[Mears]

I saw him as a child,which he was.

War brings out the worst in everyone and The Hitler Youth were brainwashed IMHO.

He was younger than most of my grandchildren.

.

[jmacusa]

Believe it or not I had a book with a photo of that kid and his name but I don't know what became of it. Probably tossed it out inadvertently in a Spring cleaning or something. The phenomena of children waging war against them, in uniform using weapons of war; machine guns, artillery and such was something American soldiers had never encountered before and at first it was hard to accept and many American soldiers lost their lives. The Nazis had indeed brainwashed them and led them to trade on the American sense of fair play and compassion. Many American soldiers were killed by these kids and adults who faked surrender only to bring out a weapon and shoot them down. But war is hell and as I said, I've known veterans who encountered the Hitler Youth and 14 year-old SS ''men'' who tried to kill them and many times succeeded . Some they shot in the heat of battle and felt sickened by it, others felt no remorse but to their credit they did there level best, at the risk of their own lives and sometimes against orders, to take them alive as this picture shows.