"Hitler Youth" is as carefully comprehensive as it is morally
careful. Kater is an expert compiler of data, beginning with the
early 20th century roots of German youth leagues and ending with
the hideous details of 12-year-olds being sent to fight on the
front lines. He makes clear that the Hitler Youth instigated its
share of atrocities, but also that its members were forced to face
the gory reality of war, and suffer accordingly, at a terribly
young age...Within the greater Nazi nightmare, the Youth are
uniquely frightening. The particulars of their frightfulness are
well sketched in Kater's study.--Jana Prikryl"Salon"
(12/03/2004)
[A] riveting history of the Nazis' use of children...Kater...has
written an indispensable study. "Hitler Youth" focuses on the
methods used by the Nazis to indoctrinate young boys and
girls--from ten to eighteen years old--to follow authority and
sacrifice for Adolf Hitler.--Jack Fischel"Weekly Standard"
(01/31/2005)
An essential topic for understanding indoctrination and
socialization in the Third Reich, Michael Kater's timely synthesis
is a rich work of scholarship, both in terms of the documents and
the historiography. He surveys not only the experience of the
Hitler Youth, male and female, but also those who for a variety of
reasons resisted or rebelled against the increasingly monolithic
organization of German youth; Kater acknowledges that 'Hitler's
youth' were not all Hitler Youth, even beyond the date on which
membership in Nazi youth organizations became obligatory.--Thomas
J. Saunders"European History Quarterly" (05/01/2008)
In his overview with the simple title "Hitler Youth", written in an
appealing style that is both concise and clear, [Kater] looks at
the generation which, born between 1916 and 1934, literally grew
into the National Socialist state.--Sybille Steinbacher"German
Historical Institute of London Bulletin" (05/01/2007)
Kater looks at how the [Hitler Youth organization] undermined
traditional morality while claiming to uphold it, and the brave but
futile attempt at resistance. He believes that, while the "Hitler
Youth" generation cannot completely escape culpability for the
Hitler regime, moral guilt cannot be laid on wholesale. Ultimately,
it was the political/social system their elders handed them that
determined the way they would go.--Roger K. Miller"Chicago
Sun-Times" (11/21/2004)
Michael Kater's "Hitler Youth" traces the history of the Nazi youth
movement, examining the imposition of uniformity and conformity
within the Hitler Youth, issues of training and leadership and its
emphasis on authoritarianism, war and expansion...Based on a range
of sources, this book will be useful for scholars and students of
modern German history, but is also likely to appeal to a wider
readership of those interested in the history of the Third
Reich.--Lisa Pine"Times Higher Education Supplement"
(04/15/2005)
Michael Kater's new book traces the social and institutional
history of the Hitler Youth. Yet, in keeping with Kater's extensive
scholarship on the Third Reich, "Hitler Youth" offers more than a
straightforward social history. Kater focuses on the collective
experiences of the young people who made up the movement, paying
particular attention to the dialectic of emancipation and
subjection that characterized the group's activities...The book's
most gripping sections detail the wartime activities of young
people...Through thick description and a wealth of evidence, Kater
gives his readers a multifaceted picture of the movement.--Jennifer
L. Jenkins "University of Toronto Quarterly "
In modern times, the recruitment of children into a political
organization and ideology reached its boldest embodiment in the
Hitler Youth, founded in 1933 soon after the Nazi Party assumed
power in Germany...Drawing on original reports, letters, diaries,
and memoirs, Kater traces the history of the Hitler Youth,
examining the means, degree, and impact of conversion, and the
subsequent fate of young recruits. Millions of Hitler youth joined
the armed forces; thousands participated in the subjugation of
foreign peoples and the obliteration of "racial aliens." Their
story stands as a harsh reminder of the moral bankruptcy of regimes
that make children complicit in crimes of the state.
ÝA¨ riveting history of the Nazis' use of children...Kater...has
written an indispensable study. "Hitler Youth" focuses on the
methods used by the Nazis to indoctrinate young boys and
girls--from ten to eighteen years old--to follow authority and
sacrifice for Adolf Hitler. -- Jack Fischel "Weekly Standard"
(01/31/2005)
Kater looks at how the ÝHitler Youth organization¨ undermined
traditional morality while claiming to uphold it, and the brave but
futile attempt at resistance. He believes that, while the "Hitler
Youth" generation cannot completely escape culpability for the
Hitler regime, moral guilt cannot be laid on wholesale. Ultimately,
it was the political/social system their elders handed them that
determined the way they would go. -- Roger K. Miller "Chicago
Sun-Times" (11/21/2004)
Using letters, diaries and the recollections of former members of
Hitler Youth--a paramilitary and ideological group in which
membership, for both boys and girls, was eventually
mandatory--Kater, a noted historian of the Nazis, concludes in this
readable volume that 'the authoritarian nature of the Nazi regime'
and its 'merciless' racial ideology, as well as its sense of
community, underlay its appeal to 'adolescents who were searching
for certitudes in a swiftly changing and newly structured
world'...The Nazis took the youth movement concept, popular
throughout Europe in the early 20th century, and adapted it to fit
a racist ideology. He also shows that values of militarism and
self-reliance clashed with German family values of nurturing--and
that, for the most part, the Hitler Youth won out.
"Hitler Youth is as carefully comprehensive as it is morally
careful. Kater is an expert compiler of data, beginning with the
early 20th century roots of German youth leagues and ending with
the hideous details of 12-year-olds being sent to fight on the
front lines. He makes clear that the Hitler Youth instigated its
share of atrocities, but also that its members were forced to face
the gory reality of war, and suffer accordingly, at a terribly
young age...Within the greater Nazi nightmare, the Youth are
uniquely frightening. The particulars of their frightfulness are
well sketched in Kater's study.
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