Hitler youth Historical Investigation
The Decision is in my Hands
Herbert Norkus (born July 26, 1916 – died January 24, 1932) was one of the first teenagers who joined the Hitler youth, a group founded by Adolf Hitler and led by one of his believers. The group ideal was to end poverty in Germany, post WWI and make it a free and developed country. Its members were willing to sacrifice their lives for achieving a new nation. It provided the youth with excitement, adventure and opportunities to become heroes. It also made the youth feel proud while sacrificing their lives with participation in military missions, in the honour of Germany. One day, when Herbert came back from an activity at Youth, he sought out for the German flag that his father used to keep in the attic. He searched for it deeply amongst the many old boxes that were laying there. Then, something that changed his life happened. He found a shoebox that contained some greeting cards from his grandmother. He was very curious to see what his grandmother wrote. One of the postcards that he found carried a message that his grandmother sent for the marriage of the neighbours‟ son: Translation from German: Dear Norkus family,
I am very sorry that I could not attend the neighbour’s son’s wedding. I have the Rosh Hashanna celebration with my friends. Rosh Hashanna is a Jewish holiday, where Jews should observe the new year feast, and eat sweet food at the festival to wish one another a happy and sweet new year. I apologize for not being able to come.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Norkus Herbert looked up in horror! Could it be that his grandmother was Jewish…? In that case, his mother was Jewish as well and…therefore he was Jewish! He fainted from this horrible thought. After all, he regarded himself as a pure German, and a very efficient contributor to the society. He could not be a Jew! A few minutes later he returned to consciousness from a whirlpool of thoughts and found himself huffing and panting, not knowing if to accept Judaism or continue his ways.
“Relax,” sighed his Jewish self, “Jews are Germans too! They have lived here for hundreds of years. You can be Jewish, and still feel German.” “But what about the Hitler Youth?” Norkus thought to himself, “They cannot find out that I am Jewish. No way…if they find out, I will be in immense trouble.” No member of the Hitler Youth treated Jews as equals. The idea that a Jew was so called „sub-human,‟ was planted in everybody‟s head from a young age. Norkus was befuddled, swimming in a pool of internal thoughts between himself, and his Jewish self. So Herbert knew that the next thing was to clarify if this was true, because there was obviously a strong possibility that it was. He went down to ask his dad about their identity and origin: “Erm, Dad, are we Jewish?” queried Herbert. “Why, of course not,” his dad replied in confusion. Why do you ask? “L…look at this letter from grandma,” Herbert added, handing the letter to his dad. The father took a moment to skim it. “What the…Throw it away, now!” his dad forced in disgust. “No one can find out about this!” It took his dad a while to calm down. His dad was not an anti-semite. In fact, he was Jewish but he never let anyone know about it. His father took a deep breath and started explaining,
“Look son, I never showed you this, because I was scared you‟d hate me for life,” his dad hesitated, leading him to a box that had a bag in it. The bag contained some leather and some cloth with a couple of special books. “Herbert, do you know what all these are?” his dad asked, taking all the things out of the bag. “No.” Herbert replied. “Son, this is a yarmulke. A yarmulke is what Jewish men use to cover their heads with during a prayer. The next item is a set of tfillin. There are head and arm tfillin. You put these on during a prayer, like this,” he added as he showed Herbert. “This is a siddur. We use it to help us read our prayers. For example, this is a morning prayer. You always begin by blessing the lord,” acknowledged his dad, while blushing from stress as he admitted that he was a Jew. While realising that the postcard and the Jewish artefacts were hard evidences of his origin, Herbert yelled, “Oh my god, no! Not you too! Why didn‟t anybody tell me?”
He was furious because of his findings, but could not decide what his opinion was. From one point of view, he loved being with his friends. He often participated in extreme training activities. Without thinking twice, he would jump from a two story high balcony, land safely, and proceed to sprint forward, solely for the purpose of training with the Hitler Youth. Norkus liked the nazionalsozialist agenda, and without a doubt, worshiped the Aryan idea of superiority. From another point of view, if Norkus was a Jew, all the values that he grew up on could be completely forgotten about and considered untrue. He felt very disturbed, confused, and had this growing internal conflict like fire and water in his mind. All of this shocking event
happened while he still wore his Nazi uniform. He held the Nazi flag with a swastika in one hand, and the postcard in the other. He felt compelled to choose only one item from those he held. “The decision is in my hands.” He mumbled as he fainted again.
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Primary Source: These are famous quotes from the book that the people associated with the Youth stated, “They have to prove their racial background.” If they were not part of the Aryan race, they were therefore not allowed to join and were viewed as Jews. Not actual Jews, but Jews that would mean the same thing as corruptive people. There is no point in writing this because my dad will erase it anyway. This quote is connected to the book because it explains about the famous and depressing times of the Hitler youth before the Holocaust. This is also about the short Herbert Norkus era (the beginning of the youth). Secondary Source: “There were 380,000 Jews in Warsaw on the eve of World War II. Most did not survive the Holocaust. The I was struck by the content of this source as it compares what the zookeeper and his wife did with what the Nazis did, and contrasts how the Nazis behaved like animals, with how the zookeepers, whose job before the war was to take care of animals, took care of Jews hunted by the Nazis. After reading the book, I wanted to research more online, and find out more about this interesting group of boys and girls and what really surprised me was that another notable member of the Hitler Youth was Pope Benedict XVI. He is a pope and is supposed to accept the catholic religion and is also meant to know about other cultures. He definitely went to Bethlehem and to Israel, which is mostly Jewish. A German Nazi is very Anti-Semite. Summary and Review: This book is about the young teens, boys and girls who gave up their lives for a “free” Germany. These people went on to participate in muscle tearing work, and eventually to become a successful soldier of the Nazi agenda. The strongly vowed to give whatever it takes for Germany to be a new nation, hate anyone who did not agree with their standards (e.g Jews, Muslims, etc.).
Another person in middle school is encouraged to read about the Hitler youth because there are people still alive who joined the Hitler youth or experience the impacts of the youth. Sooner or later, there won’t be anybody to speak to. Most readers will find the stories very touching, especially in the beginning about Herbert Norkus and toward the middle about The Nazi occupation of Poland, Present day Kaliningrad and Part of France. The reason being that this book is attractive is because we live in Poland, an ex-Nazi occupied area. Review: Find out how the largest youth group in history was formed and what their ideals were. Find out about the resistance of the youth against the Nazis Some famous and notable quotes from the beginning of the book, “Each boy and girl had to pass a written examination to make sure they had mastered Nazi ideas about race and politics. They also had to prove their racial background.” (25) The Hitler youth philosophy stated that youth must be led by youth. (27) Through military drills and marches, the Hitler youth learned to think and act as one. Most important, they learned to obey their leader, no matter what. (28) Over the years, the brother and sister grew deeply disillusioned with the National Socialism. They resented the loss of individual rights and personal freedoms. They wanted the right to make their own decisions and lead their own lives.” (110) During blackouts, gang members also painted anti-nazi slogans on ruined walls. For example, “Down with Hitler! Down with the Nazi Beast!”
Youth members heiling. All Youth members were required to heil Hitler at all times, every time they saw him in person. Heil in German means to hail.
Works Cited Bartoletti, Susan Campbell.Hitler Youth Scholastic: Nonfiction, 2005. Print. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Benedict_XVI