K. R. Gaddy - Flowers in the Gutter: The True Story of the Edelweiss Pirates, Teenagers Who Resisted the Nazis

This is a work of nonfiction, which means everything is true. The dialogue and descriptions of events are taken from the memoirs written by Jean Jlich, Fritz Theilen, and Gertrud Koch (ne Khlem); the Gestapo archives; and oral histories with surviving Edelweiss Pirates and their family members, mostly done in the early 2000s, but some done as early as the 1970s.

Even though this is nonfiction, real truth is hard to come by, especially during times of war and trauma. A memory can be as faulty as the archival records of the Gestapo. For example, Gertrud Mucki Koch writes in her memoir and says in interviews that she spent nine months at the Brauweiler prison from the winter of 1942 into 1943, but the Gestapo records say that she was only there for nineteen days. It doesnt mean that she is lyingintentionally or unintentionally. Being in prison is traumatic, and what she went through most certainly left her with post-traumatic stress.

The Gestapo records are also biased. We know that confessions were coercedeither by physically beating prisoners or by psychologically tormenting them with promises of release or threats against family members. The Gestapo had a particular worldview that they were trying to prove with each report, arrest, and interrogation. I tried to verify the memories of people present with the Gestapo record and have indicated where there are discrepancies in the text and in endnotes.

Names of people are rendered as fully and accurately as possible when they first appear in the book. Many of the Pirates and their associates went by nicknames or aliases. Often sources dont include real names or surnames of important figures. If a person is introduced by a first name or a nickname only, it means I was unable to confirm a full name. I also chose to keep misspellings of names as they appear in the original Gestapo documents.

Descriptions of places are taken from the memoirs and from my own visits to the locations that the Pirates mention, from the parks in Cologne to where they hiked, to Ellern, to Simmern, to the EL-DE House, to Brauweiler. All of the translations are my own.

Edelweiss are faithful.

Motto of the Edelweiss Pirates

We werent academics.
We were from the gutter.

Jean Jlich