One grave shortcoming is found above all in the fact that these young people are only attended to at the beginning, when they arrive in the GDR, and that they are left to their own devices again after a short time.
It is also evident from this that their experiences are not being utilized to educate youth in the republic about political and social conditions in West Germany. This means that these returnees and new arrivals are not being prompted to take a political stand before the youth of the republic and to appear before them, and [it also means] that, on the other hand, too little political work is being done with these young people.
With Socialist greetings,
Working Group for Youth Questions
within the Central Committee of the SED
Source: SAPMO-BArch, DY 30/IV 2/16/230, SED-Hausmitteilung, Umdruck. Bezug: Darstellungsband 8, III 10 (Familien-, Jugend- und Altenpolitik) [Policies on Family, Young, and the Elderly], note 68; reprinted in Dierk Hoffmann and Michael Schwartz, eds., Geschichte der Sozialpolitik in Deutschland seit 1945. Bd. 8: 1949-1961: Deutsche Demokratische Republik. Im Zeichen des Aufbaus des Sozialismus [History of Social Policy in Germany since 1945, Vol. 8: 1949-1961: German Democratic Republic. Under the Sign of the Build Up of Socialism]. Baden-Baden: Nomos, 2004, no. 8/125
Translation: Thomas Dunlap