Hitler's Child Soldiers
Introduction
During World War II, no country colluded with Germany as much as the Netherlands did. If one looks at the figures, the conclusion is that during the war there was proportionately no country in Europe that collaborated more and more strongly with the Nazi regime. To illustrate; between 1945 and 1950 the Dutch judiciary kept files on more than 310,000 individuals and organizations. Either through membership in the NSB (more than 100,000), or through some other form of collaboration. More than 26,000 Dutchmen served in the Waffen-SS.
Background
It is Mad Tuesday - September 5, 1944 - the Netherlands is in the midst of liberation because the previous days the Allies had been rapidly gaining ground. Emotions run high that day, and the anger of the Dutch was mainly directed at the last remaining collaborators. To escape the impending doom, nearly sixty thousand NSB members fled to Germany on that day and the days before. Once there, they were welcomed with open arms, but the boys aged fourteen and older were required to enlist in the German war effort.
They were separated from their parents and transferred to training camps of the Hitlerjugend in Austria. There they received pre-military training with the intention of being warmed up for service in the Waffen-SS. In vain, even the NSB strongly objected to this "kidnapping". The Dutch boys were recruited by the SS under the guise of "give a little, take a litte". Some, mostly Youth Stormers, were eager to become soldiers, others did not want to become soldiers at all. There were boys who cried to return to their mothers. They were pressured and in some cases even forced to sign as well, with the result that many hundreds of Dutch boys were enrolled in the SS - mostly unwillingly - through these training camps. They had literally become child soldiers. The very youngest were only fourteen years old in what was disparagingly called the "baby squad". Instructors spoke outrage that such young boys were being trained. Some of these very young SS were sent to Stettin on the German-Polish border in March 1945 to be assigned to a Dutch SS division. The general refused to fight with children and sent them back to Austria. Here they were enlisted in the 12. SS-Panzer-Division "Hitlerjugend" and in the last days of the war still deployed against the Russian army. Several Dutch child soldiers would still die in these battles in Austria.
Documentary
Now, almost 75 years later, witnesses are still alive. Now very elderly men who have passed their nineties, but they still think back almost daily to the events that defined their lives. Their story, however, has never been told. In the documentary, three Dutch SS child soldiers tell their stories. We have found them willing not only to go back into their memories, but also to join us on a journey through places that have marked their lives forever. They are returning to Germany and Austria to share their story with us on the spot. For the first time in their lives back to the barracks in Graz where they had to march on the mass graves and execution sites. For the first time back to the place where they were separated from their mother, back to the training camp in idyllic Spittal where the boys were brainwashed. And back for the first time to the place at the frontline where one of them saw another Dutch child soldier die before his eyes. We visit Ebensee, a former concentration camp where the boys were confronted with naked and starving prisoners and where they themselves were then imprisoned by the Americans. We relive the journey back by train to the Netherlands where they were booed and spat upon before ending up in Camp Amersfoort where they spent six months before leaving for Friesland for their reintegration.
