Quote by Hitlerjugend Patrol

“The sight of some three hundred dancing people thrashing about was absolutely horrid.  No one can describe the dancing because no one danced normally.  Indeed, this was the naughtiest of Swing dancing that can be imagined.  Sometimes two boys danced with one juvenile girl, and at other times several couples locked themselves into a mass embrace and just hopped around.  Many couples hopped together while holding hands and bent over wildly, so that their long hair flew across their faces and whipped their thighs as they spun.  You had to worry about the sanity of some of them.  The scenes that happened on the dance floor were fit for a lunatic asylum.  Even the most hysterical and primitive Black jungle warrior war-dance would have paled in comparison to what happened here.  Everyone jumped about like crazy while they mumbled English musical gibberish.  The Band increased the tempo faster by the minute.  No member of the band was sitting, because they were all getting hotter and wilder as they also succumbed to the jungle beat on the stage. You often saw boys dancing together with other boys, always with two cigarettes dangling from each corner of the mouth.”

-Hitlerjugend Patrol Report on a Hamburg Swing Dance, August 2, 1940.

Founding of the Edelweiss Pirates

The Edelweiss Pirates formed at the end of the 1930s in western Germany. In the article “Inside Hitler’s Germany,” authors Matthew Hughes and Chris Mann explain, “Their uniform was a badge of edelweiss flowers with a checked shirt, dark short trousers and white socks, and soon a variety of groups called themselves “Edelweiss Pirates” (Hughes and Mann 61).

There were many subgroups of the Edelweiss Pirates including the Navajos, centered in Cologne, the Kittelbach Pirates of Oberhausen and Dusseldorf, and the Roving Dudes of Essen. The different groups were associated with their individual regions; however, the edelweiss badge identified and unified them as Edelweiss Pirates.

In addition, the Edelweiss Pirates were typically younger than the Swing Youths, as they were aged 14 to 18. They were mostly a non-political group primarily from the working class, unlike the aristocratic Swing Youths. Similar to the Swings, the Pirates were looking to defy Hitler’s order and the regulations imposed by the Nazi regime. The Pirates maintained an oppositional attitude “towards what they saw as the increasingly paramilitary obligations of the Hitler Youth” (Welch 63).

Many of these members had left school at a young age and were too young for the army but too mature for the Hitler youth. They wanted to spend the salaries they earned on whatever they pleased, and not participate in the sham collectivism of the Hitler Youth (Burleigh and Wippermann 222). In addition, the Pirates used many symbols to express themselves and their views. Their style of clothing, appearance, and type of songs all were symbols that were banned by the Nazi party.

According to one Nazi official in 1941, “Every child knows who the Kittelbach Pirates are. ‘They are everywhere; there are more of them than there are Hitler Youth…They beat up the patrols…They never take no for an answer,’” (Hughes and Mann 61). Thus, unlike the Swing Youth and the White Rose, the Pirates were often hostile to the Hitler Youth and used more direct and aggressive resistance methods to combat the limitations placed upon them by the Nazi party. 

Founding of the Swing Youth

The Swing Youth formed around 1938, in the wealthy northern region of Hamburg. The founding members included wealthy boys and girls who typically knew each other from Gymnasium, the German name for High School. Members of this group usually met in local skating rinks and particular cafes. In the book “Hitler’s Children,” author Gerhard Rempel describes how they were originally called “Loafer Clubs” and “Gangster Cliques (Rempel 92).” The term “Swing Youth” came later and reflected their connection to American music and English apparel.

Similar to the White Rose and the Edelweiss Pirates, the “Swings” were formed as a counter movement to the Nazi Youth group. However, unlike the White Rose and Edelweiss Pirates, the Swings served more as a countercultural group than a counter political group to the traditional Nazi party.  They rejected the traditional music of the Nazi party and instead embraced American and English influenced music, such as Jazz and swing.

Unlike the Edelweiss Pirates who represented a more serious challenge to Hitler, the Swing Youth was politically indifferent to National Socialism. In the book “The Third Reich,” author David Welch, describes how, “The swing youth were definitely not anti-fascist (Welch 62).” Nonetheless, the existence of these youth and “non conformists” groups illustrates how not all Germans supported the Nazi Party. The Swings also show that there was a rift between the traditional older German generation and the more laid-back younger generation.

In addition, smaller dissensions of the Hamburg Swings formed in cities such as Breslau, Kiel and Berlin. It wasn’t until 1941, that the German authorities became aware of the Swing group.  

A Quote - "The Diaries of the White Rose"

"Since Hitler's Moods were said to be extraordinarily dependent on the sympathy of the masses, a reversal of feeling among the populace would have been a weapon of considerable force against him, one which would threaten his own self-confidence. FOR THESE REASONS the leaflets of the White Rose, were held by the highest levels of the party to constitute one of the greatest politcal "crimes" against the 3rd Reich"

-Scholl, Hans & Sophie, The Diaries of the White Rose