The Hitler Youth Junior Section (Boys) & Volunteer Labour Service

 

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64. The Hitler Youth Junior Section (Boys): DJ - 'Pimpf, 1942, Winter Service Uniform.
65. The Hitler Youth Junior Section (Boys): DJ - Oberjungzugf�hrer, 1943, Winter Service Uniform.
66. The Hitler Youth Junior Section (Boys): DJ - Jungzugf�hrer, 1934, Summer Uniform.

The male side of the Hitler Youth was divided into two sections, the Hitler Youth proper made up of boys from 14 years to youths of 18 years and the Deutschelungvolk or DJ consisting of boys from the age of 10 to 14 (see also section on BDM, Nos. 61, h2, 63). Winter Uniform for the DJ, depending on the boys age, consisted of black shorts or long dark blue trousers worn with either the dark blue tunic or the dark blue blouse with large collar. Under this was worn a light brown shirt and black neckerchief held in place by a brown leather toggle. For summer wear the tunic was left off and shorts were worn. Members of the DJ wore only a single shoulder strap on the right shoulder of their tunics and blouse. It was black with a black edging and showed the number of the DJ unit in white cotton.

67. National Socialist Volunteer Labour Service and National Labour Service: Musician Freiwillige Arbeiter, 1931, Service Dress.
68. National Socialist Volunteer Labour Service and National Labour Service: Feldmeister, 1932, Service Uniform.
69. National Socialist Volunteer Labour Service and National Labour Service: Arbeiter, 1932, Winter Work Uniform.

The Reichsarbeitsdienst, the National Labour Service (RAD) had developed from an earlier Nazi Party organisation first set up in 1931 and known as the NS-Freiwillige Arbeitsdienst or National Socialist Volunteer Labour Service (Nos. 67, 68 & 69). This early Nazi formation was just one of many organisations created at that time to try and ease the unemployment amongst Germany's youth. In July 1931, in an effort to alleviate the problem of widespread unemployment, the Br�ning Government passed a law which allowed the setting up of work camps to house volunteers who undertook to perform volunteer labour service. In an effort to counter their political rivals the Nazis proceeded to organise their own camps. The first Volunteer Labour Service camp was mustered at Hammerstein in the Grenzmark District. A few months later the Free State of Anhalt made such labour service State-wide. In 1929, Konstantin Hierl had been appointed by Hitler charged with the responsibility of creating a nation-wide labour service organised along military lines. Hierl had been a professional soldier with over thirty years military service. He had served as Director of the War Academy in Munich and later at the War Ministry in Berlin. During the Spartacist troubles he had raised the 'Hierl Detachment' and driven the Socialists out of Augsburg. His Nationalist sympathies were beyond doubt and he was considered an ideal choice for this task. Hierl's collection of German Labour Service however went far beyond the need to counter unemployment. His Labour Service was to be a cardinal feature in the building of the New Germany. The idea behind it all was that manual labour provided the means of breaking down social and class barriers, moulding the character of the young and reviving interest in the dignity of manual labour. 'Labour service Hitler claimed 'shall be the proud privilege of Gerrnan Youth and shall be service to the whole Volk.' In 1933 Konstantin Hierl was appointed by Hitler as Secretary of State for Labour Service. After much interruptions and delays, caused in parr by foreign protests against what was regarded as thinly veiled military conscription, steps were taken in the summer of 1934 to introduce universal and obligatory labour service. On 26th June 1935 the Reich Labour Service Law was passed making service in the RAD both nation-wide and compulsory. The RAD ceased to be a Party organisation and instead was created a Supreme Reich Authority, a state organisation on a par with the other Reich ministries. Hierl, as Reichsarbeitsf�hrer (No. 74) became a member of the Party's ReichsIeitung as a Secretary of State. From this date, 26th June 1935, all male Aryan Germans between the ages of 17 and 25 years had to serve in the RAD for six months, which once the machinery got under way became six months labour service prior to induction into the Armed Forces. In peace-time the RAD was instrumental in the construction of the Autobahn system as well as other roads. They undertook land reclamation, drainage projects and soil conservation work. Much of their work was however of a military nature. At the outbreak of war the RAD became an important auxiliary of the German Armed Forces. It formed the nucleus of the construction battalions of the Army and Air Force. To begin with such battalions were formed by the outright conversion of the RAD units into pioneer groups with an average strength of 2,000 men and consisting of four construction companies and three construction columns. They served in the Polish Campaign of 1939 during which they helped construct fortifications, roads and airfields, carried out repairs to railways, brought up supplies, collected and sorted captured equipment, guarded prisoners and helped with the Polish harvest. In December 1939 the RAD reverted to its original role and from then on for the rest of the war continued to carry out its war-time duties under its own commanders and under RAD rules and administration. By 1943 the men of the RAD were fully armed and had become completely militarised (No. 73). They now performed, in addition to their construction work and labouring, the task of laying minefields and manning fortifications. They were taught anti-tank and anti-aircraft defence duties. By 1944 conditions within Germany had worsened to such an extent that it made it necessary for the RAD to be employed in operating anti-aircraft batteries. One of their primary functions during this period was to help in fire fighting, the construction of air raid shelters and temporary accommodation for the bombed-out and the clearing of bomb damage. The RAD was active in all German-held territory and in many instances individual RAD units remaining in the field or finding themselves in German areas which became parts of the combat zone were often absorbed into the Wehrmacht usually to fight as infantry. In 1939 it was estimated that the membership of the RAD stood at 360,000 men. This number decreased rapidly and was considerably less at the end of the war. The early FAD uniforms were in many ways similar to the uniforms of the RAD. The basic uniform colour of earth brown was used by both organisations as was the facing and piping colour of dark, or chocolate brown, both colours having an obvious association with earth and soil. The system of rank insignia developed from the Volunteer Labour Service's use of simple silver on black collar patches and shoulder straps (No. 68), through the introduction in 1936 of the red and white design on black collar patches to the use in 1 940 of new insignia; the shoulder straps remaining the same (Nos. 70, 71, 72). By 1940 and again in 1943 this rank insignia had undergone another change. The appearance of the shoulder straps was more military, the collar patches were modified (Nos. 73, 74) and new branch colours were made use of, notably dark bottle green for RAD Administration personnel and Cornflower blue for Medical troops (No. 75). Musicians in the RAD wore 'Swallows nests' the design on the braiding of which was unique to them. The universal use of the 'spade' arm badge, first introduced when the RAD was founded, continued in use right up to the and. (Nos. 71, 72, 73, 74, 75). A limited number of cuff-titles were worn in the RAD (Nos. 71, 72), the most colourful being the 'Anhalt' cuff-title. This title combined the states colours of Anhalt of red and green and which, worn by selected units, commemorated the fact that Free State Anhalt, very much in sympathy with the Nazi cause, had been the first German state to introduce labour service on a state-wide basis (No.

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