It was a privilege to be invited to join. The Hitler Youth was the Nazi youth organization. Both organizations served the functions that the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts fulfill in the United States but also indoctrinated children with Nazi or Communist propaganda and helped to integrate young people into the party apparatus. Since Biblical times Jewish boys have been circumcised shortly after birth. Circumcision is viewed by Jews as a sign of their obedience to God.
Circumcision is an operation in which the foreskin over the head of the penis is removed.
The opening scene in the movie shows a bris, the Jewish religious ceremony of circumcision, which occurs on the eighth day after the birth of a male child. At the time of World War II usually only Jews were circumcised. This is the background for the scene in the movie when the Armenian man sought to avoid death by pulling down his pants and showing that he was uncircumcised and therefore not Jewish. During World War II doctors came to believe that circumcision was medically beneficial because dirt and dead skin becomes trapped under the foreskin and causes infection. Because of this many non-Jewish children have been circumcised.