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Originally Posted by 40th Alabama  The third picture is of a "work camp" and I understand from some of the internet sites I have looked at that German youth were required to spend time (2-years I think I read) workig on public works projects, thus living in the camps. However, I saw a couple of pages where the camps were referred to as part of the Holocoust. Would this be an internment camp? |
Could be a number of youth groups.
There were the two groups,the Hitler Youth (Hitler Jugend) and the League of German Girls (Bund Deutscher Madel).Every German boy over 10 years of age had to register for admission to the organisation H.J .They were admitted on a mandatory basis providing that they and their family were successfully assessed as racially pure.The first stage of entry would be into the German Young People (Deutsches Jungvolk) for 3 years until 13 years of age.From 14 years of age, a boy would graduate into the H.J until 18 years of age.
However the camp is possibly a RAD camp as suggested,The State Labour Service (The Reichsarbeitsdienst) which in peacetime, a youth had to serve for 6 months subject to manual labour and strict discipline.After this service, the youths were conscripted into Wehrmacht service for 2 years which meant that in peacetime, Hitler never lost his hold on German youth from the age of 10 to 21 years.
The RAD was manned by German manhood from the age of 19 years to 25 years as mandatory service with the principle that those who shouldered shovels would in the future shoulder rifles.This mandatory state service helped Hitler to reduce unemployment in the 1930s.
The RAD was involved throughtout the Reich and its empire.It was involved in the atrocity at Lidice in June 1942.After the destruction and murder at Lidice, the RAD were brought in to level the village.Not content with the wholesale murder carried out the RAD were directed to plunder and destroy the Lidice Cemetery graves. 60 vaults,140 large family tombs and 200 single graves were plundered.Human remains were left shrewn over the cemetery grounds,some left in "creative poses".The "work" was not completed until the end of 1943 when Lidice became "Vorwerk".
I would think that after war broke out, the manning levels of the RAD would have been maintained subject to the greater priority demand of the Wehrmacht.