GERMAN YOUTH

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 October 1939, Page 6

GERMAN YOUTH

TAUGHT ONLY “HITLER.” AUSTRALIAN VISITOR'S IMPRESSIONS. The average “sun-tanned boy of the Australian beaches” was physically superior to the average German boy trained in the Hitler Youth Movement, said the Minister for Health, Mr FitzSimons, in an address on his' recent visit to Germany, at Lyceum Hall, Syd■new.

During a vivid description of a youth camp which he visited, Mr FitzSimons declared: “Youth today is the flower of the German Army, but it has been taught only ‘Hitler.’ This is its gospel. It knows nothing else. “I was accompanied to the camp by the commandant of the Hitler Youth Movement,” he said. “Storm Troopers rode before and behind us. The camp was well placed on the shores of a lake, with a forest in the background.” The camp, he continued, appeared to be run on military lines. There was a military guard on the gate. The boys ages ranged from 9 to 17 years. “The boys slept eight to a tent on straw placed on the ground. They were well cared for, and doctors were in attendance. ■Tn the centre of the camp there were an isosceles triangle, in which was a mound .On the mound a 10-year-old youth stood erect, his feet apart. Behind him burned a fire—the flame of German youth. He symbolised German youth. Behind were massed swastika marked flags.”

The symbol coilveyed by the group was that the Nazi movement was the eternal guardian of youth. “Just then,” he said, “there came the sound of singing in the distance. Then, into the camp marched 500 or 600 boys of the movement, fifes playing, drums banging. Each lad wore a brown shirt.’ The boys formed a hollow square. Silver trumpets pealed, swastikas unfurled, and hundreds of voices shouted, -Heil, Hitler!” The boys were thep drilled in barrack-square fashion, orders being shouted at them as if they were being prepared for army routine. Mr FitzSimons added: ”1 thought as I looked on. ‘I have a boy at home, nearly nine years old. Thank God he s not here today.” Although the camp was well found, he said, it was not Christian, but mili ■ tant and military.

At Munich the German Government tendered Mr FitzSimons a dinner. I was referred to as a British Minister, he said, “because the officials could not understand the system of State JBid Federal Government in Australia. ’ Mr FitzSimons described his visit <c the Brown House, the venue of the early struggles of the Nazi Party. “At the Fuehrer's house nearby.” he said. “I entered the largest lounge I have seen anywhere —it was much larger than that seen at St James’s Palace or Buckingham Palace.” When Mr FitzSimons visited the partlv-built Nuremberg Stadium (which will be the largest of its kind in the world) an official told him that it would be used only for policy speeches by Herr Hitler. Mr FitzSimons formed the impression that, even in July. Gcimanv was in a state of war preparedness. At one large hospital, he said, there were only seven resident medical officers rA duty, the remainder having been called up for army service.