Training & Activities
The BDM used campfire romanticism, summer camps, folklorism, tradition, and sports to educate girls within the National Socialist belief system, and to train them for their roles in German society: wife, mother, and homemaker.

The programs offered to girls often appeared very interesting and seemingly allowed the girls more freedom within society than they had previously known. Prior to the BDM, it was nearly unheard of that girls would travel without their parents, or do such “boyish” things as camping, hiking, and playing sports. Some of the BDM’s work even drew harsh criticism from Nazi Party leaders, such as Heinrich Himmler, who felt that these activities were not befitting young girls. Said Himmler in a speech at Bad Toelz: “When I see these girls marching around with their nicely packed backpacks - it’s enough to make me sick.”

All accounts agree that before the outbreak of war, the BDM was very popular with German girls, more popular than the HJ, with its rigorous paramilitary training, was with boys. The program offered much that was appealing to the girls, asides from being able to go on trips and have a “life” outside of school or their parental homes, such as singing, arts, crafts, theater, and to some extent even fashion design, community work, etc.

The Belief and Beauty organizations offered groups where girls could receive further education and training in fields that interested them. Some of the works groups that were available were arts and sculpture, clothing design and sewing, general home economics, and music.

Wartime Service
The outbreak of war altered the role of the BDM, though not as radically as it did the role of the boys in the HJ, who were to be fed into the German Wehrmacht (armed forces) or the National Labor Service (Reichsarbeitsdienst, RAD) as soon as they turned 18. The BDM helped the war effort in many ways. Younger girls collected donations of money, as well as goods such as clothing or old newspapers for the Winter Relief and other Nazi charitable organizations. Many groups, particularly BDM choirs and musical groups, visited wounded soldiers at hospitals or sent care packages to the front.

The older girls volunteered as nurses’ aides at hospitals, or to help at train stations where wounded soldiers or refugees needed a hand. After 1943, as Allied air attacks on German cities increased, many BDM girls went into para-military and military services where they served as Flak Helpers, signals auxiliaries, searchlight operators, and office staff. Unlike male HJs, BDM girls took little part in the actual fighting or operation of weaponry, although some Flak Helferinnen operated anti-aircraft guns.

In the last days of the war, some BDM girls, just like some boys of the male Hitler Youth (although not nearly as many), joined with the Volkssturm (the last ditch defense) in Berlin and other cities in fighting the invading Allied armies. Officially, this was not sanctioned by the BDM’s leadership which opposed an armed use of its girls even though some BDM leaders had received training in the use of hand-held weapons (about 200 leaders went on a shooting course which was to be used for self-defense purposes). After the war, Dr. Jutta Rüdiger denied that she had approved BDM girls using weapons, and this appears to have been the truth.

Some BDM girls were recruited into the Werwolf groups which were intended to wage guerilla war in Allied-occupied areas. A former BDM leader, Ilse Hirsch was part of the team who assassinated Franz Oppenhoff, the Allied-appointed mayor of Aachen, in March 1945.

One should note that by the time they joined the Red Cross, Luftwaffe Helferinnen, Volkssturm or Werwolf, they were no longer BDM members, but members of those respective organizations.

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