HW7

To what extent can the members of the Hitler Youth be blamed for their actions during WWII?

The amount of blame and responsibility that HJ members have should be determined on an individual basis: it largely depends on their age, their hierarchal position in the organization, and also the total amount of criminal activity they engaged in and the extent of these activities.

Kater, Michael. Hitler Youth. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2004.

The members of the Hitler Youth should not be blamed for their actions. The guilt lies with the higher commands, specifically the SS, who exploited their enthusiasm and indoctrinated them with Nazi ideals. Remper calls them "a generation of misguided idealists."

Gerhard Rempel, Hitler's Children The Hitler Youth and the SS (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1989) 262, Questia, Web, 2 Mar. 2010.