Teenager of the Third Reich

This is the tale of my father-in-laws service as a member of Waffen SS.
It was late November 1944 and as the only male of fighting age (16 years old )left in the village of Doberitzfelde,Pommerania, he was teased by the women to enlist and as a member of the Hitler Youth it was expected to enlist into the Waffen SS and as he says the uniform was more striking.
He trained in three different camps and in each more senior soldiers advised him to stay away from the front but he ignored them and was sent to Hungary with the Hitler Youth Division, after his troop was decimated outside Budapest he was transferred to the Das Reich and fled west away from the Russians to Austria then Bavaria, his possesions at the time consisted of binoculars and a pistol for use on himself if capture by the Russians was imminent.
He surrendered to Americans who he vividly remembers ripping of his binoculars, and was transferred to POW camps in Belgium,he had to live off his wits in the American camp & witnessed brutality, on one occasion the POW's were forced to form a corridor and take turns in punching a prisoner who had stolen food.
Meanwhile his family were fleeing on foot to the West a journey of over 300 miles, later the lands were given to Poland.
In 1991 we visited his old village, the first time in 45 years and to his amazement the house still contained the same kitchen furniture,the Polish Authorities had tried to obliterate the German past by painting over house names and altering dates on buildings but time had weathered the paint and gothic script showed thro'.

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