Hitler approved the plan in February and SS- Gruppenführer Gottlob Berger was ordered to recruit the personnel. The plan for a division made up of Hitler Youth members born in 1926 was passed on to Adolf Hitler for his approval. The idea for the Waffen-SS division was first proposed by Artur Axmann, the leader of the Hitler Youth, to Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler in early 1943. In March 1944, the 12th SS was transferred to Caen, Normandy. After the war several members of the division, including its commander Kurt Meyer, were convicted of war crimes. The division eventually retreated into Austria and surrendered to the 7th US Army on. After the operation's failure, which became known as the Battle of the Bulge, the division was sent to Hungary to participate in fighting around Budapest. In December 1944, the division was committed against the US Army in the Ardennes offensive. It first saw action on 7 June 1944 as part of the German defensive operations at Caen, and suffered great casualties during the Battle of the Falaise Pocket.
The division committed several war crimes while en route to and during the early battles of the Allied Normandy landings, including the Ascq and Normandy massacres, and several massacres, arsons and rapes in cities Plomion, Tavaux, Bouillon, Godinne, Hun, Rivere, Warnant and Namur. The majority of its junior enlisted men were drawn from members of the Hitler Youth, while the senior NCOs and officers were from other Waffen-SS divisions. SS-Panzerdivision "Hitlerjugend") was a German armoured division of the Waffen-SS during World War II. The SS Division Hitlerjugend or 12th SS Panzer Division "Hitlerjugend" ( German: 12.
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