Hitler's Baby Division

Ziegler. Although the course had to be interrupted several times for x-ray
examinations and other routine necessities, these special trainees had not
been discouraged. Some twenty five boys, however, had not yet taken
vocational leaving examinations. These boys could not be called up on June 15
as planned because local authorities could not administer examinations unto
July or August. Another thirty-two could not take their school examinations
for a variety of reasons until the fall. These boys had begged SS leaders to
remove all difficulties and allow them to enlist in June. “This pressure to Join
early,” in Ziegler's words, “was most extraordinary.” Thus, if Harburg was
typical--and there is no reason to believe it was not--the claim made by HJ
leaders that extraordinary pride and elan motivated those who survived the
bureaucratic hassle and became members of the HJ Division is correct. 19
At the conclusion of premilitary training all 38 WELs staged uniform
ceremonies, transferring these HJ boys to the Waffen SS. Short speeches
by HJ and SS leaders, followed by rousing renditions of favorite songs like
“Ein junges Volk steht auf” and “Es zittern die morschen Knochen,” 20
accompanied by combined SS-HJ musical units, characterized these martial
events. It was clearly a momentous occasion in a decade of HJ-SS
collaboration. Axmann and Himmler, who spoke at one of these ceremonies in
WEL Wildflecken, expressed the symbolic significance of this mutual
dependency. The Youth Leader spoke first, and somewhat disingenuously:
...My comrades and young volunteers who want to join the units of the Waffen SS,
you are a wonderful demonstration of the attitude and spirit of youth during this
fourth year of war. We all feel the burning desire to create a military unit out of
volunteer comrades from the Hitler Youth. The Führer was delighted with this
wish of his youth. He counted on you and thousands of you responded to our call.
You are the elite of German youth and I am happy and lucky that not one of you is
here except by his own free will....In your unit, my comrades, the soldierly
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