-Jazz and swing music was very highly disapproved of by Nazis, so the swing kids used it as a way of life to resist, and these swing groups became a (practically) political matter in Germany.

-The Nazi regime despised jazz because it was the opposite of what Adolf Hitler believed to be the “perfect race”- its black roots, and how it was perceived to be “Jewish music.”

-Even before the swing children movement became more political (although never a complete political movement), Nazis would beat and hurt the swing children.
-Although jazz was banned, swing was never 100% banned. This is how swing kids were able to use it to their advantage.

Dates: -Secret ‘dance schools’ were created for swing children to meet and dance.

-Children would sneak and sit on rooftops to listen to the illegal music, using lookout shifts so they would not get spotted by the Gestapo.

-Sometimes at night, swing kids would cover their windows with bedsheets, and then sing swing songs.

-While working at munitions factories, during pauses, people in the movement could secretly sing and play jazz and swing.

-Herbert Schemmel was able to secretly get his jazz records sent to him in camp through a loophole through SS prisoner concessions.

Important Facts: -The Nazis did use Jazz with soldiers, but it was changed to have a more German style, further showing Germany's extreme dictatorship during this time.
-Another term that was used for ‘swing boys’ and ‘swing girls’ was “Schlurf.”

-Swing and jazz were, in earlier stages of the Nazi regime, actually thought of by the Nazi leaders as a good type of music.

-People in the swing movement would use “Swing Heil!” as a greeting, or hello.
-The concentration camps that people under 18 had to go to were like junior concentration camps, which were called Jugendschutzlager.

-Swing kids sang songs such as ‘Jeepers Creepers,’ ‘Caravan,’ ‘The Flat Foot Floogie,’ ‘Sweet Sue, Just You,’ and more.