With fascist governments in Italy and Spain, and pro-Nazi Germany governments in Bulgaria and Hungary, Hitler hoped to create a new fascist order in Europe. In 1940, a delegation of Hitler Youth traveled to Padua, Italy. Traveling to celebrate a “Day of Fascist Youth,” the Hitler Youth members were welcomed with open arms by their Italian, Spanish, Hungarian, and Bulgarian youth league colleagues. Signs greeting the Germans offered the warmest of welcomes – “Viva Hitler,” “Hail the Hitler Youth,” and “Hail National Socialism” all celebrated their arrival. The image shows a member of the Hitler Youth (center) with two members of the Italian fascist “Balilli” youth organization. Benito Mussolini, Italy’s fascist dictator, met and reviewed the parading delegates. With the fall of France in June of the same year, the fascist states of Europe had much to celebrate. By 1939, 7.3 million Germans were enrolled in the Hitler Youth. Membership in the Hitler Youth was now mandatory, and other states, like Italy, had implemented similar policies for their own youth groups. The Hitler Youth served an important purpose in the Nazis’ effort to instruct the future generations that would lead Hitler’s envisioned “Thousand Year Reich.”