Were German children used to fight in the last stand of Nazi Germany?

Answer 1

Children Fighting for the Nazis

May I respectfully suggest you read the following:

The Hitler Youth by H.W. KochNew York ISBN: 0-88029-236-9

Hitler Youth by Brenda R. LewisOsceola, WI MBI Pub. Co. 2000 ISBN: 0-7603-0946-9

Inside Hitler's Germany by Matthew Hughes & Chris MannDulles, VA ISBN: 1-57488-281-3

Another opinion

The phrasing of the question itself seems to imply or carry a cultural judgementalism and prejudice against Germans, which is both historically ignorant and grossly unfair.

Did the Viet Cong use any children? Do the Hutus and Tutsis in Africa today, or the armies in The Sudan or Rwanda employ any 'children'?

Did Moses, the Pharoah or Caesar of Rome employ 'children'?

The very idea that 'children' are a different class of human being is a very, very recent and Western European idea. It has not existed on the rest of the planet, for all of recorded history. Even today, only the West, in the main, makes a substantial societal effort to protect "children" on this planet.

In anybody's "last stand," wouldn't they employ whoever was around? (I would.) Can a 12-year old operate a rifle? (I did, with my father.)

I have known of and spoken to, personally, American WWII veterans who lied about their age to get in uniform. They, too, were "children" used to fight a war, but by the American side, so let's not be too cavalier about accusing one side or the other of "using children" in the interest of its own survival.

If your culture does not survive, of what use are your children, anyway, who will have no future? Desperate times beget desperate measures.

Response

If by children you mean humans of ages 17 and below - yes. (The USA does not consider children to be older than 16, then you are liable for armed service in the USA as well and thus adult, which is why the USA cannot sign the convention against child soldiers - most of the rest of the world uses 18 as marker age for adult and this is the normal lowest age for armed service).

By the so called Reichsverteidungsgesetz (sort of "homeland defence law") the age (and gender) limit for conscription was abolished. This was issued in October 1944, however call up of children began only in ernest in January 1945.

Children aged 16 and 17 were called up in regular military forces called "Volkssturm" (Home Guard, sort of). Children 13-15 were not called up to regular units, but instead the youth institutions which they attended (both Hitlerjugend and other) were simply formed up, armed and sent to combat, still carrying the unit name of what they were (e.g. school names, summercamp names).

The mass use of women and children for armed service left a deep mark in the German public (these efforts had no popular support) and you can see lots of traces of this in the German constitution today, which ecplicitly forbids it.

The use of children was not culturally German or culturally anybody else. It was and remains abuse of power.

Observation

Someone refers above to the view of children as a special category of people as "a very, very recent and Western European idea." Germany itself made enormous contributions to the concepts of childhood and adolescence, especially through the emphasis on compulsory schooling and later with the devlopment of youth organizations. The idea that Germany in 1945 should be compared wih Vietnam and Rwanda (rather than other European nations) is very odd indeed.