Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow by Susan Campbell Bartoletti

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

This non-fiction book tells the story of children and teenagers who grew up in Germany during Hitler's rise to power and throughout World War II. This book is organized chronologically, but also is organized around the experiences of twelve different young people: some of them were members of the Hitler Youth, some were resisters, and some were persecuted Jewish youth. One of the most beautiful things about this book is that it avoids moralizing: the story and experiences are told sparely, using primarily the young people's own words, gleaned from interviews, diaries, and memoirs. This allows the reader to draw their own conclusions about the Hitler Youth organization. While this book is filled with interesting facts about the day to day operation of the Hitler Youth, the book is also a treasure trove of poignant pictures that capture the public face of the Hitler Youth and the private shame of Hitler's anti-Semitic policies. This is an extremely interesting, informative and insightful book about what it was like to grow up "in Hitler's shadow".

AWARDS & REVIEWS:

1996 Newbery Honor Book
1996 Sibert Honor Book

"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." --School Library Journal, starred review

"Nonfiction writing at its best. Essential for WWII collections as well as teaching units on conformity, peer pressure and resistance." --Kirkus Reviews, 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." --Booklist, starred review

CONNECTIONS:

Other books that are appropriate for this age group that could be paired with this non-fiction book include Number the Stars by Lois Lowry and Anne Frank's Diary. The back of the book also has an extensive reference list that a teacher might use to glean further first-hand information about the experiences of WWII.

Students could also conduct their own research on the people interviewed for this book (I found ample material about Helmuth Hubener, Karl Heinz-Schnibbe, etc.) and discuss what the author left out and why (for example, Helmuth Hubener was excommunicated from his church but reinstated posthumously).