Hitler Youth Quotation Posters from 1940

Nearly every branch of the Nazi Party produced its own propaganda materials. Two collectors have kindly provided me with seven examples of weekly quotation posters issued by the Hitler Youth in 1940. According to the catalog of the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek, about 32 of these were published in 1940, after which publication was suspended.

Weekly Quotation Posters

The Nazis issued weekly posters with inspirational quotations. I already had many of these on the GPA, but a friend of the site recently provided me with about a dozen 1938 examples from Gau Saarpfalz that I have added to the page.

The Hitler Youth in Kiel

There was a burst of books of party history between 1938 and 1941, glorifying the "period of struggle." Today, I'm adding sections from a 1938 book titled The Hitler Youth in Kiel. It contains an introductory chapter outlining the history of the Hitler Youth in the area, which I have translated in full. There are then a lot of brief accounts, of which I have translated a few. The book has 128 pages. I've translated about twenty pages in all.

New Booklet for Boys on the Russian Campaign

Between 1940 and the end of 1942, the Nazis issued weekly 32-page booklets in a series titled Kriegsbücherei der deutschen Jugend ("War Library of the German Youth"). 156 appeared in the regular series, along with about a dozen special issues at the end.

I've added a translation of one of the last of the series, Waffen SS in Battle near Leningrad. Although it appeared in the late fall of 1942, it covered events of over a year before, when German forces were advancing toward Leningrad. I assume that, since the news on the Eastern Front was not all that good (the crisis at Stalingrad was clear to the leadership, if not yet the public), they were looking for a story of rapid advances rather than looming defeat.

Anti-Semitic Poster from 1941

A visitor to the GPA kindly provided me with this image, which I've added to the poster page. It looks to have been issued during the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. However, I am not sure of the language, and do not have a translation. I'd be pleased if someone would remedy my ignorance. UPDATE: I got an answer -- Drive the Jews and Bolshevists out of Europe, apparently.

Nazi Attacks on Catholicism (1935)

I've added material produced by the Nazi Party's propaganda office on "political Catholicism." This was the Nazi term for Catholics whose faith influenced their behavior beyond the strict limits of religious activity. The Nazis claimed that the Church was free to carry out its spiritual activities independent of state interference, but that politics, economics, and culture belonged exclusively to the Nazi state. During the mid-1930's, the Nazis waged a major campaign against the Church on several fronts, of which this material was a part.

Intended for the guidance of the party's speaker corps, it formed the basis of thousands of speeches delivered in every corner of Germany.

The Nazis Justify Attacking the Soviet Union

Hitler justified his invasion of the Soviet Union by claiming that he had acted at the last minute to prevent a Soviet attack on Germany. Today I've added an article titled "The Meaning of the Battle," taken from Signal, an illustrated magazine published twice monthly in many languages for foreign consumption. The map below shows the alleged placement of Soviet troops preparing to attack Germany.