Hitler's Baby Division

dedicate themselves to this task of indoctrination with vigor and a sense of
responsibility. The themes they used were no surprise: “Germany's demand
for living space,” “the enemies of Germany are the enemies of Europe,” and
similar platitudes familiar to these boys since the age of ten, when most of
them had entered the Jungvolk and ceased to be children. Every opportunity-
-the waking call, roll call, a pause during training, an infrequent free hour--
was to be utilized by officers and NCOs to “clarify and impregnate the weekly
theme.” Aiming to create a fighting force of true believers required that
every man "grasped internally what he fought for.” Callow youths had to be
transformed into men “who lived according to the fundamentals of the SS as
fanatic warriors,” willing to sacrifice all and give no quarter. 31
While some unit leaders appear to have been complacent, most
noncommissioned officers and company commanders performed the task of
indoctrination with alacrity. Hans Jürgen Walles was one such man. The
records of the division contain a set of detailed notes and charts he used to
education his boys in the esoterica of the SS, its history and racial precepts.
He taught his boys that the SS provided security for the people, that it was
the carrier of the people's weapons, beliefs, blood, communal spirit and
political faith. The SS, according to Walles, fought to preserve German
space, race and humanity. He taught what he had been taught and what he
perceived himself to represent. SS Sergeant Walles' personal history was
probably typical of most noncommissioned officers in the Hitler Youth
Division. He was the son of a postal inspector, born in 1922 in Wilhelmshaven,
where he attended elementary school, later moving on to the humanistic
Gymnasium in Bremen. Since March of 1933 he had been in the Hitler Youth,
eventually attaining the rank of Gefolgschaftsführer. Without finishing the
Gymnasium he became a "leader-candidate" in the Labor Service and after
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