Youth Leads Us to Victory – The Year 1940

The surviving photographs taken by Lothar Gruber begin in 1940. Although no written records from this period exist, the photos reveal that Gruber was a member of the Hitler Youth at the time. The war’s initial battles had ended in victory; Poland was already occupied, and Denmark and Norway had been conquered during the first half of the year. Above all, France—the "hereditary enemy"—acknowledged its defeat on June 17, 1940, following the successful Operation "Sickle Cut" (Sichelschnitt): the invasion of the Netherlands and Belgium, which had been accompanied by a flanking maneuver around French defensive positions via a completely unexpected breakthrough through the Ardennes.

Yet, viewed from the heart of Germany, the war still seemed very distant, and German casualties were low. Consequently, the enthusiasm of the youth of that era—indoctrinated in the spirit of National Socialism in schools for the past eight years—for the "brilliant Führer" and his henchmen must have been immense. However, the Hitler Youth did not merely train young people for military readiness through field exercises or weapons instruction; large-scale excursions and camping trips also offered a welcome change of pace, especially for teenagers from the bleak working-class districts of the major cities.

In 1940, Gruber’s Hitler Youth (HJ) group from Zuffenhausen organized one such major excursion to the Allgäu region and the adjacent Bavarian territory. The highlight of the trip, however, was the "Day of German Art" in Munich—an annual exhibition featuring artworks that, at the very least, did not conflict with the National Socialist worldview. Above all, it was an exhibition of ghastly propaganda pieces—works that, insofar as they still exist, rightly languish in storage depots today. In 1940, this Munich exhibition at the "House of German Art" was opened by Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels on July 27. This allows us to date the photographs from Munich precisely, as one of them clearly shows that a prominent figure was expected.

Gruber reached conscription age in 1940, marking the end of his time in the Hitler Youth. He mentions a period spent in the Labour Service; perhaps some of the unlabeled photos found in the final album (1944) date from this time. He may well have spent a brief period in France with the Labour Service as early as 1940, recovering captured war materiel. In any case, his military training also began in 1940, as his active service as a soldier commenced in late summer 1941—just months after the launch of "Operation Barbarossa," the invasion of the Soviet Union...