Young People Against the Third Reich

Abstract

Abstract: This article examines forms of youth nonconformity and dissent in Nazi Germany through the lens of repression targeting so-called Cliquen—informal youth associations that rejected the cultural, moral, and productivist guidelines of National Socialism. Taking as its point of departure the memoranda of Obergruppenführer und General der Polizei Reinhard Heydrich and, later, Ernst Kaltenbrunner concerning so-called “asocials” (Asoziale), the study demonstrates how the regime identified these groups as threats to its totalitarian project by criminalizing behaviors deemed deviant. These included refusal to join the Hitler Youth, rejection of the disciplined labor imposed by the German Labour Front, and the valorization of foreign cultural expressions, especially jazz. Drawing on extensive police, administrative, and medical documentation, the article distinguishes three main types of youth groups: (1) associations linked to practices classified as criminal or “asocial”; (2) gangs displaying diffuse critical or political attitudes; and (3) liberal-individualist groups, such as the Swing Kids. It argues that these forms of resistance did not conform to the classical model of organized opposition (Widerstand), but rather constituted everyday and fluid expressions of Resistenz, rooted in the popular and middle strata of society. The article contends that, despite the systematic use of violence and surveillance, the Nazi regime failed to achieve full ideological compliance, thereby revealing the practical limits of its totalitarian project. By recovering experiences marginalized by traditional historiography, this study contributes to a broader understanding of social resistance under the Third Reich.

Keywords: National Socialism; youth; resistance; social nonconformity; fascisms.