‘Baby Cages’: The rehabilitation Camps of the Hitler Youth I SLICE HISTORY | FULL DOCUMENTARY

In 1945, Hitler continued to deny the apparent defeat that awaited him. In a final insane attempt to turn the tide of the war and make up for the lack of soldiers old enough to go into battle, he recruited massively from among the Hitler Youth, enlisting children as young as 12 years old. These little soldiers were sent to fight battles that they had no hope of winning. Nonetheless, as a rule, they fought zealously. As the Allied troops advanced, they were shocked to discover that there were also children among the countless German prisoners.

Around 10 000 of these young fighters, who were both persecutors and victims, would be taken prisoner by the American Army and sent to Attichy POW camp in France. The Nazi Regime had trained these children. Yet, astonishingly, the Americans immediately considered and treated them as victims. An original and little-known re-education program started at Attichy Camp to steer them towards an attitude of tolerance and democracy. It was called "Baby Cages". Winfried Börsch was held there. At the time, he was 16 years old.

Today, he'll tell us how he ran away and got arrested before being sent to the "Baby Cages". His experience reflects the fate of thousands of other child soldiers. His testimony along with numerous archive images will take us deep into the heart of Nazi indoctrination and the ensuing liberation of the minds of these young children, who had been forced into being a part of a devastating system.

Documentary: Baby Cages
Directed by: Marie Börsch
Production: Les Films en Vrac pour Toute l’Histoire

#documentary #freedocumentary #history #worldwarII #children #teenagers #soldiers

[Yeahno-eyrb]

So many of these young children didn't have a choice in joining the Youth Brigade. It is a lesson we need to remember

[BarbaraJikai]

During the war my grandmother lived on a farm which had German 'soldiers' interned in 1944. They were children, crying for their mom, without socks in their too large crude boots. With a corporal not older than 18 himself overseeing them. My grandmother could not see the enemy at that moment. So she knitted socks for the young boys before they were sent off to the Ardennen.

[jinxe]

My great grandfather was one of these boys. He was sent out as a soldier. He refused to shoot a small child and was thrown in a work camp for disobedience. He was rescued not long after. He moved to America after that. My mom said he wore long sleeves to hide his tattoo and only spoke about his experience while drunk.
His supervisor shot the child so she didn't get away.

[morstyrannis]

I met a man who was a young teenager in the Hitler Youth. As the war progressed the state decided to assign all these young men to different trades. He was fortunate to be too young to be assigned to combat duties.
They were lined up and an official walked down the line reading the trade the young man had randomly been assigned. Reading from the list the man pointed to the teenagers and told him his new occupation.
The boy beside my friend was told he was now a carpenter. He objected and said he didn't want to be a carpenter. The official walked back to him and punched him in the head full force. The boy fell over unconscious and the official continued down the line assigning trades. Needless to say no one else objected to the trade the Nazi state assigned them.
The man I knew was told he was a painter. It was a trade that supported him his entire life. He immigrated to Canada where he started a successful painting business. He recalled these events with laughter and not a trace of bitterness.

[catbevis]

My grandmother lived in a very rural part of the UK, where German POWs were held during the War to help on the farms. The POWs were allowed to take themselves between their barracks and the farms without escort, so chatted with the locals a lot. My Nan said she remembered two Germans in particular- one was an older, rather "out of condition" man who'd also served in WW1. He was very genial, basically saw the locals as his equals as he came from a similar rural community back home. I suspect he was rather glad to be spending his War pottering around the English countryside. But this man was always accompanied by a skinny, surly blonde youth. The younger man had grown up with the indoctrination and despite the rather cosy hospitality they received locally, the young man couldn't bring himself to even look these "enemies" in the eye. He seemed disgusted by the very presence of the locals, they were clearly not up to his Aryan standards, and he refused to speak to them. My grandmother said his eyes were blank, like there was nothing behind them. Every ounce of humanity had been stripped from him and a vague, futile hatred left in it's place. My Nan (being only young herself) was very frightened of this "programmed robot" at the time and made a point to avoid him, but as the years passed she'd clearly looked back and felt sorry for him.
I grew up with that story so I've always been curious about those young boys. They were victims of the regime too.

[lauralawrence]

An older friend was taken from school at 12 to serve in the German army. He was sent to the Russian front. He was captured by Americans and eventually went to live with an American family. He said there was an entire ship full of young former German soldiers headed to the US

[AstnLivingHistory]

So glad someone finally made a doc about this. I’ve been doing research for around four years now on the HJ, and never got much info about their post-war experiences. Much thanks!

[elizabethbarton]

As an American all we've been taught, which was little, was that Germany and Nazis were bad. But mostly taught about what happened to the Jewish people.
I ashamedly never thought about what happened to Germans after the war, people who opposed Nazi rule. Thank you for bringing this to light. I have a new interest in finding information about what happened to the country and the people during that time My mother's family is from West Germany but everyone slowly left to be with the family members who came to America before WW2, I believe it was over political reasons but not sure.

[elsiestormont]

Thank you for presenting this history. These youngsters should not ever be forgotten.

[wotan]

About 15:00 min. playtime: The kid under interrogation is not German, but rather he is Hungarian, still in his first semester in a cadet school. They were not given yet arms, only some marching exercises and so forth. His German, which was mandatory language at the school, is still quite rudimentary, it's still mixed with his native Hungarian.

[wfcoaker]

My heart breaks for those boys. They grew up under the Nazis, went to Nazified schools, were required to be in the Hitler Youth. There minds were messed with from a young age. Yet they were still boys. I'm 62, but if I'd been a teenage boy in Berlin in 1945, it would have been so exciting, and scary, to be manning the antiaircraft guns, being all "grown up". A man's boyhood is an important part of his life, and their boyhoods were poisoned, stolen from them.

[mrinalinisrivastava]

Very well researched documentary. So moving to hear this elderly man recounting that tragic part of his life. What a wonderful thing that his daughter came upon the idea of getting him to speak. Too many survivors of that period, German or otherwise, failed to share their memories and took them to the grave which is a huge loss for future generations. Let’s hope life brought him happiness to make up for the loss of his childhood and witnessing the treatment of his father at the hands of the Gestapo.

[michaelthwaite]

My father, a Normandy veteran, recounted the fanaticism of the Hitler Youth (12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend) during the battle for Caen (June 1944).

[rudyrod]

My dad went into business with two men who were Hitler Youth, Jack Berger? Karl ??? The two men sold the business to my farther. They built a building in the back lot of the shop and machined Parts for VW's, Porches and Audi's. These men were the kindest most patient men that I've known my whole life. In 1970 the shop was called J&K Volkswagen, Porsche and Audi. The shop is still there on 4000 Fountain Ave Hollywood California.I will never forget Karl's hospitality and kindness he had a way of making everybody feel important. Jack had a beaming smile that put you at ease. My dad was a shit to these men, you would have never known it.

[ChuckBame]

Amazing. Well done. Glad to see this history preserved.

[robinadkins]

A good book, “Save the Last Bullet: Memoir of a Boy Soldier in Hitler’s Army” by Heidi Langbein-Allen. He was a 14 yr Hitler Youth who ended up fighting against the Russians when they had reached Germany. He was lucky & ended up in a US POW camp. He was ill treated by an American soldier. He ended up serving as farm labor for 10 months. He was luckier than other POW soldiers who labored for 3 yrs in Fr coal mines. Very interesting to learn this German viewpoint.

[vaughnmojado]

I can’t get enough of the knowledge about WWII. What these children had to do for Hitler completely saddens me. I don’t know numbers on how many of the young men that led a life of destruction and violence. Just 1 would still be too many. I hoped they lived the best prosperous life possible.

[dfirth]

I'm 74 and born right after the war. I knew Hitler was desperate in the last year of the war and drafted 15 year old's, but I had never heard of the POW "Baby cages" after the war. It makes sense, though. Trying to prevent the mistakes England and France made after WWI in 1919. That's what brought Hitler to power in the first place.

[anthonyfoutch]

My dad was a WWII combat vet. He had a Silver Star, a Bronze Star 3 Purple Hearts and various other medals. From what little he talked about the war he said the Hitler Youth were some of the most dangerous soldiers.

[Maureen-qw]

Amazing historical documentary. I never knew about this happening to German school age children. Thank you.