Hitler Youth Personal Account: Armin Lehmann


Figure 1.--This is the last known image of Adolf Hitler. He emerged frm his Berlin bunker briefly on his birthday to award condemnations to some of the Hitler Youth boys that were defending Berlin.

Armin briefly described his experiences in a television interview. He l;ater wrote a memoir. Armin like all German boys his age was inscribed into the Hitler Youth when he turned 10. He did not explain his pre-war experiences, except to describe that he was very enthusiastic about joining as a boy. He had two reasons. First was to belong and fit in. Second was the uniform. He desperately wanted to wear the uniform. Armin described his war experiences in more detail. He was joined the Wehrmact to defend his home town of Breslau. He performed bravely in a Volkstrum unit and with two other boys was awarded the iron cross. The screen showed boys in lederhosen reciving an award. I don't know it this was really film of Armand receiving his iron cross. In April 1945 he was in Berlin and with many other German boys in units facing the Red Army. He was thus involved in the catacylsmic Battle for Berlin. He performed well and with nine other boys were brought to see Hitler on his birthday. The films of this are quite well known with Hitler looking gaunt and a shell of himself walking down the line of boys patting them. Armin remembers Hitler patting him and saying "brave boy". Armin was disappointed at this because he wanted to be seen by the Führer as a man and a soldier. He was shocked at how debilitated Hitler was, especially his shsaking hands. He still firmly believed in the need to fight and thought that the NAZI propaganda about super weapons was true. He was soon after told that he was to act as a courier to Hitler's bunker. That was virtually a death sentence as to move around in Berlin at that time exposed one to gun fire. He managed to survive, but was wounded. He was lucky, because few of the other boys in his unit did not. While in the bunker, Eva Braun gave him a glass of pop and he was embarassed when he dropped it. When the Americans arrived in Berlin he remembers being treated by a Jewish medic. He like many Germans at first thought the films of the death camps were fradulent, but gradually began to see how he and his friends were used by the NAZIs. He is particularly bitter by how children were used in the clothing months of the War when there was no hope of victory. This occurred all over Germany in the closing months of the War and was imortalized in the film Die Brucke. Armin went on to marry an American and has sought to teach young Germans about the evils of the NAZIs and how they preyed upon children.

Sources

Lehmann, Armin D. and Tim Carroll. In Hitler's Bunker: A Boy Soldier's Eyewitness Account of the Fuhrer's Last Days.




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Created December 14, 2001
Last updates: 4:06 AM 5/11/2009