On 31 March 1946 British and American troops conducted a joint operation to locate and capture members of the Nazi underground organisation Werwolf. The organisation was heavily linked to Hitler Youth and the League of German Girls and was led by former Reichsjugendführer (National Youth Leader) Artur Axmann.

On 31 March, more than 7,000 soldiers took part in the raid, over 800 people were arrested – many shots were fired. 

Hitler Youth started to prepare for life in defeated Germany. “The Axmann Conspiracy” planned going underground and resisting the occupying authorities in the hope that the Allies would break up. The leaders also planned a gathering of Hitler Youth’s “best forces” in the Bavarian Alps in the town of Bad Tölz, from where they would conduct guerrilla and terrorist activities. To that end, instructions and plans were drawn up as early as March 1945, and several million German Marks were allocated.

In May 1945, Axmann sent a group of 1,000 children and teenagers into a senseless battle in Berlin but abandoned his unit while it was defending Pichelsdorf Bridge and fled with Martin Bormann . In November 1945, Axmann, hiding under the name “Erich Siewert” for several months in Mecklenburg (Upper Pomerania), was found and arrested. He reportedly ratted out most of the leader of the Nazi underground.

After serving barely three years in prison, Axman was released and became a rich merchant.