04-05-2025
One of last Hitler Youth soldiers: ‘It was a suicide mission'
In April 1945, Ingo Baldermann, a 15-year-old boy in the Hitler Youth, was handed a Panzerfaust anti-tank weapon along with a First World War rifle and five rounds of ammunition, and told to go and save Germany.
'We were divided into 'Panzer destruction squads' made up of three boys each with one Panzerfaust per squad,' he said. 'I remember the officer who was handing out the weapons said, 'which one of you is taking the Panzerfaust?' I said, 'I'll take it'. They were heavy and I was quite puny. But that's how eager I was.'
The training consisted of watching the shoulder-launched missile being fired once into a stone sports stand to show its destructive force and being told to get as close to the
