Hitler's Baby Division

shifted to the HJ Division, but Hans Jüttner objected to that many transfers
from field units already short on officers. Himmler then stepped in with a
compromise solution. There were 600 former HJ leaders serving as NCOs in
the Waffen SS. They would be required to take accelerated officer-training
and eventually replace active officers to be transferred from the Body
Guard and other SS divisions. 8
While planners threshed about in convoluted schemes and expedients,
no one seems to have anticipated the problems of recruitment soon to be
faced. What they did fear is negative publicity. Hence recruiting began
secretly, because the RJF thought public notice would call attention to the
distasteful memory of Langemarck where very enthusiastic but badly trained
volunteers suffered disastrous losses. As late as November secrecy was
still maintained under threats of prosecution, coupled with the suggestion
that appearance of HJ Division units should be called simply Waffen SS
volunteers. When recruitment was set in motion by Axmann in the middle of
February, the HJ ran into surprising reluctance to volunteer, especially
among students of secondary schools, a development the RJF might have
expected had the hostile attitude of students in the WELs been taken into
account. But the RJF plunged on nevertheless. Late in March an agreement
was concluded with the National Business Chamber to allow vocational
students, who would normally nave graduated in the fall, to take premature
examinations in April, thus opening the way for induction into the WEL. For
non-vocational students the problem was more complicated and eventually
required SS influence to reach an agreement with the Ministry of Education.
The RJF had accepted responsibility to negotiate a solution but seems to
have encountered a series of roadblocks. Not until April was Axmann able to
inform regional leaders that volunteers would be granted "preliminary leaving
9