Chapter 24 Flashcards
Overview of opposition and resistance during wartime
The growing hardships experienced by the German people during the war, together with the fact that after the defeat at Stalingrad the possibility of a German defeat loomed ever larger, induced a mood of growing scepticism.
Propaganda became less effective and SD reports commented on the denting of the Hitler myth. There are indications that the Nazi Party lost support during the war. Fewer people attended Party meetings or participated in Party activities. Party membership fell. However, any individuals or groups that were opposed to the regime faced enormous obstacles. Despite their growing scepticism, the majority of Germans remained loyal to the regime.
The groups that might have become the focus of opposition had either been banned (trade unions and non-Nazi political parties) or had compromised hemselves by cooperating with the Nazis (the Churches, the army, the elites).
Moreover, the Nazi police and surveillance system was highly effective in uncovering opposition groups and silencing them before they could become a serious threat. A small number of brave people did engage in active opposition and paid a heavy price for their courage. Many more took risks br hiding Jews, listening to BBC radio broadcasts or reading banned books.
Whilst these actions show an undercurrent of resistance, they posed no real threat to the regime.
Overview of opposition from working-class youth
During the 1930s, the Nazis had banned all independent youth groups and made membership of the Hitler Youth (H) compulsory. However, there was a long-standing tradition among working-class youths to form independent youth groups. Some, such as the ‘wild cliques, were criminal or semi-criminal in nature, whilst others, such as the Wandervogel were law-abiding but unconventional. Despite the efforts of the regime, the ‘wild cliques were never completely suppressed and began to re-emerge during the war. One such group was the Edelweiss Pirates.
Who were the Edelweiss Pirates and what did they do?
The Edelweiss Pirates were groups of mostly working-class young people aged 14-18 who were mainly active in the Rhineland and Ruhr areas. Their name derived from their badge, which showed an edelweiss flower. According to the Justice Ministry report, the main ‘uniform of the group consisted of
‘short trousers, white socks, a check shirt, a white pullover and scarf and a windcheater, In addition they have very long hair. Although not overtly political, the Edelweiss Pirates were anti-Hitler Youth and tried to avoid conscription. The report also stated that “They hate all discipline and thereby place themselves in opposition to the community. However, they are not only politically hostile but, as a result of their composition, they are also criminal and antisocial?
The Edelweiss Pirates consciously rejected the official, disciplined and militaristic culture of the Hitler Youth by organising independent expeditions into the countryside, where they sang songs banned in the Hitler Youth. In the war years, there were an increasing number of clashes between Edelweiss Pirates and Hitler Youth groups. In 1944, the Cologne group became linked to an underground group that helped army deserters, escaped prisoners of war, forced labourers and prisoners from concentration camps. They obtained supplies by attacking military depots. The chaos and destruction caused by bombing provided the conditions for developing underground activity.
How did the regime suppress the Edelweiss Pirates?
The Gestapo and Hitler Youth used their powers to crush the Edelweiss
Pirates. When arrests, shaving of heads and banishment to labour camps did not work, the Gestapo turned to more severe measures. On 7 December 1942, the Gestapo broke up 28 groups in Düsseldorf, Duisburg, Essen and Wuppertal. The leaders of the Cologne Edelweiss Pirates were publicly hanged in November 1944.
Who were the Swing Youth?
Swing Youth
A different style of youth rebellion developed among young people from the prosperous middle class. The Swing Youth were motivated, according to the Ministry of Justice report, by the desire to have a good time! In a conscious rejection of Nazi values, the Swing Youth groups listened to American and British swing and jazz music and wore English-style clothes. Swing clubs sprang up in Hamburg, Kiel, Berlin, Stuttgart, Frankfurt, Dresden, Halle and Karlsruhe.
By adopting jazz music - which the Nazis referred to as ‘negro music - as the emblem of an alternative youth culture, they were placing themselves in opposition to the regime, but they were not overtly political or attempting to overthrow the regime. Nevertheless their ‘sleaziness and unashamed pleasure-seeking offended the moral precepts of the Nazi regime and Himmler wanted to send the leaders of the movement to concentration camps for two to three years.
Opposition from students: the White Rose group
Based in Munich, the White Rose group was a more consciously political movement. Led by Hans and Sophie Scholl, and supported by Professor Kurt Huber, the group was based at Munich University and its main target audience was the educated middle class. A religiously mixed body, the White Rose group was influenced by Catholic theologians such as Bishop Galen and emphasised the importance of individual freedom and personal responsibility in questions of morality. This led the group to attack the Nazi treatment of the Jews and Slav peoples of Eastern Europe. During 1942-43, the White Rose group issued six pamphlets that were distributed mainly in Munich but also taken further afield by sympathisers. In February 1943, the group became more daring when they painted anti-Nazi slogans, such as ‘Hitler Mass Murderer’ on buildings. They were eventually caught by the Gestapo and executed.
Who were Hans and Sophie Scholl?
Hans Scholl (1918-43) and Sophie
Scholl (1921-43) were founder members and leading activists in the White Rose group. Hans had joined the Hitler Youth in his teens but had become disillusioned with the Nazi regime. They advocated passive resistance against the regime. They were arrested, tried and executed in February 1943. At her trial, Sophie Scholl said, ‘What we have written and said is in the minds of all of you, but you lack the courage to say it aloud’.
Who was Archbishop Frings?
Archbishop Frings (1887-1978) was archbishop of Cologne from 1942 to 1969. He denounced the Nazi persecution of the Jews as a ‘crime that calls out to heaven. Because of his criticism he was placed under surveillance by the Gestapo.
Opposition from the Roman Catholic Church
As in the 1930s, the Christian Churches were influenced in their response to the regime firstly by their desire to protect their organisations and secondly by their support for many of the regime’s policies. The Roman Catholic Church, for example, supported Germany’s war aims in 1939 and gave wholehearted support to the invasion of the USSR in 1941. It was again left to individual churchmen to raise their voices in protest at some aspects of Nazi policies.
Bishop Galen spoke out in a sermon in 1940 to condemn the euthanasia programme that killed 270,000 mentally and physically disabled people. His protest struck a chord with other Christians and led to the temporary halting of the programme by the regime. Galen himself was not persecuted by the regime for his outspoken opposition but other priests who distributed his sermon were. Three Catholic priests were executed. Apart from Galen, the other leading Catholic who spoke out against the regime was Archbishop Frings of Cologne, who condemned the killing of prisoners of war.
Opposition from the Protestant Church
The Protestant Confessional Church of Prussia was the only Christian body in Germany to protest publicly about the treatment of the Jews. In 1943, a statement was read from the pulpits in Prussian churches. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who had been an outspoken critic of the regime since 1933, also called for wider Christian resistance to the treatment of Jews. Since 1940, however, Bonhoeffer had been banned from speaking in public and his criticisms could not reach a wide audience in Germany: Bonhoeffer had become involved in the late 1930s with critics of the Nazi regime from among the elites and he had extensive contacts abroad. He was arrested by the Gestapo in 1943 and held in prison until his execution (just before liberation) in 1945.
Communist opposition
The underground communist resistance had been severely weakened by the Gestapo in the 1930s but had managed to survive in some areas. The 1939 Nazi-Soviet Pact had undermined communist resistance to the regime as the KPD struggled to explain and justify this arrangement. The invasion of the USSR in June 1941, however, had galvanised communist resistance to the regime. At the time of the invasion, the KPD had 89 underground cells operating in Berlin, with other cells in Hamburg, Mannheim and central Germany. Their main means of spreading ideas and attempting to recruit was through issuing leaflets attacking the regime. Infiltration by the Gestapo was always a problem for these cells and, in 1942-43, the Gestapo had considerable success in destroying the communist underground network. By the end of 1943, 22 of the communist cells in Berlin had been destroyed. The communist underground did cling to life in some areas but, under pressure from the Gestapo and linked to the USSR, the power most Germans considered to be their main enemy, the movement had no prospect of attracting widespread support.
Overview of elite opposition
The plot to overthrow Hitler in 1938 by members of the army high command and senior civil servants was never activated and therefore remained undiscovered by the Gestapo. Those involved continued to oppose the regime.
There was, however, no unity of purpose among those who opposed Hitler’s policies. Some acted from a deeply felt moral conviction that the Nazi regime was evil, while others acted out of patriotism and the belief that Hitler was leading Germany to destruction. Some were democrats, while others were traditional, aristocratic conservatives who wanted a return to an authoritarian, non- Nazi style of government.
Who was Helmut von Moltke?
Count Helmut von Moltke (1907-45) was a Prussian aristocratic landowner and a descendant of a Prussian military leader of the nineteenth century. A lawyer by training and a Christian by conviction, Moltke was critical of the atrocities committed by German forces in occupied countries and became an opponent of the regime. He did not believe that Hitler should be assassinated or overthrown by force, advocating only non-violent resistance. Nevertheless he was arrested by the Gestapo in January 1944 and tried and executed in January 1945.
What was the Kreisau Circle?
Many of the diverse views of the elite who opposed Nazism could be found within the Kreisau Circle. Kreisau was the home of Count Helmut von Moltke, one of the leading figures within the group, which also included other aristocrats, lawyers, SPD politicians and churchmen such as Bonhoeffer. The common denominator linking this diverse group was a belief in personal freedom and individual responsibility. Described as the intellectual powerhouse of the non-communist opposition’ in Nazi Germany, the Kreisau Circle held three meetings in 1942-43 before the group was broken up by the Gestapo.
When was it decided that Hitler has to be assassinated?
Among those who had been involved in the 1938 plot, General Beck, Karl Goerdeler and Ulrich von Hassell continued to discuss acting against the regime. They had links to Dietrich Bonhoeffer and General Hans Oster. At first, Beck and Goerdeler concentrated on trying to persuade senior army generals to arrest Hitler. They also made contact, through a meeting between Bonhoeffer and Bishop Bell of Chichester, with the British government, hoping for a commitment to a negotiated peace if Hitler was removed. None of these moves was effective and, in 1943, the conspirators decided that their only option was to assassinate Hitler. The loss of the German army at Stalingrad, due largely to Hitler’s refusal to allow a retreat, confirmed that Hitler was leading Germany to disaster.
