Hitler Jugend Leistungsabzeichen [Hitler Youth] proficiency badge
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Artifact

Hitler Youth proficiency badge

This Hitler Youth proficiency badge would have been awarded for the successful completion of a series of tests measuring physical and ideological proficiency. Success in these tests was rated according to criteria in the Hitler Youth identity document and performance book known as the Leistungsbuch. On this badge, the arrow shape (the tyr-rune) represents the warrior god Tyr. 

Beginning in 1933, the Hitler Youth and the League of German Girls had an important role to play in the new Nazi regime. Through these organizations, the Nazi regime planned to indoctrinate young people with Nazi ideology. This was part of the process of Nazifying German society. The aim of this process was to dismantle existing social structures and traditions. The Nazi youth groups were about imposing conformity. Youth throughout Germany wore the same uniforms, sang the same Nazi songs, and participated in similar activities. Badges such as this one emphasized the paramilitary nature of the Hitler Youth organization. It was designed to train boys as future fighters and soldiers for the Nazi cause. 

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Hitler Youth youth culture Third Reich synchronization
  • US Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, gift of Cayla D. Houston
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