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59-595: It was originally set up as a Hitler Jugend (Hitler Youth) camp, converted in October 1939 to house Polish prisoners (both soldiers and civilians), and later held up to 30,000 Allied prisoners of war (POWs), including Belgians, the French , Soviets , Britons, Canadians, Australians, New Zealanders, South Africans, Italians , Yugoslavs, Slovaks and Americans, before its evacuation in February 1945. Its most famous inmate

118-401: A Waffen-SS division made up of Hitler Youth members was first proposed by Axmann to Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler in early 1943. The plan for a combat division made up of Hitler Youth members born in 1926 was passed on to Hitler for his approval. Hitler approved the plan in February and Gottlob Berger was tasked with recruiting. Fritz Witt of SS Division Leibstandarte (LSSAH)

177-510: A West Berlin court fined Axman 35,000 marks (approximately £ 3,000, or US$ 8,300), about half the value of his property in Berlin. The court found him guilty of indoctrinating German youth with National Socialism until the end of the war, but concluded that he was not guilty of war crimes. German children born in the 1920s and 1930s became adults during the Cold War years. Since membership

236-542: A European Center of Education and Culture for children, the youth, artists, musicians and all the people of the European trinational region in this important place for European history emerged in December 2004. The role of the centre is not only to be a memorial place, but to give room for development and a broad range of artistic activities and creative development. A map and detailed history of Stalag VIII-A can be found on

295-715: A decree issue by Hitler, under the notional command of Ernst Röhm . In 1923, the youth organisation of the Nazi Party had a little over 1,200 members. In 1925, when the Nazi Party was refounded, the membership grew to over 5,000. Five years later, national membership stood at 26,000. By the end of 1932, it was at 107,956. In April 1932, Chancellor Heinrich Brüning banned the Hitler Youth movement in an attempt to stop widespread political violence. However, in June, Brüning's successor as Chancellor, Franz von Papen , lifted

354-451: A law student from Plauen in Saxony. After a short power struggle with a rival organisation— Gerhard Roßbach 's Schilljugend —Gruber prevailed and his "Greater German Youth Movement" became the Nazi Party's official youth organisation. In July 1926, it was renamed Hitler-Jugend, Bund deutscher Arbeiterjugend ("Hitler Youth, League of German Worker Youth"). The name Hitler-Jugend

413-842: A member of the Hitler Youth. Despite rare instances of disaffection, overall, the Hitler Youth constituted the single most successful of all the mass movements in the Third Reich. The Hitler Youth was organised into corps under adult leaders, and the general membership of the HJ consisted of boys aged 14 to 18. The Hitler Youth was organised into local cells on a community level. Such cells had weekly meetings at which various Nazi doctrines were taught by adult leaders. Regional leaders typically organised rallies and field exercises in which several dozen Hitler Youth cells would participate. The largest gathering usually took place annually at Nuremberg , where members from all over Germany would converge for

472-464: A number of boys dropped out due to the regimented nature of the organization. Some of these boys later rejoined after they learned that they could not get a job or enter university without being a member. There were a few members of the Hitler Youth who privately disagreed with Nazi ideologies. For instance, Hans Scholl —the brother of Sophie Scholl and one of the leading figures of the anti-Nazi resistance movement Weiße Rose ( White Rose )—was also

531-674: A separate compound was created to house Soviet prisoners. Over 1,500 Jews were deported from the camp to Lublin in German-occupied Poland in 1941, and last Poles were deported from the camp in 1942. In 1943, 2,500 British Commonwealth soldiers came from the battles in Italy , among them residents from the British Isles, Canada , Australia , New Zealand and South Africa . Later in the same year more than 6,000 Italian soldiers came from Albania . A total of 47,328,

590-589: A simple source of amusement and recreation, it became a means to an end, a weapon in the hands of the All Highest. It became nationalistic. The ideal of sport for sport's sake became an object of ridicule. The real preoccupation of those who directed athletics became the mass production of cannon fodder . By 1937, there was a HJ rifle school established, partially at the behest of General Erwin Rommel , who toured HJ meetings and lectured on "German soldiering", all

649-694: Is illegal. In 1922, the Munich-based Nazi Party established its official youth organisation called Jugendbund der NSDAP . It was announced on 8 March 1922 in the Völkischer Beobachter , and its inaugural meeting took place on 13 May the same year. Another youth group was established in 1922 as the Jungsturm Adolf Hitler . Based in Munich , Bavaria , it served to train and recruit future members of

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708-638: The Sturmabteilung (SA), the main paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party at that time. One reason the Hitler Youth (HJ) so easily developed was that regimented organisations, often focused on politics, for young people and particularly adolescent boys were a familiar concept to German society in the Weimar Republic . Numerous youth movements existed across Germany prior to and especially after World War I . They were created for various purposes. Some were religious and others were ideological, but

767-544: The Jugendbund der NSDAP was renamed Grossdeutsche Jugendbewegung (Greater German Youth Movement). On 4 July 1926, the Grossdeutsche Jugendbewegung was officially renamed Hitler Jugend Bund der deutschen Arbeiterjugend (Hitler Youth League of German Worker Youth). This event took place a year after the Nazi Party was reorganised. The architect of the re-organisation was Kurt Gruber ,

826-513: The Sturmjugend (Storm Youth), Junge Front (Young Front), Deutschen Jugendnachrichten (News for German Youth), and Wille und Macht (Will and Power). Other publications included Das Junge Deutschland (Young Germany), Das deutsche Mädel (a paper for girls in the BdM), and Junge Dorfgemeinschaft (Young Villager). The members of the Hitler Youth were viewed as ensuring

885-566: The Battle of the Bulge . Soviet and Italian POWs suffered the worst sanitary conditions and were deprived of medical care. French paramedics helped them temporarily, however, there was a high mortality rate among them. In April 1945, 217 ill Polish POWs were brought from Tangerhütte to Stalag VIII-A. On 14 February 1945 the Americans and British were marched out of the camp westward in advance of

944-596: The Wehrmacht (Armed Forces). The corps offered specialised foundational training for each of the specific arms for which the member was ultimately destined. The Marine Hitler Youth (Marine-HJ), for example, served as an auxiliary to the Kriegsmarine . Another branch of the Hitler Youth was the Deutsche Arbeiter Jugend – HJ (German Worker Youth – HY). This organisation within the Hitler Youth

1003-433: The denazification process. Some Hitler Youth members were suspected of war crimes but, because they were children, no serious efforts were made to prosecute these claims. While the Hitler Youth was never declared a criminal organisation , its adult leadership was considered tainted for corrupting the minds of young Germans. Many adult leaders of the Hitler Youth were put on trial by Allied authorities, and Baldur von Schirach

1062-672: The surrender of Nazi Germany in 1945, the organisation de facto ceased to exist. On 10 October 1945, the Hitler Youth and its subordinate units were outlawed by the Allied Control Council along with other Nazi Party organisations. Under Section 86 of the Criminal Code of the Federal Republic of Germany , the Hitler Youth is an "unconstitutional organisation" and the distribution or public use of its symbols, except for educational or research purposes,

1121-419: The Hitler Youth combat formations, in the confusion this order was never carried out. The remnants of the youth brigade took heavy casualties from the advancing Russian forces. Only two survived. In 1945, there were various incidents of Hitler Youth members shooting prisoners, participating in executions, and committing other wartime atrocities. The Hitler Youth was disbanded by Allied authorities as part of

1180-555: The Hitler Youth were designed to undermine the values of traditional structures of German society. Their training also aimed to remove social and intellectual distinctions between classes, to be replaced and dominated by the political goals of Hitler's totalitarian dictatorship. Sacrifice for the Nazi cause was instilled into their training. As historian Richard Evans observes, "The songs they sang were Nazi songs. The books they read were Nazi books." Former Hitler Youth Franz Jagemann said that

1239-497: The Hitler Youth?" They were also the subject of frequent taunts from teachers and fellow students, and could even be refused their diploma —which made it impossible to be admitted to university. A number of employers refused to offer apprenticeships to anyone who was not a member of the Hitler Youth. By 1936, the Hitler Youth had a monopoly on all youth sports facilities in Germany, effectively locking out non-members. Hitler spoke of

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1298-703: The Reich is organised within the Hitler Youth". By December 1936, Hitler Youth membership had reached over five million. That same month, membership became mandatory for Aryans under the Gesetz über die Hitlerjugend (Hitler Youth Law). This legal obligation was reaffirmed in March 1939 with the Jugenddienstpflicht (Youth Service Duty), which conscripted all German youths into the Hitler Youth—even if

1357-446: The Reich postal service, the Reich railway services , and other government offices; members of the HJ also aided the army and served with anti-aircraft defence crews. In 1942 Hitler decreed the establishment of "Hitler Youth defence training camps", led by Wehrmacht officers. Nazi leaders began turning the Hitler Youth into a military reserve to replace manpower which had been depleted due to tremendous military losses. The idea for

1416-541: The Soviet offensive into Germany. The evacuation process was carried out gradually through to May 1945. The evacuation took place on foot, with all means of transport driving in front of the people for military purposes. The Long March claimed further victims. Some of the prisoners were taken to Bavaria , others to Thuringia , where they were freed by the Allies. The last evacuation of the camp took place on 7 May 1945, when

1475-418: The Soviet army freed the prisoners. After the war, many graves of western soldiers were exhumed and sent back to their home countries. In 1948 the city council of Zgorzelec decided to have the barracks dismantled in order to use the materials to rebuild Warsaw and other Polish towns. In 1976 a memorial was erected on the site of the former commandant’s office by French and Polish veterans who had been POWs. On

1534-534: The annual Nazi Party rally. Since the HJ and BDM were considered fully Aryan organizations by Nazi officials, premarital sex was encouraged in their ranks. This did not conform to the general beliefs of the Nazi Party, which viewed premarital sex as undesirable and a potential public health hazard. The Hitler Youth maintained training academies comparable to preparatory schools, which were designed to nurture future Nazi Party leaders. The Hitler Youth also maintained several corps designed to develop future officers for

1593-437: The appropriation of sports by contemporary dictatorial regimes such as Nazi Germany, commented that: The dictators have discovered sport. This was inevitable. Middle-aged and older persons have their roots in the ground, have affiliations with former régimes. The hope of the dictators, therefore, was to win over youth to the new conception of life, the new system. They found that they could best succeed through sport. From being

1652-494: The ban as a way of appeasing Hitler, the rapidly ascending political star. A further significant expansion drive started in 1933, after Baldur von Schirach was appointed by Hitler as the first Reichsjugendführer (Reich Youth Leader). All youth organizations were brought under Schirach's control. When the Nazis came to power in 1933, the membership of Hitler Youth organisations increased dramatically to 2,300,000 members by

1711-484: The camp. The first 8,000 Polish POWs were brought to the camp on September 7, 1939. It also served as a transit camp for Polish civilians, including women, as well as activists and intelligentsia from Silesia , Greater Poland and Pomerania , who were arrested during the Intelligenzaktion to be deported to Nazi concentration camps in Germany. At the end of December 1939 the prisoners were transferred to

1770-462: The end of that year. Much of this increase came from the forcible takeover of other youth organisations. The sizeable Evangelische Jugend (Evangelical Youth), a Lutheran youth organisation of 600,000 members, was integrated on 18 February 1934. In December 1936, a law declared the Hitler Youth to be the only legally permitted youth organisation in Germany, and stated that "all of the German youth in

1829-499: The entire Hitler Youth leadership must have "defence training". On 1 May 1940, Artur Axmann was appointed deputy to Schirach, whom he succeeded as Reichsjugendführer of the Hitler Youth on 8 August 1940. Axmann began to reform the group into an auxiliary force which could perform war duties. The Hitler Youth became active in German fire brigades and assisted with recovery efforts to German cities affected by Allied bombing . The Hitler Youth also assisted in such organisations as

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1888-401: The entire organization. The rank of Reichsjugendführer was only held by two people during its existence, first by Baldur von Schirach and later by Artur Axmann. Members' summer uniform consisted of black shorts and a tan shirt with pockets, worn with a rolled black neckerchief secured with a woggle , usually tucked under the collar. Headgear originally consisted of a beret , but this

1947-605: The future of Nazi Germany and they were indoctrinated in Nazi ideology, including racism. The boys were indoctrinated with the myths of Aryan racial superiority and to view Jews and Slavs as subhumans. Members were taught to associate state-identified enemies such as Jews with Germany's previous defeat in the First World War and societal decline. The Hitler Youth were used to break up church youth groups, spy on religious classes and Bible studies, and interfere with church attendance. Education and training programs for

2006-786: The highest number of prisoners in Stalag VIII A was registered in September 1944. Numerically, Frenchmen were in the majority, followed by the Russians , Italians, Belgians, Britons and the Yugoslavs . In late 1944, 37 Poles, participants of the Warsaw Uprising , and 1,500 Slovaks from the Slovak National Uprising were brought to the camp. Finally in late December 1944 1,800 Americans arrived, captured in

2065-493: The main camp in Ujazd (then officially Moys ), located on the right side of the road from Görlitz to Bogatynia (then officially Reichenau ). Poor sanitary conditions led to frequent epidemic outbreaks in the camp. Around 3,000 people were held in the camp, while 7,000 were sent to forced labour subcamps in the region. Most of the over 10,000 prisoners were Poles, others included Czechs , Lithuanians , Belarusians and Jews . It

2124-687: The more prominent ones were formed for political reasons, like the Young Conservatives and the Young Protestants. Once Hitler came onto the revolutionary scene, the transition from seemingly innocuous youth movements to political entities focused on Hitler was swift. Following the abortive Beer Hall Putsch (in November 1923), Nazi youth groups ostensibly disbanded, but many elements simply went underground, operating clandestinely in small units under assumed names. In April 1924,

2183-599: The name Hitler-Jugend, Bund deutscher Arbeiterjugend ("Hitler Youth, League of German Worker Youth") in July 1926. From 1936 until 1945, it was the sole official boys' youth organisation in Germany and it was partially a paramilitary organisation. It was composed of the Hitler Youth proper for male youths aged 14 to 18, and the German Youngsters in the Hitler Youth ( Deutsches Jungvolk in der Hitler Jugend or "DJ", also "DJV") for younger boys aged 10 to 14. With

2242-510: The notion "Germany must live" even if the members of the HJ had to die, was "hammered" into them. The Hitler Youth appropriated many of the activities of the Boy Scout movement (which was banned in 1935), including camping and hiking. However, over time it changed in content and intention. For example, many activities closely resembled military training, with weapons familiarization, assault course circuits, and basic fighting tactics. The aim

2301-438: The parents objected. Parents who refused to allow their children to join were subject to investigation by the authorities. From then on, the vast majority of Germany's teenagers belonged to the Hitler Youth. By 1940, it had eight million members. Even before membership was made mandatory in 1939, German youth faced strong pressure to join. Students who held out were frequently assigned essays with titles such as "Why am I not in

2360-580: The realization that "they had worked and slaved for a criminal cause", which they carried for a lifetime. Some of them recalled a "loss of freedom" and claimed that their time in the HJ "had robbed them of a normal childhood." Historian Michael Kater relates how many who once served in the HJ were silent until older age when they became grandparents. While they were eventually able to look back at their place in "a dictatorship which oppressed, maimed, and killed millions", he maintains that an honest appraisal should lead them to conclude that their past contributions to

2419-677: The regime had "damaged their own souls." Once Nazi Germany was defeated by the Allied Powers, the Hitler Youth—like all NSDAP organisations—was officially abolished by the Allied Control Council on 10 October 1945 and later banned by the German Criminal Code. Reichsjugendführer (Reich Youth Leader) was the highest rank of the Hitler Youth and was held by the Nazi Party official in command of

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2478-706: The regime's ability to make Nazis out of these German youth, exclaiming in 1938: These boys and girls enter our organizations with their ten years of age, and often for the first time get a little fresh air; after four years of the Young Folk they go on to the Hitler Youth, where we have them for another four years...And even if they are still not complete National Socialists, they go to Labor Service and are smoothed out there for another six, seven months...And whatever class consciousness or social status might still be left...the Wehrmacht will take care of that. Over time,

2537-865: The sandstone plate next to the memorial it says: Stalag VIIIA: A place sanctified by the blood and martyrdom of the prisoners of war of the anti-Hitler coalition during the Second World War – 22.VII.1976 French veterans of the camp arranged for a marble slab to be attached to the memorial in 1994. On the slab it says in Polish and French: “1939 Stalag VIIIA 1945: Through this camp walked, in it lived and suffered ten thousands of prisoners of war” . There were numerous forced labour camps subordinate to Stalag VIII-A, located in various places throughout Lower Silesia. In 1943 there were 976 such camps. Locations include Daubitz , Kowary , Legnica , Przełęcz Karkonoska , Raszowa , Strzegom , Strzelin and Wałbrzych . It

2596-531: The website. In September 2017, the centre hosted a conference entitled Stalag VIIIA and European memory of The Second World War POWs . Hitler Jugend The Hitler Youth ( German : Hitlerjugend [ˈhɪtlɐˌjuːɡn̩t] , often abbreviated as HJ , [haːˈjɔt] ) was the youth organisation of the Nazi Party in Germany . Its origins date back to 1922 and it received

2655-540: The west, members of the Hitlerjugend were recruited at ever younger ages . By 1945, the Volkssturm was commonly drafting 12-year-old Hitler Youth members into its ranks. During the Battle of Berlin , Axmann's Hitler Youth formed a major part of the last line of German defence, and they were reportedly among the fiercest fighters. Although the city commander, General Helmuth Weidling , ordered Axmann to disband

2714-504: The while he pressured Schirach to turn the HJ into a "junior army". During 1938, some 1.5 million HJ members were trained to shoot rifles. Starting in early 1939, the OKW began supervising HJ shooting activities and military field exercises. Upwards of 51,500 boys had earned their HJ Marksmanship Medal before the year's end. On 15 August 1939, a fortnight before the beginning of World War II, Schirach agreed with General Wilhelm Keitel that

2773-546: The work at the camp hall on 15 January 1941. In 2011 the German alternative rock band Topictoday dedicated their Song "Helden ohne Namen" ("Heroes without Names") to the POWs of the camp, especially to Olivier Messiaen. In 2014 a German-Polish joint project, the Meeting Point Music Messiaen e.V., built a European cultural centre near the site of the former POW camp Stalag VIII-A. The idea of building

2832-635: Was French composer Olivier Messiaen . Originally a Hitler Youth camp, in October 1939 it was modified to house about 15,000 Polish prisoners from the German September 1939 offensive. It was established on August 26, 1939, a few days before the German invasion of Poland , which started World War II . It was initially a transit camp or Dulag located on an 18-hectare field alongside Ulica Lubańska, renamed as Stalag VIII–A on 23 September 1939. Polish POWs who were either deported west to Germany or sent to nearby forced labour subcamps were held in

2891-559: Was a training ground for future labour leaders and technicians. Its symbol was a rising sun with a swastika. A program entitled Landjahr Lager (Country Service Camp) was designed to teach specifically chosen girls of the BDM high moral character standards within a rural educational setting. The Hitler Youth had a number of monthly and weekly publications: among them were the Hitler-Jugend-Zeitung (Hitler Youth Newspaper),

2950-579: Was appointed divisional commander. In 1944, the 12th SS-Panzer-Division Hitlerjugend was deployed during the Battle of Normandy against the British and Canadian forces to the north of Caen . Over 20,000 German youths participated in the attempt to repulse the D-Day invasion; while they knocked out 28 Canadian tanks during their first effort, they ultimately lost 3,000 lives before the Normandy assault

3009-457: Was at VIII-A that the 31-year old composer and medic Olivier Messiaen , a French prisoner, finished composing Quatuor pour la fin du temps , his most famous work, a piece of chamber music . With the help of a friendly German guard ( Carl-Albert Brüll ), he acquired manuscript paper and pencils, and was able to befriend three other POWs (violinist Jean le Boulaire, clarinettist Henri Akoka , and cellist Étienne Pasquier ). Together they premiered

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3068-482: Was complete. During the following months, the division earned a reputation for ferocity and fanaticism. When Witt was killed by Allied naval gunfire, SS- Brigadeführer Kurt Meyer assumed command and became the divisional commander at age 33. As German casualties escalated with the combination of Operation Bagration and the Lvov-Sandomierz Operation in the east, and Operation Cobra in

3127-453: Was compulsory after 1936, it was neither surprising nor uncommon that many senior leaders of both West and East Germany had been members of the Hitler Youth. Little effort was made to blacklist political figures who had been members, since many had little choice in the matter. These German post-war leaders were nonetheless once part of an important institutional element of Nazi Germany. Historian Gerhard Rempel opined that Nazi Germany itself

3186-642: Was discarded by the HJ in 1934. One flag/symbol used by the HJ was the same as the DJ, a white Sowilo rune on a black background, which symbolised "victory". Another flag used was a red–white–red striped flag with a black swastika in the middle, inside a white shaped diamond. Full members would also receive a knife upon enrollment, with the motto "Blut und Ehre" (Blood and Honour) engraved upon it. Troop colours: Informational notes Citations Bibliography Final solution Parties Tangerh%C3%BCtte Too Many Requests If you report this error to

3245-406: Was impossible to conceive without the Hitler Youth, as their members constituted the "social, political, and military resiliency of the Third Reich" and were part of "the incubator that maintained the political system by replenishing the ranks of the dominant party and preventing the growth of mass opposition." Rempel also reports that a large percentage of the boys who served in the HJ slowly came to

3304-453: Was sentenced to 20 years in prison. However, he was convicted of crimes against humanity for his actions as Gauleiter of Vienna, not for his leadership of the Hitler Youth, because Artur Axmann had been serving as the functioning leader of the Hitler Youth from 1940 onward. Axmann only received a 39-month prison sentence in May 1949, but he was not found guilty of war crimes. Later, in 1958,

3363-635: Was taken up on the suggestion of Hans Severus Ziegler . By 1930, the Hitlerjugend HJ had enlisted over 25,000 boys aged 14 and upward. They also set up a junior branch, the Deutsches Jungvolk (DJ), for boys aged 10 to 14. Girls from 10 to 18 were given their own parallel organisation, the League of German Girls (BDM). On 30 October 1931, the HJ officially became part of the SA through

3422-561: Was the first prisoner of war camp in the military district VIII Breslau ( Wroclaw ). The camp covered about 30 ha. By June 1940 most of the Poles had been transferred to other camps and replaced with Belgian and French troops taken prisoner during the Battle of France . Due to the lack of infrastructure, the French and Belgians were held in tents in mid-1940. At one time there were over 30,000 jammed into facilities designed for 15,000. In 1941

3481-524: Was to turn the HJ into motivated soldiers. There was greater emphasis on physical ability and military training than on academic study. More than just a way to keep the German nation healthy, sports became a means of indoctrinating and training its youth for combat; this was in keeping with tenets outlined in Hitler's notorious work, Mein Kampf . In a 1936 edition of Foreign Affairs, an article discussing

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