How does this make you feel?

In this black-and-white picture, you can see an abundance of boys raising their hands. They are all raising their hands with a sense of excitement or pride. One older gentleman is standing in the middle as if he is teaching them or directing them on what to do. They are dressed in, what looks like, uniforms of some sort; maybe military. Their faces are lit up with joy.



Whenever I seen this picture, it hit me hard. Many different emotions started running through my head; fear, sadness, anger. These are young children who have been taught to hail a mass murderer. The eager facial expressions of the boys, coupled with the uniforms give an overall impression of war and hatred. Hitler knew that these young boys would be more naturally taught and molded then adult men, who are more stern about their beliefs. So he used these boys to create the “master race” (Fundamentalist 1)


In today’s society, you don’t see things like this going on. But that’s not to say that it won’t or can’t. I believe that if somebody wanted to pose as a father figure and try to rule the U.S., they could…very carefully of course. “Many boys looked forward to entering the military. They had been trained to think that real men prove themselves in war.” (Wagner 1). The boys in this picture were born while the war was going on. They were raised to hate the Jews; war was all around them. They had no other choice than to think the same way that their father’s and mother taught them to think. Today, it would take time to get the children to hate something if you just sprung it on them, rather than raising them in it.



After I took a deeper look in to the picture, little things start to pop out. The boys are all blonde and are wearing their hair a certain style. They all have the same uniform on. The way the picture was taken, it shows that there were a lot of boys here hailing their “Father”. Their arms all up in the air show how much pride they all have. But it’s almost like a unison pride. Like if they were all bonded together as one. The picture is really a bit eerie if you really study it.


My overall analysis of the picture is very terrifying. This picture has really impacted me. I hope that when you look at it, that you really take the time to analyze the photo. It has a lot to say. Hitler was a very, very powerful man and this picture just shows how he could impact these adolescents. “There were many other methods Hitler used to effectively gain and hold control over his youth.” (Fundamentalists 3). Thankfully, he never got a chance to use them!