Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Hitler Youth




















I felt like this book was very interesting and informative.  I've always been pretty interested in WWII and all the historical events surrounding it including the Holocaust and Hitler.  I hadn't really ever read anything specifically about the Hitler Youth until this book.  It definitely opened my eyes as to how Hitler was able to so easily take over Germany by going through the younger generation.  One reason I find teaching middle school appealing is because of the stage the students are at in their lives.  Adolescents are so easily influenced and want to fit in with their peers. Hitler really capitalized on this characteristic of young teenagers and took full advantage of it to win over the German people.  For this reason, I think this is a useful event of WWII for middle school students to study.  It shows how their generation can have a tremendous impact on the history of the world.  Not only did the Hitler Youth participate in negative activities, but many of them tried to rebel against Hitler and ultimately lost their lives because of it.  Students can learn great lessons from these stories about bravery, courage, and standing up for what one believes is right.  As far as using this book for middle school students, I'm not quite sure the best way to use it.  If I was teaching on WWII, I might would read snippets from it to the class.  I would also recommend it as a resource to use on a paper or project.  As far as handing it to a student to read, I just don't know about.  It was A LOT of information and slightly overwhelming.  I couldn't imagine a middle schooler being able to make it through the whole book without getting weighed down with all the material, especially if they weren't extremely interested in Hitler Youth.  Although it was written with stories in some parts, I think a book with more specific stories about less characters would be more enjoyable for middle schoolers.  Overall, I enjoyed the informative parts of the book and was really enlightened as to how Hitler managed to conquer Germany as he did.

1 comment:

  1. As I said in class, the fact that this book focuses on how well Hitler manipulated children to achieve his aims gives it a special meaning to young people. A long and well-researched book, worth sharing in part or whole.

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