Edelweiss Pirates The Edelweiss Pirates ( Edelweißpiraten ) were a loosely - organized group of youths in Nazi Germany . They emerged in western Germany out of the German Youth Movement of the late 1930s in response to the strict regimentation of the Hitler Youth . Similar in many ways to the " Leipzig Meuten " , they consisted of young people , mainly between the ages of 14 and 17 , who had evaded the Hitler Youth by leaving school ( which was allowed at 14 ) and were also young enough to avoid military conscription , which was only compulsory from the age of 17 onwards . The roots and background of the Edelweiss Pirates movement were broached in the 2004 film " Edelweiss Pirates " , directed by Niko von Glasow . History ( 1930s ) . The origins of the " Edelweißpiraten " can be traced to the period immediately prior to World War II , as the state - controlled Hitler Youth was mobilized to serve the state , at the expense of the leisure activities previously offered to young people . This tension was exacerbated once the war began and youth leaders were conscripted . In contrast , the " Edelweißpiraten " offered young people considerable freedom to express themselves and to mingle with members of the opposite sex , whereas Nazi youth movements were strictly segregated by gender , the " Hitler - Jugend " for boys and the " Bund Deutscher Mädel " for girls . Though predominantly male , the casual meetings of the " Edelweißpiraten " even offered German adolescents an opportunity for sexual experimentation with the opposite sex . The " Edelweißpiraten " used many symbols of the outlawed German Youth Movement , including their tent ( the " Kohte " ) , their style of clothing ( the " Jungschaftsjacke " ) , and their songs . The first " Edelweißpiraten " appeared in the late 1930s in western Germany , comprising mostly young people between 14 and 18 . Individual groups were closely associated with different regions but identifiable by a common style of dress with their own edelweiss badge and by their opposition to what they saw as the paramilitary nature of the Hitler Youth . Subgroups of the " Edelweißpiraten " included the " Navajos " , centred on Cologne , the " Kittelbach Pirates " of Oberhausen and Düsseldorf , and the " Roving Dudes " of Essen . According to one Nazi official in 1941 , " Every child knows who the Kittelbach Pirates are . They are everywhere ; there are more of them than there are Hitler Youth . . . They beat up the patrols . . . They never take no for an answer . " Although they rejected the Nazis ' authoritarianism , the " Edelweißpiraten ' s " nonconformist behaviour tended to be restricted to petty provocations . Despite this , they represented a group of youth who rebelled against the government ' s regimentation of leisure and were unimpressed by the propaganda touting " Volksgemeinschaft " ( " people ' s community " ) . During the war , many " Edelweißpiraten " supported the Allies and assisted deserters from the German army . Some groups also collected propaganda leaflets dropped by Allied aircraft and pushed them through letterboxes . It is believed that they carried out several assassinations of Gestapo Officers . Apart from gatherings on street corners , the " Edelweißpiraten " engaged in hiking and camping trips , defying the restrictions on free movement , which kept them away from the prying eyes of the totalitarian regime . They were highly antagonistic to the Hitler Youth , ambushing their patrols and taking great pride in beating them up . One of their slogans was " Eternal War on the Hitler Youth " . As one subgroup , the Navajos , sang : Nazi response . The Nazi response to the " Edelweißpiraten " was typically harsh . Individuals identified by the Gestapo as belonging to the various gangs were often rounded up and released with their heads shaved to shame them . In some cases , young people were sent to concentration camp s or prison . On October 25 , 1944 , Heinrich Himmler ordered a crackdown on the group and in November of that year , a group of thirteen people , the heads of the " Ehrenfelder Gruppe " , were publicly hanged in Cologne . Some of these were former " Edelweißpiraten " . The " Edelweißpiraten " hanged were six teenagers , amongst them Bartholomäus Schink , called Barthel , former member of the local Navajos . Fritz Theilen survived . Nevertheless , government repression never managed to break the spirit of most groups , which constituted a subculture that rejected the norms of Nazi society . While the " Edelweißpiraten " assisted army deserters and others hiding from the Third Reich , they have yet to receive recognition as a resistance movement ( partly because they were viewed with contempt by many of their former Youth Movement comrades , because of their ' proletarian ' background and ' criminal ' activities ) and the families of members killed by the Nazis have as yet received no reparations . Post - World War II . Contrary to what the Allies had hoped , the " Edelweißpiraten " were not pro - British or pro - American . In the early days of the Allied Occupation , they sought contact with the Occupying Authority to intervene in the case of the friends and even to propose that they might go on patrol , as did the Wuppertal " Edelweißpiraten " . They were taken seriously and courted by various factions ; the first known pamphlets of the KPD ( " Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands " ) in July 1945 were directed at them . While a small number of " Edelweißpiraten " remained in the Antifascist Youth and the Free German Youth organizations , the majority turned their back on these bodies as soon as they realized that , in the words of one member , " politics were taking centre stage again " . For example , a group in Bergisch Gladbach disbanded when young people of Communist orientation tried to form a majority in the group . The " Edelweißpiraten ' s " turning away from the re - authorized political youth groups forced them into the role of social outcasts and brought them into conflict with the Allies . The headquarters of the American Counter - Intelligence Corps in Frankfurt reported in May 1946 that Edelweiss activities were known throughout the British and American Zones . Groups identifying themselves as " Edelweißpiraten " conducted many violent attacks against Soviet Russian and Polish Displaced Person s . Author Peter Schult witnessed such an attack against a Polish black marketeer . There were also attacks against German women who were known to have been friends or been intimate with British soldiers . In a trial held by a military court at Uelzen in April 1946 , a juvenile named as Heinz D . was initially sentenced to death , for his " . . . very active part in carrying out the nefarious schemes of the E . Piraten . An organization such as this might well threaten the peace of Europe . " The sentence was commuted the following month to a prison term . In the Soviet Zone , young people suspected of being " Edelweißpiraten " were sentenced to a virtually obligatory 25 years in prison . From 1946 onward , Allied Intelligence officials noted " resistance activities " by an organization which had appropriated the name of the " Edelweißpiraten " ; this group was reported to be composed mainly of former members and officers of Hitler Youth units , ex - soldiers and drifters , and was described by an intelligence report as " a sentimental , adventurous , and romantically anti - social [ movement ] " . It was regarded as a serious menace by the US officials .