Internet information service of Memos e. V.
Print version on Sunday, 10. May 2026, from: https://memos.ngo/media/jungsein-33-45

Media | Jungsein 33/45

Youth under the swastika

"Jungsein 33/45" (Being Young 33/45) is the title of our German-language video archive. The collection was produced in 2012 and features interviews with eight contemporary witnesses of the Nazi regime. When the NSDAP came to power in January 1933, the oldest of them was 12 years old, while the youngest was just learning to walk. Their accounts illustrate how comprehensively the National Socialist education system functioned. Regardless of whether the young people reacted with enthusiasm, obedience, indifference, thoughtfulness or reluctance, they were moulded into accomplices of a system that despised humanity. When the German Reich surrendered unconditionally on 8 May 1945, they experienced this in different roles: as a military hospital nurse, Wehrmacht officer, SS secretary, prisoner of war, anti-aircraft assistant, SS recruit, and as a "Pimpf" and "Jungmädel".

They all have passed away since the initial publication of the jungsein-website. This video archive is dedicated to their memory.

The four-minute introductory film introduces four of the participants and outlines the central questions: What was it like to be young during the Nazi era? What was the significance of family, school, youth organizations and propaganda? What do you think about your upbringing today?

Wilhelm Scheuerpflug
18.8.1931 – 18.8.2024 | Contemporary witness report (44'10)

Herta Lampl
10.10.1922 – 25.11.2017 | Contemporary witness report (42'54)

Sophie Querndt
23.7.1920 – 26.7.2014 | Contemporary witness report (17'20)

Günther Haase
26.1.1925 – 18.1.2025 | Contemporary witness report (30'48)

Hans Werk
14.9.1927 – 8.10.2019 | Contemporary witness report (60'45)

Ilse Steffen
23.1.1921 – 8.12.2018 | Contemporary witness report (15'00)

Anneliese Merker
29.3.1932 – 19.11.2023 | Contemporary witness report (19'50)

Günther Bantzer
1.9.1921 – 16.10.2019 | Contemporary witness report (79'20)

We would like to thank the Berliner Zeitzeugenbörse e. V., the  Gedenk- und Bildungsstätte Haus der Wannseekonferenz as well as the Foundations Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas and Topographie des Terrors. Our special thanks go to theJugend- und Familienstiftung des Landes Berlin, without whose support our intergenerational project would not have been possible.

Logo JFSB