On 17 April 1936, the bells of St Laurentius church in the Black Forest rang to guide a group of London schoolboys to safety after they became trapped in deep snow during a mountain hike. Ninety years later, as the bells sounded again, British relatives and German villagers gathered to remember the night that brought their families together.
The people of Hofsgrund risked their lives using sledges and lanterns in deadly weather to rescue 27 pupils and their teacher. Two boys, having reached a farmhouse, alerted the inhabitants that many more were stranded on the Schauinsland mountain. However, the Hitler Youth Organisation claimed credit, staging a propaganda coup by flanking the coffins of the five boys who died in what locals call the Engländerunglück (English Misfortune).
Jenny Davies, daughter of survivor Douglas Mortifee, said it was time to honour the villagers and correct the historical record. Speaking in the church, she told the congregation: 'Without your help we would not be here now.' The Nazis' hijacking of the narrative was supported by British appeasement advocates, and it allowed teacher Kenneth Keast to avoid blame despite setting out with inadequate equipment against local warnings.
Relatives and villagers retraced part of the boys' route, visiting a Nazi-era monument and a modest stone cross near where 14-year-old Jack Eaton died. The cross, commissioned by Jack's father, has become the true memorial. Nancy Whelan, Jack's niece, touched the inscription and said: 'My nan and my mother always said they just wanted the truth to come out.'
Ewald Lorenz welcomed relatives at the Dobelhof farmyard where his grandparents had brought hypothermic boys to safety. 'We know to always have an open door and an open mind,' he said. In the village hall, families swapped stories, including that of cobbler Bruno Lorenz, who recalled: 'The snow and wind was monstrous.'
