(b) Liberal-individualistic gangs
They originated in north Germany, namely in Hamburg. The most striking example among these groups is the so-called Swing Youth, on whom there have been reports from various parts of the Reich. They began in Hamburg. These groups are motivated by the desire to have a good time and have increasingly assumed a character bordering on the criminal-antisocial. Even before the war boys and girls in Hamburg from the socially privileged classes joined groups wearing strikingly casual clothing and became fans of English [US] music and dance. At the turn of the year 1939/40, the Flottbeck group organized dances which were attended by 5–600 young people and which were marked by an uninhibited indulgence in swing. After the ban on public dances they organized dances at home, which were marked above all by sexual promiscuity. The whole life style of these members cost a considerable amount of money which they endeavored to procure through criminal acts and, in particular, through theft. The hunger for English dance music and for their own dance bands led to break-ins in shops selling musical instruments. The greed to participate in what appeared to them to be a stylish life in clubs, bars, cafés and house balls suppressed any positive attitude towards responding to the needs of the time. They were unimpressed by the performance of our Wehrmacht; those killed in action were sometimes held up to ridicule. An attitude of hostility to the war is clearly apparent.
The members dress in clothes which imitate English fashions. Thus, they often wear pleated jackets in tartan designs and carry umbrellas. As a badge they wear a colored dress-shirt button in their lapels. They regard Englishmen as the highest form of human development. A false conception of freedom leads them into opposition to the HJ.
Partly as a result of the evacuation measures, these gangs have spread to other areas. Thus, for example, there was the Harlem Club in Frankfurt am Main, which held house balls of the worst kind. Even the youngest female members indulged in sexual intercourse with several partners consecutively. These parties were marked by alcoholic excesses at which people 'swung' and 'hotted'.
(c) Criminal-anti-social gangs
These groups have no peculiarities. They are a sign of typical degradation to some extent determined by the war. Their members are almost entirely recruited from the offspring of genetically inferior, antisocial family clans. Their personal characteristics normally show the same traits: no criminal convictions, weak-willed or very dynamic (the leaders), with an underdeveloped emotional side, in some cases mentally deficient or psychopathic. There are hardly any young people with talent from the socially privileged classes among them. They have no commitment to ideological goals. They follow a leader uncritically to whom they sometimes submit themselves totally.
print version
return to list
previous document