Edelweiss Pirates Research Paper

The Edelweiss Pirates were a group of young people who opposed the Nazi’s rule. The group started in 1936 due to the opposition of how the Hitler Youth Movement took over the lives of youth in Germany. Members of the Edelweiss Pirates weren’t documented, however, the group consisted primarily of 12-18-year-old boys (McDonough, 2011, p. 15). The majority of cities in western Germany had a branch of the Edelweiss Pirates, however, a few did not use the title. For example, In Koln (Cologne) they were known as the ‘Navajos’ (“The Edelweiss Pirates,” 2016). The Edelweiss Pirates main purpose was to promote the opposite of what the Hitler Youth Movement represented. “. . .They were free to express what they thought. While boys and girls were strictly segregated in the Hitler Youth Movement, the Edelweiss

Guilty of many crimes, they broke shop windows, stole and beat people on the streets; raided movie houses looking for the Edelweiss Pirates, who stood up to them and even fought with them on the streets of Dusseldorf, Essen, Cologne and other cities in western Germany.The Edelweiss Pirates resisted Nazi rule by also offering shelter to deserters of the German army, escaped prisoners from concentration camps, and escaped prisoners from forced labor camps (“Faces of Courage, The Edelweiss Pirates,” n.d.). The Edelweiss Pirates were not seen as a problem despite the group’s constant ignorance of Nazi rules, however, the nazis’ views towards the group changed which ultimately led to the end of the group. During World War Two the authorities believed that the Edelweiss Pirates were the ones who were collecting British and anti-Nazi propaganda leaflets dropped by bomber Command at the start of the war and sharing them through letterboxes. This was seen as being more than just an irritation; it was viewed as a major disruption (“The Edelweiss Pirates,”