5. Some of These Literal Fashion Rebels Continued on as Dissidents After WWII, While Others Became Reactionaries
Official repression failed to break the anti-Hitler youth coalition, which continued on as a defiant subculture. Its mores, lifestyle, and fashion rejected the norms of Nazi society, until the “Thousand Year Reich” went down to defeat after a mere twelve years. Postwar, some factions of the Edelweiss Pirates attempted to work with the Allied occupation authorities. Their advances were welcomed, particularly by the communists in the Soviet-occupied zone. However, most of the rank and file membership, true to their ethos, turned their backs on what was seen as attempts to politicize their movement.
Having risked their lives to evade the regimentation of the Nazis, they were not eager to embrace regimentation under the communists. As a result, those who remained in what became communist East Germany ended up as dissidents and social outcasts. Many of them did long stints in prison as a result. In an unfortunate irony, many Edelweiss Pirates in West Germany ended up as reactionaries, even less reconciled to defeat than the Nazis. They became notorious for their attacks on Germans – particularly women – known to have been friendly or intimate with occupation soldiers.
