The truth about the Hitler Youth: Nazis were shocked by sex mania at the Nuremberg Rally that left nine hundred teenage girls pregnant and later hanged children to quell revolts

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A new exhibition reveals how the Nazis spellbound nearly nine million German children and bound them to Hitler's will.

From 1936, Hitler Youth and the League of German Girls (BDM) were obligatory for children aged ten to 18, promising wholesome activities to build good character and camaraderie.

However, mixed-gender events, such as the annual Nuremberg Rally led to hundreds of unwanted pregnancies, which became a source of great concern to the prudish elite of the Nazi Party.

Girls from Nazi-occupied Austria cheer for Hitler during at the Nuremberg Rally in 1938. A new exhibition in Germany is shedding light on their lives and reveals that 900 teenage girls became pregnant at the event

Rebels: In the later years of the war, the Nazi leadership put down several revolts in the Hitler Youth. Pictured are members of the Edelweiss Pirates, a rebel youth movement that aimed to subvert German teens are publicly executed in Cologne in October, 1944

For all: As of 1936, Hitler Youth and the League of German Girls (BDM) were obligatory for children aged ten to 18 in the German Reich 

Nine hundred girls aged between 15 and 18 fell pregnant during the 1936 Nuremberg Rally -  which saw the Nazi Party order the unwed teenagers to have abortions.

Although no official records exist, many of the teenage girls who fell pregnant are thought to have been victims of sexual assault. 

The many pregnancies among BDM teenagers saw the organisation mocked as ‘Bund Deutsche Matratzen’ - League of German Mattresses.

The exhibition also reveals that the Nazis did not entirely hypnotise German youth, with several reports of dissenters, revolts, small acts of rebellion which proved individuality was never entirely crushed.

As joining Hitler Youth and the BDM became mandatory, those who refused to join faced social exclusion and even the possibility of a spell in a concentration camp.

March for Hitler: Hitler Youth with their flags during the Nuremberg Rally in 1938

'Wholesome': The BDM and Hitler Youth promised to help raise good German citizens

The most famous Hitler Youth rebels were the Edelweiss Pirates, located in working class areas of cities like Cologne and Essen.

Despising the conformity of the Hitler Youths, they jettisoned their uniforms for white shirts, white socks, and scarves, boys let their hair grow long and they delighted in singing songs parodying the Hitler Youth’s martial choruses.

The Pirates graduated to direct acts of wartime sabotage and in October 1944, SS chief Heinrich Himmler had seven of them publicly hanged in Cologne.

Many of those who stayed in the Hitler Youth were sympathetic to the pirates and other rebels but too afraid to step out of line.

On display: Parts of a Hitler Jugend uniform is showed during the exhibition

Lets we forget: The exhibition contains books, testimonies and propaganda material relating to Hitler Jugend and the BDM 

Exhibition: The display has been curated by the Nazi Documentation Centre in Cologne

The new exhibition contains books, recorded testimonies, posters, films and propaganda material showing how the Nazis lured children into Hitler Youth by promising them camping trips and a spirit of comradeship.

In a country shattered by the after effects of WW1 and the terrible poverty and unemployment that came in its wake, the Hitler Youth and the BDM promised dynamism and success for its impressionable followers. 

'It was hardly possible to stay away', explains Wilhelm Stratmann, head of the Bielefeld Museum where the exhibition is being staged. 

But in reality both groups served as apprenticeships for Hitler's war machine.

Children were taught the same kind of blind, unthinking obedience expected of his stormtroopers.

Loyal servants: Members of the BDM are awarded medals by Nazi brass in 1942

Members of the  BDM are seen marching at a National Sports Festival in Berlin, circa 1935

Boys were even drafted in their early teens into the the 12th SS Panzer Division 'Hitler Youth' which saw service on both the eastern and western fronts. 

The exhibition, which opened this week in the former British Army garrison town of Bielefeld, relates how they were kept happy with sweets and comics instead of drink and cigarettes, like their older comrades.

'The majority of German youth landed, whether they wanted to or not, in the Hitler Youth, which at its peak counted up to 8.7 million members,' said Juergen Mueller, head of the Nazi Documentation Centre in Cologne which has organised the exhibition.

'Many were fascinated by the tent camps, excursion trips, campfires and also the common singing. 

'All the things that the Nazis had taken over from the youth associations of the time.' 

The exhibition moves on the Muenster and other German cities in May.