The Alice Hamilton article in the New York Times provided a first-hand description of the Nazi youth that makes the movies Hitlerjunge Quex and Kuhle Wampe even more accessible to the viewer. One of the diffculties the modern viewer faces when watching Nazi propaganda films is the disbelief at the numbers of people that fell under the spell of the Nazi party. Hamilton is able to reveal to the public the key to Hitler’s recruitment of German youth. Hitler made them feel like “the great of the earth” and put “the fate of Germany” in their hands. While Heini clearly feels the need to work for the Nazi leaders, it is not always clear why he feels that way.
The other important aspect of the Hamilton article is the background information on events at universities. The Hitler youth became so powerful they basically had greater control than the university presidents. The movies we have seen thus far do not focus on any form of academia, most likely because the Nazi party promotes the idea of one Germany, with intellectuals falling on the same level as factory workers. Hamilton even relays the statement “students, show the peasant and worker you are not intellectuals”. There is no room for University in the Nazi party; the focus is entirely on manual labor and the unification of a people that will bring Germany out of ruin.
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