Book Review 11

Bibliography

Bartoletti, Susan Campbell. 2005. Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler’s Youth. Scholastic Nonfiction. ISBN 0439353793

Plot Summary

Bartoletti takes information from the stories of eleven youth all affected by Hitler and the Hitler Youth during the rule of Nazi Germany. The story begins with Hitler’s rise to power and follows these youth as they make decisions that will affect their future and the fate of many others. Through facts and primary sources, Bartoletti offers an informational book that reads like a suspenseful page turning mystery as she explains and allows her subjects to explain how and why Hitler was able to captivate so many young people with his propaganda and plan for Germany. Bartoletti offers an epilogue telling about the fate of the young adults in the book, as well as a timeline of the Hitler Youth that is very helpful in allowing readers to see the progression that led to so much death and destruction.

Critical Analysis

Bartoletti takes a difficult topic and handles it both accurately and without bias, showing the trail that led to children and adolescents joining Hitler’s Youth. The section in the beginning of the book with pictures and information about the young people presented in the book and their stories makes the book more personal giving the nonfiction topic an emotional touch. Readers’ hearts are broken when they hear about parents trying to warn their children away from the Hitler Youth and cautiously excited when people in the story choose to resist knowing it may cause their deaths. The feeling of both youth excited and ready to be involved in the world and the pandemonium surrounding this time period that caused many to join the Hitler Youth out of fear and force can be felt seeping from each page. Though Bartoletti does not make it her job to pass judgment, Hitler Youth reads as a cautionary tale of what can happen when unchecked power rules and a misguided group of young people follow, some without question. It reinforces the belief that the young can change the world and presents that fact as both a promise and a huge responsibility. Heinrich Heine, a German poet of Jewish descent warns that, “When one book burns, one will, in the end, burn people.”

The photographs within the book are disturbing, representing the control and fear that dominated this time in Germany. At the beginning of the book, a child no older than 8 wears a Nazi uniform, complete with a Swastiska and salutes Hitler, one hand raised in the now familiar salute. The image is both chilling and real reinforcing all the information that will follow in the coming pages.

Review Excerpts
"Her book is filled with chilling quotes, anecdotal stories derived from research and interviews, and stories about how Hitler's young were manipulated and used as a primary source of his power and vision for the future." Children’s Literature

"This book offers through simple and powerful primary sources an important though tearful lesson in history, citizenship, and responsibility." VOYA

"Case studies of actual participants root the work in specifics, and clear prose, thorough documentation and an attractive format with well-chosen archival photographs make this nonfiction writing at its best." Kirkus Reviews

Connections
*Read Hitler Youth after or while reading Number the Stars. Have a class discussion on what roles youth played in both books. Specifically discuss the characters as resistance fighters and people within Hitler Youth as members of the youth helping Hitler. How did they end up on different sides? What were their motivations?
*Read Hitler Youth after or while reading Night. Discuss the decisions teenagers were forced to make during this time in history. Some might be about Elie Wiesel’s decision about whether to leave the hospital for the death march or stay behind and the people in Hitler Youth deciding to defy their orders and resist against Hitler.