Second Execution Order to the Law on the Hitler Youth ("Youth Service Regulation") (March 25, 1939) The Law on the Hitler Youth from 1936 was tightened through the Second Execution Order, the so-called Youth Service Regulation of March 25, 1939. At once, membership in the Hitler Youth became mandatory for all Germans between 10 and 18 years of age, and those who failed to comply faced the threat of criminal prosecution. The regulation also made clear, however, that certain youths were not desirable members according to National Socialist selection criteria. The increasing pressure meant that just as children were forced to join the Hitler Youth, parents were forced to relinquish control over the manner in which their children were raised, ceding this to the National Socialists, who put children’s education in the service of their goals.
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page 1 of 2 Second Execution Order to the Law on the Hitler Youth (Youth Service Regulation) of 25 March 1939 On the basis of Article 4 of the law for the Hitler Youth of 1 December 1936 (RGBl I, page 993), I order: § 1 Length of Service (1) Service in the Hitler Youth is honorary service to the German people. (2) All juveniles from the 10th to the end of the 18th year of age are obliged to serve in the Hitler Youth, and namely: 1. Boys between the ages of 10 and 14 in the Junior Hitler Youth (Deutschen Jungvolk or DJ), 2. Boys between the ages of 14 and 18 in the Hitler Youth (Hitler-Jugend or HJ), 3. Girls between the ages of 10 and 14 in the Young Girls’ League (Jungmädelbund or JM), 4. Girls between the ages of 14 and 18 in the League of German Girls (Bund Deutscher Mädel or BDM). (3) Pupils of elementary schools, who have already completed their 10th year of age, are deferred from the service in the Hitler Youth until they leave the classes of the elementary schools. (4) Pupils of elementary school, who have already completed their 14th year of age, remain, until their discharge from school, members of the Junior Hitler Youth of the Young Girls’ League (DJ or JM). § 2 Educational Authority All boys and girls of the Hitler Youth are subject to a public-legal educational authority according to the provisions of regulations, decreed by the Fuehrer and Reich Chancellor. § 3 Unworthiness (1) Those juveniles are unworthy of membership in the Hitler Youth, and thus are excluded from the community of the Hitler Youth, who 1. Commit dishonorable acts, 2. Were dismissed from the Hitler Youth, before this law came into effect, because of dishonorable acts, 3. Who cause offense by their moral behavior in the Hitler Youth or in public, and thus injure the Hitler Youth. [ . . . ] § 4 Unfitness (1) Juveniles, who have been found, in the opinion of a medical officer of the HJ or of a physician, commissioned by the HJ, to be unfit or only partially fit for service in the Hitler Youth, must be relieved altogether or partially from service in the Hitler Youth according to the medical decision. [ . . . ] § 5 Deferment and Exemption (1) On request of the legal guardian or the HJ leader concerned, juveniles can in each case be deferred or exempted from service in the Hitler Youth up to the duration of one year, if they: 1. Are retarded considerably in their physical development, 2. In the judgment of the school principal cannot fulfill the demands of school without the exemption. [ . . . ]
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