"Wolf-cubs"?

Something I didn’t know until I just noticed it over on the website of the American “Holocaust Museum” was that junior members of the HJ were called “wolf-cubs”. (I always thought they were called Pimpfe. Just goes to show!)

It’s easy to imagine that this would have appealed to old "Uncle Wolf" himself, but it’s also a direct lift from Baden-Powell’s Scout movement.

Which is also interesting, because even though ideologically the Scouts and the Hitler Youth were polar opposites - internationalist vs. nationalist, pacifist vs. militarist - Baden-Powell clearly had a certain respect for Hitler. And (after Germany, of course) Britain was Hitler’s favourite country and the British Empire (along with the Holy Roman Empire and, of course, the United States of America) was one of the models he had in mind for this own “Third Reich” empire.

Of course, it’s also possible that those American Holocaust folks don’t know anything and they’re just making things up. But that’s very hard to imagine.

Isn’t it?

According to the website, the boy has just given the Fuehrer a letter from his sick mother.