Sunday, May 3, 2009

Heroic Picture of the Day - Israeli Commemoration

Israel commemorates the Edelweiss Pirates at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum, honoring them as “Righteous Among the Nations”.  The photograph below was taken from the "Hall of Names" at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum.

1 comment:

  1. The Edelweiss Pirates were the first Hippies and the progenitors of the beats. A good chapter on them is in "The Tin Drum" that prize winning German post war book about the interwar and postwar years.
    Numerous German youths,(young men , as it was the thirties) can often be seen in pairs and groups in photos wearing the black or dark colored traveling clothes which looked like the hats from America's Zoot Suits, with dark colored ,double breasted trench coats or pea coats, worn with hiking shoes or boots and bell bottom pants.
    The Nazis and SS didn't like them as they didn't work,(like our hippies-they were accused of being those edelweiss bums), but put up with them, having sure knowledge that after their "wanderjahr", the military would have it's turn with these kids.
    In fact, one of my favorite teachers at college had been drafted into service on an Anti aircraft gun in the war's last year, or months, when he was 14 years old and had been swept up out of the Hitler Jugend.
    When I knew him he was the most broad minded and liberal of thinkers and loved all his students: black, white, blue , green and candy striped. He was often a pushover with marks but he was a great and inclusive leader of classes. He loved English literature and when not teaching German and related cultural studies, would teach English writing of the last two centuries as though he were a native,(OK, it was a gut class, for credit and a requirement , but loads of fun and the books were the important stuff as well as a couple of popular pre war books. !)

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