Hans Seidler - Hitlers Boy Soldiers: The Hitlerjugend Story

First published in Great Britain in 2013 by

PEN & SWORD MILITARY

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Copyright Hans Seidler, 2013

ISBN 978-1-84884-112-3

ISBN 9781783400317 (epub)
ISBN 9781783400058 (prc)

The right of Hans Seidler to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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Two young Hitlerjugend cadets observe with interest a Luftwaffe FlaK crew displaying their weaponry during a training exercise. In early 1943 the German youth were mobilized into special Luftwaffe auxiliary helpers. This was done in order to release many thousands of Luftwaffe FlaK men that were desperately required on the front lines. During 1943 some 11,500 Hitlerjugend boys were drafted as FlaK helpers. By the following year in 1944, some 55,000 were FlaK helpers, and by the end of the war over 200,000 FlaK helpers were known to be active on all fronts.

From their beginnings in 1922 this book describes the history of the Hitler Youth or Hitlerjugend. This paramilitary organization of the Nazi Party was the second oldest Nazi group, and was made up of male youths aged fourteen to eighteen. By December 1936, the Hitlerjugend membership stood at just over 5 million. Each member was trained and natured towards Nazi ideology and the art of warfare.

With a host of rare and unpublished photographs with detailed captions this book shows how the Hitlerjugend evolved during the Second World War from an organization assisting in such organizations as the Reich Postal Service, Deutsche Reichsbahn (German State Railways), fire services, and Reich radio service, and served among anti-aircraft defence crews, to one of the most effective fighting formations in military history. The book describes how the Hitlerjugend were recruited into the elite 12.SS-Panzer-Division Hitlerjugend, and traces how this Waffen-SS force fought on the battlefields of France, Hungary and the Eastern Front. Given sweets instead of cigarettes in their ration packs, it traces how various other Hitlerjugend formations fought to the death. Even when in full retreat before the Russians and Western Allies, it describes in detail how Hitler called upon the elderly veterans of the First World War to take up and defend their country alongside the Hitlerjugend. In front of overwhelming opposition Hitler's youth were ordered to delay the advance of the enemy and fight to the grim death. Although by May 1945, with the war over, various Hitlerjugend units, mostly dressed in civilian clothes, took to the hills and mountains of Bavaria and Austria and fought guerilla warfare. But as it had been during the war, these Hitlerjugend formations were neither well equipped or had the numbers of well trained soldiers to change the course of action through their defence.

Adolf Hitler was obsessed with youth as a political force, and the creation of the Hitler Youth or Hitlerjugend enabled him to meet this goal. He was able to use this uniformed army of teenagers not only for promoting the myth of his own invincible genius but also in war. The Hitlerjugend had been for a number of years trained in diverse para-military skills. The most elite formations were the boys who served in the special units of the Hitlerjugend. In the Flieger-HJ or air training Hitlerjugend, there were more than 78,000 boys alone that had joined during the 1930s. Wearing their distinctive Luftwaffe blue uniforms with light blue piping and the armlet of the Hitlerjugend, they were trained in almost all aspects of aviation. Most members, between the ages of fourteen and eighteen in the Flieger-HJ, tried to obtain his wings: the A, B and C certificates in gliding.

Another special formation of the Hitlerjugend was the Motorized-HJ. Nearly every teenager from the age of sixteen onwards obtained his first driving licence for a motor cycle. But driving was only one part of the training. Not only did they learn a sound knowledge of both German and international traffic codes, but they also expertly trained in motor mechanics. The ultimate purpose of this training was self evident, as it would later serve in the motorized units of the Wehrmacht.

In northern Germany, it was very popular for the Hitlerjugend to join the Marine-HJ, the naval Hitlerjugend, which reached a total membership of nearly 62,000 boys. As in the case of other special formations of the Hitlerjugend, the Marine-HJ also demanded great mental and physical accomplishment. Before the war, all the necessary sailing certificates could be obtained, and each member had the opportunity to sail on vessels used by the German Navy for the training of its naval cadets.

Apart from the main formations of the Hitlerjugend, there were also a number of smaller components, including a signalling unit which did not commence until during the war. Another group formed was the Reiter-HJ, a cavalry unit which attracted mainly boys in rural areas.

When war broke out in 1939, a special unit of teenagers was created to be Hitlerjugend air-raid wardens. During these first months of war, about 1,091,000 Hitlerjugend were deployed for the war effort. Most of them were given meaningful tasks to help the German war economy. They were asked to collect from house to house scrap metal, copper, brass, razor blades, paper and bottles. And while one group collected, another stood in the background and sang German folk songs.

While the majority of the Hitlerjugend participated in the collection drive towards strengthening Germany's war machine, other parts, notably the para-military wing of the movement, were in full training. By the time Poland was defeated at the end of September 1939, vigorous military training was intensified. The intensification of their training was to gear Hitler's youth movement for fighting on the battlefield. Initially, those being recruited were expected to meet very stringent criteria. Every volunteer had to be fit with excellent racial features and produce a certificate of good behaviour from the Police. During their training programme new recruits were indoctrinated into an almost fanatical determination to obey the