Two young German soldiers armed with Panzerfausts (anti-tank weapons) and Mauser rifles, march along Bankowa street in Lubań (Lauban), Lower Silesia. There was fierce fighting there and it was the site of pretty much the last successful German operation of the war. http://worldwartwo.filminspector.com/2013_12_01_archive.html
The youngest soldiers were often the most fanatical, and also the ones who were most determined not to give up. The smart German boys, of course, recognized the self-abnegation resulting from their becoming cannon fodder for people who did not have their best interests at heart, and realized that they were only safe after they had surrendered.
Still, it took an extreme act of will for a child with romantic notions of valor to 'give up' and admit defeat. It was especially difficult because surrendering took away all the shortcuts to prestige and pathways to success that had been laid out for them by everyone they knew. A boy could be taken seriously as a soldier, when otherwise he would be just another face in middle school.
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