The Saber and Scroll Journal Volume 8, Number 3, Spring 2020 | Page 139

and Scroll
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While a significant achievement, it was
small compared to when Hitler was
named Chancellor and the numbers
rose to 108,000. 11 Even though the efforts
of Gruber were exceptional, he
was criticized and chastised for his conflicts
with other ranking members of
the party. He felt his achievements and
efforts were for his own held office, not
a joy that should be carried by the entire
Nazi Party or the Reich. One particular
instance between himself and Ernst
Rohm, an early leader of the Sturmabteilung
(SA), was a climax point in
the youth party. Rohm felt that the Hitler
Youth should be subordinated, with
power being passed down by the SA,
while Gruber felt the total opposite. The
conflict between Gruber and Rohm,
paired with the slow initial growth of
the new Hitler Youth, forced Gruber's
removal from power and saw the introduction
of Baldur von Schirach. 12
In 1929, the Hitler Youth was
named as the only officially recognized
youth group for the entire Nazi Party.
This meant that if your parents were
members of the party, then you as children
were seen as members as well, or
“guilty by association,” as many children
would soon find out. In July of 1930,
the Bund Deutscher Madel (BDM), or
the league of German Girls, was founded
as a sister organization to the Hitler
Youth. These early years of growth
and innovation within the Hitler Youth
were brought to a stop right before Hitler
took power, as the German Weimar
government temporarily banned the
SA, the original storm troopers, and the
Hitler Youth. This was eventually canceled
when Hitler was named Chan-