Russell B. answered • 03/17/22
The Real Publius
The easiest route to an answer here is to note that the Hitler Youth (Hitlerjugend) was a "totalizing" organization in that it sought to take someone nearly from the cradle, and probably a result of the Nazi party's initiatives to foster population growth by subsidizing child births between couples who were (of course) given a copy of Mein Kampf as a wedding gift from Hitler.
The purpose of a "youth wing" of a party, which is what the Hitler Youth was officially, is to create a built environment in which the Party is presented as the sole source of authority. The youths were encouraged to build relationships with one another under the umbrella of party officers-- and the party officers in charge of the youth groups were in turn responsible for making sure the development of the youths themselves regarded the Party's narrative as the primary source of truth, against which other narratives were stacked oppositionally.
It had another, more practical use as well. After WW1 and the Treaty of Versailles, Germany was largely disarmed, and strict controls placed on the number of people it could have under arms (in the military) at any one time. The Hitler Youth was a way to circumvent the Versailles treaty and begin training an army from a much younger age than either the United Kingdom or the United States were able to, and thus Hitler was able to build the Wehrmacht without outwardly violating the terms of the treaty.
Hope this helps, and of course I am available for follow-ups.
