1939-1945: The Edelweiss Pirates pt II

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1939-1945: The Edelweiss Pirates

An account of the Edelweiss Pirates, a World War II era German anti-Nazi movement of working class youth who fought against the regime.

Hitler’s power may lay us low,

And keep us locked in chains,

But we will smash the chains one day,

We’ll be free again

We’ve got fists and we can fight,

We’ve got knives and we’ll get them out

We want freedom, don’t we boys?

We’re the fighting Navajos!

Why were the Nazis able to control Germany so easily? Why was there so little active opposition to them? Why were the old parties of the SPD and KPD unable to offer any real resistance? How could a totalitarian regime so easily contain what had been the strongest working class in Europe?



We are taught that the Nazis duped the German population and that it took the armed might of the Allies to liberate Europe from their enslavement. This article aims to show how the Nazis were able to contain the working class and to tell some of the tales of resistance that really took place.



Dealing with the opposition

Acting with a ruthlessness that surprised their opponents, the Nazis banned their opponents, the Social Democrats and the Communists. For the working class this was far more serious than just the destruction of two state capitalist parties. It was accompanied by the annihilation of a whole area of social life around working class communities. Many of the most confident working class militants were arrested and sent to concentration camps.



The repression was carried out legally. The SA (the Brownshirts) now acted in collaboration with the police. Their brutal activities which once had been illegal but tolerated now became part of official state activity. In some circumstances this meant simple actions like beatings. In others, SA groups moved into and took over working class pubs and centres. The effect was to isolate, intimidate and render powerless the working class.



Many workers believed that the Nazis would not remain in power forever. They believed that the next election would see them swept from power and ‘their’ parties returned. Workers only needed to bind their time. When it became clear that this was not going to happen, the myth changed. The role for oppositionists became to keep the party structures intact until such time as the Nazis were defeated. There is no doubt that even the simple act of distributing Socialist (SPD) or Communist (KPD) propaganda took an incredible degree of heroism, for the consequences of being caught were quite clear to all – beatings, torture and death. It meant that families would be left without breadwinners, subjected to police surveillance and intimidation. The result was often passivity and inaction.



As early as 1935, workers were aware of the consequences that ‘subversive’ activity would have on their families. A blacksmith in 1943 expressed the problem simply: “My wife is still alive, that’s all. It’s only for her sake that I don’t shout it right in their faces…You know these blackguards can only do all this because each of us has a wife or mother at home that he’s got to think of…people have too many things to consider. After all, you’re not alone in this world. And these SS devils exploit the fact.”




Throughout the period of Nazi rule there was industrial unrest, there were strikes and acts of disobedience and even sabotage. All these, however, attracted the attention of the Gestapo. The Gestapo had the assistance of employers and stooges in the workforce. The least a striker could expect was arrest. As a consequence, those who were politically opposed to the Nazi state kept themselves away from industrial struggle. To be arrested would have led not only to personal sacrifice, but also could have compromised the political organisations to which he or she belonged. To reinforce the message to workers, he Gestapo set up special industrial concentration camps attached to major factories.



To put the intensity of Nazi repression into context, during the period 1933-45, at least 30,000 German people were executed for opposing the state. This does not include countless others who died as a result of beatings, of their treatment in camps, or as a result of the official policy of euthanasia for those deemed mentally ill. Thousands of children were declared morally or biologically defective because they fell below the below the Aryan ‘norm’ and were murdered by doctors. This fate also befell youngsters with mental and physical disabilities as well as many who listened to the wrong kind of music.



However, Nazi domination of the working class did not rely solely on repression. Nazi industrial policy aimed to fragment the class, to replace working class solidarity with Nazi comradeship and solidarity with the state.



To start with, pay rises were forbidden. To strengthen competition, hourly rates were done away with. Piece rates became the norm. If workers wanted to earn more then they would have to produce more. Workers’ interests were to be represented by the German Workers’ Front (DAF), which they were forced to belong to and which of course represented solely the interests of the state and employers.



Unable to obtain pay rises with their employers it became common in a situation of full employment for workers to move from one factory to another in search of higher wages. On the one hand, this defeated the Nazi objectives of limiting pay; on the other hand it further weakened the bonds of solidarity between workers.



Knowing that they could not rule solely through fear, the Nazis gave ‘welfare’ concessions to the working class. Family allowances were paid for the first time; organised holidays and outings were provided at low cost. For many workers this was their first opportunity to go away on holiday. Social activities were provided through Nazi organisations.



There is little evidence that the Nazis won over the working class ideologically, nonetheless, this combination of repression and amelioration served to confuse many who would otherwise have been outright opponents.



The spectacles we have all seen of Nazi rallies, book burnings, parades and speeches are not evidence that workers were convinced of Nazi rule. It was clear to all what the consequence of not attending, of not carrying a placard or waving a flag would be. However, they must have increased the sense of isolation and powerlessness of those who would have liked to resist. As a result there was little open resistance from working class adults to the Nazis throughout their period in power.



Young People

If the Nazi policy towards adults was based on coercion, their policy towards young people was subtler. Put simply, the intention was to indoctrinate every young person, to make them a good national socialist citizen proudly upholding the ideals of the party. The means chosen to do this was the Hitler Youth (HJ).



By the end of 1933, all youth organisations outside the Hitler Youth had been banned – with the exception of those controlled by the Catholic Church that was busy cosying up to the Nazis at the time. Boys were to be organised into the Deutsches Jungvolk between the ages of 10 and 14 and the Hitler Youth proper from 14 to 18. They quickly incorporated around 40% of boys. Girls were to be enrolled into the Bund Deutsche Madel (BDM), but the Nazis were much less interested in getting them to join. The objective was to get all boys into the HJ. When this failed to take place, laws were passed gradually making it compulsory by 1939.




In the early days, being in the HJ was far from a chore. Boys got to take part in sports, go camping, hike, play competitive games – as well as being involved in drill and political indoctrination. Being in the HJ gave youngsters the chance to play one form of authority off against another. They could avoid schoolwork by claiming to be involved in HJ work. The HJ provided excuses when dealing with other authority figures – like parents and priests. On the other hand, they could also blame pressures from school in order to get out of more unpleasant Hitler Youth tasks! In some parts of the country the HJ provided the first opportunity to start a sports club, to get away from parents, to experience some independence.



As the 1930s went on, the function of the HJ and BDM changed. The objectives of the regime became more obviously military and aimed at conquest. The HJ was seen as a way recruiting and training young men into the armed forces. As war became more likely, the emphasis shifted away from leisure activities and into military training, State policy became of one of forcing all to be in the HJ. T made seemingly harmless activities, like getting together with your mates for an evening, criminal offences if they took place outside the HJ of BDM.



The HJ set up its own police squads to supervise young people. These Streifendienst patrols were made up of Hitler Youth members scarcely older than those they were meant to be policing.



By 1938, reports from Social Democrats in Germany to their leaders in exile were able to report that: “In the long run young people too are feeling increasingly irritated by the lack of freedom and the mindless drilling that is customary in the National Socialist organisations. It is therefore no wonder that symptoms of fatigue are becoming particularly apparent among their ranks…”



The outbreak of war brought the true nature of the HJ even more sharply into focus. Older HJ members were called up. More and more time was taken up with drill and political indoctrination. Bombing led to the destruction of many of the sporting facilities. The HJ became more and more obviously a means of oppression.



As the demands for fresh recruits to the armed forces became more intense, the divisions within the HJ became more acute. The German education system at the time was sharply divided along class lines. Most working class children left school at the age of 14. A few went on to secondary or grammar schools along with the children of middle class and professional families. As older HJ members were called up, the middle class school students took the place of the leaders. The rank and file was increasingly made up of young workers hardly likely to take too well to being ordered about at HJ meetings! It is not difficult to imagine the scene of a snotty doctor’s kid still in school trying to give orders to a bunch of young factory workers and having to use the threat of official punishment to get his own way. Dissatisfaction grew. Initially, the acute labour shortages of the early war years meant that the Nazis could not resort to the kind of Nazi terror tactics that they employed against other dissidents. As the war went on, many of these young people’s fathers died or were sent to the front. Many were bombed out of their own homes. The only future they could see for themselves was to wear a uniform and fight for a lost cause.



One teenager said in 1942: “Everything the HJ preaches is a fraud. I know this for certain, because everything I had to say in the HJ myself was a fraud.”



By the end of the 1930s, thousands of young people were finding ways to avoid the clutches of the Hitler Youth. They were gathering together in their own gangs and starting to enjoy themselves again. This terrified the Nazis, particularly when the teenagers started to defend their own social spaces physically. What particularly frightened the Nazis was that these young people were the products of their own education system. They had no contact with the old SPD or KPD, knew nothing of Marxism or the old labour movement. They had been educated by the Nazis in Nazi schools, their free time had been regimented by the HJ listening to Nazi propaganda and taking part in officially approved activities and sports.



These gangs went under different names. Their favoured clothes varied from town to town, as did their badges. In Essen they were called the Farhtenstenze (Travelling Dudes), in Oberhausen and Dusseldorf the Kittelbach Pirates, in Cologne they were the Navajos. But all saw themselves as Edelweiss Pirates (named after an edelweiss flower badge many wore).



Gestapo files in Cologne contain the names of over 3,000 teenagers identified as Edelweiss Pirates. Clearly, there must have been many more and their numbers must have been even greater when taken over Germany as a whole.



Initially, their activities were in themselves pretty harmless. They hung around in parks and on street corners, creating their own social space in the way teenagers do everywhere (usually to the annoyance of adults). At weekends they would take themselves off into the countryside on hikes and camping trips in a perverse way mirroring the activities initially provided by the HJ themselves. Unlike the HJ trips, however, these expeditions comprised boys and girls together, so adding a different, more exciting and more normal dimension than provided by the HJ. Whereas the HJ had taken young people away for trips to isolate and indoctrinate them, the Edelweiss Pirates expeditions got them away from the Party and gave them the time and space to be themselves.



On their trips they would meet up with Pirates from other towns and cities. Some went as far as to travel the length and breadth of Germany doing wartime, when to travel without papers was an illegal action.






Daring to enjoy themselves on their own was a criminal act. They were supposed to be under Party control. Inevitably they came across HJ Streifendienst patrols. Instead of running, the Pirates often stood and fought. Reports sent to Gestapo officers suggest that as often as not the Edelweiss Pirates won these fights. “I therefore request that the police ensure that this riff-raff is dealt with once and for all. The HJ are taking their lives into their hands when they go out on the streets.”






The activities of the Edelweiss Pirates grew bolder as the war progressed. They engaged in pranks against the allies, fights against their enemies and moved on to small acts of sabotage. They were accused of being slackers at work and social parasites. They began to help Jews, army deserters and prisoners of war. They painted anti-Nazi slogans on walls and some started to collect Allied propaganda leaflets and shove them through people’s letterboxes.






“There is a suspicion that it is these youths who have been inscribing the walls of the pedestrian subway on the Altebbergstrasse with the slogans ‘Down with Hitler’, ‘The OKW (Military High Command) is lying’, ‘Medals for Murder’, ‘Down with Nazi Brutality’ etc. However often these inscriptions are removed within a few days new ones appear on the walls again.” (1943 Dusseldorf-Grafenberg Nazi Party report to the Gestapo).



As time went on, a few grew bolder and even more heroic. They raided army camps to obtain arms and explosives, made attacks on Nazi figures other than the HJ and took part in partisan activities. The Head of the Cologne Gestapo was one victim of the Edelweiss Pirates.



The authorities reacted with their full armoury of repressive measures. These ranged from individual warnings, round-ups and temporary detention (followed by a head shaving), to weekend imprisonment, reform school, labour camp, youth concentration camp or criminal trial. Thousands were caught up in this hunt. For many, the end was death. The so-called leaders of the Cologne Edelweiss Pirates were publicly hanged in November 1944.



However, as long as the Nazis needed workers in armament factories and soldiers for their war, they could not resort to the physical extermination of thousands of young Germans. Moreover, it is fair to say that the state was confused as to what to do with these rebels. They came from German stock, the sort of people who should have been grateful for what the Nazis gave. Unwilling to execute thousands and unable to comprehend what was happening, the state was equally unable to contain them.



Wall of Silence

So why has so little been heard of the Edelweiss Pirates? When I started researching this article, I found it extremely hard to find information about them. Most seemed to revolve around the research of the German historian Detlev Peukert, whose writings remain essential reading. Searches of the internet revealed only two articles.



A number of explanations come to mind. The post-war Allied authorities wanted to reconstruct Germany into a modern, western, democratic state. To do this, they enforced strict labour laws including compulsory work. The Edelweiss Pirates had a strong anti-work ethos, so they came into conflict with the new authorities too. A report in 1949 spoke of the “widespread phenomenon of unwillingness to work that was becoming a habit of many young people.” The prosecution of so-called ‘young idlers’ was sometimes no less rigid under Allied occupation than it was under the Nazis. A court in 1947 sent one young woman to prison for five months for ‘refusal to work’. The young became enemies of the new order too.



The political opponents of the Nazis had been either forced into exile, murdered or hid their politics. Clandestine activity had centred on keeping party structures intact. They could not afford to acknowledge that physical resistance had been alive and well and based on young people’s street gangs! To the politicians of the CDU (Christian Democratic Union) and SPD, the Edelweiss Pirates were just as much riff-raff as they were to the Nazis. The myth of the just war used by the allies relied heavily on the idea that all Germans had been at least silent during the Nazi period if not actively supporting the regime. To maintain this fiction the actions of ‘street hooligans’ in fighting the Nazis had to be forgotten.



Decades on, interest in the Edelweiss Pirates is beginning to resurface. More is being published on them and a film is being planned. We need to make sure that they are never forgotten again. As the producers of the film say: “the Edelweiss Pirates were no absolute heroes, but rather ordinary people doing extraordinary things.” It is precisely this that gives us hope for the future.






We march by banks of Ruhr and Rhine


And smash the Hitler Youth in twain.


Our song is freedom, love and life,


We’re the Pirates of the Edelweiss.

The Edelweiss Pirates

http://www.holocaust-trc.org/faces.htm#pirates
The Edelweiss Pirates

I want a brutal, domineering, fearless cruel youth. Youth must be all that. It must bear pain. There must be nothing weak and gentle about it. The free, splendid beast of prey must once again flash from its eyes. That is how I will eradicate thousands of years of human domestication. That is how I will create the New Order.



Adolph Hitler



Hitler's power may lay us low,

And keep us locked in chains,

But we will smash the chains one day,

We'll be free again.

We've got the fists and we can fight,

We've got the knives and we'll get them out.

We want freedom, don't we boys?

Song of the Edelweiss Pirates (Peukert, p. 158)


There were many young people in Nazi Germany who resisted the cruelties of the Nazi Youth and remained true to their own codes of moral conduct. The Edelweiss Pirates was one of the largest youth groups who refused to participate in Nazi youth activities. The police were not allowed to arrest members of the Hitler Youth Patrol Service, who were known for their brutality and bullying. Hitler Youth were guilty of many crimes, they broke shop windows, stole, and beat people on the streets. In one case, a group of Hitler Youth broke the windows of the home of a teacher who had given them low marks. The Nazi Youth Patrol raided movie houses, cabarets, billiard halls and coffee shops looking for the Edelweiss Pirates, who stood up to them and even fought with


them on the streets of the cities of Dusseldorf, Essen, Cologne and other industrial cities in western Germany.



The Edelweiss Pirates had different names in different cities, but they shared basic beliefs and attitudes. They were not deprived children or delinquents; most were not even deliberate resistance fighters. They were simply the sons and daughters of working class parents who refused to be bullied into absolute obedience. Most of the Pirates were between 16 to 18 years of age and were too young for military service.



The first Pirates appeared at the end of the 1930's. Dressed in checkered shirts, short dark trousers and white stockings, the Pirates wore metal Edelweiss pins on their collars. Because they lived in the same neighborhoods they had a territorial identity and shared beliefs. Refusing to participate in Nazi Youth activities, they shared a strong sense of social identity and solidarity with one another.



The groups of Edelweiss Pirates consisted of ten to fifteen boys, there were girls in some of the groups too. During the day they worked in factories and mills as unskilled workers and in the evenings and weekends they met together in cafes or in the parks. The high point of their activities together was the hikes they took into the countryside with rucksacks on their backs and their bread and butter rations. At night they slept in barns or tents. Sometimes they rode bicycles deep into the countryside ignoring the Nazi rules. Always on the watch for the dreaded Nazi Youth Patrols, they sometimes provoked street fights, but most of the time they avoided the Nazi Youth.



As the war progressed, social chaos intensified, and many Pirates became active in the underground resistance movement. When the industrial cities were being bombed between 1942 and 1945, the conflicts between the Edelweiss Pirates and the Nazi authorities intensified. Edelweiss Pirates in Cologne offered shelter to German army deserters, escaped prisoners from concentration camps, and escapees from forced. labor camps. Groups of Edelweiss Pirates made armed raids on military depots and deliberately sabotaged war production. The Nazis were determined to suppress them.



A Nazi official wrote, "There is a suspicion that it is these youths who have been inscribing the walls (of the pedestrian underground walkways in the Altenbergstrasse, a boulevard in the center of the city) with the slogans "Down with Hitler". "The OKW (Oberkommande des Wehrmacht) is lying", "Down with Nazi brutality". No

matter how often the writings on the walls were scrubbed away, they were back again after a few days.



Nazi patrols were constantly looking for members of the Pirates and those who were caught were imprisoned, sent to jails, reform schools, psychiatric hospitals, labor and concentration camps and many lost their lives. In a single day of raids in December 1942, the Dusseldorf Gestapo and the Secret Police made more than 1000 arrests. During the round ups, the Nazis were brutal. Captured Pirates had their heads shaven, were threatened and beaten, and often cruelly punished. A member of the Pirates was publicly executed by hanging in the center of

the city of Cologne. The story of the Edelweiss Pirates is a story of courage and resistance.
____________________________________________________________________
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/jean-jlich-one-of-the-edelweiss-pirates-who-resisted-the-nazis-6259542.html?origin=internalSearch
Jean Jülich: One of the Edelweiss Pirates, who resisted the Nazis Jean Jülich: One of the Edelweiss Pirates, who resisted the Nazis
Jean Jülich, who has died in his native Cologne aged 82, was one of the last surviving Edelweiss Pirates, the working class German teenagers who ran wild in the ruins of the city during the last years of the Third Reich. By 1944 as many as five thousand tearaways were living as outlaws in Hamburg, Leipzig, Frankfurt and in the heavily bombed cities of the Rhine and Ruhr valleys. Known sometimes as Navajos, Ruhrpiraten, Harlem-Club or even Meuten [wolf packs], they were usually under military age and had evaded the compulsory Hitler youth organisations.




Boys and girls wore long hair, short shorts and distinctive checked shirts decorated by a small badge or pin in the shape of the edelweiss flower.



Jean Jülich tramped the hills south of Bonn with his guitar, singing attheir secret meetings. He had lived with his grandparents from the age of seven, after seeing his communist father badly beaten by SS men and jailed for high treason. In a deserted bomb-disposal bunker, the Navajo group of the Ehrenfeld district of Cologne supplied black market food and shelter to runaway forced labourers, concentration camp escapees, fugitive Jews and German army deserters. They attacked Hitler Youth patrols, derailed ammunition trains, catapulted bricks through the roof of a munitions factory and sabotaged machinery.



Their plan to blow up the Gestapo headquarters in Cologne, using detonators extracted from unexploded British bombs, was discovered after a 24-year-old Edelweiss Pirate had shot dead a Nazi informer.



Jülich was arrested at the age of 15, held in solitary confinement without trial and tortured for four months. His 16-year-old friend, Barthel Schink, was hanged with 11 other Pirates on a public gallows at Ehrenfeld railway station, without trial, on orders from Heinrich Himmler. Jülich survived a year of beatings, starvation and typhus in a concentration camp until liberated by American tanks in 1945.



In "year zero", after the defeat ofGermany, feral surviving Pirates living on their wits in the ruined cities were frequently arrested by Allied military police. One Pirate was sentenced to death, though later reprieved, by amilitary court in Lower Saxony inApril 1946 for his "very active part in carrying out the nefarious schemes of the Edelweiss Piraten. An organisation such as this might well threaten the peace of Europe."



In the Soviet zone, Edelweiss Pirates were routinely jailed for 25 years. In West Germany, the courts ruled that wartime teenage criminal convictions recorded by the Gestapo counted as part of their criminal record. Jülich and a fellow Navajo, Gertrud Koch, codename "Mucki", fought a long campaign to get the Piraten rehabilitated as resisters. Despite being recognised as "righteous gentiles" by Yad Vashem in Israel in 1988, their Gestapo records were not annulled until 2005.



"Mucki" lost her father in a concentration camp. Now 87, she said, "The old Nazi judges used after the war upheld the criminalisation of what we had done and who we were."



During the campaign for recognition, Jülich made a successful recording of a romantic tramping song, "Es War In Shanghai", much loved by the Edelweiss Pirates but banned at Hitler Youth campfires, that tells of a midnight encounter in the Ohio Bar in Shanghai between Heini and Charly from Hamburg and Jim Parker, their comrade from 'Frisco.



Jülich always claimed, "It was not a political song, but it addresses the desire for foreign countries, fellowship and independence. The Nazis did not sing this song because it was not consistent with their ideology."



His 2003 pamphlet Kohldampf, Knast un Kamelle ("Hard Times, Jail and Carnival: An Edelweiss Pirate Looks Back on His Life") was equally romantic.



His wife, Karin, daughter Conny and son Marco were at his bedside when he died in hospital after a heartattack.



Andrew Rosthorn



Jean Jülich, war hero: born Cologne 18 April 1929; married Karin (one son, one daughter); died Cologne 19 October 2011.

Louise

http://www.holocaust-trc.org/faces.htm#louise

Louise




As the persecution of Jews in Germany intensified, life became increasingly dangerous, whole families were deported and sent to concentration camps. By August 1942, very few yellow stars could be seen on the streets of Berlin. Emigration had become impossible and many people went into hiding.



Hiding meant living in constant fear of being recognized and reported; those in hiding has to be constantly alert. The people who helped them hide were in as much danger as the people they hid. Hiding meant staying out of sight for the duration of the war in empty warehouses, bombed out buildings, and rat infested cellars. Some people were able to obtain false identification papers and obtain work, but most of those in hiding depended on other people for food and other necessities. It took enormous courage and determination to survive.



Despite the difficulties, those in hiding were able to help one another. In Berlin, young Jewish people in hiding managed to meet in cafes and keep in touch with one another. They gave one another information about obtaining false identity papers or making contact with "border runners" who could smuggle them out of Germany. Berlin provided a unique opportunity for hiders to find one another. Those who were hiding in the countryside or small towns had few other Jews to help them.



Jewish resistance groups were formed. The Chug Chaluzi was organized in 1942 by Edith Wolff and saved many young people from deportations. This group viewed saving Jewish lives as a form of political resistance. The members met regularly, exchanged information, and organized meals and lodgings for one another. The intense bombing raids over Berlin did not stop them from meeting one another in pre-arranged secret meeting places. It was a miracle that most of the members of this group survived.



Louise had just gone to bed when she heard the loud knocking on the door and



then the words she feared the most, "This is the Gestapo. We have come to search the house. We know you are hiding a Jew."



Louise leaped up from the bed, smoothed the sheets, grabbed her schoolbooks and dashed into the closet. Holding her breath, she could hear the pounding of her heart as the footsteps came closer and closer. Louise felt she had been in the closet for a very long time, but the footsteps disappeared, they did not open the closet door.



Not daring to move and feeling as if all the strength was drained from her body, Louise stayed in the closet until Frau Muenter opened the door. Still clutching her school books, she crawled back into the room.



Frau Muenter tried to smile, but she had tears in her eyes as she helped Louise off the floor. She knew Louise was no longer safe in her home.



Herr and Frau Muenter were social democrats who opposed the Nazi regime. Herr



Muenter was a close friend of Louise's father, an active trade union leader. Arrested after he organized an anti-Nazi protest demonstration, Louise's father, who was not Jewish, was no longer able to protect his wife and child from the anti Jewish laws. Like other Jewish people, Louise and her mother had to wear yellow stars sewn to their clothing and could only shop for food in the late afternoon. Forbidden to go to the school, Louise's mother enrolled her in the Jewish school and they had to move to a small rooming house.



Despite the difficulties, Louise made many friends at the new school, but when the persecution of Jews intensified in 1942, many of her school friends disappeared. Hundreds of Jewish people, young and old were arrested and being sent to concentration camps, and many tried to emigrate to other countries. Sixteen years old, Louise tried to help her mother cope with the difficulties of living in Berlin. Her grandparents, aunts and uncles on her mother's side were arrested and sent away. Her father's parents had died when she was very small and she had no contact with the rest of his family. She had no contact with her father's family. When the Nazis forced the school to close, Louise tried to keep in touch with her Jewish friends.



Louise's mother kept telling her that life would be better as soon as her father got out of jail. But instead of being released, he was sent to a forced labor camp. Herr Muenter was able to see her father before he was moved and he promised him he would look after Louise and her mother.



The final round up of Jews began in February of 1943. Louise was just coming home when a neighbor stopped her and told her that her mother had been arrested and warned her not to go into the rooming house. Louise turned away from the house and recklessly pulled her off her yellow star and then began to run. She crossed the street and headed to the busy street alongside of the canal. It was safer to be walking with other people. A feeling of deep sadness welled up in her as well as fear.



"I have nothing to lose," she thought. "I've lost everyone and everything dear to



me". She did not know where her mother was, her father was far away in a labor camp, her grandparents had died and she did not know her father's family. They lived in another part of Germany. The clouds began to gather and the sun was sinking, it was getting dark. Then she remembered Herr Muenter's words. "If you are ever in trouble, come to me". Louise turned around and began walking to the big apartment complex on the other side of the canal where the Muenters lived. As she approached the large sprawling building, she saw a group of Nazi Youth standing in front of the building. She did not make eye contact and walked more slowly. A housewife with a big bag of food was just entering the building. She stopped at the entranceway of the building and realized she did not know the number of their flat. But before she could speak to the woman who had entered the building with her, she saw Frau Muenter coming towards the entranceway. Frau Muenter was a nurse and was coming home from the hospital. Louise went up to her, but Frau Muenter put her finger to her lips and took her into the courtyard and then into another building. She dared not speak. Frau Muenter took out her key, opened the door to the flat and led her inside. As soon as she closed the door, Louise could not hold back her tears. She told Frau Muenter that her mother had been arrested. A tall stately woman, Frau Muenter put her arms around Louise and held her close.



That morning on her way to work, she saw lines of army trucks with gray canvas covers on the street. The trucks were escorted by armed SS men and stopped at factory gates, in front of private houses and were full of men, women and children. Her heart was heavy and she thought about Louise and her mother.



"You will stay here with us and you will be safe", Frau Muenter "We promised both your mother and your father that we would look after you and we will" Frau Muenter tried to smile.



The Muenters' small flat overlooked the courtyard of the big housing complex. It

had a coalstove, a small kitchen and parlor and two bedrooms. Frau Muneter took Louise to a small bedroom and told her it was her very own room. There was a small bed, a dresser and a chair and a table. The window in the bedroom overlooked the courtyard.



"Make yourself comfortable and try to rest", she told Louise and went into the kitchen to prepare supper.



As soon as Herr Muenter came home that evening, he went to talk to Louise. He told her he was glad that she had come to them. He had heard about the raids on Jewish homes that had become known as the final round-up of the Jews in Berlin. AT dinner that night the Muenters told her that she woul d be safe as long as no one knew she was there. Louise understood that she was now in hiding, she could not leave the flat or answer the door bell. When visitors came to the house, Louise had to stay in her room. Frau Muenter would bring her books and puzzles to keep her amused. Louise asked her for school books too, so she could keep up with her studies.



Frau Muenter left for work early in the morning. She and Louise ate breakfast together and then Louise went to her room and spent the day doing school work and reading the books Frau Muenster brought her. She could not listen to the radio for fear the sound would attract attention. When visitors came, Louise stayed in the bedroom.



The days were long and the Muenters seemed to understand how difficult it was for the young girl to stay in her room day after day. They tried to cheer her up in the evenings and the three of them played cards and talked.



"We'll take it day by day. Before you know it, you will have a normal life again",



Frau Muenter told her.



The Muenters often had visitors and then Louise had to go to her room. Only a very few of their trusted friends klnew she was living with them. Herr Muenter brought her a jigsaw puzzle to work on when she had to stay in the room.



The kindness of Herr and Frau Muenter made Louise miss her parents all the more. Herr Muenter told her many stories about her brave father. Slowly Louise adjusted to the routine and the Muenters were confident that Louise was safe in their home until the night of the Gestapo raid.



After the raid, Frau Muenter discovered that it was her neighbor who had reported them to the Gestapo. The neighbor saw Frau Muenter bring Louise to the flat and when. she asked Frau Muenter about the young girl, Frau Muenter replied , "Oh, she is my niece, she comes to visit now and again". But the woman was already suspicious of the Muenters because they had so many visitors. She watched the flat every day and noticed that the girl Frau Muenter said was her niece, never left the apartment, she reported them to the Gestapo.



The little flat was no longer a safe place for Louise, but Herr Muenter would not let her leave until he could find another safe place. He knew other anti-Nazis and social democrats who were hiding Jewish people. The very next evening, Herr Muenter brought home an address and told Louise to memorize it and throw away the paper. He gave her instructions.

_______________________________________________________________________

"You will be safe in this place", he assured her. "I have been told that there will be other young people there. But be very careful that no one sees you enter the building. If there is someone on the street, don't go inside." Herr Muenter gave her a wallet with some money. Frau Muenter gave her some clothing, a skirt, a sweater and two blouses and stuffed them in a paper bag along with some food. Louise was to leave early the next morning. No one slept that night.



After breakfast, Louise hugged Frau Muenter and left the flat. She had to walk along the canal for a mile and calmed herself by looking at the early morning shadows on the water. She could not remember a time when fear was not part of her life. She thought about her mother and her father and wondered if she'd ever see them again. Thinking about her mother, she tried to remember happy times.



She walked a long way and then turned away from the canal as she was told and headed up a small street, she found herself in a neighborhood she did not know, but she did not stop walking until she reached the address she had memorized. It was a deserted building with a broken door and it looked so empty she thought no one was inside. Louise rapped on the door four times, paused and then rapped four times again just as Herr Muenter had instructed.



The door opened and Louise went inside. As soon as the door closed, Louise saw

the boy who had opened the door. It was Gabriel, a boy she knew from the Jewish school. Tall and good looking, Gabriel was a year older than Louise. He often played the violin at the school and wanted to be a musician.



"I'm glad to see you", Gabriel told her.



"Did you know I was coming?" she asked.



"I didn't know it would be you, but I was told to watch for a young girl", he replied.



Gabriel told her that she was now part of a group of young people in hiding and that they looked after one another. The groups that were in hiding were called "U boats".



"You'll be meeting other members of the group. You are not alone. We are going to survive all this cruelty and chaos". He spoke calmly and with confidence as he explained the important rules.



"We never do anything to draw attention to ourselves like walk around in groups or wear funny clothing. And when you see someone you know, walk away as quickly as you can".



Gabriel hid most of the day. As a young man out of uniform, he knew he would arouse suspicion if he walked around the streets and if he wore his Jewish star, he was in even greater danger. Nevertheless, he managed to look after the others.



Looking out for one another often meant bringing parcels of food to hiding places. Knowing there were spies on the street looking for Jewish people in hiding. Whenever a young Jewish person was found to be homeless, Gabriel or some of the others made arrangements for them. People in hiding lived in deserted buildings and cellars, some slept behind counters in grocery or fruit stores. There were also people that Gabriel knew who were willing to smuggle Jewish people out of Berlin.



During the day the members of the group had various hiding places. Some were able to obtain false identity papers and get jobs, but others spent their days in hiding. At night they met together in cafes or cellars. Berlin was famous for its many cafes called kneipen. In working class neighborhoods, there were kneipens on almost every street. Some members took chances and went to theatres or movie houses, but most of young people took hiding very seriously.



That night Louise went with Gabriel to a meeting in a back room of a café, where she met a few of the other young people. One of the girls worked illegally in a laundry run by her Christian aunt. Whenever someone in uniform came to the laundry, she had to run away. A boy who was the same age as Louise had false identification papers and was able to work in a factory and shop in food stores. He often bought food for the others who were not as fortunate. Another girl slept under a bed in a Christian friend's house, but could not stay there during the day and spent the days traveling on streetcars or in the train station, pretending to wait for a train. When she saw a soldier or a Gestapo officer she hid in the public toilet.



Leon worked in an armaments factory in North Berlin and was on his way to work, when a co-worker, a young Frenchman met him in the train station and warned him not to go to work. He had heard a rumor that the Gestapo was looking for Jewish workers. Leon went back to his flat and the next day the Frenchman came and told him to find another place. Leon left his flat and made contact with another Jewish boy on the street who brought him to Gabriel.



Ilse was the daughter of a Christian mother and Jewish father, her blonde hair and blue eyes made her look "Aryan", but her mother died when she was a small girl and she was raised by her Jewish grandparents. When her grandparents and her father were arrested, Ilse managed to escape and to her aunt, her mother's sister, who was able to get her identity card from a priest. Ilse became an active member of the group and like Gabriel, she found suitable hiding places for newer members.



With her identity card, Ilse was able to get work as a waitress in small restaurants, but she never spent more than a few months in any one place, for fear of being discovered.



"I just don't want people to know me too well", she explained. "You never know who's going to give you away".



That night at the meeting in the small café, they At the café meeting, they talked about many things, Jewish holidays, looking for other Jewish young people, and safe hiding places. Louise looked around at the bright young faces and felt good to be counted one of them. After the meeting, Louise went with Ilse to her tiny room in an old rooming house. The owner was an elderly woman who was only interested in getting rent for her rooms and did not ask for identity cards.



The Allies began bombing Berlin in heavy nightly raids in 1943. The bombing raised many new dangers; those without identity cards could not seek shelter in the underground air raid shelters. At the same time, the bombing made it easier to find hiding places. There were also many more homeless people, seeking shelter after their homes had been destroyed. Mothers with crying children, elderly people carrying luggage, and other people filled the streets after the air raids.



Louise, Ilse and the others hid in cellars during the raids. Fire and smoke were everywhere. Ilse managed to find an identity card for Louise with the name "Alice Wissen" printed on it. With the card, Louise was now able to get to a shelter during a raid. She was also in a better position to help Gabriel and Ilse rescue other Jewish young people.



Gabriel learned about a 14 year old boy hiding in a cellar and sent Louise to meet him. The boy's name was Samuel. Louise found him in the cellar of a bombed out building and gave him a parcel of food and some clothing. She looked at the skinny boy and wondered how he managed to stay alive. Samuel had been living by raiding garbage cans or buying stale bread with the few coins he had.



One night when Louise was in a bomb shelter, a girl she knew from school called her name. Louise tried to ignore her, but when the girl persisted, Louise said, "You must have the wrong person. My name is Alice, not Louise."



The girl looked at her and shrugged. "Louise was Jewish so I guess she's not around any more", she said.



The group continued to meet regularly. They even had study sessions to learn more about the Jewish holidays. Together they shaped a strong sense of identity. Belonging to a group gave them courage and determination. One of their favorite topics of conversation was what they would do when the war was over.



There were many rumors of the Nazis losing the war and they heard about the Russian army attacking the Nazi troops inside Germany. Hope rose like a flame as they thought about having a future.



In the spring of 1945 the Allied armies captured Berlin. White sheets were hung from windows and on the lamp posts that were still standing. Every member of the group had survived the war.





The Fall of Berlin, Anthony Read and David Fisher, W.W. Norton & Company, New York, 1992






Between Dignity and Despair: Jewish Life in Nazi Germany, Marion A. Kaplan, NY: Oxford University Press, 1998

The Helmuth Huebener Group

http://www.holocaust-trc.org/faces.htm#huebener

The Helmuth Huebener Group






Helmuth Huebener and his friends, Karl Heinz Schnibbe, Rudolf Wobbe and Gerhardt Duewer, were known as the Huebener group. They defied the Nazi regime by distributing leaflets to expose the lies and deceit of Nazi propaganda. This was viewed as a crime by Nazi authorities and was severely punished. Helmuth Huebener was seventeen years old when he was sentenced to death. Karl, Rudolf and Gerhardt were imprisoned and sent to forced labor camps in Russian and Poland.



From 1941 to 1943 they distributed their leaflets to working class sections of Hamburg, a busy industrial city, situated in northern Germany on the Elbe and Alster Rivers. Hamburg was Germany's second largest city and its biggest port.



Sons of working class families, Helmuth and Gerhardt were administrative apprentices in social administration. Karl-Heinz was apprenticed to a house painter and Rudi (Rudolf), the youngest member of the group, was a mechanic's apprentice. Full of youthful idealism and exuberance, the Huebener group may not have been fully aware of where their activities would take them.



"Come and visit me. I have something to show you", Helmuth told Karl at a meeting of young people at St. Georg's. Karl had no idea of what he would find when he arrived at the apartment later that night. It was dark and quiet in the apartment; Helmuth's grandparents were already asleep. Helmuth showed Karl a small radio. "The radio has short wave and we can listen to foreign broadcasts."



"Man are you nuts?" Karl said. "Don't you know that's illegal?" He was feeling nervous, knowing that listening to foreign broadcasts was strictly forbidden and severely punished.



"Hitler is making a lot of good things illegal. But we are not sheep, we don't have to obey all the crazy laws." Helmuth said, turning on the radio.



A feeble light illuminated the numbers on the short wave dial and they listened to the German language broadcast from the Britain. The broadcast contradicted all the boasts of German victories they were hearing every day.



"Do you realize that we are being told lies. They tell us that hundreds of Russian soldiers are being killed, but they don't mention how many German soldiers are also losing their lives".



"Think about it, Germany has no raw materials and is dependent on other countries. When the Allies will start to win, Germany will have nothing. Hitler is leading us to destruction. Don't you think people have the right to hear the truth".



The British had already begun to bomb Hamburg. After the broadcast, Helmuth showed Karl a leaflet he had written.



"I know you'll want to help me distribute these", he said handing the leaflet to Karl. Karl picked up the red paper and felt it burn his hand, He could not believe what he was reading.





Who is Lying ??????????????????

The official report of the German

High Command of the Armed Forces



Quite a while ago they claimed

The roads to Moscow, Kiev

and Leningrad were opened



And today-six weeks after

Germany's invasion of the USSR,

Severe battles are still occurring

Far from these places.

This is how they are lying to us!



"This is crazy", Karl said. "Don't you know how dangerous this is?"



"It's only dangerous if we are not careful and we will be careful. People need to be told the truth".



"But how is this going to help anybody?" Karl asked.



"What we can do is warn people and wake them up. When enough people hear the truth, who knows what can happen".



Karl was reluctant but he agreed to take seven leaflets. The streets were very dark because of the blackout. Britain had begun their bombing raids on Hamburg. Karl felt sick to his stomach with fear, and looked around him. When he was sure there was no one to see, he placed a leaflet in the telephone box at the entranceway of an apartment house. When he had gotten rid of all the leaflets, he let out a sigh of relief and dashed home as fast as he could.



Two policemen were on the street where Karl lived. Passing them he mumbled "Heil Hitler" and wished them a good evening.



"Where are you going so late?" one of the policeman asked.



"Oh, I was just visiting a friend", Karl answered in as strong a voice as he could muster.



"Well, good night then. Let's hope there will be no more air raids."



Opening the door to his apartment, he felt a wave of relief. He did not want to distribute any more leaflets. If Helmuth asked him at that moment to distribute more leaflets, he would turn him down. But the next morning he felt differently and told himself that he would be willing to do it now and again. If he were careful, nothing could go wrong. HE did not tell his mother what he had done.



Karl was to learn later that Rudi was involved. He did not know about Gerhardt until later. Helmuth tried to protect his friends by not telling them everything. At that time Karl did not know that Helmuth had already written and distributed short leaflets.



The President of the church knew about Helmuth's good stenographic and typing skills and asked him to type letters to soldiers on the front lines. He gave Helmuth a typewriter and access to paper. Helmuth typed his first leaflet on red paper so it would be noticed and made ten copies.





Down with Hitler.

People's Seducer

People's Corrupter

People's Traitor

Down with Hitler.



He put them in the telephone boxes of apartment buildings with the notice, "This is a chain letter, so pass it on." The first leaflets were very short and contained brief messages, but listening to the radio broadcasts gave him the idea of writing news reports. With carbon paper he typed seven or eight copies at a time. Realizing that if the information campaign was to be successful, he would need the help of his friends.

Helmuth, Karl and Rudi saw one another often at the church. Karl and Rudi looked up to Helmuth who often had answers to difficult questions. They knew he read a lot of books and knew a great deal about religion as well as history. Karl began to call Helmuth the "professor" because he seemed to know so much. On his part, Helmut trusted Karl and Rudi. They met regularly in the church and often went to a small restaurant afterwards. That is where they told one another about their experiences with the Nazi Youth.



The three boys were forced to join the Hitler Youth against their will. Strong individualists, they shared an intense dislike of Nazi Youth activities, the pressures to conform, the persecution of Jewish people, and the ugliness and sheer brutality of what they saw around them. Helmuth, Karl and Rudi came from religious families and much of what they saw around them contradicted their beliefs. Hamburg was a working class city with a strong tradition of Social Democracy and many Mormons were Social Democrats who had opposed Hitler. Helmuth thought that the Mormons who supported Hitler were mislead and misinformed like the President of St. Georg's who was a member of the Nazi party. Helmuth still had respect for the President and knew he was a good and caring man. He could not understand what made him have so much faith in Hitler.



Living in Hamburg, where there was still a strong belief in democracy, Helmuth, Karl and Rudi were skeptical and aware of the cruelties imposed by Hitler. Hamburg never went completely over to the Nazis like other German cities; the city had too many Social Democrats. Hamburg was a sprawling city with many bridges that cross the rivers and canals. Nazi patrols were everywhere. Whenever a flag patrol came along, everyone was expected to stop and raise his or her hands in salute. Helmuth avoided the patrols and when he saw them coming, he would turn and walk the other way. From the corner of his eye, he could see that there were other people managed to avoid saluting too.



As teen aged boys, Helmuth, Karl and Rudi lived with their families. Helmuth's mother worked as a nurse and when she married for the second time, Helmuth moved in with his grandparents. He was not happy with his new stepfather who was avid Nazi. Rudi lived with his widowed mother, who had strong religious beliefs and encouraged Rudi to be respectful of other people. Their family doctor was Jewish and she refused to find another doctor, even after people were warned not to go to Jewish physicians. Karl's parents were social democrats.



One evening when Helmuth, Karl and Rudi were walking home from church they defiantly began to sing American songs. They heard the loud voice of a Nazi Youth Patrol ordering them to stop.



"How dare you sing English songs?" the Nazi Youth demanded to see their identification papers and warned them never to sing English songs again.



Helmuth remarked, "Have you noticed that that our country is being run by threats and brutal force".



"Everywhere you go you see signs that say "Forbidden", Forbidden on pain of death" "Not permitted" "What kind of country is this, anyway?" Karl added.



"This country is headed for destruction," Helmuth said in a soft voice.



As young men, the four boys were forced to become members of the Hitler Youth. Helmuth detested the boring meetings, the constant saluting to Hitler, and he avoided going to the meetings. Karl also did not want to go but his father cautioned him that it was dangerous not to attend the meetings and he went against his will, but he refused to wear the uniform and was expelled. Rudi stopped going to meetings after Nazi Youth patrol tried to stop him, because he did not salute. Angrily, Rudi drove his bicycle into one of the members of the patrol, knocking him down. He rode quickly away. That was the last time he had anything to do with the Nazi Youth.



The persecution of Jewish people was deeply disturbing to the boys. It was senseless, cruel and tragic. They saw first hand the increasing brutality and the beatings.



They had Jewish friends who were disappearing. As a painter's apprentice, Karl-



Heinz worked in the neighborhood where many Jewish people lived. He had just become a painter's apprentice, when he saw the shattered windows of shops owned by Jewish people. Clothing and other goods were lying in the gutter. Until that night in 1938, that became known as Crystal Night (Krystallnacht), no one thought the Nazis would do go to such violent extremes. The day he saw an old man being brutally beaten by a policeman, he knew he hated everything the Nazis stood for. Rudi remembered the horrified look on his mother's face when she told him that their family physician had been arrested and sent away.



Helmuth brought a packet of letters he had typed for the president of St. Georg's and saw the sign on the door forbidding Jews to enter. He wanted to tear the sign down. Soon after, the President asked that a radio be brought into the church so everyone could listen to Hitler's speeches. Karl's father who told the President "This is a church of God not a political meeting" and the President relented.



Helmuth discovered that Nazi spies monitored the meetings at the church. One evening Helmuth saw a few Nazi youth enter the church and recognized them. Afraid they had come to make a disturbance, he confronted them. "What are you doing here, You boys are not interested in our church services". He was surprised that the Nazi Youth left quietly. But it was becoming obvious that people were becoming increasingly fearful, there were very few outspoken objections to Nazi policies.



After he distributed his first seven leaflets, Karl saw Helmuth at church on Sunday." Well how's it going? Helmuth asked laughing. If I know you, I know you did everything perfectly". Both of them were laughing so hard, that Rudi came up and asked what was so funny. Rudi was two years younger than Karl. He had no idea that Helmuth had already spoken to Rudi. Helmuth invited them both to come to his apartment. The best nights for listening to the broadcasts together were Friday or Saturday nights. Karl's' mother allowed him to stay out later those nights; during the week he went to church with his parents. The boys met again on the following Saturday and Helmuth told described his plan. He wanted to conduct a full fledged informational resistance.



"What do you mean?" Karl asked.



"I mean that the leaflets should report the news we hear from the British. People



have a right to know the truth".



"You don't think that the three of us can overthrow the government do you?" Karl took a deep breath. Helmuth was surely going to get them all in trouble.



"No, but we can keep people informed and show them that there is opposition. They will begin to talk to one another and who knows what will happen"



"I'll have to think about it," Karl said.



Rudi was also hesitant.



"Most people do not have short wave radios, unless we tell them what is happening, how else will they know?" Helmuth insisted.



Everyone was quiet, then Rudi said, "OK I'll help you." Helmuth went into the next room and returned with a pile of papers. He showed them his shorthand notes of the broadcasts and explained how he would prepare the leaflets. Both Karl and Rudi had already seen the shorter handbills. This was the first letter sized leaflet that described the brutal treatment given to Russian prisoners of war.



"Who else knows about these leaflets?" Karl asked.



"No one, only us" but Helmuth told them he planned to ask Gerhardt, his friend at work. The boys agreed not to mention the leaflets to anyone and if one of them was caught, they agreed he should take the blame.



When there was a new leaflet to distribute, Helmuth announced to Karl and Rudi, "Isn't it time for us to get together to do something?" That was the signal that more leaflets were ready for distribution. At first there was a new leaflet every other week and then every week. Sometimes there were two in a week. Helmuth even got hold of a stamp with an eagle and a swastika and made the leaflets look like the Nazis made them. Gerhardt joined the group and the boys were assigned different neighborhoods. They were distributing about sixty leaflets at a time.



Wandering about the darkened city, they were careful not to be seen as they tacked the leaflets to the bulletin boards in the entranceways of the apartment buildings.



Crossing over the bridges, they went all around Hamburg and got to know which times were the safest to put up the leaflets. When there were air raids, they went to the air raid shelters, but they resumed their work as soon as the all clear sounded. It was tense work, because they never knew when they would be seen or reported. Rudi was less careful than Helmuth or Karl and kept his leaflets in a secret hiding place behind a strip of wallpaper that had become loose. This was like a pocket and when he was ready to leave work, he took leaflets out and distributed them on his way home. He did not always until dark.



Karl almost got into trouble when he was chatting with friends in a nearby café and showed them a leaflet. They were shocked and scolded him. Grinning, Karl told them it was a joke and put the leaflet away. From then on, he did not take any more chances.



For almost two years, Helmuth, Karl, Rudi and Gerhardt distributed the leaflets to apartment buildings all over the city. People were getting desperate as the bombings intensified. There was rubble and bombed out buildings everywhere. And the Nazi patrols were always on guard. But no one was caught.



There were many French prisoners of war working in the factories of Hamburg decided to have one of the leaflets translated into French. Helmuth knew an apprentice who spoke French and before he had a chance to discuss the idea with his friends, he showed the leaflet to the apprentice and asked him to translate it. The apprentice read the leaflet and threw it back at Helmuth. He reported him to the Gestapo that very afternoon in February 1943.



A notice was posted at the church announcing Helmuth's arrest.



Karl felt sick, he knew he and Rudi would soon be arrested too. The boys had agreed that if one was arrested, he would take the blame and not involve the others. But the following Monday a green paddy wagon, the "Green Minna" came for Karl. There were 20 or 30 other prisoners in the wagon. They were taken to the prison.



The prison guards were sadistic individuals and never missed an opportunity to humiliate a prisoner. The Gestapo wanted the prisoners to feel less than human and they let the prisoners know they could do whatever they wanted. Karl steeled himself to become callous and ignore the cruel comments. He knew that if he let himself care too much, he would go to pieces. He tried to concentrate on something else to be able to stand the long waits and the intense fear; he tried thinking about visits to his aunt in the country.




The prisoners had to wake up at 5 in the morning. They had to make their beds perfectly or they would be punished. A Dutch prisoner showed Karl how to make his bed. Breakfast was a thin crust of bread and ersatz coffee. After breakfast the prisoners were manacled together and taken back to the Green Minna to Gestapo headquarters. The prisoners included physicians, scientists, teachers as well as workers, it didn't matter, everyone was treated the same.



When Karl saw Helmuth a few days later, he was shocked at the black and blue marks on his face. But Helmuth managed to wink at him and even grin. During the long waits before they were questioned by the Gestapo and wondered where Helmuth was. "A member of our branch Helmuth Huebener has been arrested by the Gestapo. I cannot give you any details to the Frenchmen who were working in Germany.



Helmuth Huebener was seventeen years old when he was executed. He was the youngest resistance fighter to lose his life in Ploetzensee, the infamous Nazi center of death. The other members of the group were imprisoned and sent to forced labor camps in Poland and Russia.





When Truth was Treason: German Youth Against Hitler, The Story of the Helmuth Huebener Group based on the narrative of Karl Heinz Schnibbe with documents and notes, compiled by Blair R. Holmes & Alan F. Keele U. of Illinois Press, Urbana and Chicago, 1995

Jacques Lusseyran II

In 1943, the work of the "Volunteers of Liberty" caught the attention of the "Defense de la France"; an official Resistance group connected with Charles deGaulle and the Free French forces. The "Defense de la France" had more funds, its own print shop, trucks disguised as delivery wagons, an organized editorial board, a radio transmitter and a channel to the deGaulle government in London. The "Defense de la France" had everything the Volunteers lacked.




When Jacques was contacted by a leader of Defense de la France, he agreed to meet with him. Accompanied by Georges, they met Phillipe, the leader in the back room of a small restaurant. Jacques immediately liked the relaxed manner of the big man with the warm friendly voice, calm manner and keen sense of humor. Phillipe had solutions to difficult problems and talked of the advantages of merging the "Volunteers of Liberty" with the Defense de la France". Their main task would continue to be the distribution of a secret newspaper. "Le Tigres" was to become a real newspaper called "Defense de la France.



The "Volunteers" merged with the "Defense" and for the next six months, Jacques and Georges met with Philippe every day. They planned a complicated system of drop-offs, mailboxes and hidden communication and both Jacques and Georges became members of the executive committee.



As part of a major group, Jacques no longer felt alone or isolated, but he found the work to be harder and more demanding, One hundred thousand copies of "Defense de la France" a two page newspaper were to be printed and distributed all over France. Every article was carefully reviewed for its power to impress readers and make them aware that there was an active French resistance. The paper was filled with articles telling people of the brutal treatment and torture of arrested resistors, the slaughter of Jews in the death camps and appealing for

passive resistance to Nazi orders.



On February 16, 1942 the Nazi government issued the order, demanding that all young Frenchmen over 21 years be sent to Germany as forced labor. Thousands of young men were sent to Germany, the only exceptions were students and heads of families. The order strengthened the Resistance movement and the "Defense de la France" grew. Eighty young people, including Georges became professional underground operators. Francois was placed in charge of resistance in Brittany.



The members of the "Defense de la France" were young men and women who carried the secret to all parts of France at the risk of their lives. Georges and Jacques were responsible for the distribution of the newspaper in Paris. The two friends agreed that if one were arrested, the other would carry on the work.



The office where the newspaper was printed came under Gestapo suspicion and for three days, everyone who came out of the office was followed. The young people working with Jacques learned how to avoid being followed, they would go into a bakery and leave by the back door, board a subway train and exit at the next stop. They led the spies down false trails, while the equipment was packed up in small trucks with signs, "fragile" "meteorological" or "optical" equipment" were pasted on the outside of the trucks and a new print shop was prepared and the distribution of "Defense de la France" was resumed.



The government of Free France, established in Algiers, asked resistance groups to coordinate their efforts as much as possible. Jacques met with leaders of other groups including the famous writer, Albert Camus, who worked for the group called "Combat ". The work was dangerous; the students could be betrayed at any time. Still in charge

of recruitment, Jacques was taken by surprise a young man named Elio, who came to his home without prior notification.



The group was looking for someone to coordinate the distribution of the newspaper to the industrial and mining communities in the north and Elio, a native of the north was willing to give up his studies to devote himself full time to the resistance movement. Elio had good recommendations, but something about him aroused Jacques' suspicions. His heavy handshake and low voice lacked honesty and conviction and Jacques did not trust him. Phillipe said they could not afford to be too cautious and against his better judgment, Jacques reluctantly agreed and Elio joined "Defense de la France, " went to the city of Lille in the north and established a network for the distribution of the newspaper.



Thousands copies of "Defense de la France" were being distributed throughout France. Jacques and Georges were busy with distribution activities in Paris until the morning in July 1943 when two officers and four armed soldiers knocked on the door of the apartment in the Boulevard Port Royal. Heading straight for Jacques' rooms, they sent his Braille papers flying. Jacques worried that his parents would be arrested too. They knew of his activities and never did anything to discourage him. He felt relieved that he was the only one arrested.



At Gestapo headquarters, Jacques discovered that the Nazis had a record of every one of his activities from the day Elio joined "Defense de la France". When they took him to the Fresnes prison, his suspicions were confirmed. It was a mass betrayal; every one of his friends except Philippe had been arrested.



He was taken from Fresnes to Gestapo headquarters 38 times, he was threatened with death, beaten, and questioned from 7 o'clock in the morning to 7 o'clock, but he was resolute and determined not to give them any information. In July, he was sent to Buchenwald. Starved and sickly, Jacques tried to keep up his spirits and those of his friends. Knowing German and Italian, he even translated for other prisoners.



The United States Third Army liberated Buchenwald in April 1945. Jacques was one of thirty survivors of the 2,000 people who were arrested at the same time he was. He and Phillipe were the only leaders of the "Defense de la France" to survive the war. The newspaper of the "Defense de la France became the "France Soir", one of the most important daily newspapers in France.



Jacques returned to the university and his studies and his fight to be admitted to the Ecole Normale Superieur. Finally admitted to the elite school, graduated and took a teaching position in Paris. In the 1950's he moved to the United States and taught Literature at Western Reserve University and the University of Hawaii. He was tragically

killed in a tragic automobile accident when he was only 47 years of age.

Jacques Lusseyran

Jacques Lusseyran
Faces of Courage: Young Heroes of World War II.


http://www.dogpile.com/search/web?fcoid=417&fcop=topnav&fpid=27&q=Jacques+Lusseyran&ql=

Sally M. Rogow.

Vancouver, BC: Granville Island Publishing, 2003.

162 pp., pbk., $16.95.

ISBN 1-894694-20-1.



Subject Headings:

Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)-Juvenile literature.

World War, 1939-1945-Jews-Rescue-Juvenile literature.

Jewish children in the Holocaust-Juvenile literature.

Teenagers-Europe-Biography-Juvenile literature.



Grades 6-10 / Ages 11-15.



Review by Harriet Zaidman.



** /4













excerpt:





The following Monday, Karl was arrested and put in a green paddy wagon with twenty other prisoners. Rudi and Gerhardt were arrested a few days later. They were in the same jail, but they were not allowed to see one another. Despite the rough treatment and the cruelty of the guards, not one of them betrayed the others.?



Helmuth stood up in the courtroom. “You have sentenced me to die, even though I have committed no crime. But I must tell you that your turn will come. Germany will lose the war.” Karl was amazed at his courage.



Everyone was silent as the four boys were led out of the courtroom. Karl, Rudi and Gerhardt were sent to slave labor camps in Poland and Russia. Helmuth Heubner was seventeen years old when he was executed by guillotine. He was the youngest resistance fighter to lose his life in Ploetzensee, the infamous Nazi center of death. (Pp.131-132).





Personal stories of resistance and sacrifice inspire young adults. Teens think about how they, themselves, would react to situations of stress, war, terror and other abnormal situations; role models put their imaginings into concrete perspective. Faces of Courage is a collection of short stories about resisters in World War II. Three of the stories are based on accounts of real people; nine are based on accounts of how many people, young and old, acted under the Nazis including Jews, Christians, Gypsies (Rom) and the disabled. The smallest act of resistance was punishable by death, and many died because they dared to defy barbarism. Whether the story is an actual account or not, the example set by the ordinary heroes of these stories is inspiring. It’s hard to distinguish between the stories that are true and those that are not. The postscripts to the fictional accounts are as sad and plausible as those of the true stories.



But each shines the light on young individuals or groups whose humanity overcame their fear of tyranny and death. It’s almost unimaginable that people procured printing machines to produce anti Nazi leaflets and newspapers and then distributed them clandestinely, but brave souls knew that their countrymen needed a banner under which to rally. Individuals acted alone or combined secretly to help others by hiding them, feeding them, guiding them to safety. Disguising the truth and lying became polished skills to prevent information from leaking out when neighbours or family could not be trusted. People displayed bravery that they never would have shown in other times, their courage a testament to their fundamental convictions of brotherhood and opposition to racism and brutality.



“I’ve come to deliver your chickens,” he said to the man who opened the door.



The man nodded. “I’ve been expecting you,” he said and took the chickens. Yojo went back to the wagon, brushed the hay to one side and lifted the blankets. The pilots shivered as they climbed out of the wagon. Their clothes were wet. Fred turned to Yojo, grabbed his hand, shook it and made a victory sign.



Inside the house, a woman gave them towels and dry clothes. After a dinner of spicy stew and bread, the man in charge of the safe house spoke to the pilots in English. He took their pictures for fake French identity cards....Yojo and the pilots were also given thick woolen socks, sweaters and climbing boots with heavy spiked soles. (p.72)





Enough praise can never be awarded to those who resisted the Nazi terror, and that’s why this book will be part of the growing body of literature that reminds us about these brave people. Faces of Courage can be used as part of a classroom unit about the World War II and the Holocaust. The writing style is occasionally too earnest and the dialogue slightly artificial, but teens will ignore these faults because the content will touch their souls. Each story can be used as a starting point for historical research and discussion. The cover of the book shows three youths standing in a village square, defiantly facing Nazi soldiers. The pen and watercolour sketch is not appealing, considering the high level of illustration that is being produced these days. The rough quality of the drawing chosen seems inadequate to the material. A woman and girl who stand at the bottom of the sketch have a more modern appearance than one would expect.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Lusseyran
Jacques Lusseyran From Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaJump to: navigation, search Jacques Lusseyran (1924-1971) was a blind French author and political activist.




Lusseyran was born on September 19th, 1924, in Paris, France. He became totally blind in a school accident at the age of 8. He soon learned to adapt to being blind and maintained many close friendships, particularly with one boy named Jean. At a young age he became alarmed at the rise of Adolf Hitler in Germany and decided to learn the German language so that he could listen to German radio broadcasts. By 1938, when Nazi Germany annexed Austria, he had accomplished this task. Germany invaded France in 1940. In the spring of 1941, at the age of 17, Lusseyran formed a Resistance group called the Volunteers of Liberty with 52 other boys. He was put in charge of recruitment. The group later merged with another Resistance group called Défense de la France. In July 1943 he organized and participated in a campaign to drop pro-resistance leaflets on trains, and claimed to carry tear gas canisters to stop people from interfering, though he never used them.



On July 20, 1943, Lusseyran was arrested by the Gestapo, betrayed by a member of his resistance group. His knowledge of German helped him understand more of the situation than most French prisoners. He was sent to Buchenwald with 2000 other French citizens, where, because he was blind, he did not have to participate in forced labor as most other prisoners did. Soon most of his childhood friends and fellow resistance operatives were arrested, and he met some of them in the concentration camp. Lusseyran helped to motivate a spirit of resistance within the camp, particularly within the French and German prisoners.



In April 1945, he was liberated, surviving German massacres of the concentration camps in which some of his friends were killed. Many of his friends had died during the course of the war, including Jean. After the war, Lusseyran taught French literature in the United States and wrote books, including the autobiographical And There Was Light, which chronicles the first 20 years of his life. He died together with his third wife Marie in a car accident in France on July 27, 1971. He is survived by his four children.



[edit] BooksAgainst the Pollution of the I: selected writings of Jacques Lusseyran. New York, NY: Parabola Books, 1999. ISBN 0-930407-46-6.

And There Was Light: autobiography of Jacques Lusseyran, blind hero of the French Resistance. New York, NY: Parabola Books, 1998. ISBN 0-930407-40-7.

[edit] External linksStories of the teenage resistance
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http://www.holocaust-trc.org/faces.htm
 
Lesson Plan
 
Lesson Plan for


Faces of Courage: Teenagers Who Resisted

by

Sally Rogow, Ed.D.



Objectives:



Develop an understanding the importance of resistance in the face of oppression.

Develop an understanding of discrimination and exclusion.

Recognition of the many young people who bravely resisted the Nazis and who risked their own lives to rescue others.



Teaching Strategy:



Edelweiss Pirates and Annaliese



Present and discuss the enormous pressures imposed on German young people to conform to Nazi doctrine.

Discuss the issue of bullying and why it was so common in Nazi Youth groups for conformity.

Discuss the differences in Nazi attitudes towards girls and boys and the pressures on young German girls to conform.

Discuss how the Nazis violated the rights of their own people with their policies.

Discuss how racial propaganda was used to perpetuate the idea of "Aryan" superiority.

Louise and Jacob



Discuss what life was like in hiding with no adults to provide food or shelter?

Discuss the importance of personal identity in survival. How did these young people maintain their Jewish identity?

Discuss the realities of hiding and the importance of being part of a group.

Discuss how the Nazis used the men of the occupied countries as laborers in Germany and other occupied lands.

Discuss how Jacob's determination in a hostile environment helped him to survive.

Jacques Lusseyran and Jean:



Discuss the difficulties of organizing effective resistance in France in World War II.

Present information about French collaboration with the Nazis.

Present and discuss what the Nazi occupation meant for the people in Paris.

Karl and Noni:



Present background information.

Nazi racial and genetic theories made outcasts of young people with disabilities. Thousands were murdered by starvation, poisoning and gassing in Germany's psychiatric hospitals and institutions in which many people with disabilities were forced to live. Use your judgement in describing the euthanasia program.





Discuss attitudes towards people with disabilities and how exclusion and discrimination isolates people with disabilities.

Yojo



Discuss the reasons why Gypsies were persecuted by the Nazis.

Explore the role of Gypsies in the Resistance movement.

Explore the reasons why so little attention is being given to the persecution of the Gypsies by the Nazis.

Maria



Explore the importance of the Greek Resistance.

Discuss the status of women in Greek society.

Explore Nazi attitudes towards the Greek people.

Explore the role of young people in the Greek resistance.

Kirsten



Explore how the rescue of the Jews helps to mobilize the Danish resistance.

Explore the reasons for the determination of the Danish people to rescue the Jewish population.

Discuss the role of the Danish church and government leaders in the rescue of Jewish people.



Questions for Discussion:



Why was it so difficult to organize resistance during the Nazi occupation?

Why were bullies so dominant in Nazi Youth groups?

Why did the French government collaborate with the Nazis?

Why do you think everyone knew about the American pilot in the small French farming village?

Why were the families of children and young people with disabilities so powerless during the Nazi era in Germany?

Do you think attitudes have changed towards people with disabilities?

What is the importance of learning about rescuers and resistors?

Are these stories relevant to changing attitudes about people with disabilities?

Why is so little known about resistance groups in Germany?.

Terms



"Euthanasia", defined as "Mercy killing"..It was the euphemism for the mass murder of thousands of people with disabilities in Nazi Germany.





Thinking skills

Comprehension of the nature of discrimination based on race, religion or physical or mental disability or difference.

Understanding of the plight of resistors in Germany and countries occupied by the Nazis.

Understanding the risks of joining organized resistance groups.

References:



Dornblaser, Irene L. Land That I Love: The Escape of a Nazi Youth. Columbus, Ohio, Warthurg Press, 194



Hoffman, Peter, The History of the German Resistance. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.1988.



Lusseyran, Jacques, And There was Light: Autobiography of Jacques Lusseyran, Blind hero of the French Resistance. New York, Little Brown and Co. 1963.



Perrault,G. and Azema, P. Paris Under the Occupation. New York City:The Vendome Press, 1989



Peukert, D. (1987) Inside Nazi Germany: Conformity, Opposition and Racism in Everyday Life. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.



Rings, W. Life With The Enemy: Collaboration and Resistance in Hitler's Europe 1939-1945, 1982. Garden City, New York: Doubleday and Company, 1092



Bury Me Standing: The Gypsies and Their Journey, Isabel Fonseca. Vintage Books, Division of Random House, NY, 1995.



Gypsies of the World: A Journey into the Hidden World of Gypsy Life and Culture, Neboojsa Bato Tomasevic and Raijko Djuric, NY Henry Holt. 1988



Crossing, Jan Yoors, NY Simon and Shuster, 1971



Gypsies An Illustrated History, Jean Pierre Ligeois, Al Saqi Books, London, England, 1986



Harrington, Lyn, Greece & The Greeks, Thomas Nelson, New York, 1962

Hart, Janet, New Voices in the Nation: Women and the Greek Resistacne, 1941-1964. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY, 1996



Darkness Over Denmark: The Danish Resistance and the Rescue of Jews, by Ellen Levine, Holiday House, New York, 2000

The Rescue of the Danish Jews: Moral Courage Under Stress, Leo Goldberger,(Ed.) NY: NYU Press.1987







Faces of Courage:Teenagers Who Resisted

Jacques Lusseyran




Jacques Lusseyran was only seventeen years old when he organized the "Volunteers of Liberty" (Voluntaires de la Liberte) an underground resistance group of university and secondary school students. The "Volunteers" became part of the "Defense de la France", a major underground resistance network affiliated with Charles De Gaulle and the free French government. The Germans occupied Paris from June 14, 1940 until August 25, 1944.



Blinded in an accident when he was eight years old, Lusseyran was a brilliant student and courageous leader who led a double life as resistance fighter and brilliant student until his arrest by the Gestapo and internment at the Buchenwald concentration camp.



The story of Jacques Lusseyran is based on historical accounts of the French resistance and his own autobiography.



Jacques and his family were living in Toulouse when the German army marched up the Champs Elysee, took over the center of the city and threw Paris into chaos. Thousands of people crowded the roads trying to leave and those who remained were relieved that there was no destruction, bombing or shooting. Jacques' father, an engineer, was ordered to return to Paris in September 1940.



The family settled in an apartment on the Boulevard Port-Royal in the Latin Quarter, a part of the city known for centuries as the place where poets, writers, and artists lived, worked and met with one another in the cafes that lined the streets. After the Nazi occupation, the city was wrapped in a silence, broken only by the ringing of the church bells. The familiar sounds of automobiles, buses and trucks had vanished along with the lively chatter that made the streets of Paris so lively. The silence made the streets seem wider and the houses taller.

Jacques Lusseyran

http://www.holocaust-trc.org/faces.htm#jacques


Jacques Lusseyran was only seventeen years old when he organized the "Volunteers of Liberty" (Voluntaires de la Liberte) an underground resistance group of university and secondary school students. The "Volunteers" became part of the "Defense de la France", a major underground resistance network affiliated with Charles De Gaulle and the free French government. The Germans occupied Paris from June 14, 1940 until August 25, 1944.



Blinded in an accident when he was eight years old, Lusseyran was a brilliant student and courageous leader who led a double life as resistance fighter and brilliant student until his arrest by the Gestapo and internment at the Buchenwald concentration camp.



The story of Jacques Lusseyran is based on historical accounts of the French resistance and his own autobiography.



Jacques and his family were living in Toulouse when the German army marched up the Champs Elysee, took over the center of the city and threw Paris into chaos. Thousands of people crowded the roads trying to leave and those who remained were relieved that there was no destruction, bombing or shooting. Jacques' father, an engineer, was ordered to return to Paris in September 1940.



The family settled in an apartment on the Boulevard Port-Royal in the Latin Quarter, a part of the city known for centuries as the place where poets, writers, and artists lived, worked and met with one another in the cafes that lined the streets. After the Nazi occupation, the city was wrapped in a silence, broken only by the ringing of the church bells. The familiar sounds of automobiles, buses and trucks had vanished along with the lively chatter that made the streets of Paris so lively. The silence made the streets seem wider and the houses taller.



Ever since he lost his sight in an accident when he was eight years old, Jacques relied on sounds to bring him information and create images in his mind. Without sight, Jacques learned to concentrate his attention to sounds, touch and smell. His family encouraged his independence and never isolated him. He mastered Braille reading and

writing in six weeks and returned to his school his friends. When his family lived in Toulouse, he was as much at home on country roads and mountain hikes as he was on the streets of Paris.



Life in Paris in the autumn of 1940 had become a struggle; food shortages forced housewives to stand in lines for hours waiting to purchase their share of the meager food supplies. The fuel shortage caused constant cold and Paris clocks were turned to Berlin time. Logic seemed to have vanished along with the hustle and bustle of the streets.



No one was talking about the occupation. People turned away from one another when the words "Nazi" "Gestapo", "torture" or "killings" were mentioned. Jacques wondered if people were simply afraid to talk or

afraid to face the reality of the occupation. But like other boys, he was eager to get on with his life. Blind students were required to take a special exam to prove they could keep up with their studies A good student and well prepared, Jacques passed the exam and was accepted to the Louis Le Grand Lycee, a well known secondary school in the Latin Quarter. Impatient to begin his studies he had to wait a month before the lycee opened. The new fascist government had closed all the schools in Paris.



Jacques spent his time rediscovering the Paris streets with his friends, Jean and Francois. His parents gave him the two small rooms in the back of their apartment. A long corridor separated the rooms and this gave Jacques the privacy he needed to study and meet with his friends. Jacques arranged his furniture and stacked his Braille books

neatly against the walls.



The school opened in October and school life resumed in a normal fashion, in spite of the new rules imposed by a government eager to conform to Nazi ideology. The principal read announcements from Marshall Petain and other government officials over the loudspeaker.

Jacques walked to the lycee with Jean and Francois every morning, and could never understand why he attracted so much attention. Groups of other boys seemed always to be trailing behind him and when he reached the school, the concierge greeted Jacques by shouting, "It's the Lusseyran parade".




Enrolled in philosophy, psychology and history classes, Jacques found his history class to be the most interesting. His history teacher commanded Jacques' attention with his rapid speech and warm resonant voice. He told class about the war and Hitler's ambitions. One by one, the Germans occupied Austria, France, Holland, Denmark and Norway. Hitler's plan was to make all of Europe subservient to Germany and 85% of the agricultural and industrial production of France was being sent to Germany.



Incidents of Nazi brutality were becoming more and more obvious and they were happening to people Jacques knew. Francois was almost in tears as he told Jacques of Mr. Weissberg's arrest. Weissberg was Francois' good friend and tutor and when he arrived for his weekly biology lesson, Weissberg's rooms were empty. The concierge told Francois that the Gestapo had arrested Weissberg that morning. Weissberg was Jewish. Soon after Jacques heard about other Jewish friends who were taken away by the Gestapo.



The French police were acting like Nazis, there were book burnings, arrests and racial laws. Paris newspapers were censored and carried only German news. Some boys at Louis Le Grand joined Nazi youth clubs and boasted that the Nazis were good for France. Jacques' school was closed for a month after a demonstration by university and lycee students. Twenty students were shot and killed.



It was freezing cold in his little room; Jacques felt his fingers stiffening and had to stop reading. The frightening events that were happening around him dominated his thoughts; something had to be done to arouse the conscience of the French people. The idea of forming a resistance group of young students took shape in his mind.



Knowing his friends as well as he did, Jacques was not surprised that Jean and Francois readily agreed and they began to organize a resistance group made up students from Louis le Grand and the university. In school the next say, they spoke with trusted classmates.



A few days later, ten boys crowded into Jacques' room, and the next week 52 boys showed up. The student resistance group called the "Volunteers of Liberty" became a reality.



From now on there was to be no turning back and no giving in to fear. Jacques warned the boys to say nothing about the meeting, even to their families. Gossip was dangerous and would give them away. No more than three boys would meet with one another at any one time. A Central Committee was formed to keep the students in touch with one another. Their task was to inform the French people about the brutality of Gestapo arrests, the persecutions and torture of captured resistance fighters and the arrests of Jewish people. News of the War was to be gathered by listening to forbidden radio broadcasts from England and Switzerland. The "Volunteers of Liberty" planned to write and circulate a secret paper that they called "Le Tigres". Before they could begin, more students had to be recruited.

Jacques was elected to the Central Committee and went to the first secret meeting with Francois. The meeting was held in an old apartment house in a working class section of the city, the old building was chosen because there were always people coming in and going out and the arrival of strangers was not likely to arouse suspicion. Jacques was to be responsible for interviewing everyone who wanted to become a "Volunteer". The other boys trusted his ability to judge people.




The "Volunteers" sent word out about the secret resistance group to the lycees and university. Students who wanted to join were watched for several days or sometimes weeks by one of the original 52 members. Those who were considered trustworthy were told "to visit the blind man."



Jacques conducted the interviews in his rooms. Two short rings and one long ring of the doorbell told him that a perspective volunteer had arrived. The rules were strict. No one was interviewed if he was not expected or did not appear within five minutes of the specified time. No one was given Jacques' name. Forced to rely on his instincts, Jacques knew he was not infallible and was constantly on guard. It was too easy to be trapped by an informer or spy. He planned the interviews carefully and discussed nothing of importance for the first 10 minutes. Sometimes he conducted the interview in the dark because he forgot to turn on the light.



Taking his time, Jacques listened intently to the words and the silences. Elaborate explanations and well-rehearsed speeches aroused his suspicions. He knew they covered lies and deceit. He also knew that anger was a difficult emotion to disguise. If Jacques considered a boy trustworthy, he gave his name to the Central Committee and he was admitted to the "Volunteers of Liberty". At first, only young students between 17 and 19 appeared, but after a few weeks, older students from the university began coming. Jacques interviewed 600 young men in less than a year



The Volunteers did not think of themselves as a professional group, they were simply young students eager to liberate their country from the terror of Nazism. They wrote, mimeographed and distributed their bulletin, "Le Tigres", to houses all over Paris. One boy watched the exits while the other went from floor to floor, carrying his shoes in his hands and slipping the paper under doors.



The French government no less than the German characterized the Resistance as a gang of terrorists. Denouncing them was seen as a civic duty, for which informers received money. Jacques and the other leaders were aware of the dangers; resistors who were caught were arrested and punished severely. It was also disappointing that so few of Jacques' classmates were willing to join the Volunteers, only 6 boys of the 90 enrolled in the elite classes at Louis Le Grand joined. In every class, there were 2 or 3 boys willing to report them to the police. Some of the

teachers were also Nazi collaborators and they had to be careful never to talk about their activities at school. There were many narrow escapes.



Surveys, discussions, choosing articles for the bulletin and frequent Central Committee meetings kept Jacques busy. Meetings were never held in the same place. Always by Francois or Jean, Jacques traveled on the routes set up for safety. Schoolwork occupied his daytime hours, but at 5 PM, Jacques became a resistance fighter and

sometimes did not return home until 11 PM.



Keeping up his grades while devoting so much time to the "Volunteers" took all his energy, but he succeeded and graduated from Louis Le Grand in the Spring of 1941. He enrolled at the University and planned to take the special exam to qualify for "Ecole Normale Superieur", the highest institution in the French educational system. The Vichy government and its Nazi racial laws, declaring students with disabilities to be ineligible, dashed his hopes Disappointed and angry, Jacques wanted to fight the ruling, but he knew that he would put the "Volunteers" in jeopardy by calling attention to himself, so he put his ambitions aside and decided not to appeal the ruling.