In the past, I have known a few people whose parents were in the Jugend and the story is always the same: you joined or faced scrutiny by the Reich. There should be no stigma against those who were forced, almost quite literally at gunpoint, to join. They were just kids and were at the mercy of the whims of the Reich and their families. One girl I knew had a mother who was enrolled in the Jugend. Towards the end of the war, she was stood up in front of an air raid shelter, handed a rifle and ordered to shoot any soldiers who might try to run into the shelter. She didn't have to shoot; a bomb exploded near where she was standing and blew shrapnel into her leg...
The sins of the fathers, indeed...
<O>
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