Reddit mentions of Language of the Third Reich: LTI: Lingua Tertii Imperii

I don't believe I'm able to answer your question about any sort of feeling of guilt or how the adults have responded in today's culture without sourcing from personal anecdotes, however I can broadly answer what the allies (especially the Americans) did to try to break down German Nationalism after the war, and I shall try my best to apply it to the Hitler Youth. Also it's worth mentioning that very little of what I'm writing applies to the Soviet side of Germany, enough so that I'd say any similarities are pretty much coincidence.

To start with some background, Germany's Nazi Party actually only contained about 10% of the population, roughly 50% of the population was involved in Nazi related organizations and activities (Such as the Hitler Youth, but also organizations such as the League of German Women, Doctor's League, and numerous others) So while I'm unable to find any actual numbers for how much of the population actively supported the Nazis, those numbers seem to suggest that not everyone was estatic about Hitler's programs. However there's also numerous other factors in those numbers, such as who was a citizen according to the Nuremburg laws, so I simply offer that as an aside for painting the picture of Nazi Germany's variety of fanaticism towards Hitler. What we know as The Hitler Youth however was mandatory for all children of Aryan blood, and actually was subdivided into 2 other organizations as well. These organizations were "The League of German Girls", "Deutches Jungvolk" or roughly translated German youth, and then the Hitlerjugend or Hitler Youth. For the purposes of clarity, I'll address each branch by it's official name for this post, with the Hitler Youth being a reference to the organization as a whole, and Hitlerjugend meaning that individual organization within the Nazi Youth Organizations. Anyways, that provides about enough background for me to explain.

The process was aptly called "Denazification", and largely was centered around propaganda. The process began with the numerous war crime trials, which were publicized widely. Some of the members of the Hitler Youth were also accused of war crimes, but these accusations were really never pursued, as no one in the Hitler Youth was above the age of 18 at the time of their alleged crimes. Really in post war Germany, it seems that most of the Hitler Youth was not held responsible for crimes at all, and in the evaluation of Nazi members that followed the war, were essentially all exonerated. (I hesitate to say that none of them were held responsible for their actions, as I'm sure there were a couple select exceptions that I was simply unable to find) The Allies also implemented a strict censor on all German newspapers and radios, in a way that quite frankly was almost the same process that the Nazi's used throughout their reign. All forms of written, visual, and audio news were all controlled by the occupying government. 30,000 Nazi books were banned, including Mein Kampf (Which only just came back on to the German market this year) and possession of any banned books was a punishable offense. Mein Kampf being banned actually didn't do much to reduce Nazi sentiments, as the book was written for people who already agree with the ideas, however it did create an idea of taboo about the topic. At the same time, the Americans also worked to reconstruct Germany with the Marshall Plan, attempting to create an idea that they weren't conquerors, but rather liberators. This was somewhat furthered by the massive amounts of publications about the Holocaust, giving the Allies essentially the ultimate trump card in claiming they were in the right, and the Nazi's in the wrong. Incredible amounts of books, newspaper articles, and films such as "Die Todesmuhlen" (Meaning "The Death-Mills", it was a film on the holocaust that was released in Western Germany) were published and distributed throughout Germany about the events, and essentially placed the guilt of it on the German people. It seems this was placed just as much on the youth as it was the rest of the population, despite their amnesty when it came to the war crime trials. It's worth mentioning a lot of the propaganda strategies used were almost identical to Nazi propaganda, as it's effectiveness was incredible within the German people from 1933 to 1945. (For a great example of Nazi propaganda's influence, the chapter "I Believe in Him" in the book Language of the Third Reich by Victor Klemperer gives a better perspective on the German people's completely illogical faith in Hitler towards the end of the war) However as for the effectiveness of the Allies application of the propaganda, I've found conflicting evidence, so I can't speak to it. In the end however, the most effective Nazi nullifying aspect was the crippling depression and destruction of Germany itself after the war. The Nazi leaders were all dead, and unlike WWI where it could be argued Germany still had some fight left, the Germans had unquestionably been beaten. The things that had brought people to the Nazis, such as jobs and community provided, were gone and the ideas banned. The Hitler youth had been led largely by older members of the party, so it immediately ceased to be an influence at the war's end.

To attempt to answer what happened to the members of specifically the Hitler Youth after the war however, I did a little bit of research on West Germany's economic activities after the war. West Germany actually ended up overtaking Britain in productivity levels by 1950. This is very much because of the Marshall plan pouring money into West Germany in an attempt to stave off communism. However what followed afterwards was an economic boom. (Also called the "Wirtschaftswunder" if you want to look it up) This boom also happens to coincide right when almost all of the Hitlerjugend had reached working age, and due to the large amount of industrialization, the military repetitiveness and tenancies that they had learned in the Hitler Youth likely served to only exaggerate this industrial boom. This idea is furthered by Germany's economic growth slowing in 1960, which also happens to coincide shortly after when the last of the Deutches Jungvolk had entered the workforce. Germany also really didn't start to receive many immigrants until about 1960, so it's workers were very primarily Germans who had lived through WWII. So it appears that the Hitler Youth's structure may have been beneficial for Germany's, and it's member's, economic well being after the war, however it could also be simply a case of correlation and not causation.

In regards to the psychological impact of the war on the youth, I could not find a conclusive survey or study on specifically the youth. This probably is because of the earlier mentioned American censorship. I did find that the United States conducted a study of occupied Germany with questions like "Were the Nuremburg Trials unfair?" and "Was Germany better off without the jews?", which might help clear up how the German people as a whole felt immediately after the war, but I was unable to find the study itself. If anyone is able to locate this study, it might be a way to delve deeper into this question.

Lastly, during the last months of the war, Germany utilized a tactic of using units called "Volkssturm", or People's Storm. These units suffered somewhere upwards of 600,000+ deaths in the last months of the war. While these units were not expressly filled with Hitlerjugend, and also included the elderly and infirm who weren't normally fit for military service, they did make up a very large percentage of these units. So unfortunately, an decent amount of the most fanatical Hitlerjugend who volunteered to be in the Volkssturm (especially in Berlin) didn't survive WWII.

Conclusion: The Hitler Youth that survived had the best opportunity to live a "normal" life of any Germans, and their childhood in the Hitler youth may have actually prepared them better for the industrial working world.

 

Note: This is my first post in r/askhistorians. Moderators, if you feel the need to delete my post, I would appreciate it if you could message me telling me how to improve my future posts.

edit: formatting and added a sentence on immigration in the economic paragraph. Also thanks to u/rocketman0739 for fixing my German spelling & providing the translation of "Die Todesmuhlen".

edit 2: Since it was requested, I'm providing my sources for Denazification as well below.

 

Sources:

JCS 1067 was the guidebook for the plan on restoration of normal German life after the war, and was signed by Truman. It includes the American Censorship guidelines in part I, section 10.

For comparison to Nazi censorship and propaganda practices, I got most of my content from The Ministry of Illusion by Eric Rentschler.

I believe in Him chapter by Victor Kemperer (amazon link)

General knowledge on The Hitler Youth and it's structure sourced primarily from A Hitler Youth in Poland by Jost Hermand

Germany's economic improvement data largely sourced from this paper by Wendy Carlin

On countless occasions during my spell as an assistant in Naples I heard people say about some newspaper or other: è pagato, it’s paid for, it lies for its client, and then on the following day these very same people who had cried pagato were absolutely convinced by some obviously bogus piece of news in the same paper. Because it was printed in such bold type, and because the other people believed it…

I also know that a part of every intellectual’s soul belongs to the people, that all my awareness of being lied to, and my critical attentiveness, are of no avail when it comes to it: at some point the printed lie will get the better of me when it attacks from all sides and is queried by fewer and fewer around me and finally by no one at all.

The Language of the Third Reich

Also try to get a copy of this:

https://www.amazon.com/Language-Third-Reich-Lingua-Imperii/dp/0826491308

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LTI_–_Lingua_Tertii_Imperii

>I've stopped watching the mainstream news because they have only become more implicit in it over time, to the point that the Republican view of any issue must be considered no matter how offensive or racist.

You mean "complicit" here, right?

Thanks for all the answers. As a treat, I recommend you check out this book which explains the rhetorics of the Third Reich, which will, sadly, continue to be incredibly relevant.

His brother's work "In the time of of Winston Churchill", Haffner's the "meaning" and Klemperer's LTI are worth a read, as welll. Führer means leader.

And never forget Bracher: The Origins, Structure, and Effects of National Socialism

https://www.amazon.de/Meaning-Hitler-Sebastian-Haffner/dp/0297792555

https://www.amazon.de/Language-Third-Reich-Imperii-Continuum/dp/0826491308

https://www.amazon.com/German-Dictatorship-Structure-National-Socialism/dp/1125634790

>So quote me where I said that. Did I say you're triggered? Did I call you hypersensitive?

I never said that you said these things. Note that in my original comment it specifically states:

>(of course it's just implied)

Read.

>Let me get this straight. Gencyn can call GC bitches, cunts, bigots, terfs, delusional, disgusting, subhuman, they can celebrate when we get beaten and tell us we deserved it, advocate for violence against us, they can make fun of us for being autistic, incest survivors, CSA survivors, prostitution survivors, they can smear us as being "on drugs" or "crazy" when we are not, they can report us to the local authorities for completely made up child neglect, and all of that is just fine and dandy, or at worst, isolated events or the odd bad apple - despite to this day people celebrating and continuing to do that on gencyn

1. I only commented on the usage of the words "b*tch" and "c*nt".
   
   
2. You're going to need to provide citations for each of these claims, and please don't vaguely reference me to /r/terfisaslur.
   
   
3. TERF is a not a slur (although I usually do not use the word to be respectful), so don't include it in that list
   
   
4. I can cite many instances of GC people doing many of the same things
   
   >but if I call an obviously fragile and ass-mad group of people who have made upwards of 4 different subreddits to try and screech about us doing exactly what they're currently doing, and who are mass brigading, and mass reporting, all of our posts entirely disingenuously, "fragile" - I'm a akin to alt-right neo-nazi racist white supremacist communities.
   
   Akin is the wrong word, please don't misrepresent what I am saying
   
   >If I had a dollar for every time we banned one of your lot from GC subs for coming in to call us all cunts and bitches, I'd be able to quit my job and fucking retire lol. But sure. We're the problem.
   
   And if I had a dollar for every time a GC user dehumanized, denigrated or insulted a trans people, I'd be able to live until 2300 unemployed. This isn't a one-sided thing.
   
   >Or I'm just saying gencyn participants are such fucking babies that you cannot take what you dish out. Your entire subreddit is dedicated to stalking GC, but the moment we do it to you, you start mass reporting our comments as being sexually explicit, pornographic, abusive, CP, etc, and you make 4 different subreddits dedicated to trying to pick apart our posts of your posts of our posts.
   
   More examples of infantilization and condescension right here. If you continue with this type of language, I will be forced to ban you from this subreddit and I rather enjoy being able to have discourse with you.
   
   
5. I did not report those comments. The comments were reporting for containing the word "trans activist", which is supposed to satirize the claim that "TERF is a slur"
   
   
6. 2 subreddits lack any posts. At least one of them was intended as a joke. And trans people are not some homogenous blob that coordinates our every actions in some sort of Borg hive mind (this is not to imply that GC users are).
   
   >I mean for heaven's sake, you made an entire post shitting on Missi for "infantalizing and condescending" language because she said "Off to a great start buddy" to someone who couldn't even spell her name right. Like really????
   
   Calling out bad behavior =/= "shitting on". Buddy is extremely condescending, along with "hon", "honey" and similar terms.
   
   >We don't though. You're just massively reaching on that front. I could find as many, if not easily more, parallels between the language of your community and the alt right, but the thing is, if we're all speaking english, we're all going to be using some of the same fucking words.
   
   I don't think you understood what I meant by parallels in language. There have been a lot of analyses of Nazi-specific phrasing, terminology and language. The way that certain ideological subcommunities utilize language is often unique or characteristic, which means that "not all of us use the same words"
   
   "TERF is a slur" <-> "Anti-racist is code for anti-white" <-> "Nazi is a slur", which all comes with the "well they called me a _, so I'll just own it" mentality (see flairs on GC that say things like "I was born a TERF")
   
   Making lists of crimes that a population does (which is exactly the Klan fallacy)
   
   Vague appeals to free speech
   
   Accusations of being funded by George Soros
   
   Fearmongering over a website changing terminology to be more inclusive ("vagina" being used alongside "front hole") <-> the dozens of instances of the alt-right talking about how language changes erase white people
   
   "IQ science is racist" <-> "Science is a TERF"
   
   I could go on but I have work in a few minutes
   
   >This is such a disingenuous post, and given how much you're back peddling, I think you damn well know it.
   
   I'm not backpedaling. You misunderstanding what I meant is not backpedaling.
   
   >Sweet ass back peddling. "Thanks for showing your true colors" implies nothing of the sort.
   
   True colors:
   
   >the kind of person someone really is rather than what the person seems to be
   
   Showing your true colors:
   
   >reveal one's real character or intentions, especially when these are disreputable or dishonorable.
   
   Using similar language and rhetoric to alt-right groups is a character trait.
   
   >I'm a akin to alt-right neo-nazi racist white supremacist communities.
   
   I did not say this.