Hitler's Baby Division

the conquest of Poland he volunteered to join the SS Body Guard, but had to
wait a year because he was too young, and spent that time working for the
Post Office. In March 1941 he was called up by the Guard, undergoing training
with the 5th Reserve Battalion at Breslau. As an only son he could not be
sent to the front, becoming a trainer instead. He was promoted four times,
becoming a sergeant in July 1943, when he was assigned to the Hitler Youth
Division, the restriction on single sons having been dropped. His resolute
dedication to the Nazi and SS cause was never in question, for he symbolized
the kind of loyalty expressed by Commander Witt for his men on the
occasion of Hitler's birthday: "With our whole hearts, with all our strength, as
SS men of the youngest division, We promise to dedicate ourselves to the
deciding battles which lie ahead of us in this war." 32
Fritz Witt declared the training period to be concluded on March 16,
1944: “The training situation happily is a good one. Our Hitler youth boys
during these eight months have been transformed into young men Who know
the military craft.” To celebrate the miraculous metamorphosis of the "Baby
Division" Commander Witt ordered that the candy rations thus far issued be
replaced by cigarettes and tobacco. In April the Division was transferred to
France and located southwest of Rouen in the area Gace-Bernay-Evreux-
Dreux, the remaining men and equipment being added in the process. If the
Division attained prescribed strength--and there is every reason to believe
that it did--by the beginning of June it had some 20,000 men and officers,
177 tanks, 700 machine guns, 70 mortars, 37 infantry guns and howitzers,
40 field and medium guns, 33 antitank guns and over 100 pieces of varied
antitank artillery. Motor vehicles, armored troop carriers and tractors
brought the total to some 2,950 vehicles. We know for certain that the
Division had at least twenty more tanks than the average SS Panzer Division
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