NSU’s structure

National Youth Leaders
• Carl Christian Blangsted Stender: 1 September 1934 – 24 June 1936
• Asger Viktor Schubert: 24 June 1936 – 15 January 1939
• C.F. von Schalburg: 15 January 1939 – 2 June 1942
• Hans Jensen: 12 November 1942 – 5 May 1945

Acting National Youth Leaders
• Christian Teisen: 27 February 1940 – April 1940 (during C.F. von Schalburg’s leave in Finland)
• Knud Henning Hansen: April 1940 – September 1940 (during C.F. von Schalburg’s leave in Finland and Denmark)
• Erik Kristian Schive Lærum: 1 November 1940 – 8 September 1941 (during von Schalburg’s leave on the Eastern Front)
• Hans Jensen: 9 September 1940 – 11 November 1942 (during von Schalburg’s leave on the Eastern Front, as well as after his death)

The photo shows the NSU shield, which was used on letterhead as a logo and in a fabric version on uniforms. The background color was postbox red, with a white sun cross.

NSU was founded in October 1932 following the reorganization of its parent party DNSAP. Members of the party who were under 18 years old were separated from the SA into a separate organization. The organization was called National Socialist Youth (NSU). In reality, only one branch was established in Copenhagen, and after only one month the branch left the party together with the leader of DNSAP’s Copenhagen branch, Wilfred Petersen, who started his own National Socialist Party. The former Copenhagen branch continued its activities in Wilfred Petersen’s National Socialist Party (NSP) under the name NSU, and there were now two organizations with the same name. DNSAP existed only on paper.

On 1 September 1934, NSU was re-founded by Carl Christian Blangsted Stender, who together with DNSAP’s first leader Cay Lembcke had been pioneers in the Danish scouting movement. In the early years it was called “Danske Drenge” (Danish Boys) so as not to be confused with Wilfred Petersen’s NSU. Only in 1936 was the name changed back to National Socialist Youth (NSU). During its first years the organisation had only a few members, and from the outside NSU most of all resembled a scouting movement.

During the 1930s the organisation developed. Like the SA, the NSU became a parallel organisation to the DNSAP with its own uniform and its own symbol: the sun wheel. In the beginning it largely used the same methods as the scouting movement. Lieutenant A. V. Schubert strengthened the bureaucracy and neglected youth work. This changed when an officer of the Royal Life Guards, Christian Frederik von Schalburg, was appointed National Youth Leader of the NSU on 15 January 1939. With Schalburg’s entry into the organisation, it received its own organisational plan, and the organisation changed character from a scouting movement into military preparation, with the integration of NSU members into the Waffen-SS as an important objective.

In the same way as the Hitler Youth in Germany, DNSAP was active in the upbringing of national socialist youth. Youth was the future. After Germany’s attack on the Soviet Union, DNU began pressuring young people to enlist in the Waffen-SS in the fight against communism. Many NSU members followed this call.

C.F. von Schalburg was, on paper, National Youth Leader until his death on 2 June 1942. However, during two long periods as National Youth Leader, Schalburg was occupied elsewhere and could not devote himself to the work in the NSU. On both occasions, an acting National Youth Leader was appointed in Schalburg’s place.
In the first period in 1940, von Schalburg had gone to Finland to fight on the Finnish side against the Soviet Union. When he returned to Denmark, the country had been occupied, and he was depressed.
In the second period, Schalburg had volunteered for the Waffen-SS and fought against the communists on the Eastern Front. There he was recklessly killed in action on 2 June 1942 as commander of Frikorps Danmark, either stepping on a landmine or being hit by shell fragments from Russian artillery.

The new leader of NSU, Hans Jensen, separated NSU from DNSAP on 15 September 1943. NSU now received its funding directly from the occupying power, and its finances and level of activity could be increased. In the early war years NSU was troubled by internal power struggles, but with Hans Jensen’s appointment as National Youth Leader after von Schalburg’s death, these power struggles subsided.
On 15 March 1945, when the war was nearing its end, NSU was again placed under DNSAP. DNSAP had long been a party in disintegration, and NSU slowly dissolved thereafter. (ref. among others Wikipedia)

An NSU boy in full uniform. Note the “edelweiss emblem”; the person is participating in a foreign camp in southern Germany, where the symbol for mountain hiking was awarded.

NSU leader Aksel Juul, who later came to head a separate labour service.

NSU leader Erik Lærum

I further refer to the 2 books on the subject: Kirkebæk, Mikkel: “Ready for Denmark – National Socialist Youth 1932 – 1945”. Høst og søn, 2004. Kirkebæk, Mikkel: “von Schalburg – a patriotic traitor”