. 2005. HITLER YOUTH: GROWING UP IN HITLER’S SHADOW. New York. Scholastic Nonficiton. ISBN 978-0-439-35379-3

2.       SUMMARY

Hitler Youth describes the youth who followed Hitler, as well as young people who opposed him.  The book describes the Hitler Youth, or Hitlerjugend, an organization of teenagers that were dedicated to the leader of the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, or the Nazi party.  Bartoletti describes the mandatory participation in the Hitler Youth, the increasing responsibility of the Youth, the fanaticism of some members, and the courage of others to resist the Nazi regime.

3.       CRITICAL ANALYSIS

Bartoletti describes, with heart wrenching sadness, the corruption of the German youth and the lies Hitler told the children, and their families.  She uses quotes from members of the Hitler Youth as well as stark black and white photographs to show the systematic corruption and betrayal of the Hitler Youth.  Her book is visually grabbing through her use of photographs.  She captures the reader’s attention and keeps the reader wanting to know the fate of the members.  She showcases the increased discontent and rebellion of Sophie and Hans Scholl, young college students who became involved in the White Rose.  The White Rose was a group of students from the University of Munich who decided to speak out against the horrors and atrocities of Hitler’s regime; an action that would lead to their execution.  Hans was a young man who had at first been an eager member of the Hitler Youth, but had “rebelled against the conformity and loss of individual rights.” 

Bartoletti does an excellent job of sharing information and facts about the Hitlerjugend.  She invites readers to learn more with every page, but is careful to not overload the reader with information.  In addition, she does a wonderful job of maintaining the timeline of war in relation to increased involvement of the Hitler Youth.  In addition to her superb writing style, she also has a section at the end that gives further information about the German youth that are mentioned in Hitler Youth.  This is a fascinating section and invites readers to learn more about the Holocaust and war.  Hitler Youth has a bibliography section that includes more than 100 sources, many of them from firsthand accounts.  It is hard to imagine anyone not wanting to learn more about the Holocaust and World War II after reading Hitler Youth. 

In 1932, Hitler asked, “What can happen to a people whose youth sacrifices everything in order to serve its great ideals?” As Bartoletti says, “No one could have predicted the answer to that question”.  She also leaves us with one startling thought, “could another despot like Hitler rise to power on the shoulders of young people?” 

4.       REVIEWS/AWARDS

ALA Notable Children’s Book

Newbery Honor Book

Robert F. Sibert Honor Book

“ Essential for WWII collections as well as teaching units on conformity, peer pressure and resistance. Superb. “ … Kirkus Reviews

 “This excellent history shows how he attempted to carry out his mission with the establishment of the Hitler Youth.” … Starred review from School Library Journal

5.       CONNECTIONS

Read A Child of Hitler: Germany in the Days When God Wore a Swastika, The Burden of Hitler’s Legacy, and Parallel Journeys by Alfons Heck (Former Hitler Youth featured in Hitler Youth.  Parallel Journeys coauthored with an Auschwitz survivor

Read Through Hell for Hitler and A Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Germany in the 1930s by Henry Metelmann (Former Hitler Youth featured in Hitler Youth)

Read On the Run in Nazi Berlin (Featured in Hitler Youth, a Jewish youth during WWII)

Watch the documentary, Heil Hitler! Confessions of a Hitler Youth based on Alfons Heck. 

Read The Price: The True Story of a Mormon Who Defied Hitler by Karl-Heinz Schnibbe (a teen who defied Hitler with Helmuth Hubner, who died for his friends and his beliefs, and Rudi Wobbe)

Watch Truth and Conviction: The Helmuth Hubener Story about Helmuth Huebner, Karl-Heinz Scnibbe and Rudi Wobbe

Read Before the Blood Tribunal coauthored by Rudi Wobbe. 

Read The White Rose: Munich 1942-1943 by Inge Scholl, sister of Sophie and Hans Scholl who died for their convictions

Read The Diary of Anne Frank

Read other books written by Holocasut survivors; Primo Levi, Nechama Tec among others. 

Look at http://www.holocaustsurvivors.org/ a website about survivors of the Holocaust

Ask children to consider how the world would be different if Nazi Germany had won the war

Final Thoughts

Some of the most atrocious crimes ever committed in the history of mankind were committed during the Holocaust; as members of the human race, no matter what creed, nationality, sex, religion, or sexual orientation, we are bound by our duty to remember it.

“Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it.”  Edmund Burke

“History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.” Maya Angelou

Works Cited

Brainy Quote. Accessed July 17, 2012. http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/history.html.

Kirkus Reviews. "Hitler Youth ." Accessed July 17, 2012. http://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/susan-campbell-bartoletti/hitler-youth/#review.

Menszer, John. Holocaust Survivors. Accessed July 17, 2012. http://www.holocaustsurvivors.org/.

Medlar, Andrew. "Book of the Week." School Library Journal. Accessed July 17, 2012. http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA604629.html.