Fritz Theilen (27 September 1927 – 18 April 2012) was a German member of the anti- Nazi

resistance Resistance may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Comics * Either of two similarly named but otherwise unrelated comic book series, both published by Wildstorm: ** ''Resistance'' (comics), based on the video game of the same title ** ''T ...

group the

Edelweißpiraten The Edelweiss Pirates (german: Edelweißpiraten ) were a loosely organized group of youths opposed to the status quo of Nazi Germany. They emerged in western Germany out of the German Youth Movement of the late 1930s in response to the strict re ...

during World War II. Born to working-class parents, he joined the Deutsches Jungvolk division of the Hitler Youth in 1937, and was excluded for resisting orders in 1940. He started an apprenticeship at the local Ford Motor Company auto plant in 1941. In 1942 he joined the Edelweißpiraten. He was imprisoned at the Gestapo's Cologne headquarters—the

EL-DE Haus EL-DE Haus, officially the NS Documentation Center of the City of Cologne, located in Cologne, is the former headquarters of the Gestapo and now a museum documenting the Third Reich. The building was at first the business premises of jewell ...

—in 1943. After managing to escape from prison, he survived in the underground until 1945. Ford only re-employed him after the British occupation force exerted pressure on the company's management.

References

1927 births 2012 deaths German resistance members Hitler Youth members {{Germany-activist-stub