Nonfiction Review-HITLER YOUTH

1. Bibliography

Bartoletti, Susan Campbell. 2005. Hitler Youth: Growing Up In Hitler's Shadow. New York: Scholastic, Inc. ISBN 0439353793

2. Plot Summary

Susan Campbell Bartoletti has revisited one of the darkest times in history when, under the control of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party, millions of Jewish people and "undesirables" were persecuted and executed. Told through the stories of the young people that were brought up in Germany at the time, Bartoletti brings this period of history alive from the perspective of former Hitler Youth, persecuted Jewish youth, and young people who bravely resisted the powerful Nazi movement. The book begins in 1932 when Hitler was just becoming powerful as the leader of the rising National Socialist Party and follows historical events through 1945 with the Allied victory of World War II and the suicide of Adolf Hitler. The last chapter summarizes the aftermath of the Third Reich such as the Nuremburg Trials and the state of Germany to the present. Bartoletti leaves young readers with a warning and a challenge: "What are you willing to do to prevent such a shadow from falling over you and others?" There is a brief epilogue that explains "what became of the young people in this book", as well as a timeline of events for the Hitler Youth. Bartoletti also provides an "Author's Note" that explains how her interest in this subject came about as well as a note about the origin of the abundant photographs in the book.

3. Critical Analysis

Bartoletti has taken an extemely profound time in World History and told it in a brand new way: from the perspective of the children who were indoctrinated, betrayed, persecuted, and manipulated by Hitler and the Nazi movement. Not only that, but she has written it in such a clear and simplistically powerful way, that young readers and adults alike will learn and be moved by this account. The stories of the young people that Bartoletti follows helps to personalize the events. Despite the amazing details and amount of information the book contains, the text is never overwhelming. Instead, it is divided into ten chronological chapters that are well organized and accompanied by an abundance of unbelievably powerful black and white photographs. The photographs cover everything from life in Germany, to front lines of battle, to concentration camps and complement the text perfectly. The amount of painstaking research Bartoletti conducted to make this book is evident. She has made an extremely important book that speaks to all mankind, but most importantly, to the next generation of young people-the ones who will decide what direction our future takes and whether or not we are destined to repeat history.

4. Review Excerpts

School Library Journal-Starred Review-"With a focus on the years between 1933 and the end of the war in 1945, Bartoletti explains the roles that millions of boys and girls unwittingly played in the horrors of the Third Reich...Bartoletti lets many of the subjects' words, emotions, and deeds speak for themselves, bringing them together clearly to tell this story unlike anyone else has."

Booklist-Starred Review-"Bartoletti draws on oral histories, diaries, letters, and her own extensive interviews with Holocaust survivors, Hitler Youth, resisters, and bystanders to tell the history from the viewpoints of people who were there."

The Horn Book-Starred Review-"The power of the account...matched by the many period...photographs, well-married to the text by strong captions and placement…"

5. Connections

*This book would complement any World History curriculum on World War II

*Could be used as part of a multicultural unit

*Could be used to introduce or in conjunction with a novel unit dealing with the Holocaust (ex. The Diary of Anne Frank, Number the Stars)

Other books on the Hitler Youth:

Kater, Micheal H. Hitler Youth. ISBN 0674019911

Koch, H.W. Hitler Youth: Origins and Development 1922-1945. ISBN 0815410840

Heck, Alfons. A Child of Hitler: Germany in the Days When God Wore a Swastika. ISBN 0939650444

Rempel, Gerhard. The Hitler Youth and the SS. ISBN 0807842990

Metalmann, Henry. A Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Germany in the 1930's. ISBN 1862272522

Dvorson, Alexa. The Hitler Youth: Marching Towards Madness (Teen Witnesses to the Holocaust) ISBN 1562544624

Other nonfiction books by Susan Campbell Bartoletti:

The Boy Who Dared ISBN 0439680131

Growing up in Coal Country ISBN 0395979145

Black Potatoes: The Story of the Great Irish Famine 1845-1850 ISBN 0618548831

Kids on Strike! ISBN 0618369236