The Black Forest Tragedy

The teacher that killed his students and how the Nazis profited from it.

In 1936, a group of schoolboys left London for a trip hiking in the Black Forest. The trip should have given the boys a lifetime of experiences; sadly, it gave them a lifetime of nightmares, that was for the ones that returned.

Despite the heroic efforts of the German villagers, some of the boys succumbed to their ordeal. In death, the boys would become part of the Nazi propaganda machine. However, it was not the Nazis that were responsible for the death. That resulted from an incompetent teacher who would not listen to advice.

The propaganda suited both Britain and Germany to smooth over relations and avoid World War II. The story they shared of the heroic teacher who was helped by the Hitler Youth to rescue as many boys as possible from a mountain was the one many people believed for decades. The story I am going to tell you is what actually happened.