6.24 Oppostion And Reisistance In War Time Flashcards
What was a key wild clique that began to re-emerge during the war among the working class youth?
Edelweiss pirates
Who were the edelweiss pirates?
Mostly working class youths aged 14-18 in Rhineland and Ruhr areas
They were anti Hitler youth and wanted to avoid conscription
Nazi report said they disliked discipline and placed themselves in opposition of the committee
What did the Edelweiss pirates do to resist the regime?
Rejected official, disciplined and militaristic culture of Hitler youth by having Organised independent expeditions into the country side
where they sang songs banned in the Hitler youth
Were clashes with Hitler Youth groups in the war years
They obtained supplies by attaching military deports-chaos caused by bombing allowed underground activity to be possible
How did the Nazis respond to the Edelweiss pirates?
Used Gestapo and Hitler youth to crush them
First tried shaving their heads and sending them to labour camps-moved to more severe measured
1942 broke up 28 groups in Düsseldorf and the leaders were publicly hanged in 1944
What was the resistance from the middle class youth?
Swing youth movement
What did the ministry of justice report the motivations of the swing youth movement was?
To have a good time
What did the swing youth movement do?
Listened to American and British swing and jazz music and wore English style clothes
Clubs appeared all over Germany where they would listen to jazz music-this placed them in opposition to the regime
Hitler and the Nazi regime wanted to sent the leaders of to concentration camps for two or three years
What was the student opposition called
White rose group
Who were the white rose group led by?
Hans and Sophie Scholl
What did the shore rose group do?
Target educated middle class
Based in Munich they emphasised the importance of individual freedom and personal responsibility in questions of morality. This led the group to attack the Nazi treatment of Jews and Slavs people of Eastern Europe
What did the white rose group do in 1942-43?
Issued 6 pamphlets that were distributed in Munich and further afield by sympathisers
What did the white rose group do in Feb 1943?
Painted anti Nazi slogans like Hitler mass murder on buildings
Eventually caught by Gestapo and executed
Why did the Roman Catholic Church oppose the regime
Protect their organisations in Germany initially
Bishop Gale spoke out against Euthanasia programme in 1940 that had killed 270,000 mentally and physically disabled people -protest struck a chord with Christians and the programme was temporarily bolted by the regime
Priests who distributed Gale’s sermon were persecuted
-3 catholic priests executed
-archbishop Frings of Cologne condemned killing prisoners of war
Who were the only Christian body to speak out publicly against the treatment on Jews?
Protestant confessional church of Prussia
Describe the resistance of the Protestant church to the regime?
Jan 1943 statement read from churches critiquing the regime
Bonhoeffer who had been banned from public speaking in 1940 spoke out against the regime but it didn’t reach a wide audience
Bonhoeffer arrested by Gestapo in 1943 and executed 1945
What undermined communist resistance to the regime?
1939 Nazi soviet pact
At the time of the invasion of the ussr June 1941 how many communist underground cells where there in Berlin
89
What was the communist main way of spreading ideas and attempting to recruit?
Issuing leaflets attacking the regime
Gestapo had considerable success destroying their underground network by end of 1943 22 of 89 cells destroyed
Movement had no hope of gaining support as USSR was seen as main enemy
Why did the elected never join together to overthrow Hitler
Had no unity of purpose some felt a moral conviction regime was evil others acted out of patriotism and felt Hitler was leading Germany to destruction
Who was in the Kreisau circle
-aristocrats
Lawyers
SPD menders
Churchmen such as Bonhoeffer
Group united under belief of personal freedom and individual responsibility
Who was a key leading figure in the Kreisau ciricle?
Count Hulmut Von Moltke
What happened to the Kreisau circle
Had 3 meetings in 1942-43 before Gestapo broke them up
Why did the elites decide to try and assassinate Hitler?
Defeat in Stalingrad showed he was leading her armies to disaster
Who was Involved with the assignation of Hitler attempts?
General Beck
Karl Goerdeler
Ulrich Von Hassell
Who joined the conspiracy against Hitler in 1943 and what did he do
Claus Von Stauffenberg-succeeded in planting a bomb in Hitler’s head quarters in July 1944
What happened to the July 1944 plot
Bomb explodes but Hitler escapes with minor injures -was a broadcast of Hitler to show he was still alive which out and end to attempted coup
Led to army losing all its remaining independence and was put under SS control
General beck commits sliced and stauffenberg was shot
7000 arrested and 5746 killed
