https://padlet.com/manerkat001/bvlvq3hr9wndzl3g The Edelweiss Pirates en-us 2022-03-21 18:21:59 UTC 2025-11-21 04:19:26 UTC hello@padlet.com manerkat001 https://padlet.com/manerkat001/bvlvq3hr9wndzl3g/wish/2108587055 By the time Jean was 13, he had returned from the countryside and started school again. Jean and his best friend first saw these kids in funny clothes, they looked different, and Jean liked it.
 
Quote 4: "The kids allowed Jean and Fan to join their group. They called themselves the Edelweiss Pirates. Jean loved the songs they sang, and gave himself the nickname Schang..."(98)]]> 2022-03-23 00:25:22 UTC https://padlet.com/manerkat001/bvlvq3hr9wndzl3g/wish/2108587055 manerkat001 https://padlet.com/manerkat001/bvlvq3hr9wndzl3g/wish/2110154609
Gaddy, K. R. Flowers in the Gutter, The True Story of the Edelweiss Pirates, Teenagers Who Resisted the Nazis.

This is the true story of the Edelweiss Pirates which was a group of teenagers who came together and did everything they would to resist the Nazis. The story focuses on Fritz, Gertrude, and Jean. ]]> 2022-03-23 16:56:30 UTC https://padlet.com/manerkat001/bvlvq3hr9wndzl3g/wish/2110154609 manerkat001 https://padlet.com/manerkat001/bvlvq3hr9wndzl3g/wish/2110279306 When Jean was 4, everything changed. His dad left. His mom couldn't afford to support him and his brother, so he went to live with his grandparents. Jean's family was broken and would never be put back together again. 

Quote #1: "Jean's father was an official in the Communist Party and saw what was happening with the arrests and fights after Hitler came to power. He left" (26). ]]> 2022-03-23 17:59:13 UTC https://padlet.com/manerkat001/bvlvq3hr9wndzl3g/wish/2110279306 manerkat001 https://padlet.com/manerkat001/bvlvq3hr9wndzl3g/wish/2112530296 At 6 years old, Jean starts his first year of school. Despite Hitler gaining power, Jean's grandparents tried to do everything they could to make Jean happy, and he was happy. Jean's family was still separated, but sometimes he got to see his mom and his dad. ]]> 2022-03-24 19:25:54 UTC https://padlet.com/manerkat001/bvlvq3hr9wndzl3g/wish/2112530296 manerkat001 https://padlet.com/manerkat001/bvlvq3hr9wndzl3g/wish/2112533746 Once Jean joins his brother at the orphanage, they find the place to be awful. The nuns told the boys scary stories them quiet at night and forced them to pray. The food was disgusting. 

Quote 2: "He couldn't stand the taste. The slime hit the back of his throat and it was too much...so back into the bowl the vomit went with the rest of the soup he hadn't eaten. A nun had seen...He didn't have a choice-he ate the soup-vomit mixture" (38).]]> 2022-03-24 19:28:26 UTC https://padlet.com/manerkat001/bvlvq3hr9wndzl3g/wish/2112533746 manerkat001 https://padlet.com/manerkat001/bvlvq3hr9wndzl3g/wish/2112538932 The bombings in Cologne were becoming more and more frequent. One night, Jean hears the droning of airplane engines followed by the sound of a bomb falling from the sky, coming closer and closer. Then, it happened. The air pressure changed and there was a loud pop, followed by a rushing noise. Stones fell from the ceiling and dust clouded the room. The lights went out. Screams erupted from everywhere. Everyone rushed to find a way out. Jean goes to the stairs, but goes back to find his grandma coughing and in a place where the ceiling was about to collapse. They safely made it out.]]> 2022-03-24 19:32:00 UTC https://padlet.com/manerkat001/bvlvq3hr9wndzl3g/wish/2112538932 manerkat001 https://padlet.com/manerkat001/bvlvq3hr9wndzl3g/wish/2112545907 Just after midnight of this day, the familiar sound of airplanes whirring goes across the city. Everyone knows this means an attack is coming. The allied bombers fly over Cologne. A bomb drops every 6 seconds. 

Quote 3: "Out on the street, the burned homes left a sweet, toxic odor. The air was thick and hot as flames flipped in the wind and smoke clouded the streets...Only when they could stop and look around did they see how bad the neighborhood looked and realize they'd narrowly escaped death" (88).]]> 2022-03-24 19:37:36 UTC https://padlet.com/manerkat001/bvlvq3hr9wndzl3g/wish/2112545907 manerkat001 https://padlet.com/manerkat001/bvlvq3hr9wndzl3g/wish/2120571420 With the ongoing war, the Edelweiss Pirates knew that anything could happen in the future. So they planned one last meet-up, one last time to laugh and enjoy the night. They brought the little food they had and crowded together in a little room at the back of a bar. The mood was heavy. They sang songs together and tried to enjoy the time together before a Gestapo officer catches them.  ]]> 2022-03-30 02:28:24 UTC https://padlet.com/manerkat001/bvlvq3hr9wndzl3g/wish/2120571420 manerkat001 https://padlet.com/manerkat001/bvlvq3hr9wndzl3g/wish/2120583778 When Jean is on his way to the pharmacy to get some medicine, a Hitler Youth registers him to be shipped to the Westwall to dig trenches. Fan, Jean's best friend, agrees to go with him the next day. The military duty was very poorly organized and Jean and Fan sneak out in the middle of the night and get a ride back to Cologne. ]]> 2022-03-30 02:36:18 UTC https://padlet.com/manerkat001/bvlvq3hr9wndzl3g/wish/2120583778 manerkat001 https://padlet.com/manerkat001/bvlvq3hr9wndzl3g/wish/2120593321 When Jean gets home, he realizes that something is wrong. Jean gets punched by a Gestapo officer and is forced to sit on the sofa for an hour by this officer along with his mother and grandma. 

Quote 6: "They marched Jean out of the apartment, guns pressed against his back. Jean's father had put up a fight when he was dragged out of the apartment, but so much had changed in the last eight years" (211). ]]> 2022-03-30 02:40:57 UTC https://padlet.com/manerkat001/bvlvq3hr9wndzl3g/wish/2120593321 manerkat001 https://padlet.com/manerkat001/bvlvq3hr9wndzl3g/wish/2120595324 When Jean was taken to the EL-DE House, the Gestapo had a different interrogation technique in mind for Jean. They brought him into a room and told him to stand next to a metal bed. He was forced to watch a man start kissing a woman on the bed and they started undressing. Jean was so embarrassed. After this, he was interrogated and beaten. 

Quote 7: "When he stopped tumbling, all he could do was lie on the cold cement floor of the basement. He thought he'd broken something. His head hurt and his body hurt, but he was afraid of what was coming next. He didn't know the exact reason he had been arrested, and he didn't know what the Gestapo knew" (212, 213). ]]> 2022-03-30 02:42:16 UTC https://padlet.com/manerkat001/bvlvq3hr9wndzl3g/wish/2120595324 manerkat001 https://padlet.com/manerkat001/bvlvq3hr9wndzl3g/wish/2120603440 Jean finds out that one of his friends and fellow Edelweiss Pirates turned him in. His friend was the reason he had gone through so much pain and had to leave his family. Barthel hadn't meant to turn Jean or Fan in, he was in so much pain and wanted them to stop beating him. He says that he was "at the end". He asks for forgiveness and Jean realizes how much Barthel has changed. ]]> 2022-03-30 02:47:31 UTC https://padlet.com/manerkat001/bvlvq3hr9wndzl3g/wish/2120603440 manerkat001 https://padlet.com/manerkat001/bvlvq3hr9wndzl3g/wish/2120608313 While in jail, Jean and his friends communicated through the window. In the jail, they could hear the screams from the interrogation room, which gave them a chance to communicate with each other. They had whistles they'd used as Edelweiss Pirates so they used those to communicate when they didn't want to talk or didn't want the guards to know what they were saying. From this new communication method, Jean found out there were 7 Edelweiss Pirates at this jail and 5 more at Westwall and ensured that the Gestapo officers couldn't get names or places from them.]]> 2022-03-30 02:50:37 UTC https://padlet.com/manerkat001/bvlvq3hr9wndzl3g/wish/2120608313 manerkat001 https://padlet.com/manerkat001/bvlvq3hr9wndzl3g/wish/2120613655 The Gestapo were harsh. They would force the prisoners to stand against a wall, come behind them, and then hit them so their noses smashed into the wall. It seemed as though the officers took pleasure from hurting the prisoners. Fan got interrogated and Jean had to hear the whacks against his friends flesh. At night, they had to strip and give the guards their clothes to make sure they were uncomfortable and wouldn't run out into the cold night. The next day, they were forced to do physical exercises when they had no energy. 

Quote 8: "...down, up, down, up, jump, march, march. Some of the older men collapsed. Jean cut his hand on a rock in the path. Pain shot up his arm as he pressed his body down to the ground, and as a red spot remained when he got up again. The next time he went down, he dropped down onto the lawn instead of the gravel path. That didn't escape Officer Kutter's notice. 'The lawn is too good for you,' Kutter said...'Besides, soon you'll be under the grass anyway, '"(234).]]> 2022-03-30 02:54:16 UTC https://padlet.com/manerkat001/bvlvq3hr9wndzl3g/wish/2120613655 manerkat001 https://padlet.com/manerkat001/bvlvq3hr9wndzl3g/wish/2120622149 When Jean looks out his window one day he sees a group of prisoners chained together. They move from the building, across the yard, and are loaded into a truck. Jean knows that some of his friends are in that group because he gets two new neighbors. None of the prisoners know what is about to happen with those thirteen prisoners, but they are about to get executed. ]]> 2022-03-30 02:59:57 UTC https://padlet.com/manerkat001/bvlvq3hr9wndzl3g/wish/2120622149 manerkat001 https://padlet.com/manerkat001/bvlvq3hr9wndzl3g/wish/2120626817 On this day, 5 teenagers and 8 adults are hung, many of which Jean knew or was friends with. Hangings aren’t supposed to happen in public like this, but the Nazis are desperate. Once the prisoners are hung, they stay there until the evening and then are taken to Westfriedhof Cemetery and are buried. A little over two weeks later, a group of people including six Edelweiss Pirates are executed at the same place on November 10th, 1944.

Quote 9: "Barthel and the others walk up the planks and stand on the board. The officers pull down the ropes over their shaved heads and skull-like faces. In a normal hanging, the force of the drop between the surface the condemned is standing on and the end of the rope breaks the person's neck, resulting in immediate paralysis and death. That drop is usually four to six feet. This drop is less than three feet, so the nooses tighten around the necks of the prisoners and they strangle to death. Instead of instant death, strangling by hanging can take as long as twenty minutes" (245). 

]]> 2022-03-30 03:02:59 UTC https://padlet.com/manerkat001/bvlvq3hr9wndzl3g/wish/2120626817 manerkat001 https://padlet.com/manerkat001/bvlvq3hr9wndzl3g/wish/2121901402 On this day, Jean finds out about how his friends had been publicly hanged. Jean fears that he is next. Jean continues to stay in jail all through November, December, and January and on February 10th he gets transferred from Brauweiler to Seigburg. In a way, Seigburg is better than Brauweiler because Jean gets to be in a cell with Fan. They sing songs together and play air guitar to pass the time. Despite this, Siegburg's conditions were worse. Everyone had typhoid fever or typhus. Fan gets sick, and Jean takes care of him. Jean and Fan kept getting transported father and father east. They know they Americans are coming. ]]> 2022-03-30 16:48:50 UTC https://padlet.com/manerkat001/bvlvq3hr9wndzl3g/wish/2121901402 manerkat001 https://padlet.com/manerkat001/bvlvq3hr9wndzl3g/wish/2121907941 The American's arrive! While Jean is in prison, one of Jean's cellmates yells that he sees the Americans and Jean can't believe it. They were free. In May of 1945, Jean goes back to Cologne with Fan and they laugh and talk the whole night. They bike back to where the transports are and take a bus back to Cologne. ]]> 2022-03-30 16:52:17 UTC https://padlet.com/manerkat001/bvlvq3hr9wndzl3g/wish/2121907941 manerkat001 https://padlet.com/manerkat001/bvlvq3hr9wndzl3g/wish/2121914001 After the war, Jean didn't tell anyone about his life as an Edelweiss Pirate but that changed in the late 1970's. Jean gets thanked for his kindness and gets invited to be honored by Yad Vasham. Interviews on Jean were also done and put up at the Nationals Socialist Documentation Center. 

Quote 10: "In February 1984, Jean received a letter. Yad Vashem, Israel's official memorial to the victims and heroes of the Holocaust, wanted to honor him 'for the bravery and human kindness you showed in risking your life in order to save Jews during the Holocaust.' Such honorees are called 'The Righteous Among the Nations'"(260).]]> 2022-03-30 16:55:28 UTC https://padlet.com/manerkat001/bvlvq3hr9wndzl3g/wish/2121914001 manerkat001 https://padlet.com/manerkat001/bvlvq3hr9wndzl3g/wish/2122176570 After joining the Edelweiss Pirates, Jean and his new friends take a weekend trip to the Seven Mountains. They had campfires, slept in caves, sing songs, and talk. He and many others loved getting away from the city and the destruction of the war with people who he cared about. As they started up a mountain, they ran into an Adolf Hitler School and started a fight. They luckily survived. ]]> 2022-03-30 19:23:35 UTC https://padlet.com/manerkat001/bvlvq3hr9wndzl3g/wish/2122176570 manerkat001 https://padlet.com/manerkat001/bvlvq3hr9wndzl3g/wish/2122194779 At this point in the war, Cologne continues to be bombed and most people have left. Jews have escaped and many people life illegally beneath the rubble. Transportation through Cologne is almost impossible. 

Quote 5: "In Cologne, it's hard to say that a city even still exists. Standing on the Hohenzollern Bridge, you see only destruction: collapsed shells of houses and rubble in the streets, and the smell of smoke lingers in the air. Ninety-nine percent of structures are destroyed. The Cathedral still stands, but the bombs have destroyed the stained-glass windows" (192).]]> 2022-03-30 19:36:17 UTC https://padlet.com/manerkat001/bvlvq3hr9wndzl3g/wish/2122194779 manerkat001 https://padlet.com/manerkat001/bvlvq3hr9wndzl3g/wish/2126230449 https://www.nytimes.com/1992/06/02/opinion/IHT-1046-bombers-but-cologne-lived.html]]> 2022-04-02 03:30:52 UTC https://padlet.com/manerkat001/bvlvq3hr9wndzl3g/wish/2126230449 manerkat001 https://padlet.com/manerkat001/bvlvq3hr9wndzl3g/wish/2126234366 https://allthatsinteresting.com/edelweiss-pirates]]> 2022-04-02 03:39:24 UTC https://padlet.com/manerkat001/bvlvq3hr9wndzl3g/wish/2126234366 manerkat001 https://padlet.com/manerkat001/bvlvq3hr9wndzl3g/wish/2126240273 https://museenkoeln.de/ns-dokumentationszentrum/default.aspx?s=764]]> 2022-04-02 03:53:45 UTC https://padlet.com/manerkat001/bvlvq3hr9wndzl3g/wish/2126240273 manerkat001 https://padlet.com/manerkat001/bvlvq3hr9wndzl3g/wish/2126244861 https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/united-states-history-primary-source-timeline/great-depression-and-world-war-ii-1929-1945/world-war-ii/]]> 2022-04-02 04:05:17 UTC https://padlet.com/manerkat001/bvlvq3hr9wndzl3g/wish/2126244861 manerkat001 https://padlet.com/manerkat001/bvlvq3hr9wndzl3g/wish/2126247744 https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/jean-julich-one-of-the-edelweiss-pirates-who-resisted-the-nazis-6259542.html]]> 2022-04-02 04:12:47 UTC https://padlet.com/manerkat001/bvlvq3hr9wndzl3g/wish/2126247744