| thanks for the info on the SS Mascot - I will definitely check out that book. Speaking of books, I often read the Sven Hassel war stories, and I do recall mention of HJ training - a Leutnant has been imprisoned for cowardice - his son is to be taken and educated by the state. To break his will, the Leutnant is informed of his son's progress and at one point is told (if I remember correctly) that he is 'doing well in hand to hand fighting with Jews - just wait until we give him a real person to kill!'
Remembering that the idea was to 'work towards' Hitler's ideals, I don't think it's beyond the realms of probability that HJ leaders used their own initiative when training HJ members - so witnessing executions would be one way of 'hardening' them to their task.
Also - couldn't and didn't some HJ members have honorary SS rank? The SS was a voluntary service, and the people in the picture could be on secondment to an Einsatsgruppen unit, or visiting a camp at their own request...
pretty far out observations I know, but any truth in them? |