Hitler Youth by Susan Campbell Bartoletti

Bartoletti, S. C. (2005). Hitler Youth: Growing up in Hitler's shadow. New York: Scholastic Nonfiction.

This book follows and shares true stories of personal accounts of the children who grew up in Nazi Germany times. The children contributed willingly, and under strict obedience, to the Fuhur and the Fatherland, Adolf Hitter. German children were extremely radicalized under Hitler’s command that they would turn in their own parents if they did not follow the Nazi culture and order. Not only were boys trained and served under Hitler’s reign of power, but little girls and young women shadowed the same guidelines and strict obedience for becoming the future of Germany. The young women and girls were in groups called Junmadel and Bund Deutschermadel. Each story is told in chronological order and follows the timeline of the year leading up to World War II and beyond. Every photo connected to a description that explains what is taking place in the picture. The authentic black and white photos reveal the raw emotions these young children were experiencing. The detail and candid accounts transport the reader back to a time of war, hate, and death. The author provides a table of contents, a picture and description of each of the children mentioned in the book, a forward to the story, an epilogue, timeline in years, author’s note, information about the photographs, quotes sources, and an index. This book has won the Newberry Honor award and the Robert Sibert Honor award. I would recommend this book to upper elementary History teachers.