Defense training camp

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HJ during shooting lessons at a WE camp

Military training camps , also called Reich training camps , were facilities of the Hitler Youth (HJ) for pre-military training and indoctrination during the Second World War .

General

There was an office for physical training within the Reich Youth Leadership of the Hitler Youth . Since 1939, this has organized several weeks of training courses in camps for military training, in which young people were to be prepared “pre-militarily” for war deployment.

While at the beginning of the war mainly Hitler Youth leaders were in charge of training, later on, soldiers of the Wehrmacht or members of the Waffen SS who were no longer fit for military service were increasingly teaching . In addition to sporting competitions and physical training, military skills such as camouflage and the use of weapons were taught. As part of the political-ideological indoctrination the boys were issues such as our enemies , the Jews , our view of the world and the race thought to nationalism , anti-Semitism and militarism goaded.

The camps were officially convened. They also served to bridge the time until drafting into the Wehrmacht. The training usually only lasted 4 to 6 weeks.

The military training camps served the Waffen-SS as recruiting centers. In a contribution from the German Historical Museum , a former Hitler Youth described how he came to the front from the Hitler Youth via a military training camp. There it says:

"[...] when we arrived, it was said when we arrived. B. 'War volunteers, right out!' The bunch that did not volunteer was […] always very small. These were taken from the table earlier at lunchtime for exercise . She was also often taken out of bed at night. For most of them it was soon over with 'refuse'. They also often had to step forward when stepping up and were ridiculed as mothers' boys etc. "

Another source says:

“The military training camps were facilities for preparing for military service. Young people between the ages of 16 and 17 were trained for frontline operations in field exercises and shooting exercises as well as lectures. The convocation to the camps took place in writing, one was obliged to participate. "

In many memories, the then young participants in these mostly class-based and compulsory courses report military drill , combined with inappropriate harassment by the instructors.

Locations of some military training camps

The dates only relate to the time period documented by sources. The actual period is probably longer:

literature

  • Hans Holzträger Ed .: The military training camps of the Hitler Youth 1942 - 1945 A documentary report. Publisher of the Working Group for the History and Culture of German Settlement Areas in Southeast Europe, Ippesheim 1991 ISBN 3-928389-03-3 (Series: Publications of the Working Group for the History and Culture of German Settlement Areas in Southeast Europe, Series 1, History and its auxiliary sciences, volume 2)
  • Heinz Schreckenberg : Upbringing, living environment and war effort of the German youth under Hitler. Notes on the literature. (Series: Geschichte der Jugend, 25, Ed. Arno Klönne ) Lit, Münster 2001 ISBN 9783825844332 Chapter 20: The military training camps (WE camps) of the Hitler Youth and the recruitment of volunteers. Pp. 360–364 (available in Google books )

Web links

Commons : Military training camp  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Collective memory: military training and imperial training camps . German Historical Museum Foundation .
  2. ↑ a b Memoirs of Hans Waibel (PDF; 273 kB) , badische-zeitung.de, accessed on August 18, 2013.
  3. ↑ a b Werner Heldmann: Kurt Thomas and the Musische Gymnasium Frankfurt am Main 1939 to 1945. Considerations for a critical appreciation of the person and the school ( Memento of the original from March 27, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.frankfurter-buergerstiftung.de archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 124 kB) , frankfurter-buergerstiftung.de, August 30, 2004, accessed on August 18, 2013.
  4. ^ Working group Ebringer village history (ed.): Ebringer village history no. 2. E Bring under the swastika. Contemporary witness reports , Ehaben 2008, pp. 33 and 38.
  5. ↑ Memoirs by Werner Glaubrecht (PDF; 82 kB) , badische-zeitung.de, accessed on August 18, 2013.
  6. ↑ https://www.aachener-nachrichten.de/lokales/dueren/auf-ns-ideologie-im-germeter-gedrillt_aid-34457769