Panzer Killers

1943. Cornered and with the tide of WWII turning irreversibly against it, Germany engaged in total war. Hitler needed men to fight. By drawing on resources within the Hitler Youth, and by launching a wide-scale recruitment process, he managed to enlist 20,000 teenagers to establish the sadly infamous 12th SS Panzer Division Hitler-Jugend. Within less than a year, they were trained to overcome their own physical and psychological limits. They were sent to Normandy to repel the Allied landing that was said to be imminent. The exaltation of youth, together with a call to sacrifice in the name of victory for the Reich, would make them a fierce enemy.

They grew up under the Nazi regime. They pledged to give their lives for Hitler. They were fanatics who would not be stopped. They were the 20,000 teenagers who made up the 12th SS Panzer Division. Unleashed in France to halt the Allied invasion, they would sow terror and destruction in their wake. Historical colorized archives and a handful of survivors tell us this story.