Nazi Germany - Opposition Flashcards
What were the 3 types of opposition in Nazi Germany
- active-resistance
- protest
- non-conformity
What was meant by ‘active resistance’
- Acts that were intended to overthrow the regime
- Active resistance included acts such as attempts to assassinate Hitler
What was classified as ‘protest’ in NG
- 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
What was meant by ‘non-conformity’
- 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
Active Resistance
What were the early concerns for the army between 1933-34
- Between 1933 and 1934 army leaders were concerned about the influence the SA and radical Nazis had on the govt
Active Resistance
How did the army respond to their growing concerns abut the SA & radical Nazis’ influence in govt
- 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.
Active Resistance
Why was the minimal opposition from the army diffused early on, 1933-34
- The Night of the Long Knives persuaded army leaders that Hitler could be trusted and therefore defused opposition
When was the Hossbach Conference
November 1937
What was outlined at the Hossbach Conference
Hitler outlined his plans to seize Lebensraum in Eastern Europe
Active Resistance
Why did senior army officers become worried about the direction of Nazi Policy by 1937
- 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
Active Resistance
How did Himmler & Goering deal with worries about the Hossback Conference
Himmler and Goering were able to force Blomberg and Fritsch to resign, again defusing opposition to the Nazis
Active Resistance
Why was General Beck in opposition to Hitler
- 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.
Active Resistance
What was General Beck involved in after the outbreak of war in 1939
He maintained contacts with others within the conservative elites and began plotting an anti-Hitler Putsch
Active Resistance
What was the plan of Beck’s anti-Hitler Putsch
- 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
Active Resistance
What was the most famous example of resistance to the Nazi regime during the war
The Stauffenberg bomb plot
Active Resistance
Why did Stauffenberg oppose the Nazi Regime
- 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.
Active Resistance
Give details of The Stauffenberg bomb plot of June 1944
- 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.
________ played a key role in The Stauffenberg bomb plot
General Beck
Actiev resistance
What effect did WW2 have on opposition to the Nazis
- 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
Active Resistance
The Kreisau Circle began…………………………….. after the Nazis had been defeated.
to plan the future of Germany
Active Resistance
Most members of the Kreisau Circle did not ……………………….., but they did…………………
- plot to overthrow the Nazi regime
- supply information to the Allies about the regime’s weaknesses
Active Resistance
What did the Kreisau Circle do in opposition to the Nazis
- 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
What led to the dissolution of the Kreisau Circle
Moltke’s arrest in 1944, a leading lawyer, who had told the allies details about Nazi death camps
Protest
Why did the communists oppose Hitler
- 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
Protest
How did communits express their opposition to NG
- distributed printed pamphlets and posters
- minor acts of sabotage
- spy network that successfully permeated the government and military
- transmitted vital information back to Moscow
Protest
Describe how the Comunnists became an underground movement followinga series of mass trials
- Many small communist cells continued to be formed by Wilhelm Knöckel in many of the large German cities.
What was the most famous communist cell
- Red Orchestra
What was the Red Orchestra
- 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
How did the Nazis mitigate the Red Orchestra
all the members were eventually caught & tortured
How did the Nazis react to communist opposition
- tortured & excecuted communists
- sent members to concentration camps
Summarise why Communist opposition to the Nazis failed
- 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.
Why did workers oppose Hitler
- 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
How did workers oppose Hitler
400 wildcat strikes between 1935-6
Summarise the stance that individuals in the Christian church expressed their opposition to the Nazis
- adopted a pragmatic policy towards Nazism
- they stood up for their own religious practises & traditions,
- but refrained from wholesale deunciations of the regime
Give an example of an individual in the Christian church who expressed their opposition to the Nazis
-Bishop Galen
- Bishop Galen - outspoken sermon attacking
- Nazi euthanasia policy in 1941
- proved so powerful that the programme was stopped
Give an example of an individual in the Christian church who expressed their opposition to the Nazis
-Martin Niemöller
- Martin Niemöller, the founder of the Confessional Church, who languished in a concentration camp from 1937
Give an example of how collectively individuals in the Christian church expressed their opposition to the Nazis
- 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
What was the underlying reason Christian opposition failed
- 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
Describe a success of the Catholic church’s protest against the Nazis
Catholic protest won an important victory regarding the rights of Catholic schools in 1935, reversing the govt decision to ban crucifixes from class rooms
Critically, the Christian church was reluctant to protest against the Nazi regime because…
- of its conservatism, with the Pope never issuing orders for resistance
Who led the White Rose student resistance (youth) movement
brother and sister Hans and Sophie Scholl
In what ways did the White Rose express their opposition
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
What was the content of the White Rose leaflets
The content of the leaflets was highly political and openly condemned the moral and spiritual values of the Nazi regime.
The White Rose represented…..
a brave gesture of defiance and self-sacrifice
How did the Nazis deal with the White Rose opposition movement
- 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
Non-Conformity
What was the name of the middle-class youth group who resisted the Nazis
‘Swing Youth’
Non-Conformity
How did the ‘Swing Youth’ oppose the Nazi regime
- 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.
Non-Conformity
How did the Nazis mitigate non-conformity from the ‘Swing Youth’
- 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
Non-Conformity
What was the name of the working-class youth group who resisted the Nazis
- Edelweiss Pirates
Why did the Edelweiss Pirates resist the Nazi regime
- 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
Non-Conformity
How did the Edelweiss Pirates oppose the Nazi regime
- 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.
Non-Conformity
How did the Edelweiss Pirates sometimes oppose the Nazi regime with more active resistance
- 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.
During WW2, groups of………………. began to emerge
non-conformist young people
