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Reich Ministry of Justice Report on the Emergence of "Youth Cliques and Gangs" and the Struggle against Them (early 1944)

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Reasons for the increase in gang activity

The appeal of the criminal/anti-social groups is primarily due to the fact, as has been mentioned already, that the war has resulted in a reduction in the supervision of young people who are especially liable to indulge in criminal acts and the fact that they are that much more exposed to infection from their environment.

The appeal of the politically hostile and liberal-individualistic groups has other causes in addition:

a) The young people who lack keenness are left to themselves a great deal. They avoid HJ duties as far as possible. Favored by the blackout, they meet in the streets or in the parks, bring along a musical instrument and soon form a group with each person making a contribution to its further development. It represents an urge to enjoy a group experience, something which can be regarded as a manifestation of puberty and which is not satisfied by the HJ. In addition, there is the fact that the HJ cannot involve people to the extent it did before the war. Most of its leaders are in the Wehrmacht. The units are often led by young people who are of the same age and do not always possess leadership qualities. The duties themselves offer little that is new. The romantic urge which exists in every boy finds no outlet, particularly since, as a result of wartime necessity, the HJ has ceased its trips. For this reason older, more experienced comrades who had a bündisch attitude to life were easily able to attract the young people. At first, there were only small gatherings, but then these turned into trips which gripped the young people to such an extent that they rejected the HJ.

b) The urge to independence, which is naturally present in certain age groups, cannot be sensibly channeled by the parents, since the fathers are mostly away at the front and the mothers have either been conscripted for war work or are too weak firmly to oppose these activities.

c) The importance of the work problem cannot be underestimated. The deployment of young people in workplaces which they find uncongenial, in addition to the heavy demands being made upon them, produces signs of a lack of enthusiasm or tiredness, which leads to absenteeism. They thereby come into contact with groups which have a bad influence on them. Contact with foreign workers at the workplace contributes towards producing liberal dreams which he endeavors to fulfill in the company of like-minded comrades.

d) As is emphasized by the Cologne Juvenile Court judge, the hostility to the HJ is increased by one fact in particular. As long as it is the police who are enforcing state measures and, in particular, the Police Decree for Youth Protection, incidents generally do not occur. But the HJ patrols and the Youth Duty of Service introduced a new factor. For those who were demanding the maintenance of discipline and order and wanted to stop the trips were now people of the same age. And so punch-ups soon developed between the gang members and the HJ patrols, which led to the destruction of and damage to HJ hostels and finally to the harassment of individual Hitler youths. This is one reason for the hostile attitude to the HJ and thereby to the state. In some cases, however, there are also Bolshevik notions, which, when spread by a leader, soon find fertile soil.

e) In so far as sexual promiscuity manifests itself, this is mainly the result of a lack of supervision by the parents and thus is the result of the free association of the young people with each other.

f) The terror air raids have exacerbated the illegal formation of gangs. Apart from the military duties of the HJ, there are few activities in which they can take part in their spare time. There are no cinema performances, sporting events or sport in those cities which have been badly damaged. When the young people come home in the evenings tired from work, they find a damaged flat or accommodation which has been severely restricted by the need to take in relatives who have lost their homes. In these circumstances the young person seeks company which he enjoys, which provides fun and makes a change. In so far as they are still carrying out HJ duties, these too have changed. The HJ hostels have been destroyed and the activities transferred to the streets or the exercise yard.

As far as the asocial and criminal young people are concerned, they are driven even more to crime by the terror air raids. If their workplace has been destroyed, then they stop working for a while, often live on their own without relatives, hang around in bunkers and so inevitably join up with similar kinds of people of the same age. This produces a negative selection which gradually forms the core of these groups.

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