Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow

NONFICTION CATEGORY

Hitler Youth is the nonfiction account of the indoctrination process of the children of Nazi Germany during World War II. Bartoletti uses powerful photos, journal entries, letters, and interviews to bring the accounts to life. I enjoyed that it provides a less black-and-white Nazis-were-all-unmitigatedly-evil point of view by giving voice to the doubts of some of the youth and providing a view into the world of fascism and its effect on children. This is a valuable book for all readers in that it provides a nuanced view of Nazi Germany from a new and fresh perspective: the youth. While this might help YA readers to relate, it's also eye-opening for adults. The photographs are particularly powerful.

Great book, learned a lot. Each story from the youth gave a clear picture on what they were going through at the time.

I already knew many things about the Hitler Youth, prior to reading this text, so I was not surprised by that I had read, initially. They were boys and girls who went on hiking trips, were told to ‘help' those in need in their community, and, of course, were made to go into the German army when they became old enough. I knew all of this already. What I did not know was just how much of the young men and women tended to rebel against the Nazi regime. It truly surprised me. I did not know anything about The White Rose, or many of the smaller groups that tried to cause problems for Hitler's Germany. This book is extremely well researched, with a very detailed and personal look into a few of the lives of those who were in the Hitler Youth.

I only down graded this text because it does tend to take a turn into describing what the Holocaust is and what the Concentration Camps were, etc. However, I think that, if you are reading this book, then you already know what those things are, and it feels crammed into this book, as though the author had to put it in.. Still, I think that this book was a good one, and if you want to find out more on the Hitler Youth, I recommend it.