Citation of bravery in Scout Association Award Records
International
Scouting
Internationally Scouting engaged with the world wide conflict according
to the local circumstances. Polish Scouts not only undertook civil
defence roles as their British counterparts but also took up arms against both
the Germans and Russians who simultaneous invaded Poland in September
1939. During the occupation of Europe Scouting became an underground
movement banned by the Nazi Party but this did not deter Scouts from secretly meeting
even with the threat of the death penalty.
The French Boy Scouts rescued of forty Jewish children from deportation
to the concentration camps by hiding them in the countryside around
Lyons. When the Germans came to collect the children from the Red Cross
in Lyon they only found the elderly residents of the local almshouses whom they
had no interest in deporting.
Nearer to home the Channel Islands under German control couldn’t
suppress Groups like the 11th Jersey even when their building was
torched and equipment confiscated. They carried on with secret meetings
and passing badge tests by exchanging the little equipment they possessed.
Indian
Scouts assisted with famine relief operations at Hissar providing clothing and
collecting over three tons of ‘amlas’, edible berries with strong vitamin
properties for the starving during 1940. Another famine in Bengal in 1943
also saw Scouts intervening to save lives and mitigate the effects. The
District Commissioner reported that, “They
managed a food centre for destitute wanderers whom the local villagers were
unwilling or unable to assist. This centre was praised for the care with
which it was managed – no waste and no peculation by workers and
villagers."
With the liberation of France and the Low Countries from June 1944,
Scouts once again wore their uniforms openly and assisted the Allied
advance. A BBC correspondent commented that, “The Scouts are doing a twenty-four hour a day job. I have seen
them resetting the cobblestone approaches to bridges so that our armies can get
along quicker. After nightfall they act as guides to soldiers whose
duties take them out into the pitch darkness in towns and villages where they
could easily lose their way.â€
Offering Relief
The Scout
International Relief Service was instigated in 1944 for adult Scout Leaders to
provide humanitarian assistance in Europe and to deal with the aftermath of
conflict.
Members of the Scout International Relief Service