and lasted to January 1946:Eisenhower made us DEF's "Disarmed Enemy Forces",thus had no rights under the Geneva Convention
An American solders guards members recruted from the Hitler Jugend,although they are in Wehrmacht Uniform, the Western Allies tended to treat HJ as children fighting because they had no choice, the Soviets made no such distinction, and treated Hitler Youth members as ruthlessly as adult soldiers. This picture seems to be staged, if you look into their faces of the "captured" youth there are no expression of fear or apprehension, and were perhaps members of a Labor Service Company. Their trousers are "work pants".
It was an entirely different position the Allies took when HJ members were captured or surrendered in their original uniform, with their swastica armband on their sleeves. On April 20th 1945 Hitler decorated some of them who had seen action in Berlin. These boys had no rights under any rules to be treated as POW's when captured and were faced with summary execution. One boy in this picture survived and is mentioned in the memoirs of one of Hitler's secretary. I might be able to come back to this later.
Not only was Heinz Petry mere 16 year old when executed, his execution took place on June 11, 1945 -long after World War II hostilities in Europe ended.
There were actually three boys, two of them students of AHS.(Adolf Hitler School) Of the latter one who was arrested by the Americans, could escape. The other two were convicted and executed on 01.06.1945. That was the Adolf Hitler students Heinz Petry and the Hitler Youth Josef Schöner (not Schener). In the court's opinion of the U.S. military the accusation of spying served only as a pretext for the Chairman of the Military Court who emphasized in the court's opinion "that the responsibility for the fate of the two boys lies with the Nazi leaders, and they only, will send send them to their deaths. The German military and political leaders force us", said the chairman,"to fight fire with fire and blood with blood. We will not tolerate those responsible to hide behind women and children". Unless the presiding judge considered this a "deterrent sentence", he unjustly sentenced the sixteen and seventeen year-old boys whose guilt as so called spies did not justify the death penalty. Read the text quoted in the "Aachen News" of 6 June 1945.
A typical method the American Army applied during execution by firing squad, a stake in the ground, rope around the prisoner and blindfolded, usually hands tied behing the stake. This photograph shows the victim's body falling as bullets sever the rope which had tied him to the stake. Wooden splinters are cascading through the air. The victim in this case was French.
Meeting Henry Ford in Wellington NZ in January 1970. I am standing at the right in this picture
An American solders guards members recruted from the Hitler Jugend,although they are in Wehrmacht Uniform, the Western Allies tended to treat HJ as children fighting because they had no choice, the Soviets made no such distinction, and treated Hitler Youth members as ruthlessly as adult soldiers. This picture seems to be staged, if you look into their faces of the "captured" youth there are no expression of fear or apprehension, and were perhaps members of a Labor Service Company. Their trousers are "work pants".
Execution of 16 Year Old Heinz Petry by the US Fire Squad
Not only was Heinz Petry mere 16 year old when executed, his execution took place on June 11, 1945 -long after World War II hostilities in Europe ended.
There were actually three boys, two of them students of AHS.(Adolf Hitler School) Of the latter one who was arrested by the Americans, could escape. The other two were convicted and executed on 01.06.1945. That was the Adolf Hitler students Heinz Petry and the Hitler Youth Josef Schöner (not Schener). In the court's opinion of the U.S. military the accusation of spying served only as a pretext for the Chairman of the Military Court who emphasized in the court's opinion "that the responsibility for the fate of the two boys lies with the Nazi leaders, and they only, will send send them to their deaths. The German military and political leaders force us", said the chairman,"to fight fire with fire and blood with blood. We will not tolerate those responsible to hide behind women and children". Unless the presiding judge considered this a "deterrent sentence", he unjustly sentenced the sixteen and seventeen year-old boys whose guilt as so called spies did not justify the death penalty. Read the text quoted in the "Aachen News" of 6 June 1945.
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