The BDM or The League of German Girls was
the female section of the Hitler Youth. Young women between the ages
of 14 and 18 belonged to the BDM; girls 10-14 joined the Jung Maedel
(JM). Some girls like Melita Maschmann were very excited to be part of
a Nazi organizataion and were thrilled with the spectacles and events
put on by the party. Others, such as Elizabeth Dopazo, who had to join
the BDM to prevent suspicion falling on her and her grandparents was
ambivalent about the organization and felt trapped by the strict controls
placed on members’ lives.
Melita Maschmann, was fifteen when Hitler came to power on January
30, 1933. She was eager to become part of the BDM and felt a part of
the Nazi movement. Some time later, she recalled the events of January
30th:
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Some of the uncanny feeling of that night remains
with me even today. The crashing tread of the feet, the sombre
pomp of the red and black flags, the flickering light from the
torches on the faces and the songs with melodies that were at once
aggressive and sentimental. |
| |
Melita Maschmann, Account Rendered, pp. 10-13,
as quoted in Margot Strom, et. al., Facing History and Ourselves:
Holocaust and Human Behavior, p. 157. |
Melita enjoyed being part of a large and successful movement and continued
to support the Nazis after the November Pogrom of 1938.
Elizabeth Dopazo had a very different response to the structure and
control exercised by the BDM. She and her brother joined the Hitler Youth
to prevent the Gestapo suspecting their grandparents of disloyalty to
the Nazi regime. Elizabeth and her brother had gone to live with their
grandparents in Lubeck after their father and mother were arrested for
their involvement with the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Elizabeth’s
father was sent to a concentration camp where he died; her mother was
sent to a jail where she spent most of the war years. As Elizabeth recalls,
there were daily tensions as to whether they obey the authorities in
school or remain true to their beliefs as Jehovah’s Witnesses rather
than obey the authorities.
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My brother and I talked about all these things
at home and after school. WE had a little attic we used to go in
and discuss what would be best. . . .
Later, around age twelve or thirteen, we joined the Hitler Youth [Elizabeth the
BDM; her brother the HJ], which we actually didn’t want to do, but the
Gestapo came to my grandparents’ house, just like you’ve seen it
in the movies with the long leather coats on and they stood at the front door
and they were saying, “Your grandchildren have to join the Hitler Youth
and if they don’t by Thursday we will take stronger measures.” After
they’d left we told our grandparents we’ll join tomorrow, even if
we hate all that stuff. They agreed we’d better do it and we were very
quickly donned those uniforms. . . .
As time went on, my brother, when he was thirteen or fourteen,
sort of was swayed. You know, you have to believe in something.
He wanted to be a German officer and said our father had been wrong
all along and that we went to the dogs for our father’s beliefs.
He died for his ideals and where are we? He was very angry. I was
too, but not as much. I was torn between what would be the good
thing to do and what would not. |
| |
As quoted in, Strom, et.al., Facing History and
Ourselves: Holocaust and Human Behavior, pp. 232-233. Also, Strom
and Johnson, Elements of Time, p. 221. |
After the war, many former members of the BDM missed the community
spirit of their youth experiences—“communal life in camps,
play and sport, even agricultural work and collective digging of tank
traps, were uppermost in their immediate recollections.” Other
girls, who had tried to avoid the BDM, did not have the same nostalgia.
For
more detail, see Gerhard Rempel, Hitler’s Children: The Hitler
Youth and the SS, p. 253. |
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