1. Katy Kneisel Michael Madden 1 st, Bartlett

2. How did Hitler become so powerful?

3. Adolf Hitler was sent by German authorities to investigate the German Worker’s Party, but ended up joining after impressing them with his speaking skills. He quickly climbed the ranks and became the party’s leader before being ousted with the rest of the party and thrown in jail for his radical ideas after failing to create a national following. In prison, he wrote Mein Kampf, which helped him to garner national acclaim and attention. Following the market crash in 1929, Hitler’s party once again gained power under Hindenburg. He later named himself Leader and Chancellor in 1934, and the Nazis took control of Germany.

4. Did any Nazis oppose the Holocaust? What did they do?

5. Some youth whose parents were part of the Nazi party recognized the atrocities taking place and did not agree with adult ideas and ideologies. However, it was difficult to make any changes due to their lack of credibility as children. Many Germans were unaware of the genocide taking place within the concentration camps until after they had been liberated. The stories of mass murder were kept out of the media as to prevent punishment from the Allied Powers. Soldiers who worked in the camps took pride in their positions, only realizing after the war what terrible acts they had committed.

6. What was the Hitler Youth program? How did it affect young people?

7. The Hitler Youth program was an attempt to enforce Nazi ideals in the “minds of tomorrow” by brainwashing young children to hate non-Aryans, just as their parents had before them. Hitler Youth was Hitler’s way of ensuring the Nazi Party’s growth and future. It became an equivalent of school for many young boys and girls. Men were taught to be soldiers by participating in “military athletics” programs such as trench digging, grenade throwing, map reading, etc. Women were taught to be nurses and mothers, as the idea of a strong Nazi family was stressed. Hitler Youth affected young people by using excessive propaganda to brainwash children and took away much of their free time to be kids by making them soldiers and participants in war at an early age.

8. Sources Cited “Adolf Hitler.” Biography. A+E Television Networks. n.d. Web. 19 May. 2013. Ezard, John. “Germans knew of Holocaust horror about death camps.” The Guardian. The Guardian. 16 Feb. 2001. Web. 16 May. 2013. Trueman, Chris. “Hitler Youth Movement.” History Learning Site. n.p. n.d. Web. 16 May. 2013.