Hitler Youth by Susan Campbell Bartoletti

Reviewed by Lori

Hitler Youth: Growing Up In Hitler's Shadow

Title: Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow

Author: Susan Campbell Bartoletti

Perma-Bound Catalogue #: 137945

Description: Gives voice to the youth of Europe who were faced with choosing between indoctrination into the Nazi party or being targeted as undesirables and how they dealt with the consequences at the end of WWII.

***Newberry Honor Book***

Rubric Rating: Level 3: Laud It

Why I Read It: I like books about history and this seemed like a good nonfiction book about this time period.  On quick scan it didn't seem to dense or overwhelming.

Lori's Notes: Hitler Youth: Growing up in Hitler's Shadow is an amazing non-fiction account of 12 children and teens living in Germany during the indoctrination of the Hitler Youth and the rise of Adolf Hitler.  As a student one learns about the causes of war, dates of significant battles, and the horrible tragedy that is the aftermath.  One is often left to wonder how such tyrants gain power in a civilized society.  This book provides a highly readable account of Hitler's rise to power through the use of the young.  Germany was suffering from economic hardship, high unemployment and a sense of national shame in a post World War I era.  The Hitler Youth provided the children and teens of Germany a sense of unity and National pride, and a feeling of hope for the future.  Many joined willingly, others from peer pressure, and some not at all.  Children brought Nazi ideals home to their parents; they expected them to be good German citizens and uphold the new ideals of the National socialist party.  Through their indoctrination and brainwashing, Hitler was able to control an entire generation.  Once in power, Hitler was able to enforce his own ideological and race ideals, while using the Hitler Youth to support his values.  A frightening account of the power of the young when influenced by evil.  However, not everyone highlighted in the book believed in the ideologies of the Hitler Youth, and some decided to fight back against the Nazi propaganda.  One such individual was Helmuth Hubener, who was eventually arrested and executed for distributing anti-Nazi literature.  He was only 17 years old.  You can read a fictionalized account of Hubener's incarceration in Bartoletti's "The Boy who Dared."  Bartoletti also recounts the struggle of the jewish young during this turbulent time and their quest for survival in a country rife with intolerance.  Hitler Youth is an absolutely fascinating read and appropriate for anyone studying history or the use of primary source documents and first-person interviews.  A Newbery Honour winner, this is one of the best accounts of World War II literature I have read.

Recommended Readers: Grade 9 and Up.  Good for Non-fiction study, first person interviews and historical research.  Would also be appropriate for history classrooms.

Themes: WWII, Youth, Indoctrination, Family, Citizenship, National Pride, Nazis, Belief systems, Power and Influence, Parents vs. Children, History, discrimination, Intolerance, Resistance.

Cross-Genre Links:
Movie: Apt Pupil (1998)
Movie: Swing Kids (1993)
Wikipedia Articles: Swing Kids, Edelweiss Pirates, or White Rose (Resistance Groups)
Music: It Don't Mean a Thing (If it ain't got that Swing) by Duke Ellington
Google Image Search: Nazi Youth Propaganda Posters

Related Reading:
Hitler Youth: Marching Toward Madness (Cat #: 293389)
Shattered Youth in Nazi Germany: Primary Sources from the Holocaust (Cat #:43074)
Children's War (Cat #: 5947)
The Wave (Cat #: 70611)
The Boy who Dared (Cat #: 24341)

Possible Discussion or Essay Topics: 
  • If you were a teenager living in Germany in 1939, would you have joined the Nazi Youth?
  • How do you think Hitler used the Nazi Youth?  What illustrates this?
  • Why did some people choose not to join the Hitler Youth?  Would this have been an easy decision?  What were some of the consequences?
  • Do you think it is right to involve children in war?
  • How does propaganda work?  What images today are targeted to children?
  • How does targeting children influence the family dynamic?

 Other Support Materials:
Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow Teacher's Guide (Cat #: 381303)
Hitler Youth Teacher's Guide ebook (Cat #: 60000039)
Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow Audio CD (Cat #: 421705)




Comments

Post a Comment

Thank you for Reading!

Popular posts from this blog

The Poet's Dog by Patricia MacLachlan

Reviewed by Lori
Image
Title: The Poet's Dog Author: Patricia MacLachlan Perma-Bound Catalogue #: 127678 Description:   An abandoned dog, able to speak only to poets and children, rescues a pair of young children stranded in the forest. Together, they find a way to overcome their losses. Rubric Rating: Level 4 - Love It Why I Read It: Poetry and Dogs... what more can I say.  Notes: This is one of those novels that I absolutely love.  It is written for a younger audience but there are deeper aspects to the story that are very appealing to an adult reader.   The story is encapsulated within 88 pages, and spells out the story of Teddy, the poet's dog, whose master has passed away, and Flora and Nickel, two children he finds lost in a blizzard.   The children are left in a car by their mother as she goes to look for help after getting stuck in the snow.  The children get scared and leave the vehicle and get lost in the woods where they are found by Teddy who brings them home.  Flo
Read more

Brain Jack by Brian Falkner

Reviewed by Lori
Image
Title: Brain Jack Author: Brian Falkner Perma-Bound Catalogue #: 128664 Description:   In a near-future New York City, computer genius Sam Wilson manages to hack into the AT&T network and sets off a chain of events that have a profound effect on human activity throughout the world. Rubric Rating: Level 4 - Love It! Why I Read It: Interesting write up in the catalogue and a growing interest in tech-related reading. Notes: Sam is a seventeen-year-old Hacker, one of the best around.  So good that he is able to hack into the telecomerica head offices and order a couple of "neuro" headsets for himself and his friend Fargas.  The latest technology that allows you to directly access the computer network using only your brain.  But Sam's hacking brings down services for three days - something that will go down in history.  That's when the CDD (the cyber defence division) start watching him.  It's not long before they hack Sam back and he's arrested.
Read more

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

Reviewed by Lori
Image
Title:  All the Light We Cannot See Author: Anthony Doerr Perma-Bound Catalogue #: 98669 Description:  A blind French girl on the run from the German occupation and a German orphan-turned-Resistance tracker struggle with their respective beliefs after a fortuitous meeting on the Brittany coast. Rubric Rating: Level 4 - Love It! Why I Read it: This book has been on my reading list for awhile and it was recommended to me by several people. Lori's Notes: This was a fantastic novel.  It may seem overwhelming in terms of size but the individual chapters are very short and read almost like mini short stories within the book.  The characters alternate between Marie-Laure a blind Parisian girl, and Werner an orphan German boy. Marie-Laure's father, Daniel LeBlanc, works in a Paris Museum as a key master and designs intricate puzzle boxes for his daughter.  Werner lives in a children's home with his sister Jutta and because of his interest in radios is quickly recruit
Read more