WW2: Hitlerjugend Führerschule - Niederalm, Grödig, Austria (ca.1940)

• published: 30 Sep 2015
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Pan slowly up to a Hitler Youth Flag waving. A mountain range is visible. 00:01:15 A Hitler Youth organizer meets with members outside the Salzburg train station prior to leaving for camp. The boys carry suitcases. Sign by the road with "HJ Fuehrerschule Groedig 1km" and a two-toned diamond with a swastika. Scenes of the camp at Groedig and mountain landscape from above. 00:02:00 The boys pile out of the bus and are arranged into groups. Boys carry uniforms out of the administration building. The algiz rune, a symbol Nazis used as a celebration of the history of German language, is displayed prominently on the door. 00:02:47 A doctor examines one of the youth members. The boys are woken up at 6:00 am and lined up for exercises and training. Boys exercising. 00:05:52 HJ throwing mock hand grenades. 00:06:11 HJ playing Battle ball (Kampfball). 00:06:25 Quick sequence in Munich, German soldiers drive past the cathedral. They march in Karolinenplatz by the large, metal-plated obelisk. Nazi propaganda hangs from houses and buildings. The NSDAP established a remote government location in the neighborhood’s Brown House as early as 1930; the building was destroyed by Allied air bombs late in the war. 00:06:59 Back in the mountains at Groedig camp, Hitler Youth members are taught to use compasses, maps, and guns. The boys march under a sign reading "elementary shooting space" on their way to target practice. 00:09:19 The boys work outdoors staking plots and digging. Older members of the Hitler Youth and their commanders hike up a mountain. They reach the summit mount and picnic. 00:11:07 Back at camp, the bare-shirted men sing and play a guitar and a zither. 00:12:17 Hitler Youth lay a wreath on a grave (from the cemetery built during WWI holding mostly Russian POWs and some Austrian war dead) and salute. The battalion commanders in uniform shake men's hands (in civilian dress). In Groedig, Austria, the Hitler Youth camp's site manager gives commands to the organized troop. He has a death's head emblem on his cap. A HJ member with SS patch practices giving orders. The troops run drills. A senior Hitler Youth officer with glasses reviews the men and gives orders. He wears a Hitler Youth uniform, with the rank of Obergebietsfuehrer, as well as an infantry assault badge and the ribbon for the Iron Cross, Second Class. 01:01:07 SS Oberscharfuehrer at left. The officer, second from left (shorter man), is an army Unteroffizier (roughly a corporal). He wears a buttonhole ribbon indicating the award of the Iron Cross, Second Class. In the next shot, 01:01:09, you can see his silver Armored Assault Badge (in use from the end of 1939 on); that would make him a tank crewman with combat experience. The troops raise the Hitler Youth flag, march, run drills, and conduct target practice. 01:03:57 CU, the target sheet with bullet holes pierced through it. The troops exercise in the field. 01:05:06 They practice camouflaging themselves with mud and branches. A Hitler Youth scouts from a thicket. The Hitler Youth members continue physical training and playing sports. 01:09:05 Brief view of two elderly women local Austrians watching the boys race past the finish line. One boy wears an undershirt with the SS logo as they clean and polish their shoes. Biography/History: The camp at Niederalm, Groedig was used as a training school for the Hitler Youth after 1938. During the war it became a HJ training school for operating Flak guns. In 1944/1945, refugees were accommodated in the remaining barracks, also known as Swabia camp. Education in Nazi Germany aimed at three primary goals: love of Fuehrer, belief in race hygiene and creating a more martial society (physical fitness and war-like skills and games). This film clearly supports the last goal with a bit of added comradeship and trust building exercises. Kampfball [Battle ball] was a team sport. The point of Battle Ball was to move a medicine ball through the opposing goal by any means possible. Throwing, rolling, pushing, carrying or any combination thereof was permitted to move the ball forward. Any defense was allowed, even holding, punching, or tackling. Battle Ball was one of the most popular sports in Nazi Germany, especially in the Hitler Youth and SA. It supposedly promoted a "decisive take-action not think" and a "goal orientated" kind of approach to problem solving. It also certainly promoted team thinking and cooperation. Acquisition Notes: Capt. Robert Charles Gale served with the U.S. 4th Infantry Division from 1942-1946. He obtained five 16mm films from the Berchtesgaden (15km from Groedig, Austria) in Spring 1945 and donated them via his son-in-law and daughter, James and Barbara Gatti, to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in February 2013. Capt. Robert Charles Gale Collection Event Date: after 1939? RG Number: RG-60.1381 + RG Number: RG-60.1382 Source: James and Barbara Gatti Credit: US Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of James and Barbara Gatti