'Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow' by Susan Campbell Bartoletti

Bartoletti, Susan Campbell. (2005). Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow.  New York: Scholastic. ISBN 9780439353793

Photo by: L. Propes

A young boy stares out from a photograph in the center of the cover.  His beardless round cheeks and smooth complexion belie the cold expression in his eyes.  A pair of hands grip his shoulders, and as the eye travels up, the identity of the hands' owner is revealed to be none other than Adolf Hitler.  Only the lower half of Hitler's face is visible in the photograph, but the distinctive moustache cannot be denied.  Fitting, then, that Hitler is reduced to a shadowy background figure here.  Susan Campbell Bartoletti's book trains its focus on the children and teenagers who devoted their lives to serving the Nazi Party and Germany, with many of them paying the price with their lives.

Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow begins, not with the formation of the Hitler Youth organization in 1926, but with an event now obscured in the mists of history.  In January 1932, a member of the Hitler Youth was murdered by a rival gang of Communists, and the Nazi Party opportunistically turned it and the young man's funeral into a tool of the Nazi propaganda machine. Bartoletti uses this event to introduce the rise of the Nazi Party in German politics and society.  She traces its subsequent takeover of Germany, entry into World War II, and eventual defeat and downfall through the eyes of boys and girls, and young men and women who made up the ranks of the Hitler Youth.

Bartoletti uses the words and images of twelve children, ranging from ardent supporters of the Nazi Party to a German Jewish boy, to tell the story of Nazi-era Germany.  Most of them were either born in the waning days of World War I or in the early 1920s, when Germany struggled to emerge from the constraints laid upon them by the terms of the Treaty of Versailles that ended World War I.  Surrounded by hopelessness, the children gravitated to the single person they saw who offered a glimmer of optimism in the future of Germany.  The message of conformity, blind obedience, and submission to something greater than themselves was not only hammered into their psyches during Hitler Youth activities, but as the Nazi Party began to insinuate themselves into more and more sections of German life and in their schools.  Education in the arts, sciences, and history was eventually sublimated to the study of Nazi propaganda.  For the members of the Hitler Youth, there was no escape, unless one was able to find refuge and solace in the recesses of their intellect and imaginations, as Sophie Scholl was forced to do.

Photo by: L. Propes

None of the children in this book speak as a monolithic entity.  Several of them began their time in the Hitler Youth as committed, loyal members of the Hitlerjungend, but chafed under the restrictions placed on individuality.  One, Bert Lewyn, a Jewish boy, paints a picture of daily persecutions and humiliations suffered at the hands of the Nazis, culminating in his parents' deportations to a concentration camp and Lewyn's own efforts to hide during the war.  Others remained steadfast supporters of the Nazi Party until the very end, often climbing the ranks in the SS or SA.

The book opens to a two-page spread that contains photographs of all but one of the twelve children featured in it as well as a short biography.  It serves to put a human face on the subject of the book.  It is no small feat, as too often historical events are presented with the human element as part of the background, and the photographs remind the reader that these were real people, and there were real consequences to their actions.  Bartoletti uses other archival photographs throughout the book.  Hitler Youth propaganda photographs that present an idealized version of the organization are used to contrast photographs of burnt-out synagogues or concentration camps.

Photo by: L. Propes

Bartoletti presents the story of these young men and women in a readable neutral prose.  By using their words as often as possible, she attempts to help readers understand what drove them to join the Hitler Youth, and what kept them in it.  Bartoletti describes the indoctrination into Nazi dogma through the Hitler Youth and German schools.  She ties the Hitler Youth members from its early days in the late 1920s to the leaders of Germany at the beginning of World War II.  This makes the reader realize that many of the German leaders had grown up hearing the propaganda during their most impressionable age.

It is not a short read at over 160 pages of text and photographs, but it is compelling.  Once I started reading, I found myself unable to stop.  At the end of the book, Bartoletti includes an epilogue that details what became of the twelve children featured in the book.  Several of them wrote books based on their experience, which she names in their respective entries.  An author's note describes what drove Bartoletti to write the book, as well as an overview of her extensive research methods.  She also includes her bibliography, with the outline of a book next to sources that might interest young readers who wish to learn more.  The book's biggest strength is that Bartoletti steps back and lets the subjects' own words speak for themselves.  The reader can hear the absolute certainty in their voices at the beginning of their involvement in the Hitlerjungend, and then their confusion and disillusionment as they began to rebel against the Nazi Party or in the aftermath of Germany's surrender at the end of World War II.

Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow was a 2006 Newberry Honor book and a 2006 Robert F. Sibert Honor Book.

This book could be part of a unit about Germany in the 1930s and 40s.  It could be part of a unit about the Holocaust.  It could also be part of a unit about peer pressure and bullying.

Other books by Bartoletti include: The Boy Who Dared (Newberry Honor Book), Black Potatoes: The Story of the Great Irish Famine, 1845-1850 (Sibert Medal winner), Kids On Strike!, Growing up in Coal Country, and They Called Themselves the K.K.K.: The Birth of an American Terrorist Group (YALSA finalist for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults).

If this book is taught as part of a unit about the Holocaust, The Diary of Anne Frank is an option as a companion book.  However there are other narratives that a teacher may offer as an alternative to The Diary of Anne Frank.  One is Art Spiegelman's Pulitzer prize winning, groundbreaking graphic novel Maus.   Another is The Upstairs Room, a Newbery Honor book by Johanna Reiss, based on her experiences hiding with her sister on a Holland farm during World War II.  Lois Lowry's Newbery winner Number the Stars is a work of fiction, but is based on the real event where the people of Denmark whisked their Jews away under the noses of the Germans to neutral
Sweden.  Older readers might wish to read Wladyslaw Szpilman's memoir of his experience hiding in the Warsaw Ghetto, The Pianist.

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"Hitler's diabolical plan unfolds to mold Germany's children  and teenagers into a generation devoted to and obedient only to himself.  In fluid prose that brings history alive, Bartoletti shows how the Hitler Youth began... As Hitler continued his rise to power... the Hitler Youth evolved into the recruiting ground for the military... but some Hitler Youth turned their backs on their indoctrinations and formed the basic German resistance to Nazism... The book is an excellent starting point for class discussions of "What would you have done?"" -- Library Media Connection, 2005

 "Bartoletti explains the roles that millions of boys and girls unwittingly played in the horrors of the Third Reich.... Their stories evolve from patriotic devotion to Hitler and zeal to join, to doubt, confusion, and disillusion.  The large period photographs are a primary component and they include Nazi propaganda showing happy and healthy teens as well as the reality of concentration camps and young people with large guns... Bartoletti lets many of the subjects' words, emotions, and deeds speak for themselves, bringing together clearly to tell this story unlike anyone else has." -- Andrew Medlar, School Library Journal, 2005

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Works Cited

Glantz, Shelley, Julie Scordato, and Suzanne Manczuk. 2005. Hitler youth: Growing up in hitler's shadow. Library Media Connection 24 (2) (10): 76-7, http://ezproxy.twu.edu:2048/login?url=http://ezproxy.twu.edu:2060/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=18438325&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

Medlar, Andrew. 2005. Hitler youth: Growing up in hitler's shadow. School Library Journal 51 (6) (06): 174-, http://ezproxy.twu.edu:2048/login?url=http://ezproxy.twu.edu:2060/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=17390950&site=ehost-live&scope=site.