Were Hitler youth really loyal to Nazism? A case studies approach

The primary research issue of this work examines the attitudes of former members of the Hitler Youth toward the Nazi regime under which they spent the earlier part of their lives, and the extent of their loyalty to the regime. The main argument is that the loyalties of these youth and their attitudes toward Nazism were significantly shaped by their families' socioeconomic status and their political and religious beliefs and backgrounds. Chapter one discusses those youth who largely dedicated themselves without reservations to Nazism's causes through the last days of Hitler's regime. Chapter two discusses those who were conflicted in their loyalties to the Nazis, largely due to the influence of their families and other significant persons in their lives. Some of these latter youth were simultaneously involved in Catholic youth groups, which the Nazis usually either tried to discourage or outlaw altogether.;Primary sources utilized consist of fourteen memoirs and oral history interviews of former Hitler Youth members who immigrated to the United States and later became citizens. Secondary sources include several historians of Nazi Germany and several oral and public historians who contribute to situating the dynamics and structure of Nazism and its impact on its participants. Theoreticians such as Antonio Gramsci, with his theory of hegemony, and Michel Foucault's analogy of Jeremy Bentham's panopticon illustrate how and why Nazi society was able to function. Consequently, one gains valuable insights into how totalitarian societies operate, as well as how various individuals devised innumerable coping strategies to survive and get on with their lives.