The Swing Youth and the Effectiveness of their Resistance

The Swing resisted the Nazis by emulating both the physical appearances and liberal ideologies of America and Britain, which were not only Nazi Germany’s enemies, but symbolized the very freedoms the Nazis detested. Even at their core, the Swings represented a segregated aristocratic sector of German society, one that allowed for mostly rich kids to take part in, directly counteracting the “classless society” the Nazis attempted to promote throughout Germany. While the Swing Youth were not active politically or violently against the Nazis, their cultural image was in direct opposition to the Nazis, causing this rift between the two ends of the social extremes, and effectively threatening the Nazis containment of German youth.

The Swing Youth epitomized the kind of counter-culture the Nazis despised. The Swing’s taste in music, dance, and clothes not only clashed with traditionalist Germany, but also directly opposed the Nazis agenda. Nazi Germany saw the Swings as both a hostile and disrespectable group. The Nazis claimed that, “They do not appreciate the success of our forces in the field, and even disparage the ultimate sacrifice of our men in uniform. ‘What follows next is the inevitable and clearly discernable hostility toward any military service of their own,’” (Neuhaus, 53). In the eyes of the Nazis, the Swing’s idolization of American and British cultural ideals bordered on treason since Nazi Germany was the antithesis of the freedoms their enemies boasted.

In addition, unlike the Nazis, who tried to present National Socialism as a classless society, the Swing Youth was made up of mostly aristocratic Germans. Since the Nazis often used the phrase “classless society” as part of their brainwashing rhetoric, the Swing Youth were immediately seen as opposition to their quest to unify an impressionable Germany. In “No Nazi Party; Youth Rebels of the Third Reich,” Thomas Neuhaus states that, “The Swing Youth were accused of ignoring the welfare of German society as a whole in favor of their own individual well-being,” (Neuhaus, 54). This “selfish” quality of the Swings presented a cultural hurdle for the Nazis, since the Nazis took matters of dissention seriously.

Further, by 1940, the Swing Youth became such an ideological problem for the Nazis that they began to send Swings to concentration camps. Both Heinrich Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich, the head of the SS and the head of security service, respectively, announced the detainment and imprisonment of Swing Youth members for being “hostile towards the Third Reich,” (Neuhaus, 55). Many Swings were imprisoned and killed for resisting the Nazis rigid control over social culture in Germany.

Thus, the Swings were effective in that they challenged the Nazis claim over the youth of Germany. The Swing Youth successfully offered young Germans the opportunity to cultural freedoms, to the point where the authorities in Hamburg held a meeting about “the growing decline of the youth.” While many Swings were killed in concentration camps, they succeeded to taint Hitler’s dream of a uniform and traditionalist Germany youth.