Hitler Youth armband with a swastika acquired by a US soldier

Hitler Youth armband acquired by Harry Meyerowitz, a soldier in the US Army in Europe from 1944-45. The Hitler Youth was founded by the Nazi Party to shape the beliefs and actions of German youth to conform to national socialist ideology. It was a pathway for service in the armed forces or, later, in the SS. In 1936, membership in Nazi youth groups became mandatory for those age ten to seventeen. Harry deployed to Europe in 1944. His unit entered Ohrdruf concentration camp on April 6, 1945, two days after its liberation by US troops. This was the first camp liberated by American forces. Ruth Krautwirth, her parents Hanna and Isak, and brother Zev were deported from Frankfurt, Germany, to Auschwitz-Birkenau in April 1943. Ruth and Hanne, separated from Isak and Zev, were together through Birkenau, Ravensbruck, and Malchow, and were liberated on a death march by US troops in May 1945. Zev survived Birkenau, Sachsenhausen, Gunskirchen, and Mauthausen, and then went to Palestine. Several of Ruth’s relatives were killed in the Holocaust. Her father Isak, 46, was killed in Auschwitz on November 19, 1943. Her maternal grandfather and cousins also were killed. Ruth and Hannah left for America in 1947, where Ruth and Harry met, and then married in 1948.