“This youth does not learn anything but to think German and to act German”, says Hitler in an address on education in 1938. One group of youngsters, however, is not marching in step. With rhymes like “Swinging do we want to march into the compulsory HY”, long hair and English-style like clothing these youngsters dissociate from the NS-mainstream. Friendships with Jewish or foreign folks of their age are not seldom. Their regular meeting points were in St. Pauli at places like “Café Heinze” on the Reeperbahn or the ice skating parlour on Heiligengeistfeld.
In 1938, the “Reichskulturkammer” (Reich cultural authority) bans the Swing dance. Two years later, the Hamburg branch of the “Gestapo” (the secret police) even forms a special force having the task of persecuting the Swing Youth. Between 1940 and 1945, 400 of them are taken into custody, 70 are committed to concentration camps. And yet, new Swing clubs and groups do form in 1944.
In a mock personal ad in commemorative journal of the FC St. Pauli Rugby dept. in 1938, a “young man, 19 years old, much-sought Swing dancer” is seeking “a nice proper girl”. According to a witness of that period, also the later player of the “miraculous eleven” Harald Stender was said to have been member of a Swing Youth group.
So, when SA-member Walter Koehler complained about “smoking, drinking youngsters” in the club house, these young folks might have been members of the Swing Youth.