Women, child soldiers sent to save Hitler: Nazi 'People's Storm' militia's last-ditch Battle of Berlin captured by US forces footage

Sara Malm
Daily Mail
Thu, 07 Sep 2017 16:16 UTC

Walking to their deaths/ Young boys part of Volkssturm to fight on the front lines at end of WWII

This recently unearthed footage shot during World War II shows the smooth faces of Hitler's boy soldiers and female forces during the final days of Nazi Germany.

The boys of the Volkssturm, or 'People's Storm' - a German civil militia - march in full uniforms towards the front, as members of Bund Deutscher Madel - or League of German Girls - can be seen standing on the side of the road.

Despite that fact that many of them had barely entered puberty before being handed a gun to defend The Fatherland, these boys and young women were later deployed to defend Berlin - where most of them would die.

The boys are members of the Volkssturm, a 'people's army' militia which by the end of the war was made up by the few male Germans who had not been sent to war: boys under 18 and men deemed too old to be at the front.

The Volkssturm were used as a 'last resort' by Nazi military officials as they tried and failed to defend Berlin.

By April 23, 1945, when the Battle of Berlin officially began, the Volkssturm had some 60,000 fighters in the capital.

Doing their bit: Young women members of Bund Deutscher Madel (League of German Girls)

Women and young men marching

The Battle for Berlin, which lasted a week, until April 27 with official surrender on May 2nd, saw 80 per cent of the Volkssturm's young soldiers die.

The ladies are likely to have been drafted in from the Bund Deutscher Madel - League of German Girls, who in the early days of Nazi Germany had been formed as a kind of Girl Guides.

However, as the war turned, they too were expected to fight for Hitler, and were on the frontlines during the Battle of Berlin.

Soldiers on pontoon walkway