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Swing kids presentation yc
- 1. “Swing Kids” or “SwingYouth” By: Molly McGowan
- 2. Who were they? • Teenagers and college students • Considered “deviant” to the Nazi Regime • Opposed the Hitlerjugend
- 3. Stereotypes • Long hair • Unkempt • Uneducated • Violent • Slang
- 4. Study: Effectiveness ofSwing Kids
- 5. Were they effective? Depends on Perspective.
- 6. German Perspective -YES • Preservation of Freedom • Nazi regime felt threatened by this group.
- 7. American Perspective -NO • Americans are taught what is relevant to America • WWII – D-Day, Pearl Harbor, and Atomic Bombs
- 8. Interview with DavidHauschild – History Teacher in Secondary Education “But, Jurassic Park made 357 “There are “I don’t know how million and different German students this movie did could be taught not make the levels of World War II, top 100. The efficiency” therefore I do not movie was not know if they are even aware of swing mainstream.” kids” “Understandin “I question the g historical importance perspective is and key, and we significance of only have our Swing Kids” own perspective”
- 10. Carter, Thomas, dir.Swing Kids. Writ. Jonathan Feldman. 1993. Film. Fackler, Guido. “Jazz in the Third Reich” Music and the Holocaust. (1999). http://holocaustmusic.ort.org/politics-and- propaganda/third-reich/jazz-under-the- nazis/ Neuhaus, Tom. "No Nazi Party." History Today. (2005) Royston, Peter. “Swing in America and Germany: Lifting Up the Spirit” (2005). http://www.portwashington.com/moveweb/ Guidewrite/swing.html Wallace, Claire, and Raimund Alt. "Youth Cultures Under Authoritarian Regimes." Youth and Society. (2001)
Editor's Notes
- #2 Introduction into swing kids.In order to understand the subculture that I am going to analyze, I need to describe what period in time this subculture took place. Swing kids or Swing Youth arose during the late 1930s under the Nazi regime in Germany.Hitler during this time was so focused on nationalism that he believed Germany should be pure in every entity from physical features to genetics, to even culture. He banned many cultures that opposed his belief of purity, and swing and jazz were two genres of music he banned.Three main reasons why Hitler banned these two genres of music.Hitler was moved by the arts himself, and he found emotion in Wagner, a dramatic and dark composer. He felt weakness in art and his feelings changed. He felt that if his feelings could be moved by art, then someone else’s feelings could be too. He began to regulate all forms of art to ensure that Germans only experienced what he wanted them to experience.Hitler associated swing and jazz with Americanism, which he opposed.Hitler associated swing and jazz with its major artists who were African American. Hitler believed in looking German and also believed the most pure race was Aryan (white skin, blonde hair, blue eyes). Anyone who did not look German or Aryan was considered impure in his eyes.
- #3 Hitlerjugend was German for “Hitler Youth”
- #4 One of the ways that the swing kids resisted the mainstream was through their long hair. During the 1930s it was very important to the Germans that all boys have short and groomed hair. The swing kids did not. It was greasy, long, and not brushed. Another way the swing kids resisted the mainstream was through their clothing. This group of kids purposely wore clothing which was expensive, but they wouldn’t tuck their shirts in, their handkerchiefs in, and their collars would be disarrayed with loose ties. They also had a stereotype of being uneducated because many of the youth in the HJ did not understand why the youth would not want to join this organization. They were violent in defense mechanisms when the HJ pursued them. They also had a lot of slang and used dance terms like “tango” or “waltz” as nouns and verbs that did not apply. They also made many references to thriving swing and jazz artists at that time to describe their feelings or their behaviors.
- #5 My main study of this subculture is “were the swing kids effective” in regards to their defiance and their resistance to the mainstream, the Nazi regime during the Third Reich. When I say effective, I am thinking of the amount of attention the swing kids gained through their deviance, and if the mainstream was changed because of them. On the image to the left, this was an actual image that Chancellor Goebbels head of Nazi propaganda in Germany, approved. This image originally had the words “Verboden” on it with the word “swing” as well. But this image remains the same. The propaganda not only communicates to the community that swing is forbidden, however they also associated African Americans and Jewish people with this genre of music. The designer of this propaganda purposely makes the artist look like a monkey to communicate that African Americans are not considered humans and they are inferior to Germans.On the image to the right, is an actual poster used to promote the Hitlerjugend, or H.J. showing Hitler's face in the reflection of the image demonstrating his support of the Nazi Youth. During Hitler’s reign, he focused severely on men and women in youth because he knew it was up to the youth to carry on the tradition of Nazism.The swing kids not only resisted the rules and regulations of the Nazi regime by listening to “banned” music, but they also resisted the HJ by not joining. For the first couple of years during the Nazi regime, the youth was not mandated to join the HJ, but the more control over the country the Nazis had, the more mandated it became. Towards the end of the Third Reich, only about 10% of the youth escaped the mandatory joining of the HJ.So were they effective in their resistance?
- #6 Well their effectiveness depends on who you ask.As you can see in this image, different perspectives will show you a different image. This is the same concept for the effectiveness of Swing Kids.
- #7 From a German perspective, the Swing Kids were very powerful during their time. Because they were so powerful, the Nazis took time to shut down their clubs, band their music, spend money on propaganda to reinforce the banishment of this music, and to keep tabs on rising underground jazz and swing clubs.The “Swing Jugend” was a common name that the Swing Kids referred themselves as in opposition and resistance to join the Hitlerjugend. “Swing Heil” was their motto in resistance to the common phrase “Heil Hitler” meaning “Hail Hitler”. After the Swing Kids resistance movement began to increase in numbers, the Nazis began to throw them in concentration camps and work camps where many of the Swing Kids died. Only few lived to see the end of the war.
- #8 When studying history, it is very common for history to be taught in the American perspective, therefore stressing on major events in which America was a part of. Because of this, American Americans are not familiar with the Swing Movement, especially because it was underground, and especially because it was in another country.
- #9 There are different levels of efficiency. On a global scale, and how foreign policy was run and the history that we learn…Swing kids doing something positively for the people around them, even if it just uplifts their day, isn’t going to find their way into American history textbooks, because America wasn’t directly affected. Am I denying that they didn’t have an importance? No, but I am saying that Americans won’t learn about it because it is not important for Americans to learn.I question the importance and significance of Swing Kids in the Nazi regime, because I have studied Nazi Germany for many years, and this is the first I have ever heard of them.I don’t know because I don’t know how you would approach even teaching this second world war in Germany. I don’t know if they talk about the war. I don’t know if they would or how they would because “we killed a lot of people.”