Hitler Youth

This is a wonderful tool to use while learning about the Holocaust. I would actually probably pair this with Night so that students could see not only the concentration side of it but also the side of the Germans who were not Jewish and who were put into the Hitler Youth group.
It is scary how much campaigning Hitler did for the youth. It makes sense because I think it is easier to get children involved in things and if they are involved at a young age it is more likely that they will support you later too because that is all that they know. In order to get them to join, Hitler promised many things to the German people saying that in order for Germany to obtain power and respect they must take drastic measures. They also made the Hitler Youth very tempting by saying that they would do a lot of fun things and that they would be looked at as heros if they joined. Once that stopped working they used different tactics which proved to be more forceful. Many parents had no other choice than to allow their children to join for fear of being arrested or have their children taken away.
The pictures in the book were really nice and gave a lot more meaning behind the information since we were able to see who was being talked about. Also the stories that were interspersed throughout the book made the book a lot more interesting to read. It kept the readers attention and again gave the whole thing a lot more meaning to be introduced to those children.
Something that I think is also good about this book is that it provides more understanding. It is easy to say that we hate Germans for doing something so awful as that but I think that it is important that we teach kids that things aren't always as they seem and all that it is more a few terrible people that were the cause of this tragedy.
I would use this book for 7-12. For middle school this would be a good book to just introduce what kind of things went on during this period. With high school students, I would pair this book with another book to give them more insight to the whole story.