On September 1st, 1939, Hitler's armies invaded Poland. Six years of war
would follow with the full participation of the Hitler Youth eventually
down to the youngest child.
At the onset of war, the Hitler Youth totaled 8.8 million. But the war
brought immediate, drastic changes as over a million Hitler Youth leaders
of draft age and regional adult leaders were immediately called up into
the army.
This resulted in a severe shortage of local and district leaders. The
problem was resolved by lowering the age of local Hitler Youth leaders
to 16 and 17. The average age had been 24. These 16 and 17-year-olds would
now be responsible for as many as 500 or more boys. Another big change
was the elimination of the strict division between the Jungvolk (boys 10
to 14) and the actual HJ (Hitler Youth 14 to 18).
The HJ organization had sprawled into a giant bureaucracy with
14 different regional offices. It was now cut back to just six main offices.
Hitler Youth Leader Baldur von Schirach, not wanting to be left out of
the war, received Hitler's permission to volunteer for the army. He underwent
training and received a rapid rise through the ranks, becoming a lieutenant
in just a few months. He was replaced by Artur Axmann, who had headed the
HJ Social Affairs Department and had been involved with the organization
since the late 1920s.
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Inside a sewing room of the BDM in 1942 as Hitler Youth uniforms are brought in to be mended. On the wall hangs a portrait of Hitler saying: "We follow Thee." Below: HJ-Schnellkommandos (Emergency Squads) help put out fires after an Allied air raid on Düsseldorf. |
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Below: Young replacements huddle in a foxhole on the Russian Front in early 1942--now out of the Hitler Youth and in the German Army--and soon to face the ferocious Red Army. |
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The war returned a sense of urgency to the daily activities of the Hitler
Youth. The organization had experienced a bit of a slump after 1936 when
participation had become mandatory. For many young Germans, weekly HJ meetings
and required activities had simply become a dreary routine. The original
mission of the HJ had been to bring Hitler to power. Victory in the war
became the new mission and HJ boys enthusiastically sprang into action,
serving as special postmen delivering draft notices in their neighborhoods
along with the new monthly ration cards. They also went door to door collecting
scrap metals and other needed war materials.
BDM - Girls
Girls also enthusiastically participated, although they were assigned
limited duties in keeping with the Nazi viewpoint on the role of females. An old
German slogan, popular even during the Nazi era, summed it up – Kinder,
Kirche, Küche (Children, Church,
Kitchen). The primary role of young females in Nazi Germany was to give
birth to healthy, racially pure (according to Nazi standards) boys. All
women's organizations were thus regarded as auxiliaries ranking below their
male counterparts.
BDM girls were assigned to help care for wounded soldiers in hospitals,
to help in kindergartens, and to assist households with large families.
They also stood on railway platforms, offering encouragement and refreshments
to army troops departing for the front.
Following the rapid German victory over Poland, girls from the Land
Service were assigned to the acquired territory in northern Poland (Warthegau)
to assist in the massive Nazi repopulation program in which native Poles
were forced off their homes and farms by Himmler's SS troops to make way
for ethnic Germans. Hitler Youths also assisted in this operation by watching
over Polish families as they were evicted from their homes, making sure
they took only a few basic possessions. Everything else of value was to
be left behind for the Germans.
Hitler considered the war in the East to be a "war of annihilation"
in which those considered racially inferior, the Slavs and Jews, would
be forcibly resettled or destroyed. Masses of unwanted humanity were thus
forced into the southeastern portion of Poland where ghettos sprang up
along with slave labor camps and eventually the extermination camps.
Following the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, ethnic Germans began
arriving into the Warthegau from areas of Russia and Eastern Europe. Hitler
Youths were utilized to help resettle and Nazify the new arrivals, many
of whom did not even speak German. Children of the arrivals were also subject
to mandatory participation in the HJ.
Flak Gun Crews
In August 1940, British air raids began against Berlin in retaliation
for the German bombing of London. Hitler Youth boys had already been functioning
as air raid wardens and anti-aircraft (flak) gun assistants in Berlin and
other cities since the outbreak of war, and now saw their first action.
The first thousand-bomber raid occurred
in May 1942 against Cologne. In that same month, newly created Wehrertüchtigungslager
or WELS (Defense Strengthening Camps) went into operation in Germany providing
three weeks of mandatory war training for all boys aged 16 to 18 under
the supervision of the Wehrmacht. They learned how to handle German infantry
weapons including various pistols, machine-guns, hand grenades and Panzerfausts (German bazookas).
By the beginning of 1943, Hitler's armies were stretched to the limit,
battling the combined forces of Soviet Russia, United States, Britain
and other Allies. By this time, most able-bodied German men were in the
armed services. As a result, starting on January 26, 1943, anti-aircraft
batteries were officially manned solely by Hitler Youth boys.
At first they were stationed at flak guns near their homes, but as the
overall situation deteriorated, they were transferred all over Germany.
The younger boys were assigned to operate search lights and assist with
communications, often riding their bicycles as dispatch riders. In October
1943, a search light battery received a direct bomb hit, killing the entire
crew of boys, all aged 14 and under.
Following each bombing raid, Hitler Youths assisted in neighborhood
cleanup and helped relocate bombed out civilians. They knocked on doors
looking for unused rooms in undamaged houses or apartments. Occupants refusing
to let in the new 'tenants' were reported to the local police and could
likely expect a visit from Gestapo.
KLV Camps
America's entry into the war in December of 1941 had resulted in a massive influx of air power into England. As the Allies stepped up their bombing campaign, the Nazis began evacuating
children from threatened cities into Hitler Youth KLV (Kinderlandverschickung)
camps located mainly in the rural regions of East Prussia, the Warthegau
section of occupied Poland, Upper Silesia, and Slovakia.
From 1940 to 1945, about 2.8 million German children were sent to these
camps. There were separate KLV camps for boys and girls. Some 5,000 camps
were eventually in operation, varying greatly in sizes from the smallest
which had 18 children to the largest which held 1,200. Each camp was run
by a Nazi approved teacher and a Hitler Youth squad leader. The camps replaced
big city grammar schools, most of which were closed due to the bombing.
Reluctant parents were forced to send their children away to the camps.
Life inside the boys' camp was harsh, featuring a dreary routine of
roll calls, paramilitary field exercises, hikes, marches, recitation of
Nazi slogans and propaganda, along with endless singing of Hitler Youth
songs and Nazi anthems. School work was neglected while supreme emphasis
was placed on the boys learning to automatically snap-to attention at any
time of the day or night and to obey all orders unconditionally "without
any if or buts."
Isolated in these camps and without any counter-balancing influences
from a normal home life, the boys descended into a primitive, survival of the
fittest mentality. Weakness was despised. Civilized notions of generosity
and sympathy for those in need faded. Rigid pecking orders arose in which
the youngest and most vulnerable boys were bullied, humiliated, and otherwise
made to suffer, including repeated sexual abuse.
Total War - The 12th SS-Panzer Division Hitlerjugend
1943 marked the military turning point for Hitler's Reich. In January,
the German Sixth Army was destroyed by the Russians at Stalingrad. In May,
the last German strongholds in North Africa fell to the Allies. In July,
the massive German counter-attack against the Russians at Kursk failed.
The Allies invaded Italy. An Allied invasion of northern Europe was anticipated.
The war could only end with the "unconditional surrender"
of Germany and its Axis partners, as stated by President Franklin Roosevelt
at the Casablanca Conference in January 1943. In February, Nazi Propaganda
Minister Joseph Goebbels retaliated by issuing a German declaration of
"Total War."
Amid a dwindling supply of manpower, the existence of an entire generation
of ideologically pure boys, raised as Nazis, eager to fight for the Fatherland
and even die for the Führer, could not
be ignored. The result was the formation of the 12th SS-Panzer Division
Hitlerjugend.
A recruitment drive began, drawing principally on 17-year-old volunteers,
but younger members 16 and under eagerly joined. During July and August
1943, some 10,000 recruits arrived at the training camp in Beverloo, Belgium.
To fill out the HJ Division with enough experienced soldiers and officers,
Waffen-SS survivors from the Russian Front, including members of the elite
Leibstandarte-SS Adolf Hitler, were brought in. Fifty officers from
the Wehrmacht, who were former Hitler Youth leaders, were also reassigned
to the division. The remaining shortage of squad and section leaders was
filled with Hitler Youth members who had demonstrated leadership aptitude
during HJ paramilitary training exercises. The division was placed under
of the command of 34-year-old Major General Fritz Witt, who had also been a
Hitler Youth, dating back before 1933.
Among his young troops, morale was high. Traditional, stiff German codes
of conduct between officers and soldiers were replaced by more informal
relationships in which young soldiers were often given the reasons behind
orders. Unnecessary drills, such as goose-step marching were eliminated.
Lessons learned on the Russian Front were applied during training to emphasize
realistic battlefield conditions, including the use of live ammunition.
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Northern Belgium early 1944--Members of the SS-Division Hitlerjugend stand in front of their Panzer IV tanks ready for the arrival of Field Marshal Rundstedt. Below: A young machine-gunner totes an MG-42 at Caen in northern France shortly after D-Day. |
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By the spring of 1944, training was complete. The HJ Panzer Division,
now fully trained and equipped, conducted divisional maneuvers observed
by General Heinz Guderian and Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt, both of whom admired
the enthusiasm and expressed their high approval of the proficiency achieved
by the young troops in such a short time. The division was then transferred
to Hasselt, Belgium, in anticipation of D-Day, the Allied invasion of northern
France. A few days before the invasion, SS-Reichsführer
Heinrich Himmler visited the division.
On D-Day, June 6th, 1944, the HJ Division was one of three Panzer divisions
held in reserve by Hitler as the Allies stormed the beaches at Normandy
beginning at dawn. At 2:30 in the afternoon, the HJ Division was released
and sent to Caen, located not far inland from Sword and Juno beaches on
which British and Canadian troops had landed. The division soon came under
heavy strafing attacks from Allied fighter bombers, which delayed arrival
there until 10 p.m.
The HJ were off to face an enemy that now had overwhelming air superiority
and would soon have nearly unlimited artillery support. The Allies, for
their part, were about to have their first encounter with Hitler's fanatical
boy-soldiers.
The shocking fanaticism and reckless bravery of the Hitler Youth in
battle astounded the British and Canadians who fought them. They sprang
like wolves against tanks. If they were encircled or outnumbered, they
fought-on until there were no survivors. Young boys, years away from their
first shave, had to be shot dead by Allied soldiers, old enough, in some
cases, to be their fathers. The "fearless, cruel, domineering"
youth Hitler had wanted had now come of age and arrived on the battlefield
with utter contempt for danger and little regard for their own lives. This soon resulted in the near destruction
of the entire division.
By the end of its first month in battle, 60 percent of the HJ Division
was knocked out of action, with 20 percent killed and the rest wounded
and missing. Divisional Commander Witt was killed by a direct hit on his
headquarters from a British warship. Command then passed to Kurt Meyer,
nicknamed 'Panzermeyer,' who at age 33, became the youngest divisional
commander in the entire German armed forces.
After Caen fell to the British, the HJ Division was withdrawn from the
Normandy Front. The once confident fresh-faced Nazi youths were now exhausted
and filthy, a sight which "presented a picture of deep human misery"
as described by Meyer.
In August, the Germans mounted a big counter-offensive toward Avranches,
but were pushed back from the north by the British and Canadians, and by
the Americans from the west, into the area around Falaise. Twenty four
German divisions were trapped inside the Falaise Pocket with a narrow 20
mile gap existing as the sole avenue of escape. The HJ Division was sent
to keep the northern edge of this gap open.
However, Allied air superiority and massive artillery barrages smashed
the HJ as well as the Germans trapped inside the pocket. Over 5,000 armored
vehicles were destroyed, with 50,000 Germans captured, while 20,000 managed
to escape, including the tattered remnants of the HJ.
By September 1944, the 12th SS-Panzer Division
Hitlerjugend numbered only 600 surviving young soldiers, with no
tanks and no ammunition. Over 9,000 had been lost in Normandy and Falaise.
The division continued to exist in name only for the duration of the war,
as even younger (and still eager) volunteers were brought in along with
a hodgepodge of conscripts. The division participated in the failed Battle
of the Bulge (Ardennes Offensive) and was then sent to Hungary where it
participated in the failed attempt to recapture Budapest. On May 8, 1945,
numbering just 455 soldiers and one tank, the 12th
SS-Panzer Division Hitlerjugend surrendered to the American 7th
Army.
Volkssturm - The Final Defense
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On the German home front, HJ boys clean up the rubble after yet another air raid. Below: Decorated HJ flak helpers are seen during a war rally held amid Germany's declining fortunes. |
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Below: The last reserves--ever younger--learn how to fire anti-tank Panzerfausts to stop the Russians. |
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Below: Near the end--April 20th, 1945--the Führer with Hitler Youths outside his Berlin bunker. |
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Hitler's own generals tried to assassinate him on July 20, 1944, to
end Nazi Germany's all-out commitment to a war that was now clearly lost.
But the assassination attempt failed. Hitler took revenge by purging the
General Staff of anyone deemed suspicious or exhibiting defeatist behavior.
Nearly 200 officers and others were killed, in some cases, slowly hanged
from meat hooks.
Germany under Hitler would now fight-on to the very last, utilizing
every available human and material resource. In September, Hitler Youth
Leader Artur Axmann proclaimed: "As the sixth year of war begins,
Adolf Hitler's youth stands prepared to fight resolutely and with dedication
for the freedom of their lives and their future. We say to them: You must
decide whether you want to be the last of an unworthy race despised by
future generations, or whether you want to be part of a new time, marvelous
beyond all imagination."
With the Waffen-SS and regular army now depleted of men, Hitler
ordered Hitler Youth boys as young as fifteen to be trained as replacements
and sent to the Russian Front. Everyone, both young and old, would be thrown
into the final fight to stop the onslaught of "Bolshevik hordes" from the
East and "Anglo-American gangsters" from the West.
On September 25, 1944, anticipating the invasion of the German Fatherland,
the Volkssturm (People's Army) was formed under the overall command
of Heinrich Himmler. Every available male aged 16 to 60 was conscripted
into this new army and trained to use the Panzerfaust anti-tank weapon.
Objections to using even younger boys were ignored.
In the Ruhr area of Germany, HJ boys practiced guerilla warfare against
invading U.S. troops. In the forests, the boys stayed hidden until the
tanks had passed, waiting for the foot soldiers. They would then spring up,
shoot at them and throw grenades, inflicting heavy causalities, then dash
away and disappear back into the forest. The Americans retaliated with
furious air-attacks and leveled several villages in the surrounding area.
If the boys happened to get cornered by American patrols, they often
battled until the last boy was killed rather than surrender. And the boys
kept getting younger. American troops reported capturing armed 8-year-olds
at Aachen in Western Germany and knocking out artillery units operated entirely by boys aged
twelve and under. Girls were also used now, operating the 88mm anti-aircraft
guns alongside the boys.
In February 1945, project Werewolf began, training German children as
spies and saboteurs, intending to send them behind Allied lines with explosives
and arsenic. But the project came to nothing as most of these would-be saboteurs were quickly captured
or killed by the Allies as they advanced into the Reich.
The Russians by now were roaring toward Berlin, capitol of Nazi Germany,
where Hitler had chosen to make his last stand. On April 23rd, battalions
made up entirely of Hitler Youths were formed to hold the Pichelsdorf bridges
by the Havel River. These bridges in Berlin were supposed to be used by
General Wenck's relief army coming from the south. That army, unknown to
the boys, had already been destroyed and now existed on paper only. It
was one of several phantom armies being commanded by Hitler to save encircled
Berlin.
At the Pichelsdorf bridges, 5,000 boys, wearing man-sized uniforms several
sizes too big and helmets that flopped around on their heads, stood by
with rifles and Panzerfausts, ready to oppose the Russian Army. Within five
days of battle, 4,500 had been killed or wounded. In other parts of Berlin,
HJ boys met similar fates. Many committed suicide rather than be taken
alive by the Russians.
All over the city, every able-bodied male was pressed into the desperate
final struggle. Anyone fleeing or refusing to go to the front lines was
shot or hanged on the spot by SS executioners roaming the streets hunting
for deserters.
In his last public appearance, just ten days before his death, Adolf Hitler
ventured out of his Berlin bunker on his 56th birthday into the Chancellery
garden to decorate twelve-year-old Hitler Youths with Iron Crosses for
their heroism in the defense of Berlin. The extraordinary event was captured
on film and remains one of the most enduring images chronicling the collapse
of Hitler's thousand-year Reich, as the tottering, senile-looking Führer
is seen congratulating little boys staring at him with worshipful admiration.
They were then sent back out into the streets to continue the hopeless
fight.
On April 30, 1945, as the Russians advanced to within a few hundred
yards of his bunker, Hitler committed suicide. The next day, Hitler Youth
Leader Artur Axmann, who had been commanding an HJ battalion in Berlin,
abandoned his boys and fled to the Alps. In Vienna, Baldur von Schirach
abandoned HJ units fighting to defend that city.
The war ended with Germany's unconditional surrender on May 7, 1945.
However, it was soon realized that this defeat was unlike any other in
history. In addition to his war of military conquest, Hitler had also waged
a war against defenseless civilians. The events of that war, revealed in
the coming months during the Nuremberg trials, would stun the world, and
even resulted in a new term to describe the systematic killing of an entire
race of people – genocide.