Hitler's Baby Division

others. It was in the forefront of every major military campaign: the march
into the Rhineland, the occupation of Austria and Czechoslovakia, the seizure
of Prague, the attack on Poland, the attack on France, the campaign in the
Balkans, and finally the assault on Russia. The Guard took part in vicious
combat on the Eastern Front and played a significant role in the battle to
retake the city of Kharkov during the month of March in 1943. Hitler's
private " fire-brigade" heaped laurels of victory on its head and Goebbels'
propaganda mill spread its valorous renown throughout Germany and among
the soldiers of the Allies. Singularly reckless in its style of warfare, the
Guard, not surprisingly, suffered a disproportionately large number of
casualties, requiring as a result perpetual replenishment. It was mainly the
Hitler Youth, of course, which had to furnish the required special cannon
fodder. 1
Special recruiting privileges within General SS Main Sectors had been
given to the Guard as early as 1934. We have already seen that the Guard
also established direct contacts with the Hitler Youth in order to siphon off
the best available young manpower. Many starry eyed young men therefore
joined Hitler's Guard before the war began and many more must have been
recruited during the halcyon years of 1939 to 1941, although there are no
available records to document any specific wartime recruiting campaign until
1941. There is little doubt, however, that to become a member of Hitler's
famous Praetorian Guard fulfilled the ambition of many young idealists in the
Hitler Youth, especially after the inflated exploits of the Guard became
weekly features of Goebbels' newsreel editors. Some of these would-be
heroes, nevertheless, became disappointed and impatient with the slow pace
of promotion in the Guard, as in the Waffen SS generally. In December 1940
a controversy arose in the 12th company of the Guard when two former HJ
3