Hitler's she wolves The innocent girls as young as ten who were turned into savage fighters sent to 'drown the enemy in their own blood'... and paid a terrible price - Live News
Hitler's she wolves The innocent girls as young as ten who were turned into savage fighters sent to 'drown the enemy in their own blood'... and paid a terrible price
Barbie Densk shivered under a blanket as she lay in a slit trench inside the barricaded German city of Aachen on the night of October 12, 1944.
She was a member of Hitler's Bund Deutscher Madel – or League of German Girls – and had volunteered to defend her home and family from the American infantry encircling the city.
The assault finally came at 9am. 'It was very sudden, loud and startling,' she said. 'There was a series of explosions, followed by rifle and machine-gun fire, shouts and screams. I blew my whistle to raise the alarm.
'Through my binoculars, I could see enemy soldiers. I clicked off the safety catch on my rifle, the other girls followed suit, and we began to fire at the Americans.'
The reality of warfare came as a shock. 'There was a flash and a loud bang,' she recalled. 'I fell to the floor and saw the blood-spattered bodies of my friends; some of them lay across my legs, convulsing violently with blood running from their mouths.
'Little funnels of smoke rose out of the holes in their bodies and steam from their torn stomachs.'
She was just 15.
I first came across the extraordinary role played by girls in the Third Reich after a chance encounter with Kirsten Eckerman, by then 74, in the German military cemetery at Cannock Chase in Staffordshire.
She told me about belonging to the Bund Deutscher Madel and introduced me to friends who had similar, sometimes horrifying experiences. As I embarked upon countless interviews, I soon realised this was a rapidly disappearing generation of women whose compelling stories of fighting in their country's last stand against the Allies should be told before it was too late.
The Bund Deutscher Madel (BDM) had never been intended as an arm of the German war machine. Founded in the 1920s and compulsory for eligible – Aryan – girls from 1936, it was envisioned as a version of the Girl Guides, indoctrinating a new generation in the ideology of the Third Reich.
Teenage girls in Nazi Germany received only a very limited education built around five menial principles: physical exercise, cooking, washing, cleaning and babies – though sex was not on the curriculum. Emphasis was put on the physical exercise, including naked dancing.
The German maiden had to be beautiful, supple, radiant and strong.
After school, girls between ten and 14 were required to attend Jungmadel groups, while 14 to 18-year-olds went to BDM meetings – where important Nazis including Himmler and Goebbels often lectured.
The BDM and the Jungmadel performed at the Nazis' showpiece Nuremberg rallies, and another young recruit, Helga Bassler, shook hands with the Fuhrer there.
She recalled: 'My knees began to shake and I had butterflies in my stomach as I watched Hitler slowly make his way towards me. Girls cried and reached out to him and some had brought flowers especially for him.
'From that day on, I looked upon Hitler as a personal saviour – like how modern girls look up to their favourite pop stars. Many of us became infatuated after meeting him, and we were in a way in love with him.'
Barbie Densk shivered under a blanket as she lay in a slit trench inside the barricaded German city of Aachen on the night of October 12, 1944.
She was a member of Hitler's Bund Deutscher Madel – or League of German Girls – and had volunteered to defend her home and family from the American infantry encircling the city.
The assault finally came at 9am. 'It was very sudden, loud and startling,' she said. 'There was a series of explosions, followed by rifle and machine-gun fire, shouts and screams. I blew my whistle to raise the alarm.
'Through my binoculars, I could see enemy soldiers. I clicked off the safety catch on my rifle, the other girls followed suit, and we began to fire at the Americans.'
The reality of warfare came as a shock. 'There was a flash and a loud bang,' she recalled. 'I fell to the floor and saw the blood-spattered bodies of my friends; some of them lay across my legs, convulsing violently with blood running from their mouths.
'Little funnels of smoke rose out of the holes in their bodies and steam from their torn stomachs.'
She was just 15.
I first came across the extraordinary role played by girls in the Third Reich after a chance encounter with Kirsten Eckerman, by then 74, in the German military cemetery at Cannock Chase in Staffordshire.
She told me about belonging to the Bund Deutscher Madel and introduced me to friends who had similar, sometimes horrifying experiences. As I embarked upon countless interviews, I soon realised this was a rapidly disappearing generation of women whose compelling stories of fighting in their country's last stand against the Allies should be told before it was too late.
The Bund Deutscher Madel (BDM) had never been intended as an arm of the German war machine. Founded in the 1920s and compulsory for eligible – Aryan – girls from 1936, it was envisioned as a version of the Girl Guides, indoctrinating a new generation in the ideology of the Third Reich.
Teenage girls in Nazi Germany received only a very limited education built around five menial principles: physical exercise, cooking, washing, cleaning and babies – though sex was not on the curriculum. Emphasis was put on the physical exercise, including naked dancing.
The German maiden had to be beautiful, supple, radiant and strong.
After school, girls between ten and 14 were required to attend Jungmadel groups, while 14 to 18-year-olds went to BDM meetings – where important Nazis including Himmler and Goebbels often lectured.
The BDM and the Jungmadel performed at the Nazis' showpiece Nuremberg rallies, and another young recruit, Helga Bassler, shook hands with the Fuhrer there.
She recalled: 'My knees began to shake and I had butterflies in my stomach as I watched Hitler slowly make his way towards me. Girls cried and reached out to him and some had brought flowers especially for him.
'From that day on, I looked upon Hitler as a personal saviour – like how modern girls look up to their favourite pop stars. Many of us became infatuated after meeting him, and we were in a way in love with him.'
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