Within Germany, a country torn between the rise of a totalitarian party that determined a superior race, Nazism, and the survival of the oppressed, young Germans face a test between a sense of self and society. Individuality would be suppressed within this new type of society, and being different would be the deadliest obstruction to life. The violations of the rights to life, religion, and speech are relived through the stories of the German youth who survived this haunting time, whose name would be tarnished in their struggle to survive. In their fight, their morals would be challenged and influenced until the Nazi regime ended, and the violation of human dignity would leave them wondering if life was worth living after all. The Nazi Party grew under its leader, Adolf Hitler, and the armed groups known as the Strum Abteilung, who pledged to be ready to sacrifice their life in the aims of the Nazi Party and absolute loyalty to their leader. Their cruel intolerance began by their strong nationalism and their hatred of democracy and communism, and they gained power through the economic depressions around the world, controlling the media by instilling fear and propaganda that influenced a strong belief in their leaders. This belief in the leaders would soon seem to override Church influence when the official body of the Church failed to do anything significant to protest any of the anti-Jewish policies of the Nazi state, eventually leading to the loss of religious attributes in many countries. These struggles soon were normalized within the Nazi regime through the infiltration of the government and educational system with youth organizations such as the Hitler Youth and the League of German Girls, allowing propaganda to reach the general audience and reshape German morale in order to recreate the Aryan master race and reduced their rights to what was offered by the Fuhrer, Hitler, and the Nazi state.
Shortly after Adolf Hitler was elected chancellor, the National Socialist state instituted a policy of “coordination” which would eventually give them complete control of the educational system and government and aligned the public to Nazi objectives; this was accomplished through extensive propaganda and the glorification of Aryan races (in the meanwhile, deprecating peoples of the Jewish religion or those incapable of building a stronger society) within the classroom and throughout the state. Notably, a majority of the educators, those that were not persecuted by the Nazi regime, joined the National Socialist Teachers League. In fact, ninety-seven percent of public school teachers, consisting of nearly 300,000 persons, had joined the League by 1936 (Indoctrinating Youth). The teachers’ aim was to produce Germans that would remain loyal to the Führer and Fatherland, for this loyalty was an important aspect of the Hitler Youth training. Without accomplishing their goal of raising complete loyalty toward the Nazi State, they themselves were deemed unfit and punishable by death, even though they were peoples of the “Aryan” race. Additionally, Hitler mandated that all young persons are to enter the organizations, whether through Hitler Youth or the League of German Girls, and come out as complete National Socialists. He publicly warned of the consequences for youths who have not morphed into Nazi ideals, for “whatever class consciousness or social status might still be left […] the Wehrmacht [German armed forces] will take care of that” (Adolf Hitler). All children soon became aware of their purpose in the Nazi regime—young girls prepared for motherhood with the use of rhythmic gymnastics that proved to be less strenuous on their bodies, and young boys prepared for their allegiance in the military, combining activities with ideology as teachings the new textbooks constituted of National Socialist ideals pertaining to sacrifice for the nation and introduced loyalty to the state, intense racism, antisemitism, and militarism.
These young men and women were forced to abruptly renounce their individuality for the objectives of the superior entities otherwise their “consciousness” will be taken away. Furthermore, before any of these ideals were produced, the Nazi state suspended civil rights with the Reichstag Fire Decree that was issued as of February 28, 1933 which left all of Germany bare of basic liberties and allowed the SS, the ultimate protectors of the Nazi administration, to increase their authority. This decree was an important step in the institution of the Nazi dictatorship, for it suffocated open criticism toward Nazi authority, abolished organizations, and allowed arrests without charges (Reichstag Fire Decree). Accordingly, most people and organizations lined up with the goals of Nazism as a result when the central government was allowed to overrule diminutive governments as well as their laws. The entire country of Germany became a police state, and no one would have access to basic entitlements. No longer was individuality accepted, and many accepted this violation without question; however, those with doubts had their criticism—and themselves—suffocated, deeming themselves just as “unfit” as those that were Jews.