Including while Excluding – the Hitler Youth from a History of Education Perspective

Résumé

The internal contradictions of the Nazi’s policies on population engineering led to the creation of specific patterns of social inequality. The ambivalent ambitions of pursuing social selection according to racist criteria and simultaneously pushing forward the totalitarian assimilation of as many population groups as possible in order to stabilize their power base led to ambiguous grey areas with regard to the question of which individuals should or should not be integrated. This extended to the Nazi’s youth policy. Inclusionary overtures were therefore permanently entangled with the threat of exclusion for those positioned within this zone of ambiguity. This article discusses the resulting phenomena and individuals’ experiences using the example of “Special Brigades” (Sonderbanne) in the Hitler Youth.