Page 454 - Conflitti Militari e Popolazioni Civili - Tomo I

454 XXXIV Congresso della CommIssIone InternazIonale dI storIa mIlItare • CIHm

to place them as Jugendführer (Youth Leaders) in Norway, Belgium and the Netherlands,
countries where youth organisations existed already . although Riedweg denied in an in-
51
terview by the Dutch authorities in 1947 that he played a role in the enforcement of the
‘Germanic youth’ in collaboration with the Reichsjugendführung (Youth Leadership of the
Reich) , the facts prove the contrary.
52
In Denmark, the GL elaborated, in cooperation with the Youth Leadership of the Reich,
plans for the foundation of a German-Danish youth organisation seen as a precursor to a
Hitler Youth. In the Netherlands and in Norway, it tried to do the same . in Belgium, the GL
53
– with the help of the Deutsch-Vlämische Arbeitsgemeinschaft DeVlag (German-Flemish
Working Community) – placed a certain amount of young boys between age 10 and 14 in
Hitler Youth camps . In agreement with Schirach’s successor, Arthur Axmann , it also
54
55
coordinated the assistance of the Flemish Youth, an organisation specific to the country .
56
it is undeniable that the GL was interested in the enforcement of the youth in the ‘Ger-
manic countries’, because as in the Napolas’ case, the field ‘youth’ figured in Flanders under
Section V .
57
According to Riedweg’s Nazi-colleague and Swiss citizen Büeler, the GL wanted its
ideas to penetrate the Hitler Youth and the youths of the ‘Germanic countries’. This break-
through would have been made possible through Wehrertüchtigungslager (‘Germanic mili-
tary preparation camps’ ). These camps were organised together with the Hitler Youth on
58
the model of the German camps, with the exception that the GL cared for ideological educa-
tion . However, the enforcement of ‘Germanic civilians’ was not always as direct as in the
59
case of the ‘Germanic SS’ and the youth, but was indirect, such as through the adaptation of
science to SS standards.

c. Science
On 14 August 1942 Berger ordered the cooperation between the Amt Ahnenerbe and the
GL. introducing his order he wrote that the RF-SS had entrusted the Office of Ancestral Her-
itage with the carrying out of all scientific research tasks and works regarding the great glo-
bal tasks of the SS. One can understand that he wrote here about the SS’ ‘Germanic work’,

51 AF, E 4320 (B), 1973/87, Bd. 10, Schweizerische Bundesanwaltschaft, Einvernahme Dr. Riedweg Franz, im
Ausland, 13. November 1946, p. 13.
52 NAW, Procès verbaux d’auditions, Record Group 238, World War Two, War Crimes Records, International
Military Tribunal: Office of U.S. Chief of Counsel for War Crimes, APO 124 A, Evidence Division, Interro-
gation Branch, Vernehmung des Dr. Franz Riedweg am 19.11.1947 von 14.00 – 16.30 Uhr durch Mr. Konrad
Swart, Im Auftrag des Rijksinstitut voor Oorlogsdocumentatie in Amsterdam, Nuremberg, p. 7.
53 Loock, op. cit., p. 61.
54 BA Berlin, NS 31/375, SS-Hauptamt-Amt VI, Monatsbericht / Oktober 1942, 20.11.1942, p. 11.
55 Weiss, op. cit., pp. 81-82.
56 BA Berlin, NS 31/375, SS-Hauptamt-Amt VI, Monatsbericht / Oktober 1942, 20.11.1942, p. 12.
57 BA Berlin, NS 21/930, Germanische Leitstelle, Aussenstelle Flandern, Dienststelle SS-Brigadeführer Jung-
claus.
58 For a brief description of these camps, see Kammer; Bartsch, op. cit., pp. 276-277.
59 AF, E 4320 (B), 1973/87, Bd. 10, Verhör des Dr. Heinrich Büeler durch den eidgenössischen Untersuchungs-
richter O. Gloor als Beschuldigter, 9.11.1946, p. 26.