ABSTRACT
Today, the Waffen-SS is infamous as the élite, politico-military vanguard of Hitler’s Nazi movement that spearheaded many German military operations during the Second World War. In reality, the Waffen-SS was a conglomeration of disparate formations, few of which actually fitted the popular perception of a force manned by indoctrinated, fanatical, blue-eyed, blond-haired Aryan Nazi supermen. But there was one unique SS formation that to a considerable extent fitted this perception – the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend (‘Hitler Youth’). The Germans raised this élite division from 16-and 17 year-old Hitler Youth movement volunteers as part of the general mobilisation undertaken after the disaster experienced at Stalingrad in 1942-3.1 During March 1943, voluntary recruitment filled most – but not all – of the division’s establishment of 20,516 personnel, and so coercive recruiting ensued, including the induction of 500 ethnic German Hitler Youth members.2 In the ensuing weeks, veteran personnel transferred from the 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte to fill most of the division’s establishment strength of officers and a small proportion of its authorised NCO cadre. Indeed, the SS High Command conceived the Hitlerjugend as a sister formation to the Leibstandarte.3
