Nazi Germany - Opposition Flashcards

1
Q

What were the 3 types of opposition in Nazi Germany

A
  • active-resistance
  • protest
  • non-conformity
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2
Q

What was meant by ‘active resistance’

A
  • Acts that were intended to overthrow the regime
  • Active resistance included acts such as attempts to assassinate Hitler
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3
Q

What was classified as ‘protest’ in NG

A
  • Acts intended to alter specific aspects of Nazi policy.
  • They were not designed to end Nazism, or replace Hitler, they were merely designed to lead to specific reforms
  • e.g strikes
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4
Q

What was meant by ‘non-conformity’

A
  • Acts in this category could have any motivation, or no clear motivation at all.
  • However, non-conformist acts diverged from the standards that the Nazis sought to enforce.
  • e.g telling anti-Nazi jokes or listening to American jazz
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5
Q

Active Resistance

What were the early concerns for the army between 1933-34

A
  • Between 1933 and 1934 army leaders were concerned about the influence the SA and radical Nazis had on the govt
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6
Q

Active Resistance

How did the army respond to their growing concerns abut the SA & radical Nazis’ influence in govt

A
  • Senior generals discussed the possibility of a new government with von Papen in the spring of 1934
  • They envisaged a government led by von Papen, supported by the army, in which the Nazis played a secondary role.
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7
Q

Active Resistance

Why was the minimal opposition from the army diffused early on, 1933-34

A
  • The Night of the Long Knives persuaded army leaders that Hitler could be trusted and therefore defused opposition
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8
Q

When was the Hossbach Conference

A

November 1937

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9
Q

What was outlined at the Hossbach Conference

A

Hitler outlined his plans to seize Lebensraum in Eastern Europe

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10
Q

Active Resistance

Why did senior army officers become worried about the direction of Nazi Policy by 1937

A
  • The Hossbach Conference led to renewed concerns among senior officers
  • who feared that such a policy would inevitably result in war with Britain, France and Russia,
  • that Germany was unprepared for
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11
Q

Active Resistance

How did Himmler & Goering deal with worries about the Hossback Conference

A

Himmler and Goering were able to force Blomberg and Fritsch to resign, again defusing opposition to the Nazis

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12
Q

Active Resistance

Why was General Beck in opposition to Hitler

A
  • In 1938 general Beck opposed Hitler’s plans to invade the Sudetenland and Czechoslovakia.
  • The apparent success of Hitler’s invasion of Czechoslovakia led Beck to resign in August 1938.
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13
Q

Active Resistance

What was General Beck involved in after the outbreak of war in 1939

A

He maintained contacts with others within the conservative elites and began plotting an anti-Hitler Putsch

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14
Q

Active Resistance

What was the plan of Beck’s anti-Hitler Putsch

A
  • Beck’s plan was to overthrow Hitler, form a new government with Schacht and negotiate an end to the war with Britain
  • He inc. senior Catholics in the plot like the Pope agreed to use his influence to set up peace talks between a new German government and Allied leaders
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15
Q

Active Resistance

What was the most famous example of resistance to the Nazi regime during the war

A

The Stauffenberg bomb plot

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16
Q

Active Resistance

Why did Stauffenberg oppose the Nazi Regime

A
  • Horrified by the defeats that Germany was suffering in the war
  • and by some of the atrocities committed by the SS,
  • Stauffenberg initiated Operation Valkyrie,
  • a plan to assassinate Hitler.
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17
Q

Active Resistance

Give details of The Stauffenberg bomb plot of June 1944

A
  • In June 1944 he attended a meeting with Hitler and planted a bomb designed to kill him.
  • The bomb detonated but Hitler survived and the plot collapsed.
  • Stauffenberg was arrested and executed, along with hundreds of suspected conspirators.
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18
Q

________ played a key role in The Stauffenberg bomb plot

A

General Beck

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19
Q

Actiev resistance

What effect did WW2 have on opposition to the Nazis

A
  • Significant impact on opposition to the Nazis
  • From 1942, it became clear that Germany was no longer winning the war
  • Consequently, civilian morale declined and opposition began to increase
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20
Q

Active Resistance

The Kreisau Circle began…………………………….. after the Nazis had been defeated.

A

to plan the future of Germany

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21
Q

Active Resistance

Most members of the Kreisau Circle did not ……………………….., but they did…………………

A
  • plot to overthrow the Nazi regime
  • supply information to the Allies about the regime’s weaknesses
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22
Q

Active Resistance

What did the Kreisau Circle do in opposition to the Nazis

A
  • Members supported the establishment of a democratic Germany based on a revival of Christian values.
  • The Kreisau Circle consisted of a range of figures from the German elite, who leaked details about Nazi death camps to the Allies
23
Q

What led to the dissolution of the Kreisau Circle

A

Moltke’s arrest in 1944, a leading lawyer, who had told the allies details about Nazi death camps

24
Q

Protest

Why did the communists oppose Hitler

A
  • Although the KPD had a mass membership of 300,000 &
  • polled 17% 1932, it felt the full force of Nazi repression
  • Over half of its members were interned during the first year of Nazi rule.
  • By 1935 the Gestapo had infiltrated the remains of the party
25
Q

Protest

How did communits express their opposition to NG

A
  • distributed printed pamphlets and posters
  • minor acts of sabotage
  • spy network that successfully permeated the government and military
  • transmitted vital information back to Moscow
26
Q

Protest

Describe how the Comunnists became an underground movement followinga series of mass trials

A
  • Many small communist cells continued to be formed by Wilhelm Knöckel in many of the large German cities.
27
Q

What was the most famous communist cell

A
  • Red Orchestra
28
Q

What was the Red Orchestra

A
  • From 1938-42, it was a spy network that successfully permeated the government and military
  • through the aristocratic sympathiser Schulz-Boysen
  • transmitting vital information back to Moscow
29
Q

How did the Nazis mitigate the Red Orchestra

A

all the members were eventually caught & tortured

30
Q

How did the Nazis react to communist opposition

A
  • tortured & excecuted communists
  • sent members to concentration camps
31
Q

Summarise why Communist opposition to the Nazis failed

A
  • Active communist resistance to the Nazi state was limited
  • & in the end it really became more geared towards self-preservation,
  • so that it was ready for the day when Nazism would be defeated
  • and the Soviet ‘liberation’ could take place.
32
Q

Why did workers oppose Hitler

A
  • Working classes had a clearly established identity at odds with Nazism,
  • however their action was offten more motivated by ecnonomic discontent rather than politcial aims
33
Q

How did workers oppose Hitler

A

400 wildcat strikes between 1935-6

34
Q

Summarise the stance that individuals in the Christian church expressed their opposition to the Nazis

A
  • adopted a pragmatic policy towards Nazism
  • they stood up for their own religious practises & traditions,
  • but refrained from wholesale deunciations of the regime
35
Q

Give an example of an individual in the Christian church who expressed their opposition to the Nazis
-Bishop Galen

A
  • Bishop Galen - outspoken sermon attacking
  • Nazi euthanasia policy in 1941
  • proved so powerful that the programme was stopped
36
Q

Give an example of an individual in the Christian church who expressed their opposition to the Nazis
-Martin Niemöller

A
  • Martin Niemöller, the founder of the Confessional Church, who languished in a concentration camp from 1937
37
Q

Give an example of how collectively individuals in the Christian church expressed their opposition to the Nazis

A
  • Hundreds of priests and pastors were to die in the camps for their refusal to co-operate with the regime
  • Their sacrifice is therefore eloquent testimony to the limits to which people would go to defy conformity
38
Q

What was the underlying reason Christian opposition failed

A
  • Catholic and Protestant Churches lacked orgsnisation within & between themselves,
  • so they both enjoyed a measure of independence, standing up for their own religious practices and traditions
39
Q

Describe a success of the Catholic church’s protest against the Nazis

A

Catholic protest won an important victory regarding the rights of Catholic schools in 1935, reversing the govt decision to ban crucifixes from class rooms

40
Q

Critically, the Christian church was reluctant to protest against the Nazi regime because…

A
  • of its conservatism, with the Pope never issuing orders for resistance
41
Q

Who led the White Rose student resistance (youth) movement

A

brother and sister Hans and Sophie Scholl

42
Q

In what ways did the White Rose express their opposition

A

Series of leaflets printed in 1942-3, which were distributed initially amongst the students of Munich University but in time to many towns in central Germany

43
Q

What was the content of the White Rose leaflets

A

The content of the leaflets was highly political and openly condemned the moral and spiritual values of the Nazi regime.

44
Q

The White Rose represented…..

A

a brave gesture of defiance and self-sacrifice

45
Q

How did the Nazis deal with the White Rose opposition movement

A
  • The gestapo were used, capitalising on the group’s security which had been weak from the start
  • In February 1943 the six leaders were arrested, tortured and swiftly executed
46
Q

Non-Conformity

What was the name of the middle-class youth group who resisted the Nazis

A

‘Swing Youth’

47
Q

Non-Conformity

How did the ‘Swing Youth’ oppose the Nazi regime

A
  • Based on the popularity of jazz among middle-class young people
  • Jazz had been banned from German radio since 1935
  • & listening to foreign broadcasts was outlawed in 1939.
48
Q

Non-Conformity

How did the Nazis mitigate non-conformity from the ‘Swing Youth’

A
  • The SS were prepared to take action against jazz fans
  • Jutta and Inga Madlung, for example, were sent to Ravensbrück concentration camp, simply for owning recordings of jazz
49
Q

Non-Conformity

What was the name of the working-class youth group who resisted the Nazis

A
  • Edelweiss Pirates
50
Q

Why did the Edelweiss Pirates resist the Nazi regime

A
  • Many young people who rejected the gender segregation & militarism of Nazi youth organisations & culture,
  • had been alienated by the military emphasis and discipline of the Hitler Youth
51
Q

Non-Conformity

How did the Edelweiss Pirates oppose the Nazi regime

A
  • developed gangs, such as the ‘Roving Dudes’ and ‘Navajos’
  • they organised their own hikes and camps which then came into conflict with the official ones, of the Hitler Youth
  • they were known to ambush members of Nazi youth organisations and beat them up.
52
Q

Non-Conformity

How did the Edelweiss Pirates sometimes oppose the Nazi regime with more active resistance

A
  • In several instances, ‘Pirates’ became involved in more active resistance,
  • most famously at Cologne in 1944 when 12 of them were publicly hung
  • because of their attacks on military targets and the assassination of a Gestapo officer.
53
Q

During WW2, groups of………………. began to emerge

A

non-conformist young people