5 elements of the youth health service (/Now WHO)
For Erika Geisler, at the beginning of the war department head in the Office of Health of the
Reichsjugendführung, it was obvious that the physicians in the Third Reich would have to prove their
personality and leadership skills above all in health education, since "in a responsible
responsible personal health management would help to decide whether the diseases of wear and tear, which are now in the foreground of medical interest, and the decline in performance caused by them, could be limited".446 However, health education, which was designed to be permanent and consistent, was only one of several areas of responsibility of the health service.
one of several areas of responsibility of the Hitler Youth's health service. In her
1942 article, Geisler systematized these fields of medical activity in the HJ
for young physicians who were still in the process of specialization, but also for leaders of the youth organization who were confronted with questions of health leadership in their
Associations were confronted. It distinguished three major content complexes: youth health assurance, youth health care; youth health education; and
Adolescent medical education (adolescent medical research).
1. health assurance. The tasks of health protection included above all the
first aid" of HJ members on duty and at all other events.
other events. Typical of these tasks were the monitoring measures in
camps, on trips, in youth hostels, on sports fields and at mass events. Led by HJ physicians, most of whom worked on a voluntary basis
or students of medicine, youth health care was the preferred field of
field shears and health service girls. This work was carried out, for example, in the context of the extended Kinderlandverschickung, the Wehrertüchtigungslager,
the sports events, the rural service camps, and the youth hostels in 1939.
important to the war effort.
2. health care. Youth health care included regular medical checkups, health appeals, fitness examinations, i.e., all prophylactic measures that served to maintain, promote, and restore health. The health care measures potentially ensured that all children and adolescents were
children and adolescents for 12 years (from 6 to 18 years of age).
6 to 18 years of age) was guaranteed.
446 Geisler, Erika: Jugendarzt und Jugendführung (hereafter: Youth Doctor). Munich 1942, p. 18 (SD from:
Hans Reiter and J. Breger [eds.]: Deutsches Gold. Gesundes Schaffen - Frohes Schaffen, Munich 1942).
123
3 Youth health education. In youth health education, through instruction, but above all through exemplary behavior on the part of the leaders, the following should be taught
the subjects of personal hygiene, healthy living, clothing, nutrition, alcohol and nicotine consumption
The aim was to educate young people about personal hygiene, healthy housing, clothing, nutrition, alcohol and nicotine consumption, and sexually transmitted diseases, and to prevent damage.
In addition, racial and population policy training was to take place here, for which the
for which the HJ physician was regarded as the appointed mediator. The periodicals of the Hitler Youth and the corresponding training material show that a broad range of activities were carried out in this area.
was developed in this area. Even in wartime, health instruction was considered the most important task of the physicians' health care activities, since it was
and physicians, since it was indispensable for the education of healthy, capable, strong-willed, ready-for-action Germans. It will be shown, however, that in the course of the war the training work encountered increasing difficulties in practical implementation as well as in motivation, in that the
The shortage of goods of all kinds, the lack of personnel and the loss of any kind of normality in the world of life made the problems of long-term health education even more difficult.
of long-term health education took a back seat to the acute problems of (over)living.
problems of (over)life.
In addition to these three main areas of responsibility, there was also the field of
research in adolescent medicine, which was to be given its own institutional framework outside the universities through the founding of an "academy". Here
the results and findings of practical youth medical activities in the Hitler Youth, but also in the
Hitler Youth, but also in the health offices (serial examinations) could be systematically evaluated.
the results of the scientific work were to benefit the practical work in the units.
practical work in the units.
124
5.1 Health assurance
"Outposts in the health service" - field scissors and health service girls in
the Hitler Youth
If compulsory service in the Hitler Youth was often perceived as a mindless compulsory event,447 it can be seen that attractive offers increased the motivation of the
children and young people to attend the weekly meetings on a regular basis.
increased. Especially in the special units of the youth organization (Marine-, Flieger-,
Motor-, Nachrichten-HJ) opened up opportunities for challenging and encouraging leisure activities,448 which, beyond family, school, and on-the-job training, also offered opportunities for
orientation and qualification in promising, mostly technical areas.
For the special units, moreover, the service was designed for use in the respective units of the Wehrmacht and was intended to impart appropriate skills.449
The same can be said for the Feldscher- und Gesundheitsdienstmädelwesen, which, although not explicitly included in the
which, although not explicitly counted as special units, was increasingly used over the course of the
increasingly used as a preparation for, if not a prerequisite for, training in health and
in health and social professions or even medical studies, as well as for medical service in the army, the air force, or the navy.450 Thus
it says under the title "Junge Eysenbärthe? No: HJ-Feldschere!" in an article in the
Junge Welt magazine in 1941: "Twenty-five years ago, that is, at the time of the World War,
we did not yet have a youth health service; at that time, the youth could not yet provide the Wehrmacht with trained junior staff. Today it is different. So,
as our comrades from the MHJ. (Marine-HJ, author's note) go to the Kriegsmarine, our
Flieger-Hitlerjungen to the Luftwaffe, and the motorized troop units to provide their offspring from
447 A bibliographical overview of "life history texts" by members of the HJ generation
concerning the years 1933-1945: Heinz Schreckenberg: Erziehung, Lebenswelt und Kriegseinsatz der deutschen Jugend unter Hitler. Notes on the Literature (Geschichte der Jugend 25), Münster (et al.) 2001,
S. 440-456.
448 Cf. in detail: Buddrus, Totale Erziehung für den totalen Krieg, T. 1, pp. 186 ff. 449 The special units were to fulfill two tasks: "The first is to select for individual Wehrmacht units the boys who are physically, mentally, and characteristically suitable. The other is to pretrain them." (Helmut Stellrecht: Die Wehrerziehung der deutschen Jugend, Berlin 1936, p. 137).
450 A contemporary witness reports: I actually wanted to become a doctor and therefore did my first internship in the health service. I had also already helped the public health officer with serial examinations during the school vacations and worked in the office of a general practitioner at the public health office in Kassel." (Sabine Hering, Kurt Schilde: The BDM Work "Faith and Beauty. The Organization of Young Women in National Socialism, Opladen 2004, p. 145).
125
get the Motorgefolgschaften, so our Feldschere go later once all to the Sanitätsstruppe. "451
Accordingly, when applying for the rank of Oberfeldschers, it was already necessary to take into
that "the Oberfeldscher in the Hitler Youth would be the future HJ doctor, HJ dentist, or HJ doctor.
dentist or HJ pharmacist" and, after completing his professional training, was to perform his
service in the Hitler Youth. For the "youth comrade" in question it was
therefore demanded,
- he "must be prepared to commit himself wholeheartedly to National Socialism,
- he must at least possess the HJ. merit badge for his age group and engage in regular physical exercise,
- he must have proved that he has leadership qualities and is ready for action. "452
In addition, HJ doctors were to "select from the ranks of the HJ.
field scissors who were suitable for the medical profession, but also to introduce them to medical science.
medical science, but also to obtain for them, by means of their certificates, the scholarship awarded by the Reichsärzteführer for HJ field scissors".453 The same applied to the young female physicians: "Even at an early age
The same applied to the young female physicians: "Already in the youth organization, we female physicians must work to ensure that a selection of girls is made here for our later professional work. Only
the most capable, politically and character-wise reliable girl who has proven herself in the health service of the
health service of the BDM will be able to fulfill the later tasks of a doctor.
will be fulfilled. In the future, the leader of the BDM, in cooperation with the doctor, must make this selection and choose only the girl who has proven herself professionally and in terms of attitude.
posture. "454
Establishment and Development of the HJ Medical Service
The establishment of the Hitler Youth's own medical service was the first and foremost task of the health service after 1933.
priority task of the health service within the framework of the NS youth organization. Its concrete implementation resulted from the HJ's self-imposed task of "protecting the existing state of health of German youth from health disorders caused by the
451 n.n. (Erika Geisler ?): Young Eysenbärthe? No: HJ field scissors! Trained and proven!, in: Junge Welt 3
(1941), S. 3.
452 Reichsjugendführung (ed.): Gesundheitsvorschrift der Hitler-Jugend (Dienstvorschrift der Hitler-Jugend),
Berlin 1939, p. 15.
453 RJP, no. 2 (4.1.1939), p. 2. 454 Ursula Kuhlo, Das Referat Ärztinnen, in: Die Ärztin 16 (1940), pp. 113-115, p. 115; this: Der Gesundheitsdienst des BDM, in: Das Junge Deutschland 32 (1938), pp. 86-89, p. 87.
service and to raise the state of health of the whole".455 Building on
the Reich Youth Day in Potsdam at the beginning of October 1932 - at that time the SA had
the SA had had to take over the care of several tens of thousands of young people - the so-called troop medical service was organizationally combined in Department V (medical and field surgeon services) of the HJ headquarters after the seizure of power. In 1934, Baldur von Schirach appointed Karl-Walter Kondeyne as the head of the newly created
created office of "Health" in the Reich Youth Leadership;456 the SA doctor had made a name for himself
by organizing the medical care of the "largest march of National Socialism" to that time in Potsdam.
National Socialism" in Potsdam. After his appointment to the HJ headquarters, Kondeyne gave up his general medical practice in Berlin and devoted himself to building up an HJ health organization as "Reichsinspekteur für das Gesundheitswesen des Deutschen Jungvolks," later as "Leiter des Gesundheitsamtes der Reichsjugendführung" (Head of the Health Office of the Reich Youth Leadership) and "Reichsarzt der HJ. The task of health care was not only to provide first aid, but rather to
first aid, but rather in all the measures that were considered necessary to "prevent endangerment of the health of the youth comrades" and to ensure their
preservation. In detail were mentioned:
- the supervision of the duty roster; the performance of duty and the health passes,
- observance of the epidemic laws and other state hygienic measures,
- observance of special regulations in the camps, in Führerschulen, Adolf Hitler schools, BDM home schools, HJ homes, Landdienst camps, as well as on trips, during sporting events and at
trips, at sporting events, and at the Reich Party Congress.457
An important sub-task and prerequisite of the troop medical service was the training of "field shears" of the HJ and "health service girls" of the BDM. The field surgeon badge - a red embroidered healing rune on a white oval cloth - could only be worn by boys and girls who had passed the examination.
and girls who had passed the examination before a board of medical examiners to be
commission to be appointed by the area physician in consultation with the area leader.458 The "consciously
German" designation of "Feldscher" was substituted for the "ugly service designations of
455 Geisler, Jugendarzt und Jugendführung, p. 27. 456 RAR: Kondeyne, Karl-Walter, b.1903; app.: 1929; see also the short biography in Buddrus, Totale
Erziehung für den totalen Krieg, part 2, p. 1169.
457 Reichsjugendführung (ed.): Gesundheitsvorschrift der Hitler-Jugend (Dienstvorschrift der Hitler-Jugend),
Berlin 1939, p. 42.
458 Verordnungsblatt der Reichsjugendführung (1. Jg.), 7 October 1933, No. 229 (Betr. Feldscherabzeichen).
127
'Sanitäter,' 'Sanitätshitlerjunge,' 'Sani,' or similar" as a service designation for boys
chosen,459 who had undergone appropriate training.460
Training and Deployment
Training to become a Feldscher followed the training regulations of the HJGesundheitsordnung. As a rule, twelve double lessons were to be completed, followed by a monthly
a repetition evening was scheduled every month. The training included in detail:
- Human development, structure and life processes
- Hereditary and race care
- Health care
- First aid and bandaging, ambulance service
- Medical requirements for marching and driving
- Nursing (BDM: introduction to the tasks of the nurse)
- Auxiliary services during examinations
- Handling of the health service material.
As a result, the children and young people should be able to behave properly in case of accident or illness and to administer first aid. Especially large marches
as well as HJ camps were thus secured "sanitary" with their own forces.461
The following were naturally considered particularly suitable for tasks in the area of health services
Young people who already had ties to the health professions: dentists, nurses, druggists, physiotherapists, and nurses in training. In addition, medical candidates and medical trainees could be considered for an auxiliary
trainees could be employed as assistant physicians in the Hitler Youth and the BDM. Students of medicine, after appropriate probation and if they had belonged to the Hitler Youth for at least a year, received
for at least one year, they received the rank of "Oberfeldscher" (senior field officer).After passing their exams, they were to be used as HJ doctors if possible. Dentists were responsible for annual dental examinations and for instruction and propaganda in the area of dental care,
459 Paul Mühlenkamp: Gesundheitsführung der Hitlerjugend. Lecture held on June 21, 1937 in the Tonhalle
zu Düsseldorf, in: Deutsches Ärzteblatt 67 (1937), pp. 969-971, p. 969. RAR: Paul Mühlenkamp, b. 1906, app.
1932, pediatrician and area physician of the HJ in Düsseldorf.
460 Verordnungsblatt der Reichsjugendführung (1. Jg.), October 7, 1933, no. 227 (Betr. Feldscher). 461 Mühlenkamp, Gesundheitsführung der Hitlerjugend, pp. 969 f.
128
Pharmacists for the procurement, administration, and distribution of health service material;
they also trained the HJ units in gas protection.
The "health service material" was considered part of the "property of the NSDAP" and was to be used exclusively for HJ purposes. The minimum equipment required was that every boy
and each girl had to carry a first-aid kit. The field scissors carried bags or knapsacks with the appropriate material, the field scissor units had, depending on their size, equipment in boxes as well as in a bag.
equipment in boxes, as well as tents and stretchers, depending on their size; large units also had a
a "health service car train, equipped with enough material to set up a flying station to secure about 5,000 children and adolescents. "462
Feldschereinheiten were set up as special formations, especially in large cities, in order to be
to provide trained and ready field scissors for the health service at any time.
the strength of which depended on the size of the location.463 A Feldschereinheit
consisted of the (HJ) leader, an HJ doctor or HJ assistant doctor assigned as instructor,
a pharmacist, assistant pharmacist, or field surgeon responsible for the material
a "Jugendgenossen" (youth comrade) responsible for the administration of monetary transactions, the field shears and
the "youth comrades" in training. The duty roster of the field shears included
weekly one evening of physical exercise,464 monthly two home evenings of ideological training and two evenings of field shearer training; on one Sunday a month, sports were held, with special emphasis on the field shearer.
one Sunday a month, sports were held with special emphasis on field shearer service in the field.
In addition, special field schools existed in some HJ areas, where HJ girls and boys were trained for their tasks.
and boys of the HJ for their tasks in health leadership and physical education.
physical education. Such a school was opened for Saxony, for example, in 1939 by the HJ's area physician, Bannführer (Hugo) Rüdiger,465 in Leipzig. It offered space for
35 course participants, who were also housed and fed there during the three-week courses.466 The head of the school was Friedrich Trendtel.467
462 Reichsjugendführung (ed.): Gesundheitsvorschrift der Hitler-Jugend, Berlin 1939, p. 17. 463 Thus a ban order from Berlin reads: "Anforderung von Feldscheren. For trips and camps, the following must be requested
units must request field scissors from the field scissors unit at least one week before the start of the trip.
The request must also state the type of service and the duration of the service.
(Hitler Youth Bann 6 [Wedding-Reinickendorf] "Walter Wagnitz" of 15 Oct. 1937, sheet 6 [Landesarchiv Berlin: A Rep. 244-02, No. 1]). Cf. also: Reichsjugendführung (ed.): Ausbildungsvorschrift der HitlerJugend, Berlin 1939, p. 22 ff.
464 If necessary, with special consideration of rescue swimming or rescue service in the
mountains.
465 RAR: Hugo Rüdiger, born 11.4.1898, appointed 1923; NSDAP since 1930; director of the State Academy for
Race and Health Care, Dresden.
466 Die Gesundheitsführung "Ziel und Weg," Jg. 1939, p. 74 (Aktuelle Rundschau). 467 RAR: Friedrich Trendtel, b. 1902, Med. Rat; Dr. med; appointed 1925; initially at the Unna/Westphalia State Health Office; 1939 Leipzig Health Office; 1943 Medizinalrat and Amtsarzt in Schwerin/Mecklenburg.
129
For the Jungvolk ensigns and the Jungmädel groups, three field scissors or health
or health service girls were provided for each of the Jungvolk and Jungmädel groups. They were led by Feldscherführers and Gesundheitsdienstmädelführerinnen, who held the corresponding ranks as HJ leaders or
BDM leaders. Field shears of the Jungvolk were to be at least 13 years old.
They were allowed to perform their function even after they had transferred to the Hitler Youth at the age of 14.
exercise. Higher field shearer ranks (staff shearer, area shearer, Bannfeld shearer) had to be at least
14 years of age. In the case of the girls, if possible, health service girls of the BDM were to
the young girls should be on duty.
Field shears and health service girls were also used in the lower units, especially in the
in the practical implementation of the health service (serial examinations, vaccinations).
to support the young doctors, most of whom worked on a voluntary basis. As "outposts" of the
As "outposts" of the health service, they were not only to "help the HJ. physicians and BDM. physicians bear the great responsibility that lies in maintaining the health of our youth",
but also "by instruction and personal example (...) to assist in the education of the boys and girls to a healthy lifestyle.
to educate boys and girls to lead a healthy life". The prerequisite for this was knowledge of the human being "in its structure and in its life processes, as well as of the principles of National Socialist health management." These
principles, as well as the practical requirements of health assurance, were also the
training regulations were also designed with these principles in mind. The health service girls, for example, were not only to be taught about
the structure and life processes of the human being and the "development of life," but also
but also to have knowledge of body care (skin care, hair and nail care, dental care, sleep).
nails, dental care, sleep), clothing, housing, nutrition, and performance (at work, on the road, in
travel, in sports). In the context of first aid, they should treat injuries (wounds, bleeding and its care, blunt bruises, injuries of the
bones and joints, foreign bodies in the eye, ear, throat and nose) and be able to recognize and interpret important general symptoms of illness. In detail
under the heading "Art of Helping," skills in the areas of resuscitation
by artificial respiration, bandages and their application, care and use of health service material, nursing care, and patient transport were required.468
468 Reichsjugendführung (ed.): Ausbildungsvorschrift der Hitler-Jugend, Berlin 1939; see also Reichsjugendführung (ed.): Ausbildungsvorschrift der Hitler-Jugend: Der Gesundheitsdienst der Hitler-Jugend (HJ, DJ), 2nd edition, Berlin 1941.
The structure of the booklet corresponds to that of the edition for girls, although the specifics for boys (field scissors) are to be observed.
Boys (field shears) are to be noted. The section on water rescue is detailed and included only for boys, as is the section on ambulance transport as a task of the Feldschers (p. 160).
130
The above and other tasks of the girls in the sportt, on journeys, in the camps, in
Household schools, Führerinnenschulen and rural service camps were justified in accordance with the
Nazi ideology and the resulting image of women: "In the interest of improving the performance and efficiency of the entire nation, I must be in the place where I can do my best based on my aptitudes and qualities.
I must be in the place where I can do the best on the basis of my talents and qualities, and I must strive to maintain my performance to a ripe old age by practicing according to plan and by maintaining a healthy lifestyle. (...) The professional achievements of girls are only meaningful,
if they correspond to the physical and mental characteristics of the girls. From a mental point of view, it is the fields of work that give free scope to the girl's personal creative ability
artistic and craft occupations, as well as social and nursing occupations. "469
After the start of the war, health service training of 12 double hours became obligatory for all sixteen-year-old girls of the BDM.
human biology and the right way to help in case of injuries and illness were to become a natural possession of every girl. Erika Geisler, then head of the Health Department of the Reich Youth Leadership, expressly emphasized the "practical applications" of the health service training outside the HJ.470
Special regulations applied to the health service training programs established after the founding of the BDM's "Faith and
Beauty" in 1938.471 Under the direction of female physicians or health service girl leaders, medical, dental, and pharmacy students, as well as medical gymnasts, medical-technical assistants, and laboratory assistants, could be called upon for this purpose.
laboratory assistants. The working groups were to include all health service girls and health service girl leaders of the BDM and the Jungmädel who were between 17 and
21 years of age. These girls and young women continued to supervise their units and to
participated in weekly training sessions on the subject of "healthy living" in the work
Lifestyle." In the first year, the classes each included four months of
- Basic training;
- Instruction in "health through personal hygiene, beauty care, clothing, and healthy living," and
469 Reichsjugendführung (ed.): Ausbildungsvorschrift der Hitler-Jugend, Berlin 1939, p. 74 ff. 470 Geisler, Jugendarzt und Jugendführung, p. 55. 471 In the BDM work "Glaube und Schönheit" (Faith and Beauty), the 18 to 21 year old German, i.e. "pure-blood"
Aryan girls and unmarried women were organizationally united; the work included about
400,000 female youths; cf: Hering/Schilde: Das BDM-Werk "Glaube und Schönheit," pp. 9 and
p. 37 ff.
131
- Instruction in the areas of "health through modern nutrition, combined with
practical cooking courses, also for diet cuisine and food for the sick. "472
In the second year, the basic knowledge was deepened and four months each were spent on the
Topics
- Health through physical exercise, gymnastics combined with practical exercises
(compensatory sports for city girls and country girls);
- Health and girls' business work in town and country, combined with visits to businesses;
- Healthy girl, healthy people.
In addition to training, practical health service was always carried out in the units.
This included participation in the summer camps of the BDM and the Jungmädel,
securing large-scale trips and sports festivals, participation in the sports of the Jungmädel and the
BDM. In addition to further training in purely medical matters, the female doctors had to constantly
with all aspects of health management, including population and racial policy. In 1943, there were reportedly more than 1,700 health service working groups throughout the Reich.473
HJ Health Service and German Red Cross
In addition, the working groups of the "Faith and Beauty" work cooperated closely with the German Red Cross.
beauty" worked closely with the German Red Cross, which was the most important organization in the
of the German Reich for the training of laymen and their use for war tasks and in disaster control. Guidelines of April 21, 1942, regulated the
cooperation between the DRK and the Reich Youth Leadership. According to these guidelines, the Red Cross provided the Hitler Youth with teachers, teaching materials and facilities for training free of charge.
free of charge; in addition, it recognized the training of field scissors and health service girls as equivalent to the basic training of the DRK. In return
the field shears and health service girls leaving the HJ were encouraged to join the DRK.
The DRK thus gained an already pre-trained new generation. All health service girls between the ages of 17 and 21 (i.e., members of the
BDM work "Faith and Beauty") were sent to the DRK for three months for training as nurse's aides.
After that, they still took part in the training program once a year.
472 Hering/Schilde: Das BDM-Werk, p. 26. 473 Hering/Schilde: Das BDM-Werk, p. 47.
132
monthly in advanced training and were available to the DRK for urgent assignments.474
Cooperation with the DRK had already existed since the early days of the Third Reich and can be seen as paradigmatic.
Reich and can be seen as paradigmatic for the assertion of the HJ's claim to be the sole and all-encompassing youth organization in the Third Reich.475 The starting point was the first aid training of girls in the BGB.
First Aid training of girls in the BDM by the Red Cross had been the starting point. Although this training had been welcomed by the Reich youth leadership of the NSDAP, it had been
the often practiced DRK practice of training only those girls who later wanted to join the DRK.476 The DRK, for its part, had been
For its part, the DRK was interested in maintaining first-aid training for reasons of recruiting new recruits and sought an agreement to this effect with the Reich youth leadership.477
Negotiations on this had begun at the end of February 1934 at the insistence of the Reich Ministry of the Interior;478 it was not until twenty months later, on October 1, 1935, that the corresponding agreement came into force.479 The DRK thus discontinued its independent youth work in favor of the HJ and the BDM. It disbanded its youth groups and received instead
an annual contingent of new recruits from the NSDAP organizations.
In return, DRK members taught first aid to members of the HJ and BDM at the request of the party youth organizations.480 The members of the former DRK youth groups and departments had to report to the HJ and BDM by June 15, 1936.481 They were then to receive feldscher training in their new organizations and to
to switch back to the DRK at the end of their HJ or BDM time.482 Another
agreement concluded in March 1938, the HJ was once again provided with training personnel and
Red Cross facilities were once again made available to the HJ, primarily for technical training.
g the HJ field scissors and BDM health service girls. In return, the HJ was to
in turn, was to ensure that the DRK "received the necessary new blood from its ranks every year.
474 Geisler, Jugendarzt und Jugendführung, p. 56; 475 Seithe, Horst; Hagemann, Frauke: Das Deutsche Rote Kreuz im Dritten Reich (1933-1939). With an outline
of its history in the Weimar Republic, Frankfurt 1993, p. 126 ff. 476 Letter from the NSDAP Reichsjugendführung, Abt. III to the RMdI, z. Hdn. Dr. Bartels, dated Dec. 15, 1933; in:
Bundesarchiv Berlin, R 1501, No. 26257/1, p. 1.
477 Hocheisen's statement of 12.1.34, Federal Archives Berlin, R 1501, No. 26257/1, p. 3. 478 Letter from the RMdI to the Reich Youth Leadership of 15.2.1934, Federal Archives Berlin, R 1501, No. 26257/1,
pp. 4 and 5.
479 Circular No. 417, in: Das DRK. Vereinsamtliche Nachrichten, No.11, Nov.1935, p. 79. 480 Circular No. 417, in: Das DRK. Vereinsamtliche Nachrichten, No.11, Nov.1935, p. 79. 481 Ausführungsbestimmungen zur Vereinbarung zwischen DRK und Reichsjugendführung, in: Bl. d. DRK, 15.
Jg, H. 5, May 1936, pp. 213-216, here p. 213.
482 Implementing provisions for the agreement between the DRK and the Reich Youth Leadership, in: Bl. d. DRK, 15.
Jg, H. 5, May 1936, pp. 213-216, here p. 213. This complex was codified again on 23.4.1942 in the
Richtlinien für eine Zusammenarbeit zwischen der Reichsjugendführung der NSDAP und dem DRK, in: DRKVerordnungsblatt 1942, F 55, Bl.3.
133
483 Demands for the training of future female physicians in the air-raid warfare service had already been made since 1936, with the first seven semesters being devoted to the following
qualification as a "Red Cross helper" with three months of hospital service, the successful completion of which became important for admission to the medical examination.484 In fact, in the summer of 1939, an agreement was reached with the
Reichsjugendführung, according to which 25,000 girls trained annually in first aid
of the BDM were to be forwarded to the DRK after completing their youth service obligation.485 Here, the immediate preparations for war may already have played a role,
which also repeatedly shone through in the training of female medical students in the DRK. After the start of the war, in order to ensure the "military and practical training of female medical students," the deployment of all female medical students in the German Red Cross was considered the most important measure.
in the German Red Cross as the most important organization "for the training of lay forces
and their use for war tasks and in disaster control" was obligatory.486 The
Reichsstudentenführer, the Reichsjugendführer, and the Presidium of the German Red Cross
Cross ordered by mutual agreement "the training of all female medical students as nurse's aides of the DRK," with the assignment covering the three sections of pre-study training, on-call duty in the pre-clinical section, and assignment as an instructor in the
clinical study section.487 Achim Thom evaluates these and other measures in the sense that the
to the effect that the DRK "within a few years, also under the influence of physicians belonging to the
NSDAP-affiliated physicians," the DRK had become a National Socialist medical auxiliary of the
had become.488
483 HJ. as a carrier of youth health. Agreement between Reich Youth Leader and Reich Medical Leader.
(RJP, no. 231 [1938], p. 2).
484 Achim Thom: Formen der Mitwirkung der deutschen Ärzteschaft bei der Kriegsvorbereitung durch das faschistische Regime in den Jahren 1933 bis 1939, in: Sabine Fahrenbach und Achim Thom (eds.): Der Arzt als
"Gesundheitsführer". Ärztliches Wirken zwischen Ressourcenerschließung und humanitärer Hilfe im 2. Weltkrieg, Frankfurt 1991, pp. 11-24, p. 19.
485 Implementing provision for the agreement between the DRK and the Reich Youth Leadership of 22 February 1938, in: DRKVerordnungsblatt, F. 8, Aug. 1939, p. 10. This ordered the girls who had undergone further training to be registered with the DRK district offices. The development culminated in the aforementioned guidelines for cooperation between the Reich youth leadership and the DRK of April 23, 1942 (DRKVerordnungsblatt 1942, F 55, Bl.3.). According to these guidelines, the DRK recognized the first-aid training conducted in the HJ and BDM as basic training for the DRK.
486 Geisler, Jugendarzt und Jugendführung, p. 55. 487 Zs. für Ärztl. Fortbildung 38 (1941), p. 369. 488 Achim Thom: Formen der Mitwirkung, p. 17.
134
The HJ Medical Service in World War II
During the Second World War, the field of h of health protection in the
the Hitler Youth "the most important operational field of work" and was considered to be of
in the context of the "Kinderlandverschickung," the military training camps, the sporting events, the rural service camps, and the youth hostels.489 In 1942, Richard Liebenow, then Reichsarzt of the HJ, spoke to foreign medical experts in Innsbruck about the tasks of the "Feldschere" (field scissors) and "Gesundheitsdienstmädel" (health service girls) during the war.
"Field scissors are what the medical ranks are in the military, who have to carry out all procedures that the doctor does not necessarily have to perform. (...) We protect all the facilities that the Hitler Youth has through this Feldscherwesen and through our doctors. Thus we have not only in the Adolf Hitler schools precinct and sick rooms,
we have the same in the youth dormitories, in the military training camps, in the
Land service camps, and in the harvest camps. Health service regulations ensure that
every camp leader and the field shearers who are assigned there know what they have to do in individual cases
to do in each individual case; moreover, these health regulations ensure that the
health service is carried out uniformly and in accordance with regulations. "490 And in the same
year, Erika Geisler noted that the use of trained field shears, of which there were allegedly
47,000 of them were in the Hitler Youth, made it possible to provide "appropriate emergency aid at any time.
the girls, the number of health care assistants in every service was even
even disproportionately larger. 87,000 health service girls were available in the BDM, and since every girl was supposed to earn the BDM merit badge, "for which, in addition to a low average athletic performance, there is also a low average athletic performance.
average athletic performance, a short course in first aid is also required.
the number of girls trained in first aid in case of accidents and illnesses was considerable.
492 but - it should be added - not large enough.
In order to be able to meet the urgent requirements of the civilian and military sectors to some extent, a decree of March 11, 1942, ordered that each unit of the
Hitler Youth had to make available ten percent of its total strength for the purpose of feldsher training. If the designated strength was not met by voluntary enlistments
489 Buddrus, Totale Erziehung für den totalen Krieg, Part 2, p. 939. 490 Richard Liebenow: Die Gesundheitsführung der Hitler-Jugend im Kriege, in: Aus deutscher Medizin. Ausländisch-deutsches Medizinertreffen Innsbruck 1942, ed. by the foreign department of the Reichsgesundheitsführung and the foreign office of the German Dozentenschaft, Berlin/Vienna 1944, pp. 172-182, p. 180.
491 Geisler, Jugendarzt und Jugendführung , p. 55. 492 Geisler, Jugendarzt und Jugendführung, p. 55. In 1938, the number had not been half as large, with an alleged 40000 health service girls (cf.: Ursula Kuhlo: Der Gesundheitsdienst des BDM, Das Junge Deutschland 32 [1938], pp.86-88, p. 86).
135
If the number of young people reached the required number, the leader of a banner had to commit the missing young
obligate them. Feldscherdienst was added to the other services.493 With the use of these Feldschere and Gesundheitsdienstmädel in military hospitals, after bombing raids, or
care of refugees, in the context of total warfare, state and military duties were finally
and military tasks were transferred to the young people, to which they were ultimately not or only
They were ultimately unable to perform them, or could only do so at the cost of psychological and physical overstrain.
493 Das junge Deutschland 36 (1942), p. 126 (Official News).
Comments