Outside in World | Browse Books

Use our Book Finder to search for books by Title (or part of the title), Author, ISBN, Age Range, Keyword, or Continent/Country. Then simply click the magnifying glass to start your search.

If a title starts with 'The', leave this out as this is added to the end of the title in brackets. funny pictures funny images funny photos really funny pictures

‘We need the literature of other countries to expand our
horizons and stimulate our ideas. Without it, we are not only
diminished, we are starved’
(The Times, Magnus Linklater 29/06/05)

Please email us to sign up to our Newsletter

Edelweiss Pirates (The) by Dirk Reinhardt

Title: Edelweiss Pirates (The)

Author: Dirk Reinhardt

Translator: Rachel Ward

Illustrator:

Publisher: Pushkin Press

Date Published: 2021

Format: Paperback

Genre: History

Book Category: Fiction

Age Range: 12+

Original Title: First published in German as Edelweisspiraten, Aufbau Verlag GmbH & Co, Germany, 2012

Country of Origin: Germany

Edelweiss Pirates (The)

by Dirk Reinhardt
Age Range: 12+

Sometimes there are little-known stories from history that need to be told and The Edelweiss Pirates by German author Dirk Reinhardt is certainly one such instance. This novel relates a much-neglected element of resistance to the Nazis in Germany during the second world war.

The book opens on 27 November 1944 with the description of a shocking scene before the narration switches to the parallel story of sixteen-year-old Daniel and the old man he meets in the cemetery, Josef Gerlach. Who is this stranger and why is he so keen to get to know Daniel? When Josef gives Daniel his diary to read, it transports him back to 1941 and through the following years up to the event which is recorded at the opening of the book.

Reinhardt charts the story, skilfully translated by Rachel Ward, of teenage rebels in Nazi Germany. Like many of his contemporaries, Gerlach had to join the Hitler Youth. In his diary, he tells how he left the Hitler Youth for a gang called - The Edelweiss Pirates. They were opposed to everything that the Hitler Youth stood for resenting how it had taken over their lives. Their motto was freedom and they were both anti-authority and non-conformists bucking the trend with their long hair and cool clothes. To begin with, the teenagers were only interested in hanging out and having a good time defying restrictions by going hiking and on camping trips, mixing with the opposite sex and singing banned songs – mainly ‘degenerate’ blues or jazz.

As the story weaves back and forth between the present and the past Daniel discovers how these brave young people risked everything to challenge the authority of the Nazis. As the war progressed, they became more organised and daring ambushing Hitler Youth patrols and beating them up, painting slogans on walls, and distributing propaganda leaflets dropped by Allied aircraft as well as assisting deserters from the German army.

The punishment metered out to the Edelweiss Pirates by the Gestapo began to be more severe and it became a fight for survival. On 25 October 1944, Heinrich Himmler ordered a crackdown and in November 1944, thirteen teenagers were hanged in public in Cologne – six of them were or had been members of the Edelweiss Pirates. One of those to have survived was Fritz Theilen to whom there is a dedication to his memory at the front of the book.

It is a gripping story but difficult at times to read, particularly the brutality that these young people suffered at the hands of the Gestapo. Their courageousness and bravery shine through the narrative as they refuse to be indoctrinated and forced to take part in an ideology that they don’t believe in. A forgotten account consigned on the sidelines for too long, Reinhardt has written an intensely insightful and harrowing story that needed to be told. As Michael Rosen says in his introduction The Edelweiss Pirates is “a powerful, moving and important story”.

buy now from amazon