THE YOUNG WHO STOOD UP TO HITLER
THE YOUNG WHO STOOD UP TO HITLER
http://www.deutsche-welle.de/dw/article/0,1564,1391096,00.html
DEUTSCHE-WELLE, GERMANY - They wore their hair long, sang songs by banned Jewish composers and fought the Nazi regime. But history has so far remembered Cologne's Edelweiss Pirates as criminals rather than resistance fighters. . . until now.
On November 10th 1944, the Gestapo hanged 13 people in a residential street in Cologne without trial. Six of those killed were teenagers, members of an underground group called the Edelweiss Pirates. An alternative movement to the Hitler Youth, the Edelweiss Pirates grew their hair long and risked arrest, torture and their lives to carry out small acts of sabotage against the Nazi regime. Sixty years later they are still officially listed as petty thieves and criminals. Their acts of resistance -- while having been recognized by the state of Israel -- have not yet been officially acknowledged here in Germany. That’s about to change with a new initiative by the District President of Cologne Jurgen Peters who wants to rehabilitate the Edelweiss Pirates.
While the city of Cologne debates the acknowledgement of the Pirates' war efforts, Jean Jülich, a surviving member of the group, has published his memoirs and is supporting an upcoming film about the Pirates, due for release on the 60th anniversary of his friends' execution. Born in 1929, in the working class Cologne suburb of Sülz, Jean was just seven years old when his father, a member of the communist party, was arrested by the Gestapo. "In 1936, sometime in the morning they turned up in grandma's apartment - my father was in the toilet, he'd hidden himself there - they pulled him out and bashed him up and down the corridor, he was bleeding from his mouth and nose, his face was swollen - it was really horrible. Then they took him away." Jean’s father was sentenced to 10 years with hard labor for belonging to the communist party. His grandmother and aunt were also imprisoned for six months and Jean was placed in an orphanage until they were released.
The experience led Jean to distrust the Nazi’s and the Hitler Youth, which he rejected in favor of the free living, romantic youth group called the Edelweiss Pirates. Besides, he said, the daily drills of the Hitler Youth were too boring. "Then I was put into a Nazi Reichsbahn training center in Nippes - it consisted of a factory, school, Hitler Youth – all in one, and in the morning you reported in - Heil Hitler, if you wanted to go to the loo it was Heil Hitler, Heil Hitler reporting back, the whole day long your hand went up and down, and I really hated that."
Towards the end of World War Two, there were about 3000 Edelweiss Pirates in Cologne and several hundred more in neighboring cities. They developed out of a youth hiking movement called the "Bündische Jugend" which was neither aligned to a political party nor a church but there was no organized structure and several loose groupings of Edelweiss Pirates existed in each suburb of Cologne. With the rise of the Nazi’s in the thirties, these young people refused to join the Hitler Youth. They were like any other teenagers rebelling against the authorities. However this was a totalitarian state and rebelling could cost you your life.
WIKIPEDIA - Apart from gatherings on street corners, the Edelveispiraten engaged in hiking and camping trips, which kept them away from the prying eyes of the authoritarian Nazi regime. They often engaged in fights with the Hitler Youth and took great pride in attacking them. The response of the Nazis was harsh. Individuals identified by the Gestapo as belonging to the various gangs were often rounded up and released with their heads shaved to shame them. In some cases, young people were sent to concentration camps or prison. On October 25, 1944, Heinrich Himmler ordered a crackdown on the group, and in November of that year, a group of thirteen Edelweispiraten were publicly hanged in Cologne. Six boys, 16 years of age, were hanged in public, amongst them Bartholomäus Schink, called Barthel, leader of the local "Navajos." Fritz Theilen survived.
http://www.deutsche-welle.de/dw/article/0,1564,1391096,00.html
DEUTSCHE-WELLE, GERMANY - They wore their hair long, sang songs by banned Jewish composers and fought the Nazi regime. But history has so far remembered Cologne's Edelweiss Pirates as criminals rather than resistance fighters. . . until now.
On November 10th 1944, the Gestapo hanged 13 people in a residential street in Cologne without trial. Six of those killed were teenagers, members of an underground group called the Edelweiss Pirates. An alternative movement to the Hitler Youth, the Edelweiss Pirates grew their hair long and risked arrest, torture and their lives to carry out small acts of sabotage against the Nazi regime. Sixty years later they are still officially listed as petty thieves and criminals. Their acts of resistance -- while having been recognized by the state of Israel -- have not yet been officially acknowledged here in Germany. That’s about to change with a new initiative by the District President of Cologne Jurgen Peters who wants to rehabilitate the Edelweiss Pirates.
While the city of Cologne debates the acknowledgement of the Pirates' war efforts, Jean Jülich, a surviving member of the group, has published his memoirs and is supporting an upcoming film about the Pirates, due for release on the 60th anniversary of his friends' execution. Born in 1929, in the working class Cologne suburb of Sülz, Jean was just seven years old when his father, a member of the communist party, was arrested by the Gestapo. "In 1936, sometime in the morning they turned up in grandma's apartment - my father was in the toilet, he'd hidden himself there - they pulled him out and bashed him up and down the corridor, he was bleeding from his mouth and nose, his face was swollen - it was really horrible. Then they took him away." Jean’s father was sentenced to 10 years with hard labor for belonging to the communist party. His grandmother and aunt were also imprisoned for six months and Jean was placed in an orphanage until they were released.
The experience led Jean to distrust the Nazi’s and the Hitler Youth, which he rejected in favor of the free living, romantic youth group called the Edelweiss Pirates. Besides, he said, the daily drills of the Hitler Youth were too boring. "Then I was put into a Nazi Reichsbahn training center in Nippes - it consisted of a factory, school, Hitler Youth – all in one, and in the morning you reported in - Heil Hitler, if you wanted to go to the loo it was Heil Hitler, Heil Hitler reporting back, the whole day long your hand went up and down, and I really hated that."
Towards the end of World War Two, there were about 3000 Edelweiss Pirates in Cologne and several hundred more in neighboring cities. They developed out of a youth hiking movement called the "Bündische Jugend" which was neither aligned to a political party nor a church but there was no organized structure and several loose groupings of Edelweiss Pirates existed in each suburb of Cologne. With the rise of the Nazi’s in the thirties, these young people refused to join the Hitler Youth. They were like any other teenagers rebelling against the authorities. However this was a totalitarian state and rebelling could cost you your life.
WIKIPEDIA - Apart from gatherings on street corners, the Edelveispiraten engaged in hiking and camping trips, which kept them away from the prying eyes of the authoritarian Nazi regime. They often engaged in fights with the Hitler Youth and took great pride in attacking them. The response of the Nazis was harsh. Individuals identified by the Gestapo as belonging to the various gangs were often rounded up and released with their heads shaved to shame them. In some cases, young people were sent to concentration camps or prison. On October 25, 1944, Heinrich Himmler ordered a crackdown on the group, and in November of that year, a group of thirteen Edelweispiraten were publicly hanged in Cologne. Six boys, 16 years of age, were hanged in public, amongst them Bartholomäus Schink, called Barthel, leader of the local "Navajos." Fritz Theilen survived.
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