Military Training and Punishments

There seems to be still some misunderstanding when it comes to methods of our SS Instructors to basic training and punishments. In my case I did not brake any violation of the Wehrmacht code, I had distributed leaflets which came close to pornography.My punishment was supervised by an officer,yet we received explicit instruction in sex education which again were held by officers,professionals on the subject.One of our men was engaged (he was 19) to be married and Hess would never give up to degrade him in any way possible.Most of us were Theology Students and looking back it was simply a matter of breaking our spirit.He did break the rules by hitting and punching boys that could not and would not accept his teachings of the NS doctrine.The training was harsh and brutal.Two boys committed suicide, one by holding the barrel(pipe) of a Panzerfaust against his chest and fired himself to pieces.The other one simple hanged himself over trumped up charges, he allegedly had urinated inside a corridor wall which had frozen in the cold.In fact an NCO had used his canteen and had poured water along the wall.This was a method of getting rid of those that “did not fit in”.It was common practice by both Wehrmacht and SS not to send Instructors with recruits into combat,you would simple shoot them in the back at the first opportunity.Some of the boys were deeply religious and when it came to practicing Genick-Schuss shooting on dummies, I too was thinking of the commandment:"You shall not kill".I will come back to this subject of de-programming later on.

Executions by US Forces
When it comes to the execution of Jungvolk members by US forces, you have to realize that these were forced into our depleting ranks sometimes at gunpoint still in their Jungvolk or older ones in HJ uniforms and thus not legally members of the Wehrmacht. US armored columns spearheaded way ahead of the main bunch and we were caught “behind”enemy lines. I do not know what treatment was dished out when taken prisoner in HJ uniform, I never seen any one in a POW camp.
The execution I referred to took place in the Harz region (Thueringen) by an American Advance column that had to retreat later on.I have no pictures of the execution,but they were published and are still available through the archives of the German Bildzeitung Der Stern.I will later on show a typical method of shooting in my blog.
Only briefly, I had no rank but was addressed as Hilfsausbilder, was billeted with a nice family for a couple days in the vicinity south of Limburg an der Lahn.One thing they always did, shut the doors tightly behind them, as if to hide something. They had two sons. During assembly I was told to search that house. The mother cried and told me "We made you welcome and now you come with a gun".I took her sons!

Ones own Faith
Most of the intake were High School Students,some of us in mid-term studying Theology thus taught by the commandment not to kill, although Nietzsche said "Gott ist tot,es gibt nur einen Uebermenschen" also sprach Zarathustra, some strongly believed in God. So it was one of the functions to de-program us of what was a necessity in war time to shoot and kill your fellow man. With an exception of one boy,these expert were successful, but only down to the age of three to four. It was impossible to break you of the first little prayer that a mother or grandmother had taught you, and I am now more or less agnostic.Yet I still remember my little prayer:"Ich bin klein mein Herz ist rein darf niemand drin wohnen als Jesus allein".
PS>I failed after the war to get back to full study as a Missionary, the panel of three Pastors told me that I failed on one point only:"You do not believe in God".