Central Europe Germany Italy Spain (Spanish Civil War) Albania Austria Baltic states Belgium Bulgaria Burma China Czechia Denmark France Germany Greece Italy Japan Jewish Luxembourg Netherlands Norway Poland Romania Slovakia Spain Soviet Union Yugoslavia Germany Italy Netherlands Portugal Spain Sweden Switzerland United Kingdom United States The Black Band (German: Schwarze Scharen, Polish: Czarne Szeregi[1]) were resistance groups of anarchist and anarcho-syndicalist youth and young adults in the last years of the Weimar Republic.
As a protection force against the growing National Socialist movement and disruptive communist activities, local clandestine anti-fascist organizations, known as black bands, were founded from 1929 onwards, mostly equipped with limited weapons and explosives.
The anti-fascist formations were criticized among older comrades because black clothing represented militarization, whilst the street fighting could herald a relapse into the forms of political terrorism of the 19th century that had been overcome.
The Silesian formations were known to be able to call upon several hundred militants,[5] although in 1932 some of their leading members, including Paul Czakon, were forced into exile after the authorities discovered their arms dump.
With the Machtergreifung (seizure of power) in 1933, the anarchist and anarcho-syndicalist youth organizations such as the SAJD disbanded themselves to avoid a ban and further arrests of their members, some of whom had been sent to the concentration camps.