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Hitler Youth Reached Out to Brit Boy Scouts

Young Nazis hosted cycling tours, camps

By Mary Papenfuss,  Newser Staff

Posted Mar 8, 2010 4:54 AM CST

(Newser) – Hitler's Nazi Youth organization created cycling tours and other activities in a bid to win over British Boy Scouts, reveals just-released UK intelligence files. Boy Scouts participated in the tours and attended camps run by Nazi Youth on British soil in 1937, according to the documents. MI-5 agents alerted officials to the young Nazi supporters traveling to Britain that year. The Germans also visited factories and ports on their excursions. Not everyone was concerened about the Germans. One British school boy referred to the teens as a "jolly good crowd of chaps."

American military police officers with 14-year-old Willy Etschenberg (left) and 10 year-old Hubert Heinrichs, who were being held after sniping at US troops in Aachen, Germany, October 1944.
American military police officers with 14-year-old Willy Etschenberg (left) and 10 year-old Hubert Heinrichs, who were being held after sniping at US troops in Aachen, Germany, October 1944.   (Getty Images)
Boys and girls parade on stage at a meeting for the Hitler Youth in Germany in 1940.
Boys and girls parade on stage at a meeting for the Hitler Youth in Germany in 1940.   (Getty Images)
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COMMENTS
Showing 2 of 11 comments
flin1
Mar 8, 2010 3:49 PM CST
I'm so sick of the way Germans are constantly characterized. We lived there three years and found them to be generally kind, friendly, helpful and honest. They love nature, work hard, educate their kids, and live in clean, efficient cities and towns. In other word, they're pretty much, "Jolly good chaps." I actually met an old woman a few years ago who said she had been in Hitler Youth and her projects were to grow a garden and learn to play the flute. Let's keep it real.
Thinker
Mar 8, 2010 12:51 PM CST
People who embrace religion and/or nationalism will embrace anything that either promotes, without a moment's thought.

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