The Edelweiss Pirates were a group of loosely organized German Youths who opposed the Nazi regime. The Nazis felt that the best way to instill their way of life into the German people was to start educating them young as opposed to in adulthood. To accommodate this, the Nazis developed youth organizations that were run and controlled by them. For boys the Hitler Youth was established. It consisted of boys aged 14 to 18 and at its peak it consisted of about 90 percent of the country’s eligible youth. This was also the world’s largest youth organization at the time. For girls there was the Bund Deutsch Madel (BDM). Any other organizations were illegal and it was declared mandatory to join one of these two youth groups.
The Edelweiss Pirates were established to be in every way the opposite of the Hitler Youth and the BDM. They were not organized in a strictly military way as the Nazi youth organizations were, and they were also not segregated by gender. Many members of the Edelweiss Pirates were hanged to death by the Nazi government.
The Edelweiss Pirates were established to be in every way the opposite of the Hitler Youth and the BDM. They were not organized in a strictly military way as the Nazi youth organizations were, and they were also not segregated by gender. Many members of the Edelweiss Pirates were hanged to death by the Nazi government.