Child Soldiers

So, I was in our school’s JROTC program for multiple years, and as such, I know a decently large amount about the world wars, war crimes, and what can and can’t be used in a war. And I can’t quite remember which Geneva Convention outlawed the use of child soldiers, or possibly it was a United Nations sanction that banned it, but it surprised me that 3/4 into the book, Anthony Doerr talks about Werner’s enlistment, and how he was side by side with children soldiers ranging from as young as age nine to as old as age fifteen. This made me curious, and so I looked into Hitler’s child army and compared it to Anthony Doerr’s version that he created. Using this link Hitlers Youth Army, I learned that not only did children enlist in this youth army, but they did so joyfully “In fact, in Koehn[ A German ticket seller]’s daughter’s school, when boys who were born in 1929 were called to arms to defend the city in April of 1945, several of the boys had jumped up, shouting “Finally, Finally!” Crying “Who needs this silly Latin?” they mocked the weeping teacher who told them that they were to report for duty.” Just like American drafts, many underage people lied about their age and enlisted while as young as 12, and others, who knew life other than that under the Hitler regime, fought valiantly against enlistment, going as far as suicide to avoid serving a country they did not support. However, “Following World War I, in 1924 the League of Nations adopted the Geneva Declarations of the Rights of the Child.” The League of Nations considered anyone under the age of fifteen unable to serve in conflict in war. Anthony Doerr brought to light a truth many don’t know, and that is how many underage people, and how many unwilling soldiers both sides of the war had.