In the late 1930s, as the Hitler Youth consumed the lives of German teenagers with military drills, ideological lectures, and strict gender segregation, a different kind of group emerged in the working-class neighborhoods of western Germany. They were mostly 14 to 17 years old, the age gap between leaving school and military conscription. They wore their hair long, mixed freely with girls, pinned small edelweiss flowers to their lapels, and headed into the countryside on weekends to camp, sing banned songs, and beat up Hitler Youth patrols when they encountered them. Their slogan was simple: Eternal War on the Hitler Youth. The Nazis considered them a nuisance. A 1941 party report noted that every child knew who the Kittelbach Pirates were, that they were everywhere, outnumbering the Hitler Youth in their area, and that they beat up patrols without hesitation. As the war deepened, so did the resistance. Groups began distributing Allied propaganda leaflets, painting anti-Nazi slogans on city walls, hiding concentration camp escapees and army deserters, raiding army depots for weapons and explosives, and attacking Gestapo officers directly. The Cologne Navajos, one of the most active cells, were eventually linked to the killing of the city’s Gestapo chief. #ww2 #resistance #interesting