Scout benefits outweigh dad’s concerns

When Cassian Steidle’s sons wanted to join the Scouts, the Hamilton-based German had to think twice.

 

For Mr Steidle, scouting, which grew out of founder Robert Baden-Powell’s time in the British Army, evoked a national memory of the Hitler Youth movement. Adolf Hitler used it to engineer his rise to power before declaring war on the world.

 

Mr Steidle had a problem with young people swearing to serve the Queen, parading in a uniform and striving for decorations to be sewn onto their shirts.

 

“My reason is pretty personal and a complicated thing,” Mr Steidle, who first came to Hamilton in 2002, said. “Coming from Germany, it’s easy to understand because of what happened in my home land 70 years ago. That’s why Baden-Powell never wanted anything to do with Hitler Youth.”

 

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