—WOLF’S LAIR, EAST PRUSSIA—
FALL 1944
Adolf Hitler paces the floor at his Wolf’s Lair bunker. He has received urgent reports of continuing massive losses of manpower on the Eastern Front. To win the war, he knows he must somehow build up troops.
He orders Heinrich Himmler, leader of the Waffen-SS, to beef up the number of infantry troops under the command of the Wehrmacht.
“Organize a new army infantry division,” he orders. “Recruit men from broken or destroyed infantry divisions, convalescent soldiers recently discharged from hospitals, Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine personnel, workers from industry and railways, and every available male from sixteen to sixty years of age. Replace male industry and railway workers with civilian women.”
He pauses, rubs his chin, and continues. “Train them quickly. Give them powerful automatic weapons to compensate for their lack of training and their physical and age shortcomings.”
“What shall we name this new division?” Himmler asks. “And with what weapons shall I equip them?”
“Name it the Volksgrenadier Division—the Peoples Infantry Division. Equip them with new StG44 storm rifles—the Sturmgewehr 44—as well as MG42 machine guns, and Panzerfaust antitank weapons.”1
“Good choice, my Führer. What shall I do if these men refuse to join and fight?”
“Shoot them or hang them on the spot, of course. And station SS executioners on the streets to hunt down deserters.”
“Heil, Hitler!” Himmler salutes, leaving to carry out Hitler’s orders.
• • •
Under the Nazi Party, and also commanded by Himmler, Hitler orders the conscription of Hitler’s Youth members, the Volkssturm. Some boys and girls are as young as eight years old.2
“Outfit the children with uniforms and weapons, and train them for combat,” Himmler tells Hitlerjugend leader Artur Axmann.
Facing the group of excited youngsters, their uniforms hanging from their tiny frames and adult-sized helmets covering their eyes, Axmann appeals to their devotion to Hitler and Germany, telling them:
“You must decide whether you want to be the last of an unworthy race despised by future generations, or whether you want to be part of a new time, marvelous beyond all imagination.”
“We want to be part of the new time!” the children cheer, jumping up and down with enthusiasm as they try to pick up the heavy weapons.3
• • •
When Mathias and Maria Langer learn about Hitler’s new recruitment laws, they panic. Two of their three teenage sons still live at home in Wereth: Heinrich, sixteen, and Paul, fifteen. Walter, nineteen, is already in hiding in Brussels.
“We must make arrangements to hide Heinrich and Paul,” Mathias says. “The Germans will conscript them into their boy-soldier army.”
“I see why we must send away Heinrich,” Maria says. “But Paul is just fifteen and too young for the German Army. We must keep Paul with us at home.”
“No, Maria,” Mathias tells her. “The Germans are recruiting boys—and even girls—much younger than Paul. We just cannot risk it. I also worry about Tina and Hermann.”
Mathias makes immediate plans to send Heinrich and Paul away from Wereth. Friends of the Langers, Johann Mertes and his son, Vincenz, as well as German deserter Leo Hennes, offer to take the two Langer boys to a safe place of hiding.
Seven of the Langer children stay at home in Wereth: Tina, seventeen, Hermann, twelve, Hans, ten, Gertrud, eight, Leo, seven, Resi, five, and the new baby, Anneliese, only six months old.
Mathias and Maria wrap their arms around their two sons, hugging them, and praying for their survival. The boys pick up small suitcases, each filled with clothes, food, and a tiny crucifix, and leave their home and family.
“We will return,” they call to their parents and siblings, struggling to hold back tears.
“We will pray for you every day until you are safely home again,” Mathias and Maria tell them.
After they walk away, Maria grips the hand of her friend Maria Mertes, Johann’s wife, and cries.
“I worry I will never see my sons again,” she says.4