Spyclists: how Hitler Youth's cycling tours caused panic in prewar Britain

[Judi Lynn]

Spyclists: how Hitler Youth's cycling tours caused panic in prewar Britain
Nazis' bid to forge ties with Lord Baden-Powell and boy scouts rang government alarm bells
The Guardian, Monday 8 March 2010

Cycling tours by Hitler Youth groups and Nazi attempts to establish close links with the Boy Scout movement caused a security panic in prewar Britain, according to MI5 files released today.

Police officers were alerted to monitor German students on bicycle holidays in the late 1930s as they stopped at schools, Rotary clubs, factories and church services.

An effusively amicable meeting between Lord Baden-Powell, head of the Scout movement, and Joachim von Ribbentrop, the German ambassador, rang even louder alarm bells in Whitehall.

Fears that these "spyclists" were on clandestine reconnaissance rides first emerged in spring 1937, triggering concern at the highest levels of the security service as the arms race with Nazi Germany intensified.

More:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/08/hitler-youth-prewar-cyclists-boy-scouts

[hlthe2b]

1. Well that's an amazing story I'd not heard before...

thanks for posting

[Demeter]

2. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised

The Nazis were evil, not stupid.