Hitler Youth armband with a swastika acquired by a US soldier
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Washington, United States
Hitler Youth armband with a woven black swastika and a Nazi Party authorization label acquired by a United States soldier in Europe near the end of World War II. The Hitler Youth was founded by the Nazi Party in 1926 to shape the beliefs, thinking, and actions of German youth to conform to national socialist ideology. After Hitler's selection as Chancellor in 1933, this became the national ideology and loyalty to the Nazi Party and its leaders was paramount. The Hitler Youth became a pathway for service in the Armed Forces or, later, in the SS. In 1936, membership in Nazi youth groups became mandatory for all boys and girls between the ages of ten and seventeen.
- Title: Hitler Youth armband with a swastika acquired by a US soldier
- Provenance: The armband was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1992 by Joyce and William Becker.
- Subject Keywords: Soldiers--United States--Biography. World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American.
- Type: Identifying Artifacts
- Rights: Permanent Collection
- External Link: See the full record at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- Medium: Red rayon armband with a central white stripe sewn into a loop at the short ends. A white diamond cloth patch with a black BeVo weave mobile swastika is stitched to the front center of the band. There is a small cloth tag with BB handwritten in blue ink adhered on the reverse. Adhered inside the band is a paper label with German text authorizing manufacture and issue. There is a slight stain on the side where it appears a tag was adhered, but the armband seems unissued. BeVo weave is a machine made weave process using a punched card to create the design on the base cloth. BeVo [Beteiligung Vorsteher/ Partnership Vorsteher] is shorthand for a German company that used the process.
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