Hitlerjugend Waffen-SS Division. Faces of Fanaticism

Abstract

Research into the different types of fanaticism that animated some of the most notorious elite forces of the Third Reich represents a key investigation tool for any historian who applies hermeneutic and phenomenological criticism of combat motivation and morale among warriors belonging to Waffen‑SS troops. The study below addresses the very specific features of the ordinary fighter conscripted to the 12th SS Panzer Division ‘Hitlerjugend.’ The fierce battles that compounded the Normandy Campaign (also known as Operation Overlord) of June – August 1944 were particularly shaped by the committed and uniquely involved units belonging to the Hitlerjugend Division, alternatively called the Baby Division by their Canadian, Australian and British opponents. These youngsters had been battle‑hardened before their ‘fire‑baptism’ due to a tough and professionally delivered military and propagandistic program aimed at transforming young soldiers into efficient killing machines, sufficiently indoctrinated so that they could perform outstanding duties through morale disengagement under contextual forces. Both theoretical and military training were delivered by a professional officer’s corps, assisted by NCO’s formed of veterans with a long battle experience on the Eastern Front. Cross investigation analyses were conducted with the purpose of gaining a complex view and better understanding of all social, psychological and military mechanisms that worked together in order to obtain Hitler’s ultimate warrior: ‘the Hitlerjugend soldier.’