Figure 1.--This is an incredible family snapshot. It is not an official propaganda photograph. We know that because the NAZIs never adocated having girls go into combat. Little boys yes, but not girls and women. That was a step too far even forthe NAZIs. One can only imagine what the father who took this snapshot was like. He must have been rabid NAZI to send his son and daughter out to fight Allied or Soviet tanks. The girl is a teenager. Her little brother looks to be 10-11 years old. The Panzerfausts they are holding could destroy a ta,k, but only at close range. That means the child had to get so close that his or her change of escaping countr fire would have been minimal.

The NAZI elite expected the German people to fight to the bitter end as Soviet and Allied armies entered the Reich. The first step was to draft youths and old men. Then many Hitler Youth boys below the 16th year old draft age were armed. The Red Army first reached the borders of the Reich in East Peussia. Than the Americans reached the Rhineland (Germany east of the Rhine). As this point the advance ground to a halt in the West because of supply shortages and the winter. The Red Army continued to grind forward. The German resistance in the East was stiff. It the West it varied. Hitler and Goebbels were in fact shocked at the deterioraion in the west with towns and villages giving up without a fight and hanging white sheets out their windows. Goebbels in his dairy entries time again used the expression that he had to 'blush' in shame at the capitultions--including his home town. Hitler with is military disolving responded with terror to the first Allied crossing of the Rhine, the expected final western barrier. This time the terror was unleashed on the German people. He braced for the Allied on-slaught by issuing the "Nero Order" (March 19). For Germans that were still under the illusion that Hitler had any real interest in the the welfare of the German people, these actions make clear his total lack of concern. Hitler issued a series of orders designed to destroy the infrasture of Germany, creating a virtual wasteland in which the German people would have to try to survive. The Nero order read, "... all military, transportation, communications, industrial and food-supply facilities, as well as all other resources within the Reich which the enemy might use either immediately or in the forrseeable future for continuing the war, are to be destroyed." The Flag Order specified that all male inhabitants of a house showing a white flag were to be immediately shot. Hitler ordered his commanders to conduct "... the most fanatical struggle against the now mobil enemy. No consideration for the population can be taken." These ordres contrasted with efforts to save works of art. [Fest, p. 731.]

Created: 9:08 PM 11/20/20176
Last updated: 9:08 PM 11/20/2017