New film about Hitler Youth and Luftwaffe helpers
Hanover.They were still half children. “The steel helmets were so big that they slipped over our eyes,” says Gerhard Stoffert. The Klein-Buchholzer was just 16 years old when he had to become an air force helper in 1943. You put the student at the Leibniz School in Hanover and his classmates in uniforms. They were billeted in barracks, there was drill, orders, sleep deprivation.
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Preparing for war: children doing practical exercises in September 1937.
© Source: Historical Museum Hanover
“Whenever enemy planes were reported, my comrades and I had to go to the battle station,” says Gerhard Stoffert, who at 95 is still very energetic. During the war he was stationed in the Lower Saxon communities of Garbsen, Bothfeld and Langenhagen. “There was our flak position at the point where the Neue Bult (Editor’s note: Hanoverian racecourse) is,” he recalls.
“Our youth was stolen from us”: the former Luftwaffe helper Gerhard Stoffert (95).
© Source: Tim Schaarschmidt
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Children were indoctrinated by Nazis
The youngsters were supposed to shoot down enemy planes – and became targets of the Allied bombers themselves. In the event of an attack, Stoffert seeks protection behind a small mound of earth. “The many splinters passed over me,” he says, “a radio measuring device that was there was totally punctured.”
Operated by young people: anti-aircraft battery at the Streitberg in Garbsen, around 1943.
© Source: Archiv Stoffert
Gerhard Stoffert was one of Hitler’s child soldiers, whose fate is little remembered today. your way to war mostly started in the Hitler Youth (HJ) – with field games and target practice am carbine. “There they were indoctrinated with propaganda,” says Dietmar Geyer.
Adolescents with weapons: battery position in Garbsen 1943.
© Source: Archiv Stoffert
The 75-year-old has the website www.ns-zeit-hannover.de made, explaining the Nazi era to young people and warning them against totalitarianism. In addition to videos about the Nazi buildings at Ballhofplatz or rebellious “swing kids” he now has the 17-minute documentary “Hitler Youth in Hanover – child soldiers of the Nazis” released. It shows previously unpublished pictures from Hanover – and contemporary witnesses have their say.
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“Children were indoctrinated in the Hitler Youth”: Dietmar Geyer, filmmaker.
© Source: Simon Benne
SS recruited youths at Ballhof
Friedrich Grimm, who has died in the meantime, reported in the film that during lectures in the Hitler Youth Home at Ballhof 16 to 17-year-olds were already being recruited for the Waffen-SS. He was there himself – and quickly got to safety: “We jumped up and ran to Goethe-Platz because we think the SS was coming after us,” he says in the film, “we were afraid.”
Spring 1944: Anti-aircraft helpers from the Bismarck School in Flieger-HJ uniforms.
© Source: Historical Museum Hanover
Child soldiers were intended to fill the gaps in the ranks of the troops that grew as the war progressed. Tens of thousands of young people sent Hitler to war; especially in the last phase, many of them were literally burned up in pointless fights.
In 1943 the command required 639 students to replace the regular Luftwaffe soldiers around Hanover. At first, teachers still came to teach in their quarters. Above all, however, the young people from the Bismarck, Humboldt and Luther Schools now learned how to load and aim guns. When alarmed, they ran to their guns.
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Deadly operation in Limmer
Their use claims many victims. During an air raid on an anti-aircraft position in Langenhagen died on September 27, 1943, eight Bismarck and five Luther students. The following year, 53 prospective air force assistants were killed in a bomb attack in Groß-Buchholz, some of them were only 17 years old.
Military drill: Tent camp of the Hanoverian Hitler Youth in the 1930s.
© Source: Wilhelm Hauschild
Dietmar Geyer’s documentation shows photos of wrangling “Pimpfen” in Klein-Buchholz and color films of marching Hitler Youth in Laatzen. The Nazis instilled their ideology into the young people at camps and field games – and trained them to be fanatical in their willingness to fight.
Children in uniform: In the 1930s, boys demonstrated in Waldheim on Roßkampstrasse, corner of Dittmerstrasse, for the establishment of more homes for the German youth.
© Source: historical museum
When the war ended, he armed himself just 15 years old Lindener Horst Bohne for a mission as a “werewolf”: With a boy next door, he wanted to commit acts of sabotage against the advancing US troops and thus “roll up the front from behind” from Benther Berg, as he says in the film.
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Stolen youth: Gerhard Stoffert has not forgotten his wartime experiences to this day.
© Source: Christian Burkert
That never happened again, Horst Bohne survived the war. Unlike the 23 young marines with little training who confronted the advancing US troops at the lock in Limmer in early April. They died in the fire of American grenade launchers.
Surviving child soldiers sometimes suffer from the traumatic experiences for the rest of their lives. The film often only hints at tears and fear behind the sober descriptions of contemporary witnesses. A memorial stone in Langenhagen and a plaque in Groß-Buchholz commemorate the dead of their generation. Gerhard Stoffert has not forgotten his war experiences to this day. The 95-year-old draws a bitter conclusion: “Our youth was stolen from us.”