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Originally posted by kstar
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It wasn't compulsory membership and service, it was voluntary
Where are you reading that it was compulsory?
There were many German children that didn't join. It wasn't even compulsory for Party members to have their children join, though it was highly encouraged.
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Well let see... membership in the Hilter Youth was made mandatory in 1936 (same time Catholic and Protestant denominational schools where abolished) - so when you hit 14 you where required by law to sign-up. So when the Pope turned 14 in 1941... he was legally compelled to join.
Further the Hilter Youth was official assigned to the role of Flak batteries in Jan. of 1943 - this is where the Pope was drafted into the German Army.
Quick history of Hitler Youth
http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar...uth/index.html
Quote:
On December 1, 1936, Hitler decreed "The Law concerning the Hitler Youth" which mandated that all young Germans (excluding Jews) would "be educated physically, intellectually and morally in the spirit of National Socialism" though the Hitler Youth from the age of ten onward. This law also effectively ended the Catholic Youth Organization which had managed to hold for three years amid continual Nazi harrassment.
Parents who prevented their children from joining the Hitler Youth were subject to heavy prison sentences. Membership thus grew to nearly six million. As a result, the organization sprouted into a giant bureaucracy in Berlin and began to acquire the dreariness of a big governmental institution in marked contrast to the dynamic organization it had been in the 1920s and early '30s when members battled daily to bring Hitler to power. The compulsory nature of weekly HJ meetings for everyone led to a gradual decline in morale and discipline.
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