According to now-declassified MI5 files, Lord Baden-Powell, the founder of the modern scouting movement, was nice and friendly with the Hitler Youth, and held meetings with von Ribbentrop about forming closer ties.
I knew there was a reason I dropped out of the scouts when I was 10, calling them a “bunch of fascists.” (Literally.) I mean, who names an organization for prepubescent youth “Webelos” (pronounced “We-Blow”)? Freaks.
Scouting founder Lord Robert Baden-Powell was invited to meet Adolf Hitler after friendly talks with the Hitler Youth about forming closer ties, secret British files released Monday showed.
Britain’s Baden-Powell, who started the Scouts in 1907, held talks with German ambassador Joachim von Ribbentrop and Hitler Youth chief of staff Hartmann Lauterbacher on November 19, 1937.
Lauterbacher, then 28, was in Britain to foster closer relations with the Boy Scout movement and Ribbentrop invited Baden-Powell to tea with the Hitler Youth leader, newly declassified MI5 Security Service files revealed.