Hitler's Baby Division

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tradition of the Hitler Youth will find its ultimate expression. That is the reason why all German youths direct their attention to this unit, to you; that is why you must embody the virtues inherent in the best of Germany's youth. So, we expect you to be idealistic, selfless, courageous and loyal! Himmler was less hortatory and more candid: Since the years of struggle, throughout the years of growth before the war and during the war years themselves, a tie of particular intimacy and inner fellowship bound the Hitler Youth and SS together. Not only the time of struggle, the combat of fists, but much more, the battle of spirits and hearts for our eternal Germany has brought us together and will forever unite us. Now during the war ten thousands of Hitler youths have volunteered for the Waffen SS; they have fought honorably and creditably; many of them became casualties. The class of 1925 participated in the great Battle of Kharkov courageously and successfully. It can be said in all candor that half of the Waffen SS divisions which reconquered Kharkov were volunteers from the classes 1924 to 1925 For all of them this difficult battle was the first taste of combat....In these weeks when the sacrifice of Stalingrad was on every one's mind, when the Russians mounted massive attacks, your Youth Leader made the decision to offer to the Führer the best young boys of the new class for a new Waffen SS division. The Führer agreed happily. After eight years of training in the Hitler Youth, you have now assembled in your Waffen SS uniform with your old HJ armband. For four weeks you have lived together, worked together, trained together and prepared for military service. Today the National Youth Leader has released you from the Hitler Youth and presented you to the Waffen SS. Now, in your new Waffen SS uniforms, you will go home on a fourteen-day furlough (stormy applause),. After a few months in SS barracks you will enter a great formation, an SS Panzergrenadier Division. You will then train some more, loose many drops of sweat in order to save drops of blood and finally will march alongside your sister division, the Body Guard SS Adolf Hitler. You will carry the name which the Führer gave you: SS Panzergrenadier Division “Hitler Youth.” 21 FORMATION, MILITARY TRAINING, AND INDOCTRINATION 16
Hitler had originally ordered that the division be organized on June 1, 1943, but disagreements between Jüttner and Berger over officer and NCO problems and postponement of WEL courses delayed this target date. Possible delaying maneuvers by OKW and other manpower and supply agencies, plus unanticipated slowness in recruiting may also have helped to defer formation until the end of the month. On the l7th Himmler saw Hitler on the Obersalzberg and informed him that the division was still in the build up process. By this time it had been decided to use troop facilities at Beverloo near Brussels as training and organizational headquarters. Replacements would be supplied by a newly-created Waffen SS infantry Training and Reserve Battalion 12 to be located at Arnheim. The formal organizational order was issued on the 24th by Jüttner, who was responsible for assigning officers, NCOs and men in agreement with the command of the I. Waffen SS Panzer Korps, created three days later to contain the l2th Waffen SS Panzergrenadier Division “Hitler Youth” and the 1st Waffen SS Panzer Division or Body Guard. 22 During the month of June, while the Body Guard recovered from the exhaustive Battle of Kharkov, SS Colonel Fritz Witt, chief of its lst Armored Infantry Regiment, received appointment as commander of the Hitler Youth Division. Typical of an aggressive new breed of young SS officers, the thirty five-year-old Witt brought with him to Beverloo a select number of officers, sergeants and technical specialists. The rest of the officers were transferred from army and SS divisions or activated from reserve status as the original plan provided. More than half of them must have been former HJ leaders. A shortage of company commanders, platoon and squad leaders, was gradually filled when the former “training assistants” arrived from the 17
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