From a Report of 1931 on the Problem Containing the Growth of Nazism in the Protestant Youth Movement
Source: J. Noakes & G. Pridham, Documents on Nazism 1919-1945, (London, 1974), p.108.
The cause which at the moment is most closely associated with the name of National Socialism and with which, at a moderate estimate, certainly 70 per cent of our young people, often lacking knowledge of the facts, are in ardent sympathy, must be regarded, as far as our ranks are concerned, more as an ethical than a political matter. Our young people show little political interest. Fifth-formers are not really much concerned with the study of Hitler's thoughts; it is simply something irrational, something infectious that makes the blood pulse through one's veins and conveys an impression that something great is under way, the roaring of a stream which one does not wish to escape: 'If you can't feel it you will never grasp it. ...' All this must be taken into account when we see the ardour and fire of this movement reflected in our ranks. A pedantic and nagging approach seems to me useless, and so do all attempts, however well-intentioned, by the leader to refute the policy of National Socialism in detail. The majority of the young fight against this with a strange instinct. We must, in keeping with our responsibility, though it is difficult in individual cases, try first to influence the ethos, and in this we must maintain an attitude above parties. We must educate in such a way that this enthusiasm is duly tempered by deeper understanding and by disenchantment, that words like 'national honour and dignity' do not become slogans but arouse individual responsibility so that no brash demagogues grow up among us.
