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The Hitler Youth, and the Children Who Defied Hitler

Khalid Elhassan March 7, 2025 15 min

Hitlerjugend - Enthusiastic indoctrinated children at a Nazi rally — Enthusiastic indoctrinated children at a Nazi rally. K-Pics

3. From Relative Leniency to Lethal Repression

Fashion Facts - Edelweiss Pirates — Edelweiss Pirates. Timeline

In 1942, Himmler wrote to his deputy, Reinhard Heydrich, that he wanted the Edelweiss to do a two or three year stint in concentration camps: “There the youth should first be given thrashings and then put through the severest drill and set to work. It must be made clear that they will never be allowed to go back to their studies. We must investigate how much encouragement they have had from their parents. If they have encouraged them, then they should also be put into a concentration camp and (have) their property confiscated“. By 1944, with Third Reich clearly circling the drain, Himmler ordered an even more brutal crackdown. In November of that year, thirteen youths were hanged in public in Cologne, many of them active or former Edelweiss Pirates.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.