Gertrud Koch

Gertrud Koch (1 June 1924 – 21 June 2016) was a German resistance fighter during World War II. She is best known for being a member of the youth group Edelweiss Pirates.

Life She was born in Cologne on 1 June 1924. Her father was a communist and was arrested several times after 1933. He died in a concentration camp in 1942. Her mother lost her job and could not afford to send Koch to high school. Koch had an apprenticeship at a Montessori kindergarten but was unable to take her final exams due to her family's political affiliations.

Before the Nazi Party came into power, she was a member of the communist group Red Young Pioneers. She refused to join the League of German Girls She was arrested in December 1942 and interrogated by the Gestapo at Brauweiler. She was held there until May 1943. After she was released, she fled to Southern Germany with her mother where she worked on a farm and returned to Cologne after the war. In 2005, she co-founded the yearly festival Edelweißpiratenfestival (Edelweiss Pirates Festival). She published her memoirs, Edelweiß - Meine Jugend als Widerstandskämpferin (Edelweiss - My youth as a resistance fighter) in 2006.

Koch was the last known surviving member of the Edelweiss Pirates and she died on 21 June 2016.