HITLER YOUTH: GROWING UP IN HITLER'S SHADOW

Bartoletti, Susan Campbell. 2005. HITLER YOUTH: GROWING UP IN HITLER’S SHADOW. New York: Scholastic Nonfiction, 2005.

HITLER YOUTH is a winner of the 2006 Newbery Honor medal. It’s a nonfiction book written for children about how young people figured into Adolph Hitler’s plans for the future. While the group Hitler Youth, or Hitlerjugend, was formed in 1926, this book focuses on the years between 1933 and 1945. And though millions of boys and girls belonged to Hitler Youth, this book focuses on 12.  

The subject matter in HITLER YOUTH is fascinating and new to me. Like everyone else my age, I grew up learning about Nazis and the Holocaust and World War II. This is the first time I’ve ever learned about Hitler’s plans to use young people to carry out his mission. It baffles me as to why schools don’t teach this particular part of the Nazi era. It seems to me it would serve as a great way to get students’ interests piqued.

HITLER YOUTH contains photos from that time period, and Bartoletti drew its contents from oral histories, diaries, letters, and interviews with Holocaust survivors and Hitler Youth. She answers the intriguing questions of why they joined, what their responsibilities to Hitler were, and what it was like. It was extremely interesting to read firsthand accounts of specific events.

I would recommend this book to reluctant learners of world history and to young readers interested in war in general. War is currently very much a part of today’s youth. “The final chapter superbly summarizes the weighty significance of this part of the 20th century and challenges young readers to prevent history from repeating itself” (Medlar).

Reference List:

Medlar, Andrew. 2005. Review of Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler’s Shadow, by Susan Campbell Bartoletti. School Library Journal.