2. Opposition, control and consent 1933–1945 Flashcards
Examples of opposition and dissent in Nazi Germany summary
Anti-Nazi campaigns
Sabotage
Disobedience
Attempts to assassinate Hitler
Anti-Nazi campaigns: Red Shock Troop
In 1933 the SPD group Red Shock Troop published the newspaper Red Shock Troop about every 10 days and built a membership of about 3000 - leaders were arrested and sent to concentration camps
Anti-Nazi campaigns: communist opposition
In 1941 (after operation Barbarossa), communist groups revived - The Uhrig groups leafleted factories and put up posters urging workers to acts of sabotage
Anti-Nazi campaigns: The Red Orchestra
The Red Orchestra - group of government employees (not necessarily communist) passed information about the German war effort to the USSR
Sabotage before WW2 - workers
Workers held lightning strikes that usually lasted a few hours e,g, in 1936, workers who built the autobahns held a lightning strike
Workers also sabotaged production by working slowly, damaging machinery or reporting in sick - these actions could lead to arrest if reported however as workers were in high demand especially when the war broke out so this was often overlooked
Sabotage during WW2
more violent with assistance from the allies included blowing up bridges or railway lines
Disobedience: The ‘Swing Youth’ and ‘Jazz Youth’
Some young people (usually affluent middle class) deliberately did not join the Hitler Youth and instead went to clubs to listen to ‘cool’ music such as swing and jazz and wear western clothing
After 1940 these clubs were declared illegal and went underground - the Nazis made occasional arrests but mostly left these groups alone as they did not actively express anti-Nazi sediments
Disobedience: Edelweiss Pirates
Large working-class movement and actively anti-nazi - ran their own activites such as hiking and camping but also painted anti-Nazi slogans on wall or collected Anti-Nazi leaflets dropped by allied planes and posted them through letterboxes.
If caught, they were executed. In 1944, the Pirates in Cologne killed the Gestapo chief, so the Nazis publicly hanged 12 of them.
Disobedience: White Rose Group
Formed by students at Munich University in 1943 who operated in secret distributing anti-Nazi material urging sabotage and exposing the Nazi murder of Jews while urging non-violent resistance
Its leaders, brother and sister Hans and Sophie Scholl, were arrested and sentenced to the guillotine
Attempts to assassinate Hitler
July 1921 - July 1944: there were about 15 known attempts to assassinate Hitler. (7 of these were by army members who disapproved of the more extreme Nazi beliefs especially the murder of Jews/other ‘undesirables’.)
All plotters were caught and executed immediately
The most serious attempt to assassinate Hitler
July plot of 1944 - attempt by the German army to take over the government and negotiate the end of the war with the allies.
On the 20th July - Lieutenant Stauffenberg left a bomb in a briefcase in a conference where hitler was - while four people were killed, Hitler survived with minor injuries
Plotters were either shot or committed suicide. Investigation led to trial and execution of 200 other people who were said (rightly or wrongly) to be involved.
Nazi influence in the church
Hitler first set up a Concordant with the pope in which he promised to leave the Catholic Church alone if it did not interdere in German politics
Hitler then set up a developed a Nazi-influenced ‘Peoples’ Church with a Reichsbishop - became less christian and more nazi evidenced by the removal of the Old Testament from the Bible as it was ‘jewish
Church opposition
The removal of the old testament from the bible caused formation of the Pastors’ Emergency League which developed into the Confessing church in 1934 - it condemned the People’s Church for obeying the state, being anti-Semitic and encouraging atheism
Many members were of the confessing Church were arrested and some were executed
Spontaneous protests (informal reactions by groups of people): imprisonment of bishops
Large groups protested publicly when the Nazis imprisoned two bishops (Hamds Meiser and Theophil Wurm) for speaking out against the Nazis in October 1934 - the Nazis were moving very cautiously towards both protest and and catholic churches backed down and released the bishops.
Spontaneous protests (informal reactions by groups of people): imprisonment of bishops
Hitler ordered military processions in Berlin publicising the invasion of Czecholvakia in 1938 - people were enthusiastic instead of cheering and waving which prompted Hitler to work with Chamberlain at the Munich agreement to reach agreement over the land he was claiming in Czecholvakia rather than go to war