Hitler's Baby Division
Hitler's Baby Division
Hitler's Baby Division
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tradition of the Hitler Youth will find its ultimate expression. That is the reason<br />
why all German youths direct their attention to this unit, to you; that is why you<br />
must embody the virtues inherent in the best of Germany's youth. So, we expect<br />
you to be idealistic, selfless, courageous and loyal!<br />
Himmler was less hortatory and more candid:<br />
Since the years of struggle, throughout the years of growth before the war and<br />
during the war years themselves, a tie of particular intimacy and inner<br />
fellowship bound the Hitler Youth and SS together. Not only the time of struggle,<br />
the combat of fists, but much more, the battle of spirits and hearts for our<br />
eternal Germany has brought us together and will forever unite us. Now during<br />
the war ten thousands of Hitler youths have volunteered for the Waffen SS; they<br />
have fought honorably and creditably; many of them became casualties. The class<br />
of 1925 participated in the great Battle of Kharkov courageously and<br />
successfully. It can be said in all candor that half of the Waffen SS divisions<br />
which reconquered Kharkov were volunteers from the classes 1924 to 1925 For<br />
all of them this difficult battle was the first taste of combat....In these weeks<br />
when the sacrifice of Stalingrad was on every one's mind, when the Russians<br />
mounted massive attacks, your Youth Leader made the decision to offer to the<br />
Führer the best young boys of the new class for a new Waffen SS division. The<br />
Führer agreed happily. After eight years of training in the Hitler Youth, you have<br />
now assembled in your Waffen SS uniform with your old HJ armband. For four<br />
weeks you have lived together, worked together, trained together and prepared<br />
for military service. Today the National Youth Leader has released you from the<br />
Hitler Youth and presented you to the Waffen SS. Now, in your new Waffen SS<br />
uniforms, you will go home on a fourteen-day furlough (stormy applause),.<br />
After a few months in SS barracks you will enter a great formation, an SS<br />
Panzergrenadier <strong>Division</strong>. You will then train some more, loose many drops of<br />
sweat in order to save drops of blood and finally will march alongside your sister<br />
division, the Body Guard SS Adolf Hitler. You will carry the name which the<br />
Führer gave you: SS Panzergrenadier <strong>Division</strong> “Hitler Youth.” 21<br />
FORMATION, MILITARY TRAINING, AND INDOCTRINATION<br />
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