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Along with being against nazi controlled music, they also were against many parts of society before nazi rule. For example many men wore more American styled clothing like baseball caps or shoes with thick crepe soles, or using "Swing Heil" as a greeting instead of "Sieg Heil".

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A movie from 1993 called Swing, examined this silent rebellion in nazi Germany and Showed it to a wider, modern audience.

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Swing was all about individuality and non-conformity. Being yourself and having fun with foreign music styles while strange to many, was what they found fun.

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While Swing kids had their own identifiable group, it was very disconnected and had no formal command. The closest they got to formal resistance groups was a connection to the White Rose, but that lead to little besides conversation between the two groups and later used as evidence of anarchist propaganda against some Swing kids.

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The nazis wanted to control all Germany and make a uniform Third Reich, but one obstacle of this was the Swing culture many young Germans had. Swing was all about individuality and non-conformity which naturally lead many young people who loved swing music to avoid and oppose joining the hitler youth. The music's foreign ties also made the nazi higher ups fear foreign influence would hold their citizens away from their own propaganda.

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They kept their identities in the camps while in the concentration camp they sang their songs to themselves during work, and in private recreation parties during curfews.

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Swing Kids
Gorg Ueberall

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Swing Kids
1993

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-51WvPi6A4&pp=ygUhc3dpbmcgZGFuY2UgaW4gY29uY2VudHJhdGlvbiBjYW1w

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Cultural Opposition in Nazi Germany: the Swingjugend

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Swing as an Attitude Towards Life

Arising in the mid-1930s and originating in the United States, the newest style of jazz, swing, brought forth a renewed interest in jazz across the world, even in Nazi Germany. As the world began to recover from economic depression, swing and swing-influenced music came to represent the latest trend in popular music. Despite discrimination against jazz music and jazz culture in the Third Reich, swing found an enthusiastic and dance-hungry audience. For a group of mostly young fans, however, swing music and dancing represented more than a passing fad. For them it became an overall attitude towards life. These enthusiastic swing fans created their own discrete youth culture. They were to be found primarily in large cities across almost the entire European continent, e.g., in England, France ( Les Zazous), Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Austria ( Schlurfs), Switzerland and in the former Czechoslovakia. In comparison with developments in other countries, however, German swing fans were decisively affected not only by the stigmatization of jazz by the Nazi regime, but also by preparations for war and/or experiences of war. This meant that it was only in Germany, with allowance for the annexed Austria, that the Swingjugend became a political matter.

Swingjugend

The first German 'Swing Cliques', as they were snidely termed in Nazi jargon, originated in 1935-36 in Hamburg, Berlin, and Frankfurt am Main. Incidentally, though the term Swingjugend (Swing Youth) also derives from Nazi parlance and is similarly discriminatory in intent, it became the standard term. By contrast, the term 'Swing Kids' is not historically founded and appeared for the first time in the film of the same name (USA 1993, Dir. Thomas Carter). In the first years of the war, the Swingjugend movement registered a comparably large influx of members and developed into a protest movement that the Nazi regime had to take seriously. The Swingjugend rejected the Nazi state, above all because of its ideology and uniformity, its militarism, the 'Führer principle' and the leveling Volksgemeinschaft (people's community). They experienced a massive restriction of their personal freedom. They rebelled against all this with jazz and swing, which stood for a love of life, self-determination, non-conformism, freedom, independence, liberalism, and internationalism.

In addition to the polite external appearance of the Swingjugend which accompanied a cool and laid-back demeanor based on Anglo-American clothing and lifestyle, the Nazis were affronted above all else by their liberal attitude towards life. Because the Swingjugend hardly bothered about curfews, bans on dancing, or the ban on listening on so-called 'enemy radio stations' once the war began, they got into further conflicts with the Nazi state. Added to this, the Swingjugend began to express their oppositional stance more and more explicitly. This ranged from their mockery of the Nazi movement through provocative actions and violent confrontations, to their refusal of compulsory membership of the Hitlerjugend (HJ, or Hitler Youth) and of the Bund Deutscher Mädel (BDM, or League of German Girls) or of military service in the army. However, commitment to jazz led to their discrimination, isolation, and, finally, criminalization, only when it occurred in connection with non-musical reasons for oppression (alleged moral waywardness, rejection of service in the HJ or BDM, being of the Jewish faith, etc.). Such acts resulted in swing enthusiasts having to suffer all kinds of sanctions and acts of reprisals. But the fight against the Swingjugend was hampered by the fact that the Nazi state had no nationwide agreed-upon means of dealing with them. Also, in the Swingjugend the Nazis were not confronting a unified organization, but loosely organized, informal peer-groups of friends.

Hamburg's Swing Fans in Nazi Camps

Because Hamburg was considered the center of the Swingjugend, the Gestapo, police, and other governmental organizations proceeded with special cruelty against the swing movement there. Many 'swing boys' and 'swing girls' had to endure discriminating interrogations, torture, and detention by the Gestapo. This led many a swing fan to commit suicide. Even the national leader of the SS, Heinrich Himmler himself, demanded in a letter from 26 January 1942 that their 'ringleaders' be locked away in concentration camps for two to three years. Between 40 and 70 of Hamburg's Swing Boys and Swi ng Girls were deported to various Nazi camps. Youths under the age of 18 were, generally speaking, consigned to the so-called Jugendschutzlager (Youth detention camps - a type of concentration camp for young people). The boys were sent to the male camp Moringen, while the girls were sent to the female camp Uckermark, which was situated near Ravensbrück. After March 1942, adults and Jewish swing members, on the other hand, were deported to Theresienstadt or to concentration camps in Bergen-Belsen, Buchenwald, Harzungen, Dora-Mittelbau, Neuengamme, Ravensbrück, Sachenhausen or Auschwitz.

The Swing Girls were housed separately at the Uckermark youth detention camp in 1942 and were subjected to constant acts of intimidation by the SS. Since the Swing Boys had been categorized as politically oppositional prisoners at Moringen youth detention camp, they were all held together in the same block. This meant that they could mutually support each other. Together, they secretly sang popular swing titles like 'Jeepers, Creepers,' 'Caravan,' 'Some Of These Days,' 'The Flat Foot Floogie,' 'Sweet Sue, Just You,' or 'Goody Goody.' Like their fellow prisoners, they had to work days as forced labourers at a munitions factory. But since the factory did not fall under the oversight of the SS, they could collectively indulge in their passion for jazz in the pauses. Günter Discher remembers how they would imitate the performance of a big band:

The salt mine where we worked had really nice acoustics. One of us played on the cartridges - these were like wooden boxes, and he would play drums with some sticks. We improvised all sorts of things. Sometimes it sounded horrible. Either way, we had successfully gotten through our so-called breakfast break. It was a survival strategy.

Far more dangerous was the unauthorized eavesdropping on radio programmes in the SS cantina. By means of such actions, the Swing Boys not only used jazz to retain their group identity in Moringen, but were also able to bring out their oppositional stance and to distinguish themselves from the rest of the prisoners. Their fellow prisoners, according to Discher, 'didn't know what to do with swing music. We swings became quickly arrogant and had little contact with the others.'

In contrast, the Hamburg Swing Girls in the concentration camp Ravensbrück expressly sang for their fellow prisoners. They were housed together with other female political prisoners in the same block. To this group belonged the sisters Jutta and Inga Madlung, who performed different swing tunes after work or after lights out. In an interview, Jutta Madlung recalled:

They liked it and were happy about the variety it brought whenever we sang 'In the Mood' or 'Bei mir bist du schoen' or 'A Tisket, a Tasket' or whatever.

But precautions had to be taken so that the performance of hated jazz melodies was not accidentally discovered by an overseer: 'Sometimes at night, after lights out, we were quite precocious and would cover the windows with our bed sheets and then we would sing.'

Herbert Schemmel, interned at the concentration camp Neuengamme, tells of an audacious part of swing history. After his confiscated private record collection was handed over to his parents, this jazz fan had the records sent to him in the camp. It was possible for him to do this because the SS had had to make concessions to the prisoners after the middle of 1942 in order to make up for their increased use of prisoners for forced labour. Thus, prisoners were allowed to form camp bands or to receive food packets. Schemmel took the risk of having the records sent, because as Lagerschreiber (camp scribe), he occupied a high position within the so-called Häftlingsselbstverwaltung (prisoner self-government), appointed by the camp's commanders.

Thereupon I had my portable record player, along with about one hundred records sent to me - English and American swing records. They got here, but I never received them. Schitli [Wilhelm Schitli, head of the detention camp] called for me and said that there was already something in my files about connections to English industrial circles. The records, therefore, had to be confiscated and would be stored along with my effects.

This was then done. But the SS man checked out these records, allegedly dangerous to the state, and the record player and used them at a party at his own home. In the confusion of the last months of the war, Herbert Schemmel was finally able, in January 1945, to illegally smuggle his property out of the effects room and to play the jazz records again.

That Herbert Schemmel did finally recover his records tells us much about the persecution of the members of the swing movement. In the final analysis, the Nazi regime was not able to exercise complete control over the Swingjugend and many swing fans remained true to their music, even in the camps of the Third Reich. Precisely in this extreme situation, music provided a strong footing and constituted a form of intellectual resistance, strengthened all the more by the memory of the many years of persecution for their ties to jazz. Yet despite such bold activities, it must not be forgotten that many of the Swing Boys and Swing Girls died because of the inhumane conditions of their imprisonment.

Sources

Barber-Kersovan, A. & Uhlmann, G. eds., 2002. Getanzte Freiheit. Swingkultur zwischen NS-Diktatur und Gegenwart., Hamburg / München: Dalling und Galitz.

Fackler, G., „... ein gefährliches Umsichgreifen dieser anglophylen Tendenz ..." - Verfolgung und Widerständigkeit der „Swing-Jugend",

Hasenbein, H., 1995. Unerwünscht - toleriert - instrumentalisiert. Jazz und Swing im Nationalsozialismus. In eitschrift für Sozialgeschichte des 20. und 21. Jahrhunderts 10. 38-52.

Kater, M.H., 1992. Different Drummers: Jazz in the Culture of the Nazis, New York: *.

Kellersmann, C., 1990. Jazz in Deutschland von 1933-1945, Menden: Jazzfreund-Publikation.

Kurz, J., 1995. Swinging Democracy". Jugendprotest im 3. Reich. In Geschichte der Jugend. Münster.

Pohl, R., 1986. Das gesunde Volksempfinden ist gegen Dad und Jo". Zur Verfolgung der Hamburger ‚Swing-Jugend. In Zweiten Weltkrieg. In: Verachtet - verfolgt - vernichtet - zu den ‚vergessenen' Opfern des NS-Regimes. Hg. von der Projektgruppe für die vergessenen Opfer des NS-Regimes in Hamburg e.V. Hamburg, pp. 15-45

Polster, B. ed., Swing Heil: Jazz im Nationalsozialismus, Berlin: Transit.

Ritter, F. ed., 1994. Heinrich Himmler und die Liebe zum Swing. Erinnerungen und Dokumente., Leipzig: Reclam.

Zwerin, M., 1985. La Tristesse de Saint Louis: Jazz Under the Nazis, New York: Quartet.

Film : Swing Kids, film by Thomas Carter, 1993.

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The first German 'Swing Cliques', as they were snidely termed in Nazi jargon, originated in 1935-36 in Hamburg, Berlin, and Frankfurt am Main. The Swingjugend's laid-back demeanour, their Anglo-American clothing and their liberal attitude towards life, offended the Nazis.

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Nearly every Western youth subculture in existence eventually gets its own Hollywood film. Like most such films, 1993's -which tells the story of jazz-loving German youth during the rise of the Third Reich-managed to be both inaccurate and critically reviled. Roger Ebert hated the film's celebration of "a very small footnote to a very large historical event," and compared the Swing Kids to "Nero, who fiddled while Rome burned." Ebert's reaction is uncharacteristic of him; he writes critically of the film, but he also seemed to find its subject-the kids themselves-repellant.

The review prompts us to ask: Were these kids-dubbed Swingjugend by the Nazis-participating in a revolutionary act of cultural resistance, or were they no more than typical, naive teenagers who preferred to "listen to big bands than enlist in the military"? (After all, writes Ebert, "who wouldn't?") But the question about the Swing Kids' political motivations may be less relevant than one about whether their pursuit of a carefree, jazz-scored lifestyle under Nazism constitutes a "small footnote" in history. Should we know and care about the Swing Kids, and if so, why?

A German site called Swingstyle compiles information about the subculture and admits that "the real Swing Kids were politically unsophisticated." Despite being seen as a "youth problem" by Nazi authorities, they "actually cared little for contesting official policies toward Jews or other matters. They just wanted to have fun at a dark time in their country's history, and avoid the war if possible." Or, rather, most of them wanted to avoid joining the Hitler Youth, mandated for all young people in 1939: "We must remember the age of most swing kids was between 12 and 16 or 17."

But as you can see in the short documentary clip at the top, the Swing Kids' resistance to the by-now familiarly disturbing, paramilitary regimentation of German young people (see above), was in its way a radical act. "Their casual, fun-loving attitude made a mockery of Nazi control," the documentary narrator says. They embraced what was "considered 'degenerate music' by Nazi ideology," writes MessyNChic, "because it was often performed by black and Jewish musicians and promoted free love."

We cannot assume the Swing Kids' love of the music extended to a love for the people who made it. It's more so the case that the Swing Kids "admired the British and American way of life," and the free-spiritedness universally represented at the time by jazz in American and British films and records, to which German youth had some limited access. But in their battle for "self-determination and freedom," informal groups like the Edelweiss Pirates, the Traveling Dudes, and the Navajos resisted subordination into a homogenized Aryan mass-the mechanism by which Hitler turned ordinary Germans into loyal abettors of mass murder.

Through fashion and music, the Swing Kid clubs-like the rockers or punks of the U.S. and U.K. in later decades-formed in conscious resistance to social and political conformity. The Navajos wrote the following song, for example:

Hitler's dictates make us small,
we're yet bound in chains.
But one day we'll again walk tall,
no chain can us restrain.
For hard are our fists,
Yes! And knives at our wrists,
for youth to be free,
Navajos lay siege.

The references to violence weren't purely symbolic. Swing Kid gangs fought Hitler Youth in the streets. Some Swing Kids, writes MessyNChic, became known for "tagging public walls with anti-Nazi slogans like 'Down with Hitler!' and 'Medals for Murder!'. Throwing bricks through windows and sabotaging cars of Nazi officials... raiding military bases... derailing trains... even planning to blow up the Gestapo HQ in Cologne." And as the educational site Music and the Holocaust documents, the Gestapo fought back "with special cruelty" against Swing Boys and Swing Girls.

In Hamburg, Swing Kids "had to endure discriminating interrogations, torture and detention." They landed in youth concentration camps, and adult and Jewish "swing members... were deported" to death camps in Bergen-Belson, Buchenwald, Auschwitz, and elsewhere. MessyNChic claims that "a file compiled by the Gestapo is said to have contained more than 3,000 names [of Swing Kids] already by the end of the 1930's in Cologne alone. In terms of numbers, that would mean these youths represented a much larger resistance potential than any other opposition group in Germany made up by adults."

Again, none of this organized resistance constituted an explicit political program. "The Swing Kids themselves never intended to have any political effects," writes Swingstyle, "they did not understand politics" and "they turned their backs on the reality around them: the Jewish roundups, the death camps and the steady stream of manpower reserves disappearing into the cauldrons of Russia and France." Swing was a means of escapism and identification with the more relaxed, permissive "paradises" of America and Britain.

Like teenagers living under any regime, Swing Kids were mainly motivated by sex and the search for a good time. But perhaps the anarchic strength of their most primal instincts made these young people some of the most effective resistance fighters against the Nazi obsession with purity and order. Their lives-choreographed to the tunes of Count Basie and Benny Goodman-were "in complete opposition to the perceived National Socialist concept of youth," concludes Swingstyle: "To the extent that the Swing Kids assumed American ideals of personal freedom, relaxed living, and appreciation of the 'lower races'... they were a grave threat to the upside-down philosophy of Nazism that sought to insulate Germany from the rest of the world."

Their embrace of an international, racially-mixed culture-jazz-was itself a radical political act in Nazi Germany, even if they had no theoretical concepts of what that embrace meant for the future of their country. And their violent rejection of the Hitler Youth makes them even more compelling. It seems to me that the Swing Kids do indeed deserve a celebratory place in history-and maybe they deserve a better film as well.
Related Content: Hear the Nazi's Bizzaro Propaganda Jazz Band, "Charlie and His Orchestra" (1940-1943) The Nazis' 10 Control-Freak Rules for Jazz Performers: A Strange List from World War II Watch Lambeth Walk-Nazi Style: The Early Propaganda Mash Up That Enraged Joseph Goebbels is a writer and musician based in Durham, NC. Follow him at @jdmagness

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How Jazz-Loving Teenagers-the Swingjugend-Fought the Hitler Youth and Resisted Conformity in Nazi Germany

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Nearly every Western youth subculture in existence eventually gets its own Hollywood film. Like most such films, 1993's Swing Kids-which tells the story of jazz-loving German youth during the rise of the Third Reich-managed to be both inaccurate and critically reviled.

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In 2004 I lived in Vienna, Austria and had discovered the local swing music scene. At one of the many dances I started talking with an older gentleman who danced incredibly well and told me that he used to be a "Schlurf." I had never heard the term but it sounded funny and interesting. He explained that there were groups of young men and women in Vienna during the Nazi years who would meet in private, dance to American swing music, and opposed the harsh Nazi reality with their behavior and dress. I was intrigued. Who were these young people?

"Schlurf" was but one term used to describe this underground youth culture. Nowadays, the term "swing kids" is usually used to describe the phenomenon based on a 1993 Hollywood feature film of the same name. While not a huge box office success, the film influenced the swing revival of the late 90s and early 2000s by telling the fictionalized story of a group of teenagers in Nazi Germany. The kids themselves called each other "swings," "swing heinis" (swing dudes), or "swing boys and girls." The swings were not organized in cohesive groups or clubs, but instead were loose circles of like-minded teenagers in larger cities across Germany, Austria, and other European countries varying greatly in their socioeconomic backgrounds and interests. What they had in common was a love for jazz and an affinity for British and American pop culture which stood in stark contrast to the enforced Nazi culture of German nationalism, uniformity, and military regulation.

Jazz as a musical form appeared in Germany in the 1920s and, as was true globally, became popular as the soundtrack of the Roaring 20s. As the social and political atmosphere grew darker in the 1930s, the new widely popular form of jazz, swing music, made its way across the Atlantic.

Swing was not proscribed by the Nazi regime initially. Authorities at first accepted claims by the German music industry, trying to cash in on the new sounds, that swing was a more 'cultured' form of jazz and, if not desirable, at least acceptable for German ears. Soon enough, however, the music's black roots, its perceived Jewishness, and lack of restraint in the accompanying dances began to raise alarm.

Restrictions on the music and its dissemination came gradually. Broadcasting of jazz was forbidden as early as 1935. In the following years records of individual artists were banned; listening to non-German radio stations was criminalized. Orchestras had to follow strict rules like not exceeding 20 percent of the repertoire to jazz, and some areas outlawed swing dancing and dances.

Swing music per se, however, was never completely outlawed. Propaganda Minister Goebbels knew that music was a necessity in keeping morale up. This led to an odd duality in the way Nazi authorities dealt with jazz. On the one hand, massive propaganda and strict rules were used to keep swing at bay. This "degenerate" "jungle music" played by such people like the Jewish Benny Goodman, whom a publication called the "Pied Piper of New York" with "criminal hands," had to be suppressed as much as possible.

On the other hand, the Nazis attempted to recreate a more Germanic form of jazz music-for entertainment, to boost the morale of young German troops, and to undermine Allied morale by broadcasting pro-German propaganda jazz numbers by the Nazi-sponsored "Charlie & His Orchestra" across the Channel.

Music is hard to regulate and this ambiguity offered many ways to circumvent rules and trick the system. Teenagers, the most ardent followers of a new musical trend, were also hard to regulate and for some of them the anti-jazz propaganda had the exact opposite effect. Not only did it make the music more attractive, it also offered ways to access it. Some flocked to the cinemas to catch anti-American propaganda reels that showed Americans dancing the Lindy Hop so they could learn to imitate the movements. A touring exhibit on "degenerate music" included the playing of American jazz records which, according to one "Schlurf," could easily be "snagged" after involving the promoter in a conversation.

While Nazis hated jazz and every form it came in, the existence of these swing kids and their lifestyle posed a much bigger threat to their world view. The first "swing cliques," as they were described, showed up around 1935 in Hamburg, Berlin, and Frankfurt. These teens and young adults that mostly knew each other from school or leisure activities, shared a love for swing, Anglo-American style and culture and were much more interested in self-indulging activities than the uniformity, military drill, and ideology of the Hitler Youth (Hitler Jugend, HJ for short) or the League of German girls (Bund Deutscher Maedel, BDM for short.) The swing kids hence raised many red flags with Nazi authorities, most shockingly, they tended to welcome Jewish teenagers into their midst. Coco Schuman, a Berlin swing kid, famous jazz guitarist, and Holocaust survivor (he was a member of the band "Ghetto Swingers" in Theresienstadt), put the difference in clear musical terms when he pointed out that both military marches and jazz are in common time, however, one cannot march to jazz due to its syncopation.

One of the rare photographs of swing kids in Germany.

The way the swings dressed reflected this stance on life. Most boys would wear long, often oversized and checked sports jackets, hats with American-style brims, shoes with thick crepe soles and, in some cities, an umbrella, no matter the weather. The look varied from location and sometimes reflected differences in social background. The "Schlurfs" in Vienna for example were mostly working-class and often had to adjust the look to what clothing was available. What they all had in common was long hair-long enough to touch the collar, and slicked back in what was perceived as Hollywood style. Visually they could not have been in starker contrast to typical Hitler Youth style.

Swing girls had their own look too. They wore make-up, used nail polish, and favored long and open hair-as opposed to the 'natural' and braided-hair look propagated by the authorities for the 'proper' German girl. Nazis were particularly concerned with the ideal German female, and the way swing girls dressed and behaved showed the world that they did not care about these ideals. They were a threat to regulated order.

Apart from the clothing, the teenagers' behavior caused outcry as well. The dancing was considered vulgar, inappropriate, and often connected to claims of sexual promiscuity. Further, a key element of their culture was a laissez-faire outlook on life. A cool and laid-back demeanor, modeled after Hollywood movies, went hand-in-hand with a desire to just hang around with no particular aim or goal. They used English words and called each other "Old Hot Boy" or "Hot Old Boy." They were ironic and flippant. Some would use "Swing Heil!" (instead of Sieg Heil) as a greeting. Some engaged in provocative actions and violent confrontations, mostly with their counterparts in the Hitler Youth.

For many of them, especially those of privileged backgrounds, these actions were not so much a part of orchestrated rebellion and active resistance, but more of a game whose gravity they did not grasp. A Hamburg swing kid, Tommie Scheel, said, "We were going to tell these dumb bastards that we were different, that was all."

Despite their open display of disassociation from the system, swing kids were not actually political. Their rebellion came more from a teenage desire for self-expression than a resistance mindset. It was more an attempt to "wish away" harsher realities of life with idle conversation, creating a make-believe world through music, and withdrawing from the totalitarian regime growing around them. Their rebellion was in the forms of visual cues, their dress and behavior, but not so much in subversive political action.

Hans-Jürgen Massaquoi, a German-American journalist with African ancestry and a Hamburg swing kid, noted in Stud Terkel's The Good War:

However, the longer the Nazi regime lasted, the more the swings' very existence became political. Even if they themselves didn't perceive it that way, Nazi authorities certainly did.

This photo of four swings shows the difference in style, behavior, and attitude to the Hitler Youth.

Measures and sanctions against swing kids varied based on location. In Vienna, the Schlurfs' lifestyle was criminalized in March of 1940 with a police ordinance to "protect" minors. What followed were years of raids on music events, dance schools, and other informal meeting places. If caught, the youths faced punishments ranging from the public cutting of their hair, forced entry into the Hitler Youth or the Wehrmacht to, in 'severe' cases, incarceration in youth concentration camps.

In Hamburg, which had a very active swing culture, an overzealous Gestapo head, helped by the local Hitler Youth who observed and reported on the swing kids, cracked down hard on them.

Here, the teens had been particularly bold in their gatherings, from volunteering for lookout shifts and using those to sit on the rooftops and listen to illegal songs, to organizing dances of several hundred participants. These infuriated the local Hitler Youth who, in February 1940, reported that these dances are "an appalling sight. None of the couples danced normally; there was only swing of the worst sort." As a result, the Gestapo raided a swing event on March 2, 1940, and 408 people were identified and recorded. That fall, based on these records, 63 swings were arrested.

Waves of raids and arrests over two years had very little effect on the swing kids' activities, so much so that concerns reached top Nazi brass. On January 26, 1942, Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS, wrote to his deputy Reinhard Heydrich and instructed him that "all the ringleaders ... and all teachers with enemy views who are encouraging the swing youth are to be assigned to a concentration camp." Himmler believed that only brutal measures would "prevent the dangerous spread of this anglophile tendency at a time when Germany is fighting for her existence."

Overall, 383 people were arrested between October 1940 and December 1942 in Hamburg alone, of which 90 percent were younger than 21 years old. They often endured weeks in jail and brutal interrogations by the Gestapo. Most were sent home at one point or the other, their jazz records confiscated and hair cut short. Not all fared so well. Some were sent to the front lines, suspected leaders were sent to concentration camps as political prisoners, and Jewish swing kids, like Coco Schuman, faced the Holocaust.

The swing youth hardly started out as a political group. In their heart of hearts, they were teenagers who loved American popular jazz connected to ideas of freedom, self-determination, and self-expression. Though a teenage fad in many ways, within the political system of the time, their courage to just be different stands out. I do not know what became of the older gentleman I danced with that evening. But I do hope he still dances wherever he may be.

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"Swing Heil": Swing Youth, Schlurfs, and others in Nazi Germany | The National WWII Museum | New Orleans

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In 2004 I lived in Vienna, Austria and had discovered the local swing music scene. At one of the many dances I started talking with an older gentleman who danced incredibly well and told me that he used to be a "Schlurf." I had never heard the term but it sounded funny and interesting.

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The Swing Youth ( German: Swingjugend ) were a group of jazz and swing lovers in Germany in the 1930s, mainly in Hamburg and Berlin. Formed in Hamburg in 1939, they were composed of 14 to 21-year-old boys and girls in high school, most of them middle- or upper-class students, but with some apprentice workers as well.

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Although obvious to many, the story of the swing kids shows how all authoritarian dictatorships have to control everything that isn't in their doctrine. The Swing kids wanted to be A-political but the nazis saw that as a challenge to their regime and proceeded to outlaw their practices, send their leaders and teachers to concentration camps, and even just discriminate against them in the general society and those were all because some foreign music had people care about themselves and their love of music more than the state.

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Some groups used fighting and killing against the nazis very rarely, but it depended on what group you were in for the amount or even thought of violent resistance. It also depends on if this was before the official ban or not.

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The Political Identity of the "SwingJugend"

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The Political Identity of the "SwingJugend"

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There was no political party or true ideology that was associated with swing movement, they were neither communist nor really against nazi parties policy's, but they did have a problem with them banning it. The best way to describe it is like cultural liberalism, where people can be free and equal in both society and its media yet they still never opposed the nazis for antisemitism or the despotic nature of their government besides telling them what culture (or music) to enjoy.