Source
Second Execution Order to the Law on the Hitler Youth (Youth Service Regulation) of 25 March 1939
On the basis of Article 4 of the law for the Hitler Youth of 1 December 1936 (Reichsgestzblatt I, page 993), I order:
§ 1
Length of Service
(1) Service in the Hitler Youth
is honorary service to the German people.
(2) All juveniles
from the 10th to the end
of the 18th year of age
are obliged to serve in the Hitler Youth, and namely:
1. Boys
between the ages of 10 and 14 in the Junior Hitler Youth
(Deutschen Jungvolk or
DJ),
2. Boys between the ages of 14 and 18 in the Hitler
Youth (Hitler-Jugend or
HJ),
3. Girls between the ages of 10 and 14 in the Young
Girls’ League (Jungmädelbund or
JM),
4. Girls between the ages of 14 and 18 in the League of
German Girls (Bund Deutscher
Mädel or BDM).
(3) Pupils of elementary schools who have
already completed their
10th year of age are
deferred from service in the Hitler Youth until they leave the
classes of the elementary schools.
(4) Pupils of elementary
schools who have already completed their
14th year of age remain
members of the Junior Hitler Youth or the Young Girls’ League (DJ
or JM), until their discharge from school.
§ 2
Child-Rearing Authority
[Erziehungsgewalt]
All
boys and girls of the Hitler Youth are subject to a public-law
child-rearing authority, in accordance with regulations decreed by
the Führer and Reich Chancellor.
§ 3
Unworthiness
(1) Those juveniles are unworthy of
membership in the Hitler Youth, and thus are excluded from the
community of the Hitler Youth, who
1. commit dishonorable
acts,
2. were dismissed from the Hitler Youth before this law
came into effect because of dishonorable acts,
3. who cause
offense by their moral behavior in the Hitler Youth or in public,
and thus injure the Hitler Youth.
[…]
§ 4
Unfitness
(1) Juveniles who have been found, in
the opinion of a medical officer of the HJ or of a physician
contracted by the HJ, to be unfit or only partially fit for
service in the Hitler Youth, must be relieved altogether or
partially from service in the Hitler Youth according to the
medical decision.
[…]
§ 5
Deferment and Exemption
(1) On request of the
legal guardian or the HJ leader concerned, each young person may
be deferred or exempted from service in the Hitler Youth for a
period of up to one year, if they:
1. are retarded
considerably in their physical development,
2. cannot fulfill
the demands of school without the exemption, in the judgment of
the school principal.
[…]
§ 6
German Subjects of Non-German National Origin
(1)
Juveniles of German citizenship, whose parents or father belong
according to their own statement to the Danish or Polish ethnic
groups, are to be exempted from membership in the Hitler Youth on
request of those who are charged with their care; if several
persons have the right and duty to care for the young person, and
not every one of them makes the request, the exemption may be
granted. Young people who were born out of wedlock may be exempted
from membership in the Hitler Youth on request of those who are
charged with their care, if the mother belongs according to her
own statement to the Danish or Polish ethnic groups; they are to
be exempted if the guardian agrees to the request.
[…]
§ 7
Racial Requirements
Jews (Article 5 of the
1st proclamation to the
law of Reich citizenship of 14 November 1935, Reichsgesetzblatt I,
page 1333) are excluded from membership in the Hitler Youth.
[…]
§ 9
Registration and Induction
(1) All juveniles are
to be registered with the respective Hitler Youth leader for
induction into the Hitler Youth before 15 March of the calendar
year during which they complete their
10th year of age. If a
juvenile fulfills the conditions for acceptance into the Hitler
Youth (for instance, release from official custody, receipt of
citizenship, permanent residence in the German Reich) after this
time, the juvenile is to be registered within one month after
fulfillment of the stated conditions.
(2) The legal
representative of the young person is obligated to register him or
her.
[…]
§ 12
Punitive Regulation
(1) A legal guardian will be
punished with a fine up to 150 marks or with imprisonment if he
intentionally acts against the provisions of Article 9 of this
law.
(2) Whoever malevolently prevents or attempts to prevent
a juvenile from serving in the Hitler Youth will be punished with
imprisonment and a fine, or with one of these
punishments.
(3) Legal punitive action will only be taken on
request of the Youth Leader of the German Reich. The request can
be withdrawn.
(4) Juveniles can be forced by the respective
local police authorities to fulfill the duties with which they are
charged on the basis of this law, and of the regulations issued
for its implementation.
[…]
Berlin, 25 March 1939
Führer and Reich Chancellor Adolf Hitler
Deputy of the
Führer R. Hess
Reich Minister and Chief of the Reich
Chancellery Dr. Lammers
Source of English translation: Second Execution Order to the Law on the Hitler Youth (Youth Service Regulation) of 25 March 1939. In United States Chief Counsel for the Prosecution of Axis Criminality, Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression, Vol. IV. Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office, 1946. Document 1409-PS through 2373-PS. Document 2115-PS, pp. 744-51. English translation credited to Nuremberg staff, edited by GHI staff.
Source of original German text: Reichsgesetzblatt I, March 25, 1939, p. 710. Available online at: https://alex.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/alex?aid=dra&datum=1939&page=941&size=45; reprinted in Paul-Meier Benneckenstein, ed., Dokumente der deutschen Politik. Volume 7, Part II: Das Werden des Reiches 1939, edited by Hans Volz. Berlin, 1940, p. 794, pp. 796–97.