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Who were the Edelweiss Pirates?

The Edelweiss Pirates (otherwise known as the Edelweiss Piraten) were a group of local anti Nazi resistance groups founded in Colonge. The local groups were identified as "swings" "packs" "cliques" and "pirates". The groups that lead to the formation of the Edelweiss Pirates were " The Farthenstenze ( Traveling Dudes)", the "Kittelbach Pirates", "Navajos" from Colonge, ect.

The members ranged from fourteen to seventeen and rejected he Hitler Youth's and League of German Girls' restritive customs. They highly despised restrictions on teenagers' fun, freedom of thought, and training kids for military service. Many of the Edelweiss pirates left the group at the age of eighteen due to mandatory military service instituted by the Nazis. Majority of the edelweiss piraten left school and or Hitler youth at the age of fourteen in order to cut ties Nazis for a few years of freedom and rebellion.

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The flower name has two meanings in one. “Edel”means “noble”, while “weiss” means “white” in German. White also has significant symbolism, depending on how you use the color. In the case of the rebel German teenagers, they used white to represent the resistance and bravery people needed to go against Hitler’s rule and to not give up hope for the Jews that were wrongly accused for the downfall of Germany before WWII.

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The Edelweiss Pirates created a tradition in Colongne Germany, where their group was created. Their successors gather yearly to perform music that was banned by Nazi regime and bring them back to life in a new light.

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The Edelweiss Pirates and WWII documentary

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The Edelweiss Pirates and WWII documentary

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Thumbnail to a short video essay on the Edelweiss Pirates to spread awareness of young German Resistance groups created during the Holocaust.

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Song of the Edelweiss Pirates (translated)

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Song of the Edelweiss Pirates (translated)

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Hitler's power may lay us low,

And keep us locked in chains,

But we will smash the chains one day,

We'll be free again.

We've got the fists and we can fight,

We've go the knives and we'll get them out.

We want freedom don't we boys?

The Song of the Edelweiss pirates was used by the piraten. There is no named creator of this song/chant, but every piraten knew this song by heart.

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Check out this Video designed by Gail Fernandez.

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The edelweiss pirates movie is a Historical fiction movie based off two fictional characters named Karl and Peter ,who are brothers, and Hans Steinbruck, a man who escaped a concentration camp, The brothers go against Hitler youth daily, while Hans create the plans of sabotage against the Nazis. One day, the gestapo gets involved with the Pirates and Karl and Peter are arrested. Karl is forced to battle his will to live, his guilt, his love for his brother Peter, and his loyalty to the Edelweiss Pirates.

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Jean Julich was a German teenager who had come from a problematic familial background. His father being a prisoner had molded him into a rebellious kid. His parents placed him into Hitler youth to "better" his state of mind in 1939. However, this only lasted for three years. He joined the edelweiss pirates in 1942.

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On November 10,1944, 13 people were hanged on a railway in a Colonge district without charge of judgement from the government. Six male edelweiss pirates , including Bartholomaus, were part of the group hanged. They were later buried in a mass grave at laten cemetery in Colonge. Sadly, it took decades after WWI for the people hanged for their attempts to spread awareness of the damaging dictatorship imposed by Hitler to be honored by the people of Colonge. Bartholomaus was only sixteen years old when he died.

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Walter Mayer was an Edelweiss Pirate born in Rhineland, Germany, in 1927. His father was an anti-Nazi, but had to send Walter with other teens to Hitler youth. While in Hitler Youth, he questioned the German superiority and anti-semitism that he and other members of Hitler Youth was taught. The start of his teenage rebellion happened when he decided to hide a Jewish friend in his basement. He then created his own little gang that would play pranks on young Nazis and helped French prisoners of war. In 1943 he was caught taking shoes from a bombed store, arrested, and imprisoned. He was taken to the Ravensbrueck concentration camp. He stayed in the camp until 1945, when Walter decided to escape before he was killed due to him having gotten tuberculosis.

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The Edelweiss Pirates Come to Washington D.C.

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The Edelweiss Pirates Come to Washington D.C.

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Today, little is known about in depth details about the Edelweiss Pirates. Some people don't even know they existed during the Holocaust. When I visited the Holocaust museum, I was hoping to find some Prime sources on the Edelweiss Pirates, or a little place of recognition in the "Resistance" exhibit. However, there was none. I went with another person researching the same topic and we talked to some workers in the museum. When they heard about the Edelweiss Pirates, they asked us to create a suggestion to go along with the new exhibits they were going to release. Maybe next time you visit, you'll see a section dedicated to them.

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What the Edelweiss Pirates did within their group

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What the Edelweiss Pirates did within their group

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Anything the Hitler Youth exposed as correct, the Edelweiss pirates would go against it.

At first, the Edelweiss Pirates would wear colorful clothing, style their wardrobes differently, keep their hair long, and sang or played songs that were banned by Nazis. Then, they decided to escalate their "harmless" antics a bit. The pirates would get together in groups at cafes, parks, or street corners weekly. The alarming sized group would then go on hikes, camping trips, or visit other towns where other fellow "piraten" lived together. Even though the Edelweiss Pirates weren't necessarily breaking laws the Hitler Youth found these small acts as criminal activity and resulted in a lot of tension. Finally, as the war progressed, the acts of rebellion escalated and became more serious . Pirates in Cologne offered shelter to German soldiers who were "deserted", escapees from forced labor camps, made armed raids on military depots, sabotaged war production, and messed with Nazis as a "joke" or "gag".

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Young Edelweiss Pirates being executed, Colonge November 10, 1944

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In July 1943, Hans Steinbruck went into Ehrenfeld and began to stockpile weapons and food of bombed out houses with Cilly Mevissen while contacting camp escapers. He and other Edelweiss piraten sheltered Jews in old cellars who were forced into hiding. This went on until September 29, 1944, when an informer gave an army patrol the address of their hiding spot. Hans was captured and interrogated by the Gestapo. By October 15th, the Gestapo made sixty-three arrests (nineteen of them were teenagers). On November 1944, thirteen people were executed including Hans Steinburck. Though initially, people hadn't memorialized the execution, the railway station in which all thirteen perished was turned into a memorial plaque in honor of Steinbruck and the others who were executed.

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Early on in his life, Hans Steinburck struggled to find a meaning to his life and fit within the German society. He was an orphan at five, ran away from his orphanage at sixteen to become a sailor, and get drafted into the military after getting fired at sea. He was let go from both of his jobs because he contracted malaria and was left without a way to have income to support himself. At one point in his early adulthood, Hans attempted to join the Gestapo. He learned, however, that becoming a Gestapo police was harder than he thought because he did not get the job. On the verge of being homeless, Hans decided to pose as a Gestapo officer to get a break from rent. This lead to his landlord becoming suspicious of him and finding out the truth. Hans was later sent to the Buchenwald concentration camp because of his bad life decisions. In 1943, Hans had been given the task to defuse bombs. Once he proved that he was good at that task, earning him the nickname "Bomber Hans", he knew he would be killed once defusing bombs wasn't needed. Hans escaped the camp in October of 1943. Eventually he made his own gang, lived with his ex, a friend's wife, and then fusing his group with the Edelweiss pirates.

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Cilly Mevissen was a young lady living in Colonge when she let Heins Steinbruck live in her home in Schonsteinstrasse. At the time, Hans was not part of the Edelweiss Pirates. He was the leader of his own smaller group "the Ehrenfeld", and had gone by the name "Bombenhans". He and Cilly's husband had been transported to the same camp, but I was unable to find information on if her husband escaped alongside Hans. In an interview she was asked why she allowed Hans to stay with her after he escaped, and what she was responsible for in the Ehrenfeld group.

" - My husband was also a prisoner there, and he had told Bomb Hans that if you leave here, you can go to my Olga in Ehrenfeld..."

"I always cooked the food. From my apartment, a bell rang in the basement where the boys met. If there was imminent danger, I pulled it, then those in front were warned and could disappear..."

On October 2nd, the Gestapo arrived and Cilly had once again warned the boys to give them a chance to escape. This time, Cilly was taken with the boys to act as a decoy. She was taken to a Gestapo prison in Brauweiler with a Jewish woman and her daughter as the boys tried to free her.

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Jean Julich and Walter are both in this photo

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An interview with Walter Meyer, taken in 2006.

In this short clip, Walter describes where majority of the edelweiss pirates resided, and how they introduced new members into the young resistance group.

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Check out this Video designed by Gail Fernandez.