Youth Fought Conflicts: Past and Present

Throughout history many different military groups have used children. From ancient Greece to the Middle East today, child soldiers have been used for a variety of reasons. Two particular conflicts in which child soldiers have been used are World War II with the Hitler Youth, whose young boys brutally attacked Allied soldiers, and Colombia’s ongoing Armed Conflict, in which children are trained to kill for guerrilla insurgencies and paramilitaries. Sometimes these children are forced into fighting. Other times they are persuaded by the idea of creating a better future. Whatever the reasons, the use of children in battle is wrong and efforts should be made to help end the practice.

One major conflict of the past in which children were used in battle is World War II. Its beginnings stem from the rise of the Nazi party in Germany following World War I. The rise of Nazi Germany began in the 1930s and was led by Adolf Hitler. Through his ideas of economic recovery Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party grew in power despite many of its radical ideas. Shamed by the outcome of World War I, Nazi Germany sought to regain power and began to invade other nations. When the Axis (Germany and its allied powers) attacked Poland without declaration, Britain and France declared war. The United States was reluctant to enter the war and was determined to keep a policy of neutrality. This possibility, however, was severed on December 7th, 1941 with the attack on Pearl Harbor, forcing the United States to enter the war.1

Children played a significant role in the fighting done by Germany in World War II. The source of these child soldiers was the Hitler Youth. The Hitler Youth evolved from many youth groups and movements which existed before the war. One of the first youth organizations in Germany was the Wandervögel, a male-only group, which stressed the values of nature and freedom. The Wandervögel was soon followed by a variety of other groups including The Catholic Youth Organization and the Nazi Youth League. As Hitler’s power grew, these affiliations soon evolved into the Hitler Youth which became the official young people organization of the Nazis. The Youth was primarily male, although some girls joined and worked separately. The organization attempted to instill values such as obedience, unity, and strength. As more and more members joined, the Hitler Youth began teaching classes in which the ideas of Nazism were engraved in the minds of the young. The group became the eyes and ears of Hitler and would watch out for anyone who criticized Nazism. Some children even turned in their own parents. Eventually Hitler made the Youth mandatory to all German children. Parents who prevented their children from joining were subject to steep prison sentences. Young people can be influenced far easier than adults and through propaganda and extreme nationalism the Hitler Youth was shaped into an army of children perfectly embodying the principles of Nazism. As World War II progressed and grew in scale, Hitler found himself in need of more soldiers. He then turned to the Hitler Youth and soon began recruiting older members to help fight. As the Axis numbers continued to dwindle, Hitler began calling on more and more members of the Youth to join at younger ages. Some Allied soldiers reported being attacked by boys as young as eight and even girls who were used as soldiers later in the war. 2

In the aftermath of the war the Hitler Youth was dissolved and many children were left without homes and were forced to live in terrible conditions with little food or money. Baldur von Schirach, the head of the Youth, was charged with crimes against humanity for educating children with the spirit of Nazism. Children in the Hitler Youth had been poorly educated and the only program to help reintegrate them into society was the reinstitution of compulsory schooling. It was not uncommon to see older children in grammar school. Many children were forced to fend for themselves not knowing when their next meal would come. Needless to say, like the rest of Germany, the ex-Hitler Youths were devastated. The last remnants of the Youth eventually became the Free German Youth marching for their new leader, Joseph Stalin. From the Hitler Youth we can learn of the susceptible minds of children and that they can be convinced of almost anything. Maybe this is part of the reason child soldiers are so appealing. They can embody whatever quality a group wishes and full-heartedly fight and defend any cause to their death.

Another more modern conflict with a staggering amount of child soldiers is still taking place in Colombia. The Colombian Armed Conflict has existed since the 1960s when several guerrilla insurgency organizations fighting against the government of Colombia emerged. These insurgency organizations, such as the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) and Ejército Nacional de Liberación, are extremist groups. They began in response to previous violent conflicts like La Violencia, a civil conflict between Colombia’s Liberal and Conservative Parties. Soon, paramilitary groups developed in defense. Since then, it has grown in scale and the methods used by these Guerilla organizations have become more extreme. Now they are often supported through narcotics and kidnappings. Every year the conflict claims more than three-thousand lives.3 All sides, insurgents and paramilitaries, have used and recruited children for battle. Guerilla groups call their child soldiers “little bees” because they sting before the target realizes they are being attacked. Many children join out of their attraction to the firearms and fighting, others do so to escape poverty, and still more children join after growing up listening to the ideas of revolutionaries. 4 The FARC even carries out recruitment campaigns in schools and at children’s homes.5 According to the Human Rights Watch, around 11,080 child soldiers serve in Colombia today. Of these child soldiers about seventy-percent have experienced combat. 6 The effect of this fighting on children is undeniable. They are often scarred for life psychologically and emotionally. There are programs that help protect and reintegrate former child soldiers into society as well as teach families to prevent children from joining.7 This can be very difficult since the mental scars of battle do not heal easily, especially for children. Additionally, conditions at home are not always ideal for these ex-child soldiers and they often end up in foster care. From Colombia’s armed conflict we can learn the great scale to which child soldiers still exist and that many groups with opposing beliefs are willing to use them to advance their cause.

Over time, the number of child soldiers in fighting has decreased. Still, humanity can do more to help this problem. We could create an international institution dedicated to the reintegration of former child soldiers back into society. Countries from all around the world could help to fund and administrate it. Different branches of the institution would exist in all parts of the world. Ex-child soldiers would routinely be transported to one of these branches. There, the child would attend classes led by the institution which teach standard education and promote humanitarian activity in a friendly environment. At the same time children would be given a place to live, eat, and a variety of activities to keep them occupied and help relieve any emotional scars. Counselors would meet with children and discuss their time spent as a soldier. As with the Hitler Youth, the mind of a child often finds difficulty departing from the ideas upon which he or she is raised. Children of the institution would better understand their past situation through the help of these counselors. By observing the changing percentages of child soldiers involved in conflicts around the world and comparing them to the number of children attending this institution we could determine the success of this program. If successful, we can expect a steady increase in attendance as more and more children are taken out of battle. This would be followed by decline of child soldiers as fewer and fewer organizations use children in fighting. Eventually, when this institution is no longer necessary, we will know it has served its purpose.

From the Hitler Youth to the Armed Conflict in Colombia, the use of child soldiers is a problem of the past and present just as violence in general has plagued humanity forever. Although this programs main goal is to help child soldiers who have fought in conflicts, it is not absurd to hope that this institution will help to also promote peace in general across the world. Not only could the children coming out of this program go on to promote peace, but also through this institution people will see the natural benevolence of the human race and their ability to change and improve. Despite the difficulty and gigantic scale of this project, indirectly it will contribute to reducing the violence that troubles our world and bring about a level of peace to the human race.

End Notes

1. Jones, Andrew. “SparkNote on World War II (1939–1945).” Spark Notes. 24 Jan.2007 .

2. Gavin, Philip. "Hitler Youth." The History Place. 21 Jan 2007 .

3. Pike, John. "Colombia - Insurgency." GlobalSecuirity.org . 21 Jan 2007 .

4. Ferrer, Yadira. “Colombia.” Series in the SIRS Enduring Issues 2001..Inter Press Service, 2000.

5. Human Rights Watch. War Without Quarter: Colombia and International Humanitarian Law. Human Rights Watch Publications, 1998.

6. Human Rights Watch. “Child Soldiers in Colombia.” 21 Jan 2007

7. Human Rights Watch. “Child Soldiers Used by All Sides in Colombia's Armed Conflict.” 21 Jan 2007

Bibliography

Non-Internet Sources

Ferrer, Yadira. “Colombia.” Series in the SIRS Enduring Issues 2001. Inter Press Service, 2000.

Human Rights Watch. War Without Quarter: Colombia and International Humanitarian Law. Human Rights Watch Publications, 1998.

Keairns, Yvonne E. The Voices of Girl Child Soldiers. New York: Quaker Unite Nations Office, 2002.

Rempel, Gerhard. Hitler's Children: The Hitler Youth and the SS. Chapel Hill, N.C.: The University of North Carolina Press, 1989.

Internet Sources

Adeba, Brian. "Ex-Child Soldiers Seek A New Life." Embassy: Canada's Foreign Policy Newsweekly. 22 Jan2007 .

Gavin, Philip. "Hitler Youth." The History Place. 21 Jan 2007 .

Gow, Melanie. "Child Soldiers." Anti-Slavery Society . 23 Jan 2007 .

Human Rights Watch. “Child Soldiers in Colombia.” 21 Jan 2007

Human Rights Watch. “Child Soldiers Used by All Sides in Colombia's Armed Conflict.” 21 Jan 2007

Jones, Andrew. “SparkNote on World War II (1939–1945).” Spark Notes. 24 Jan. 2007 .

Pike, John. "Colombia - Insurgency." GlobalSecuirity.org . 21 Jan 2007