Student: Szasz Szidonia

The Edelweiss Pirates (Edelweipiraten) were an

organized group of youth in Nazi Germany.
They emerged in western Germany out of the
German Youth Movement of the late 1930s in
response to the strict regimentation of the Hitler
Youth.
There were many young people in Nazi Germany
who resisted the cruelties of the Nazi Youth and
remained true to their own codes of moral
conduct.
 The first Pirates appeared at the end of the
1930s.Dressed in checkered shirts, short dark
trousers and white stockings, the Pirates wore
metal Edelweiss pins on their collars. Because
they lived in the same neighborhoods they had a
territorial identity and shared beliefs. Refusing
to participate in Nazi Youth activities, they
shared a strong sense of social identity and
solidarity with one another.
 Named for the metal Edelweiss pins and
badges members wore on their collars or
hats,these working-class teens becameone of
the largest youth groups who refused to
participate in Nazi youth activities
 Jean Julich(middle), who died at tyhe age of
82 , was one of the last surviving members of
the Edelweiss Pirates.
He was born on 18th of April 1929 in the
working-class Cologne suburb of Sultz
 In 1944,at the age of 15,Julich was arrested with
several of his friends for allegedly being involved
in a plot to bomb the Gestapo headquarters in
Cologne.

He spent four months in a cell at the Brauweiler

prison on the outskirts of the city where he was
interrogated and tortured by the
Gestapo.Though he survived ,on November 10th
1944 his friend and fellow prisoner
Bartholomaeus(Bathel)Schink
 He was executed without trial on the public
gallows at Ehrenfeld railway station,along
with seven adults and five other Pirates.

Julich was later transferred to a concentration

camp where he survived beatings ,starvation
and typhus until the camp was liberated by
the Americans in 1945.
 Hitlers power may lay us low,
And keep us locked in chains,
But we will smash the chains one day,
Well be free again.
Weve got the fists and we can fight,
Weve got the knives and well get them out.
We want freedom,dont we boys ?
Song of the Edelweiss Pirates(Peukert,p.158)
 Their decision was one of resistance
and,consequently, was not without hardship,
but it was also one of liberty, for, as one of
their songs contends, Our song is freedom,
love and life, /Were the Pirates of the
Edelweiss.The story of the Edelweiss Pirates
is a story of courage and resistance.