DU HAST DIE PFLICHT, GESUND ZU SEIN
It is your duty to be healthy
Picture book for training in the Hitler-Jugend
Prepared in cooperation with the Office of Public Health of the Reich Health Department.
ADOLF HITLER’S YOUTH
In order to please our leader, we will turn back to 1939 to examine the physical fitness of his youth. It is necessary to raise the physical ability of our people through rational training of the younger generation. Young people, you can do it through the power of your own will:
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1) through athletic activity and systematic physical exercises;
2) through avoiding luxury foods and alcohol that can do harm to your body.
In the Hitler-Youth program alcohol and nicotine will not be completely forbidden. I consider that superfluous, since in the new year you will want to show the Leader through your decision to follow his example. The Hitler Corps of the Hitler Youth Program will help by being with good models.
Boys and girls of the Leader—you have the duty to be healthy. With this motto I declare 1939 the “Year of Your Duty to Be Healthful.”
Baldur von Schirach
[Director of the Hitler-Youth Program]
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For supplements the following can be consulted:
Die Mädelschaft, Edition A and B, May,1939, Series 8;
Die Jungmädelschaft, Edition A and B, May, 1939, Series 8;
Die Kameradschaft, special issue for summer camps, 1939;
Die Jungenschaft, special issue for summer camps, 1939;
The contributions in the Leader’s training portion of Heimatabende of 1939;
“It is your duty to be healthy.”
Number 1: Nicotine and alcohol. Published by the Reich Health Department.
Rednerdienst, March 1939. “The Year of Your Duty to Be Healthy.” Published by the Press and Propaganda Office of the Reich Health Department.
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STRUCTURE OF THE PICTURE BOOK
Pictures 1-3 Year of the duty to be healthy
Pictures 4-5 I. Sleep and early morning exercises
Pictures 6-10 II. Care of one’s body is necessary
Pictures 11-14 III. Proper care of teeth
Pictures 15-19 IV. Healthy eating
Pictures 20-24 V. Alcohol is poison
Pictures 25-30 VI. Fight nicotine
Pictures 31-35 VII. Do physical exercise
Picture 36: Your body belongs to your country!
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OVERVIEW OF THE PICTURES
1. “We no longer view the ideal of the German people in the beer guzzler, but in men…
2. and in girls, who are perfectly healthy and who are disciplined.” The Leader.
3. In order to please the Leader, we want to declare the year of 1939 for the healthy training of our youth. That means to raise the capability of our people through a sensible life style. My friends, you can do that through your own will!
First requirement:
4. You need nine hours of sleep.
The body needs at least nine hours of sleep for rest from the day’s work. You must sleep by an open window. Your lungs receive sufficient oxygen through the fresh air and your rest is accelerated.
5. Early morning exercises refresh.
Short early morning exercises dissipate tiredness quickly , warm the body and increase circulation of muscles and organs. Not only at camp, but also at home you ought to do early morning exercises at least five minutes each day. If it is not possible out of doors, you should do it with the window open wide.
Second requirement:
6. Keep yourself clean and care for your body. You will need half an hour each morning and evening.
Health presupposes cleanliness. Half an hour must be available every morning and every evening for the care of your body. If you get up ten minutes before the beginning of your work, you cannot be thoroughly clean, nor can you eat peacefully.
7. To use a brush while bathing increases the circulation of the skin.
Through the use of a brush while bathing the pores of the skin are opened , the skin is nourished and the entire circulation and metabolism systems are stimulated. Use of a brush is a good means for body and skin care.
8. Do not forget regular washing of the feet!
Each day you require a tremendous amount of work of your feet. With the exception of light and air, they must spend their entire life in tight shoes. Go barefoot as much as you can. It is the best form of rest for your feet. Care for them regularly according to the old knights’ proverb: First the horse and then the rider.” In the evening they are washed in cold water, in the case of sensitive skin use a damp cloth; during a journey they are washed in warm water only before longer breaks, such as for an entire day. Otherwise the skin will become soft and sensitive and blisters can appear. In order to strengthen the skin, you can rub in alcoholic liniment and methylated spirits. Do not puncture blisters, but leave their care to the army doctor. The toe nails are cut straight , not in half-moon shape; otherwise they become ingrown.
9. The black edge under the finger nails is a hotbed for foreign bodies.
Foreign bodies, known as bacteria, are the most dangerous causes of illness. They grow especially well in dirt. In the black edge, in which the daily dirt collects under the finger nails, they grow extremely well, like plants in a hotbed. Therefore, your must always keep your fingers clean, just as you do your hands. A finger nail cleaner belongs in the tool box of every young man and woman.
10. Frequent bathing hardens the body.
Bathing stimulates circulation in the skin as well as promoting metabolism. Water, air and sun exert a powerful stimulation on the body and strengthen its resistance to colds.
Third requirement:
11. Care for your teeth. You can be proud of a strong and healthy set of teeth.
A strong set of teeth is always a sign of good health. You should keep your teeth healthy as long as possible through proper nutrition and good care, so that you can always “show your teeth.”
12. Brush your teeth every morning and every evening after eating.
During the night and even during the day minute bits of food collect between the teeth, and they must be removed carefully; therefore, the teeth must be brushed not only from the sides, but also from top to bottom, in order to remove the smallest bits of food. Rinse your mouth with lukewarm water a few times.
13. A dentist should examine your teach two times each year.
A sick tooth does not ache in the beginning. When the problem is still small, it can be easily corrected. Therefore, you must have a dentist must examine your teeth twice each year, even if you have no tooth aches. Each car is examined every 2000 kilometers. Your teeth and your health are much more valuable than a car. Spot checks among German youth have shown that from 100 persons, only 14 have healthy teeth.
14. Fresh fruit and coarse whole wheat bread prevent decay in your teeth.
An organ that does not have to work will atrophy. You can understand that, if, as a result of illness,
you cannot engage in any sports. Within a short time, your muscular ability will decrease. If your teeth get only mush and soft white bread, they will have nothing to chew and will soon decay. With this kind of diet, the essential nutrients are lacking. Therefore, give your teeth fresh fruit and coarse whole wheat bread, which is a diet that you have to chew vigorously and it provides the body with the necessary building materials.
Fourth requirement:
15. Eat properly! Proper nutrition is the requirement for your health and productivity.
Nutrition provides us with the basic ingredients that the body needs for living. We cannot depend entirely on the taste in the determination of what we east, but on the guidelines that the medical community provides.
16. It is not a matter of how much, but what and how you eat.
17. Eat little meat and fat, but much raw fruit and vegetables.
On the average, we eat four times as much meat and twice as much fat as our great grandparents. We eat too little raw fruit and raw vegetables. Actually, the most important food elements are contained in raw vegetables and in raw fruit, which often are lost in cooking.
18. Drink milk and eat fish. This will serve you and help our Four-Year-Plan.
Milk and fish are valuable nutritional ingredients that contain all essential materials, even skim milk is a valuable element. The consumption of fish and milk also saves foreign exchange.
Fifth requirement:
19. Drink liquid fruit. Alcohol and coffee are harmful.
20. Alcohol is poison. It limits your growth and your working ability.
21. 3.12 billion marks (Reichsmark) were drunk in one year, that is, 6.7 marks of 100 marks income. (Statistics are from the economic year 1937-38).
Beer consumption rose from 33.9 million hectoliters to 43.3 million hectoliters in 1937-38! Approximately 300,000 habitual drinkers must receive social services!
22. On the negative side, as a result of alcohol, 5600 to 8000 people are seriously injured each year.
Alcohol and nicotine limit one’s judgment and reaction ability. They are the cause of most accidents.
23. Alcoholism is a danger for future generations.
In most cases, alcohol and tobacco addicts have inferior offspring, who then become a burden to the state. Young and healthy workers will have to pay the costs for them.
24. “Alcohol is harmful to humanity. What it has destroyed or made unusable in our German nation is a much higher number than all losses on all battlefields in this period of time.”
Adolf Hitler
Sixth requirement:
25. Do not smoke! “Nicotine is the greatest poison for our people.”
A drop of nicotine will kill a dog. Nicotine destroys the nerves and attacks almost all organs of the body. Eating the poison of one cigar would kill a person.
26. The German people spent in 1937-38: 2.6 billion marks for tobacco, but only 0.42 billion for the WHW.
27. “Mothers who smoke and drink cannot raise healthy children.” …District leader Streicher
Nicotine goes into the child who is nursed by the mother and causes poisoning. A woman who smokes shows that she does not want to have healthy children. That is the greatest crime that a woman can commit.
28. The Reich youth leader: “Where a tasteless cigarette advertisement boasts of a new smokers’ epoch, think about it—sports achievement and enjoyment of nicotine are mutually exclusive.”
29. Since 1900 Japan has prohibited smoking for anyone under 21 years of age.
Strong nations resist smoking and drinking traditions; however, Jewish businessmen consciously promote them, in order to weaken resistance, as is stated in the instructions of the Talmud.
30. Leaders and models of their peoples do not smoke and do not drink alcohol—The Leader and Mussolini in Munich, October 1, 1938.
Seventh requirement:
31. Exercise! Exercises keep you healthy and resistant.
Whoever sits for a long time, will rust. If you do not exercise your body, it will become worn out and sensitive to illness. Daily exercises will steel your body and make you resistant to illnesses.
32. Regular and daily exercise will steel your body…
Only regular and daily exercises strengthen your health. Through unreasonable and senseless over-exertion you and your followers will attain the opposite. They will become weakened, their organs will become damaged, their achievements and resistance against illnesses will decrease. Especially this law applies in youth sports: “A short powerful exercise, and afterward a long rest!” You and your comrades must observe this law unconditionally.
33. and create pleasure and belief in your own competitiveness.
In sports you will see at once what you can do, if you only want to. Once you have jumped from the springboard, and have started the descent on skis, or you have jumped over the four meter bar, then you can be pleased with yourself and can be proud of your achievement.
34/35. “It does not depend on how many glasses of beer one has drunk, but rather, how many blows one can withstand…it does not depend on how many nights one can get through, but how many kilometers one can march.”
The Leader
36. “Your body belongs to your country, and you are grateful to it for your existence. You are responsible to it for your body.”
Baldur von Schirach