Swearing-in of Volkssturm units under NSDAP Gauleiter Hanke at Breslau/Lower Silesia, 1945.
The armband on the soldier in the foreground reads “Deutsche Volkssturm Wehrmacht.” The Volkssturm (literally People’s Storm) was a national militia raised by the Nazi authorities. They were armed with just about anything that could be fired, from old Mauser 98s, Mauser 1871s, Mauser Kar98b carbines and any of the millions of captured weapons available. Most historians agree that the Volkssturm had little strategic effect on the outcome of the war, but that its members often fought bravely against overwhelming odds.