A Hitler Youth in Poland: The Nazis' Program for Evacuating Children During World War II

From 1933 to 1945, millions of German children (some 2.8 million between 1940 and 1945 alone) were evacuated from big cities to camps and schools in the countryside under a program called the Kinderlandverschickung (KLV). Translated by critics as Kinderlandverschleppung--""rural child abduction"" as opposed to ""sending""--or Kannst langsam verrecken--""you can slowly croak""--KLV is an aspect of Nazi education that hasn't been well studied except by its apologists. Hermand, a professor of German at the University of Wisconsin, offers a disturbing memoir of his youth in five KLV camps, four in Poland. The KLV was meant to toughen effete city boys into Nazi soldiers, not to teach them: ""Knowledge would only spoil my young people,"" Hitler had said. ""I want a brutal, domineering, fearless, and cruel youth."" The routine was one of sports, field maneuvers and marching punctuated by songs like ""Red sunrise, red sunrise, you guide my way to early death."" As the wolf pack was the Nazi pedagogical model, children were often left to their own devices, with tougher boys physically and sexually torturing the weaker ones. It is essentially Lord of the Flies, and Hermand, who was small with a pronounced stutter, is honest about his role as Piggy. But he doesn't excuse himself: recalling the brutal murder of a pregnant Polish woman by an SS man and the torture of other weak boys, he says, ""I don't remember our ever going to the assistance of anyone."" It is his unflinching honesty that makes Hermand's slim memoir valuable. (Dec.)