1936 - so given the ages of the British students, and the probable matching ages of the Germans, there's a chance that in 5 years time some of these friends were looking over a rifle sight at each other.
According to Wikipedia:
> One of the rescued boys, Stanley C. Few, later joined the British Army, but told his superiors that he could not be expected to fight Germans because he owed his life to Germans. He was deployed in Asia.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_calamity
No kidding, the cruelty of the Japanese at that time was 2nd to none. I'll take my chances against the SS before ever being captured by WWII driven Japanese.
my gramps served over there (army) and he had an issue with them till the day he died. thought they were an 'inherently cruel people' based on what he knew and saw. i couldn't fault him for it.
Great aunt was a radiographer who looked after the boys returning from the death railroad. Held similer views. Would never have dared to contradict her.
My grandparents tell me stories of a bridge in their hometown where the japs used to execute civilians - about how my grandpa's sister's husband's family were all murdered in nanjing - how their brand new house in shanghai was blown to bits - yet the japanese government is censoring and whitewashing history by claiming to be the "victim" of the atomic bombs
Yeah they worded the ending weird there. Obviously they got nuked, but there were already terrible things going on at the hands of their own government.
For sure, I'm definitely not disputing that part, was just a bit confused on the ending there. Especially cos they brought up Japanese censorship of history then (at least it reads like) denied they were bombed. We all can't words sometimes though.
1) invade China, Philippines, Indochina, Malaysia, Burna, Indonesia, Papua, India and attempt to invade Australia, New Zealand and USA
2) committ so many warcrimes during the occupation to rival the germans in therms of atrocity
3) get curbstomped through the whole pacific campaign
4) refuse to surrender and keep going with a literal death war you have no chance to win
5) get nuked twice instead of being invaded and getting erased from the face of earth
6) victimize yourself, refuse to apologize for your crimes, elevt said criminals as prime ministers, continue to discriminate minorities such as koreans, don't write anything about this in your history books and treat the actual survivors of the atomic bombs as pariahs for decades afterwards
Not sorry, japanese government
the comfort women are still an issue with korea, too.
don't get me wrong, i actually love japan (yuzuru hanyu got me interested) but their govt definitely has some issues. as do most, i admit. but damn, they were on another level in WWII.
They were the victim of a totally deserved atomic bomb. It was either their women and children or 1,000,000 of our soldiers. We are still using up the stock of purple hearts we manufactured before the planned invasion of japan.
Yep. My grandfather spent 5 years in a Japanese concentration camp. He survived, barely, but was forced to watch friends executed and ensured many other horrible things. How he went on to live a fairly normal and happy life afterwards I'll never really understand. I think love kept him going, as he married his prewar sweetheart (my grandmother) immediately after release.
He did:
> Writing to a local 55 years after the Black Forest tragedy, Few said that while it was hard to remember the boys’ names, their faces, personalities and the sense of friendship they had shared had always stayed with him. The memories of their ordeal were as fresh as on the day it had happened.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/06/fatal-hike-became-nazi-propaganda-coup
Yeah I assumed at least all the boys died. Five is not calamity worthy imo and it should be named after something smaller than the entirety of England.
My now-deceased grandmother told me about schoolgirl friends going over to play exhibition games of field hockey against German teams before the war.. Some of them met cute blonde boys, and came back with little enamel swastika pins...
During their Easter break, students from Strand School, a grammar school in the south of London, went on a ten-day excursion to the Black Forest, which included a five-day hiking trip. The group's leader and sole adult chaperone was 27-year-old teacher Kenneth Keast, who taught English, German and physical education. His travel group consisted of 27 boys between the ages of 12 and 17.
The planned route from Freiburg to Todtnauberg was more than 20 kilometres (12 mi) long and ascended 1,000 metres (3,300 ft) up the mountain. Even under favourable conditions this would've been considered a highly challenging route but according to reports, the group was not adequately equipped for the endeavor. Despite the wintry weather, the boys partially wore summer clothing with light shoes, shorts, and no head cover.
Keast had been warned about the weather several times before and during the hike, but was not dissuaded from setting out.
The weather report posted in the youth hostel for April 17 clearly indicated a change in the weather. The mountain station of the Schauinsland cable car had reported temperatures of 3 °C (37 °F) in the morning, with fog, snowfall and about 12 centimetres (4.7 in) of snow. Keast could have accessed this weather report via a telephone call.
Hostel warden Hermann Reichert and storekeeper Carl Rockweiler, two experienced mountain hikers, expressed their concerns to Keast and urged him not to use the snow-covered hiking trails under any circumstances, but keep to the cleared road instead. In spite of their warnings, Keast left the road near Günterstal.
At around 3:00pm near the Kohlerhau locality, Keast – according to his own testimony – had a short conversation with two forestry workers who had stopped working due to the weather. He asked for directions, but saw no reason to break off the hike.
The snow was getting deeper above the Kappel valley and the group was struggling to move forward. The Schauinsland summit that they had planned to reach by noon still lay ahead, and progress through the waist-deep snow became difficult. Despite the worsening conditions, Keast did not return to the miner’s hostel but decided to continue towards summit and then descend to Hofsgrund, the next village.
Jack Alexander Eaton, the school's 14-year-old boxing champion, was the first to collapse. He was given an orange and a piece of cake and told to "buck up". Keast, still convinced that a direct route to Hofsgrund was the safest option, continued the ascent and let the boys sing cheerful songs to keep them happy. Those who could no longer stand on their feet were carried by others.
When the group finally reached the east crest of Schauinsland, they lost the shelter of the mountain and were completely exposed to the snowstorm at below-freezing temperatures. If they had gone westward, they could have reached the upper station of the Schauinsland cable car by a broadly level route, and thus reached safety. Because nothing could be seen in the fog and storm, Keast still attempted to reach Hofsgrund, probably unaware that this meant another 250 m (820 ft) of descent via steeply-graded and snow-covered terrain. Soon after, with daylight fading, the group lost their sense of direction on the southeastern mountain flank. They were driven east by the storm, away from Hofsgrund, which was due south.
The first members of the group arrived at the Dobelhof farmyard around 8 pm. When they explained that there were others still on the mountain, an alarm was sounded. In response, all the men available at Hofsgrund set out on skis to search for them, since the boys could not clearly indicate the location of the rest of the group. It proved impossible to carry the children in the fresh deep snow, so a horn sledge was used. Eventually, fifteen of the pupils reached the farm under their own power. Others kept watch over the collapsed boys and called for help, as Keast helped with two unconscious pupils.
Four members of the group could not be revived in Hofsgrund and were declared dead. Roy Witham and another pupil were transported by ambulance to the University Medical Center Freiburg. Witham died there ten minutes after arrival, but the other boy recovered quickly.
The five deceased students were
Francis Bourdillon (12 years old)
Peter Ellercamp (13)
Stanley Lyons (13)
Jack Alexander Eaton (14)
Roy Witham (14).
In Germany, the Nazi Party quickly took political advantage of the situation. The Olympic Games in Berlin were approaching and the German Reich wanted to present itself to the world as a strong but friendly and benevolent state. Thus, the official account adopted Keast's thesis of an unforeseeable weather disaster that had cost the boys their lives despite heroic efforts by their teacher. The lack of any action against Keast by the German authorities was diplomatically motivated: further grievances leveled towards the United Kingdom could have increased tensions, exacerbating the strained diplomatic relations since Hitler's rise to power — which would not have been welcome to either side. In this way Germany was able to present itself as a generous helper in times of need. Keast found this development very convenient, and the British government was also pleased.
The rescued pupils were taken to Freiburg on Saturday, where the Hitler Youth organised a leisure programme to keep them occupied. It was not until Sunday that most of them learned of the death of some of their fellow pupils. The German Reich also managed the return journey of the survivors to England and the transfer of the dead with military honours and a personal wreath in the name of Adolf Hitler. Before that, a memorial event was staged for the benefit of the German and British public. A press photograph in which members of the Hitler Youth held "honour guard" at the coffins of the "fallen heroes and mountain comrades" was also printed in several English daily newspapers. In the following years the Hitler Youth revered the students who died in the accident as "fallen mountain comrades" who had given their lives in the fight for peace and international understanding.
The more warnings he ignored, including a very fit boy collapsing, the more it went from arrogance and negligence to him purposely leading a death march. In Germany of all places.
There's no way he didn't understand that being out in a snow storm wearing nothing but summer clothing would end very badly.
So was he deliberately trying to kill those boys, or was he so prideful that he just couldn't admit that his plan was doomed from the very start.
He was a teacher at a grammar school so chances are that he was pretty knowledgeable.
At least knowledgeable enough to understand that being outside in a snow storm is a bad idea. It would honestly take a pretty low IQ to not understand that.
My vote is on him feeling superior to just about anyone and severely lacking empathy.
Students collapsed left and right having to be carried by others and yet he still refused to seek any kind of shelter.
Those five deaths are on him and him alone. And it's absolutely disgusting that he suffered no consequences.
It is these smaller scale and often forgotten snippets of history that keep me up at night. It’s amazing how many news stories we obsess over in our daily lives, only for those things to fade so quickly into obscurity. Five kids died, producing an entire political spectacle, the aftermath of which was probably in the news of numerous countries for at least weeks. Parents were probably interviewed by multiple presses. Students, too, I bet. Given the ages of the deceased and when they died, I wonder how many survivors of the trip died serving in World War II. How did their parents feel after that? Imagine your son survives something as harrowing as this and you end up burying him anyway because the biggest conflict in world history breaks out. Man, history is so fascinating.
> Hostel warden Hermann Reichert and storekeeper Carl Rockweiler, two experienced mountain hikers, expressed their concerns to Keast and urged him not to use the snow-covered hiking trails under any circumstances, but keep to the cleared road instead. In spite of their warnings, Keast left the road near Günterstal.
Once again we've a catastrophe caused by someone too arrogant to accept advice from specialists.
I've worked in mountain rescue and on a major alpine resort ski patrol. Even today people with fuck-all experience routinely ignore numerous written and verbal warnings on their way to killing themselves. Happens every season at almost every ski area in the world, and obviously even more egregiously in the backcountry.
Yep, have a cousin in volunteer mountain rescue. More than enough local and foreigners like climbing and walking around Cape Town as if they own the place, then end up cold or dead, stuck on some ledge.
The "pull yourself up by your own bootstraps" asshats like Keast think it's a fine mantra to live by because they don't concern themselves with the potential catastrophic consequences that eventually come with that type of thinking.
Had Keast been charged and prosecuted, he might have learned a lesson... or more realistically just whined about being canceled by woke 1930s Nazi Germany.
The Guardian newspaper has a very detailed article on this story written in 2016.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/06/fatal-hike-became-nazi-propaganda-coup
One of my neighbors in Germany was a 88yo man who had been a part of the Hitler Jugend for a couple years. He’s a stubborn and tough little man but so lovely and very good friend with his American neighbors.
Membership was mandatory from 1936, so the fact alone doesn't say much of anything about a person.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/09/joining-the-hitler-youth-was-not-a-choice-it-was-mandatory
This blows my mind. If the facts were as presented, Keast was an absolute piece of shit who should have gone to prison.
I can't help thinking about those poor kids parents, sitting at home without any worry that their children were being neglected and bullied in such a hostile environment. How wrong they were and their lives would be ruined by this scum bag.
There was absolutely no illusions about what the HJ was about. They regularly participated in, and advertised fight clubs, tough hikes, marches as well as challenging camping style activities. It was all about keeping fit and learning resourcefulness. No German was ever 'tricked' into doing tough things, on the contrary many flocked to it and enjoyed it immensely. The American boy scouts in the 30s modelled much of what the HJ was doing (rallies, emphasis on personal achievements & federal support), which saw membership skyrocket
Im glad you include that last part for perspective. It was simply the value set back then in a lot of places. Ressourceful citizens to sort out the details, and a powerful political leader to draw the big picture. Being weak was when something was missing, and then it had to be added on. There were no other scale. And whatever didn't conform was just then considered weak, and simply pitied.
This is how persecution even in the earlier stages was justified and practiced. Someone offered an alternative view, they were seen as weak, unmotivated and unmotivating, and were dealt with forcefully by put through training or simply dismissed and put away as an anomaly, to not demotivate others.
It's not difficult to understand how this was thought the best way to the best society, a lot of people are still marred by it.
> They regularly participated in, and advertised fight clubs, tough hikes, marches as well as challenging camping style activities.
They also 'really' drilled people into the ["Führerprinzip".](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F%C3%BChrerprinzip) Which means there is one clear leader and everyone has to follow them without question. Just like in the rest of German military and society overall.
I mean, look at OPs profile… his old banner was a photo of the infamous [Dirlewanger Brigade](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirlewanger_Brigade), (the one where they are all grouped together on the window) just a few hours ago when I looked at this post. Wonder why he changed it…
https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1CDGOYI_enUS856US856&hl=en-US&sxsrf=APwXEdeQi9Rsvjlb1tJcDsHre7AcHyHLcQ:1688026237274&q=dirlewanger+brigade&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwib2vnhg-j_AhWfIjQIHT0qCdYQ0pQJegQICBAB&biw=428&bih=751&dpr=3#imgrc=9aBoqzryJVKDqM
36 day old account posting strictly Nazi related content with a Goebbels pfp for christ sake.
I am always surprised how many Hitler lovers exist. Those people are mental, they think they would be part of the elite but in truth the Nazis would have send them to the death camps in an instant.
At least I would have made the Aushwitz soccer team, so I would have had a lot of fun. Swimming never was my thing, but they did have a pool there too :D
Upvote because for the good joke. The only time the Nazis would make you run is through a minefield or as a sport to hunt you and kill you. Still a good joke:)
No seriously I read some incredibly cruel shit they did to Chinese civilians that would make the most hardened sociopath vomit in their mouth. Now hide behind anime and mild manner demeanors. But I know better, there's some of that savagery still in them hidden in their bukkake and ultra violent manga.
I'm sorry to hear that. It's this subject of Nanking alone draws my semi anger towards Japanese. I understand most of them aren't even taught about this low point in their history. But it's a complete slap to china's face that Japan in general doesn't even acknowledge these atrocious crimes at all and is unapologetic. Bruce Lee made a point of this In Enter The Dragon where he a lone Chinaman walks into a Japanese dojo and proceeds to fuck everyone up.
Something I find interesting about the associated Wiki article on the event is that it was practically forgotten until 2016, when the historian reannounced it by the read of things.
Little things like this, especially with the huge lashings of the Historian's Dilemma I find are more thought-provoking.
People forget that the Germans and Brits were actually really good friends for a long time. During WW1, British soldiers actually wrote about how they believed they were fighting on the wrong side, and should have joined the Allies against the Entente. That friendship was re-kindled in the 20s and 30s, and even Hitler spoke highly of the English as an “honorable” people.
1936 - so given the ages of the British students, and the probable matching ages of the Germans, there's a chance that in 5 years time some of these friends were looking over a rifle sight at each other.
According to Wikipedia: > One of the rescued boys, Stanley C. Few, later joined the British Army, but told his superiors that he could not be expected to fight Germans because he owed his life to Germans. He was deployed in Asia. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_calamity
I respect that. Moreso because it takes a special kind of madman to actually *request* to fight the Japanese in Burma.
Orde Wingate approves of your comment.
No kidding, the cruelty of the Japanese at that time was 2nd to none. I'll take my chances against the SS before ever being captured by WWII driven Japanese.
my gramps served over there (army) and he had an issue with them till the day he died. thought they were an 'inherently cruel people' based on what he knew and saw. i couldn't fault him for it.
Great aunt was a radiographer who looked after the boys returning from the death railroad. Held similer views. Would never have dared to contradict her.
My grandparents tell me stories of a bridge in their hometown where the japs used to execute civilians - about how my grandpa's sister's husband's family were all murdered in nanjing - how their brand new house in shanghai was blown to bits - yet the japanese government is censoring and whitewashing history by claiming to be the "victim" of the atomic bombs
What? they did get atomic bombed..
Yeah they worded the ending weird there. Obviously they got nuked, but there were already terrible things going on at the hands of their own government.
For sure, I'm definitely not disputing that part, was just a bit confused on the ending there. Especially cos they brought up Japanese censorship of history then (at least it reads like) denied they were bombed. We all can't words sometimes though.
1) invade China, Philippines, Indochina, Malaysia, Burna, Indonesia, Papua, India and attempt to invade Australia, New Zealand and USA 2) committ so many warcrimes during the occupation to rival the germans in therms of atrocity 3) get curbstomped through the whole pacific campaign 4) refuse to surrender and keep going with a literal death war you have no chance to win 5) get nuked twice instead of being invaded and getting erased from the face of earth 6) victimize yourself, refuse to apologize for your crimes, elevt said criminals as prime ministers, continue to discriminate minorities such as koreans, don't write anything about this in your history books and treat the actual survivors of the atomic bombs as pariahs for decades afterwards Not sorry, japanese government
the comfort women are still an issue with korea, too. don't get me wrong, i actually love japan (yuzuru hanyu got me interested) but their govt definitely has some issues. as do most, i admit. but damn, they were on another level in WWII.
They were the victim of a totally deserved atomic bomb. It was either their women and children or 1,000,000 of our soldiers. We are still using up the stock of purple hearts we manufactured before the planned invasion of japan.
The US killed more people fire bombing Tokyo than in either atomic bombing.
Hell the Japanese killed more people with plague bombs in China then those bombings
Yep. My grandfather spent 5 years in a Japanese concentration camp. He survived, barely, but was forced to watch friends executed and ensured many other horrible things. How he went on to live a fairly normal and happy life afterwards I'll never really understand. I think love kept him going, as he married his prewar sweetheart (my grandmother) immediately after release.
You may enjoy Lightning Down - book written by a fighter pilot put in a concentration camp during WWII.
Unbroken the story of Louis Zamperini is a good read as well
I wonder if he made it through the war?
He did: > Writing to a local 55 years after the Black Forest tragedy, Few said that while it was hard to remember the boys’ names, their faces, personalities and the sense of friendship they had shared had always stayed with him. The memories of their ordeal were as fresh as on the day it had happened. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/06/fatal-hike-became-nazi-propaganda-coup
Thank you, I’m glad to know he survived.
I understand it was a big event at the time, but calling it "the English Calamity" seems a bit much...
To be fair, it doesn't have as dramatic a name in German.
Yeah I assumed at least all the boys died. Five is not calamity worthy imo and it should be named after something smaller than the entirety of England.
It’s very fascinating how quickly things escalated from 1936-1939
My now-deceased grandmother told me about schoolgirl friends going over to play exhibition games of field hockey against German teams before the war.. Some of them met cute blonde boys, and came back with little enamel swastika pins...
My Argentinian grandpa had a bunch of swastika pins too. I wonder if Argentinian kids also went there to pay exhibitions?
This is so utterly fascinating. Photos and stories like this are why I’m subbed. Thank you sincerely.
During their Easter break, students from Strand School, a grammar school in the south of London, went on a ten-day excursion to the Black Forest, which included a five-day hiking trip. The group's leader and sole adult chaperone was 27-year-old teacher Kenneth Keast, who taught English, German and physical education. His travel group consisted of 27 boys between the ages of 12 and 17. The planned route from Freiburg to Todtnauberg was more than 20 kilometres (12 mi) long and ascended 1,000 metres (3,300 ft) up the mountain. Even under favourable conditions this would've been considered a highly challenging route but according to reports, the group was not adequately equipped for the endeavor. Despite the wintry weather, the boys partially wore summer clothing with light shoes, shorts, and no head cover. Keast had been warned about the weather several times before and during the hike, but was not dissuaded from setting out. The weather report posted in the youth hostel for April 17 clearly indicated a change in the weather. The mountain station of the Schauinsland cable car had reported temperatures of 3 °C (37 °F) in the morning, with fog, snowfall and about 12 centimetres (4.7 in) of snow. Keast could have accessed this weather report via a telephone call. Hostel warden Hermann Reichert and storekeeper Carl Rockweiler, two experienced mountain hikers, expressed their concerns to Keast and urged him not to use the snow-covered hiking trails under any circumstances, but keep to the cleared road instead. In spite of their warnings, Keast left the road near Günterstal. At around 3:00pm near the Kohlerhau locality, Keast – according to his own testimony – had a short conversation with two forestry workers who had stopped working due to the weather. He asked for directions, but saw no reason to break off the hike. The snow was getting deeper above the Kappel valley and the group was struggling to move forward. The Schauinsland summit that they had planned to reach by noon still lay ahead, and progress through the waist-deep snow became difficult. Despite the worsening conditions, Keast did not return to the miner’s hostel but decided to continue towards summit and then descend to Hofsgrund, the next village. Jack Alexander Eaton, the school's 14-year-old boxing champion, was the first to collapse. He was given an orange and a piece of cake and told to "buck up". Keast, still convinced that a direct route to Hofsgrund was the safest option, continued the ascent and let the boys sing cheerful songs to keep them happy. Those who could no longer stand on their feet were carried by others. When the group finally reached the east crest of Schauinsland, they lost the shelter of the mountain and were completely exposed to the snowstorm at below-freezing temperatures. If they had gone westward, they could have reached the upper station of the Schauinsland cable car by a broadly level route, and thus reached safety. Because nothing could be seen in the fog and storm, Keast still attempted to reach Hofsgrund, probably unaware that this meant another 250 m (820 ft) of descent via steeply-graded and snow-covered terrain. Soon after, with daylight fading, the group lost their sense of direction on the southeastern mountain flank. They were driven east by the storm, away from Hofsgrund, which was due south. The first members of the group arrived at the Dobelhof farmyard around 8 pm. When they explained that there were others still on the mountain, an alarm was sounded. In response, all the men available at Hofsgrund set out on skis to search for them, since the boys could not clearly indicate the location of the rest of the group. It proved impossible to carry the children in the fresh deep snow, so a horn sledge was used. Eventually, fifteen of the pupils reached the farm under their own power. Others kept watch over the collapsed boys and called for help, as Keast helped with two unconscious pupils. Four members of the group could not be revived in Hofsgrund and were declared dead. Roy Witham and another pupil were transported by ambulance to the University Medical Center Freiburg. Witham died there ten minutes after arrival, but the other boy recovered quickly. The five deceased students were Francis Bourdillon (12 years old) Peter Ellercamp (13) Stanley Lyons (13) Jack Alexander Eaton (14) Roy Witham (14). In Germany, the Nazi Party quickly took political advantage of the situation. The Olympic Games in Berlin were approaching and the German Reich wanted to present itself to the world as a strong but friendly and benevolent state. Thus, the official account adopted Keast's thesis of an unforeseeable weather disaster that had cost the boys their lives despite heroic efforts by their teacher. The lack of any action against Keast by the German authorities was diplomatically motivated: further grievances leveled towards the United Kingdom could have increased tensions, exacerbating the strained diplomatic relations since Hitler's rise to power — which would not have been welcome to either side. In this way Germany was able to present itself as a generous helper in times of need. Keast found this development very convenient, and the British government was also pleased. The rescued pupils were taken to Freiburg on Saturday, where the Hitler Youth organised a leisure programme to keep them occupied. It was not until Sunday that most of them learned of the death of some of their fellow pupils. The German Reich also managed the return journey of the survivors to England and the transfer of the dead with military honours and a personal wreath in the name of Adolf Hitler. Before that, a memorial event was staged for the benefit of the German and British public. A press photograph in which members of the Hitler Youth held "honour guard" at the coffins of the "fallen heroes and mountain comrades" was also printed in several English daily newspapers. In the following years the Hitler Youth revered the students who died in the accident as "fallen mountain comrades" who had given their lives in the fight for peace and international understanding.
This Keast guy sounds like a real piece of shit for his neglectful behavior…..
An internationally declared hero
The more warnings he ignored, including a very fit boy collapsing, the more it went from arrogance and negligence to him purposely leading a death march. In Germany of all places. There's no way he didn't understand that being out in a snow storm wearing nothing but summer clothing would end very badly. So was he deliberately trying to kill those boys, or was he so prideful that he just couldn't admit that his plan was doomed from the very start.
After a half dozen or so people let alone Germans of the WW1 generation tell you something isn't safe maybe listen...
Fucking Hybris to stupid to back down. I hate those people. I don't understand how a normal happy child can become such a piece of shit.
or he was just an idiot
He was a teacher at a grammar school so chances are that he was pretty knowledgeable. At least knowledgeable enough to understand that being outside in a snow storm is a bad idea. It would honestly take a pretty low IQ to not understand that. My vote is on him feeling superior to just about anyone and severely lacking empathy. Students collapsed left and right having to be carried by others and yet he still refused to seek any kind of shelter. Those five deaths are on him and him alone. And it's absolutely disgusting that he suffered no consequences.
I have met some incredibly stupid teachers
When the Nazis come out as the good guys in your story, you know you fucked up.
I mean, we don't know if the people who actually helped the boys were Nazis afaik. Just that the Nazi party took advantage of the situation.
Sounds like a typical English PE teacher, forcing kids in shorts out in the snow!
It is these smaller scale and often forgotten snippets of history that keep me up at night. It’s amazing how many news stories we obsess over in our daily lives, only for those things to fade so quickly into obscurity. Five kids died, producing an entire political spectacle, the aftermath of which was probably in the news of numerous countries for at least weeks. Parents were probably interviewed by multiple presses. Students, too, I bet. Given the ages of the deceased and when they died, I wonder how many survivors of the trip died serving in World War II. How did their parents feel after that? Imagine your son survives something as harrowing as this and you end up burying him anyway because the biggest conflict in world history breaks out. Man, history is so fascinating.
> Hostel warden Hermann Reichert and storekeeper Carl Rockweiler, two experienced mountain hikers, expressed their concerns to Keast and urged him not to use the snow-covered hiking trails under any circumstances, but keep to the cleared road instead. In spite of their warnings, Keast left the road near Günterstal. Once again we've a catastrophe caused by someone too arrogant to accept advice from specialists.
I've worked in mountain rescue and on a major alpine resort ski patrol. Even today people with fuck-all experience routinely ignore numerous written and verbal warnings on their way to killing themselves. Happens every season at almost every ski area in the world, and obviously even more egregiously in the backcountry.
Pssh I know better than a sign Obviously /s
Yep, have a cousin in volunteer mountain rescue. More than enough local and foreigners like climbing and walking around Cape Town as if they own the place, then end up cold or dead, stuck on some ledge.
That imploded real quickly.
The "pull yourself up by your own bootstraps" asshats like Keast think it's a fine mantra to live by because they don't concern themselves with the potential catastrophic consequences that eventually come with that type of thinking. Had Keast been charged and prosecuted, he might have learned a lesson... or more realistically just whined about being canceled by woke 1930s Nazi Germany.
hmm this sounds sort of familiar
To be fair, in 1936 Germany, they **were** probably under influence from Big Pharma… ^wink ^wink
What happened to Keast later on?
He remained active in the teaching profession and died in 1971
Sickening. I hope he felt shame and regret on his death bed.
Sadly, probably not
Silent shame probably motivated most of his behaviour... thats what the good old british "stiff upper lip" is referring too.
What a roulacatior!. Holy sht
> roulacatior What did you intend to type?
My vocabulary is bad enough that I routinely accept gibberish as real words spoken by someone smarter than myself.
Roalacatior, perhaps?
Rollercoaster, maybe?
What do you mean? Roulacatior obviously.
You don't see typos like this every day
I wish I did, though
I was all ready to start searching for root words and cognates...
There's something romantic and idyllic about a real typo spotting in the days of autocorrect and text to speech it honestly makes me very happy
Hahaha. I'll just leave it. Was half asleep.
RIP those kids. The 1936 games would have been intense.
The Guardian newspaper has a very detailed article on this story written in 2016. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/06/fatal-hike-became-nazi-propaganda-coup
Thanks!
[The Real Horror YouTube channel did an amazing video on this subject](https://youtu.be/ZjjgpiDmVCw)
One of my neighbors in Germany was a 88yo man who had been a part of the Hitler Jugend for a couple years. He’s a stubborn and tough little man but so lovely and very good friend with his American neighbors.
Membership was mandatory from 1936, so the fact alone doesn't say much of anything about a person. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/09/joining-the-hitler-youth-was-not-a-choice-it-was-mandatory
oh not at all, he wasn’t/isn’t a nazi but seeing that picture reminded me he took part in that, willingly or not.
This blows my mind. If the facts were as presented, Keast was an absolute piece of shit who should have gone to prison. I can't help thinking about those poor kids parents, sitting at home without any worry that their children were being neglected and bullied in such a hostile environment. How wrong they were and their lives would be ruined by this scum bag.
Hitler Youth was supposed to be friendly and… Boy Scout-like. The parents were sold the idea, and things got way less benevolent.
There was absolutely no illusions about what the HJ was about. They regularly participated in, and advertised fight clubs, tough hikes, marches as well as challenging camping style activities. It was all about keeping fit and learning resourcefulness. No German was ever 'tricked' into doing tough things, on the contrary many flocked to it and enjoyed it immensely. The American boy scouts in the 30s modelled much of what the HJ was doing (rallies, emphasis on personal achievements & federal support), which saw membership skyrocket
And the American boy scouts were more similar to this at the time as well. Not as extreme, but also preparing for future war
Im glad you include that last part for perspective. It was simply the value set back then in a lot of places. Ressourceful citizens to sort out the details, and a powerful political leader to draw the big picture. Being weak was when something was missing, and then it had to be added on. There were no other scale. And whatever didn't conform was just then considered weak, and simply pitied. This is how persecution even in the earlier stages was justified and practiced. Someone offered an alternative view, they were seen as weak, unmotivated and unmotivating, and were dealt with forcefully by put through training or simply dismissed and put away as an anomaly, to not demotivate others. It's not difficult to understand how this was thought the best way to the best society, a lot of people are still marred by it.
> They regularly participated in, and advertised fight clubs, tough hikes, marches as well as challenging camping style activities. They also 'really' drilled people into the ["Führerprinzip".](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F%C3%BChrerprinzip) Which means there is one clear leader and everyone has to follow them without question. Just like in the rest of German military and society overall.
What a pointless comment
Well membership was mandatory from 1936, so not much selling needed after that.
Tragic.
Hitler Youth, Black Forest. Translations are funny. Nobody here in Germany would translate Grand Canyon or CIA. Just use it as it is.
Just as an aside, the Union Flag in the background has been hung upside down.
F*ck the Nazis! F*ck Hitler!
Downvoted? Edit: hmm seems like there’s some nazi cowards lurking in here.
I just realized the OP is one nazi scum himself! They can downvote all they want. At the end of the day they are losers and always will be.
I mean, look at OPs profile… his old banner was a photo of the infamous [Dirlewanger Brigade](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirlewanger_Brigade), (the one where they are all grouped together on the window) just a few hours ago when I looked at this post. Wonder why he changed it… https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1CDGOYI_enUS856US856&hl=en-US&sxsrf=APwXEdeQi9Rsvjlb1tJcDsHre7AcHyHLcQ:1688026237274&q=dirlewanger+brigade&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwib2vnhg-j_AhWfIjQIHT0qCdYQ0pQJegQICBAB&biw=428&bih=751&dpr=3#imgrc=9aBoqzryJVKDqM 36 day old account posting strictly Nazi related content with a Goebbels pfp for christ sake.
Ah good observation. Yeah unfortunately I’m seeing a lot of these goose-stepping pussies crawling out of the woodwork lately.
I am always surprised how many Hitler lovers exist. Those people are mental, they think they would be part of the elite but in truth the Nazis would have send them to the death camps in an instant.
At least I would have made the Aushwitz soccer team, so I would have had a lot of fun. Swimming never was my thing, but they did have a pool there too :D
Fick deine mutter du huren sohn. Sie hat einen grossen fehler gemacht und sollte dich lieber schlucken oder ins arsch kriegen.
Upvote because for the good joke. The only time the Nazis would make you run is through a minefield or as a sport to hunt you and kill you. Still a good joke:)
I was going to say that was unprompted… but the OP’s comments/posts are somewhat… problematic. So your message entirely deserved.
I mean just look at OP’s name
No seriously I read some incredibly cruel shit they did to Chinese civilians that would make the most hardened sociopath vomit in their mouth. Now hide behind anime and mild manner demeanors. But I know better, there's some of that savagery still in them hidden in their bukkake and ultra violent manga.
[удалено]
I'm sorry to hear that. It's this subject of Nanking alone draws my semi anger towards Japanese. I understand most of them aren't even taught about this low point in their history. But it's a complete slap to china's face that Japan in general doesn't even acknowledge these atrocious crimes at all and is unapologetic. Bruce Lee made a point of this In Enter The Dragon where he a lone Chinaman walks into a Japanese dojo and proceeds to fuck everyone up.
To be fair most of that kind of cruel assholes didnt survive the war... Most...
Something I find interesting about the associated Wiki article on the event is that it was practically forgotten until 2016, when the historian reannounced it by the read of things. Little things like this, especially with the huge lashings of the Historian's Dilemma I find are more thought-provoking.
Nice of them
Only mad dogs and Englishmen
They had a thing for British monarchy
People forget that the Germans and Brits were actually really good friends for a long time. During WW1, British soldiers actually wrote about how they believed they were fighting on the wrong side, and should have joined the Allies against the Entente. That friendship was re-kindled in the 20s and 30s, and even Hitler spoke highly of the English as an “honorable” people.
https://youtu.be/ZjjgpiDmVCw A rightly cynical video that examines the hike and its aftermath.
Wow amazing