Nazi opposition Flashcards
Youth Opposition
White Rose Group - Distributed leaflets encouraging rebellion
Swing Youth - Listened to banned music e.g jazz, accepted Jews, refused to join Hitler Youth
Edelweiss Pirates - Attacked Hitler Youth, stole armaments, attacked authorities, sheltered deserters etc. 12 members hanged in Nov 1944.
Conservative Elite opposition
Kreisau Circle - Notable scholar who planned for post-Nazi regime
Freiburg Circle - Nationalistic, prepared to bring down Hitler but not contribute to defeat in war
Army bomb plot 1944 - Leading members of army planted bomb in meeting room
Church opposition
Protestants - Confessional Church set up to defend Protestant Church from state interference. Founder was arrested
Catholics - Despite signing of Concordat, Catholics continued to oppose Nazis for breaking this and attacked the euthansia program which was suspended temporarily
Left Wing Opposition
SPD - Banned so set up underground resistance group - Red Strike Troops. Thwarted in 1934 by Gestapo.
KPD - After fleeing or being arrested, 30,000 members continued w/ underground resistance. Published anti-Nazi leaflets.
Rote Kapelle - Carried out acts of sabotage from Moscow until leaders tracked down and executed.
Workers - Strikes. Some refused to give Nazi salutes, sabotaged factory equipment..
Why opposition failed
Fear of regime - imprisonment, torture
Fear of eacother (denunciation)
Powerful Gestapo
Gvt control over media
Why some supported Nazis in 30s
Looked smart Felt patriotic Power to denounce people you dislike or to not get denounced Fear Better than Weimar Nazis acted fast on policies War youth generation
Why support changed in war
Military defeats e.g 92,000 soldiers captured by Russians in Jan 1943
May 1943 - surrender in North Africa
Allied bombing
Severe rationing
Why support remained in war
Propaganda about Red army being barbaric and raping people
New weapons inspired hope
Allied bombing boosted morale
Patriotism
Nazi organisations for repression
SS, SA, NSDAP, Informers, Gestapo (couldn’t be prosecuted)
Nazi forms of repression
Arrest, beatings, prison, concentration camps, execution, intimidation
….. Gestapo by 1939
40,000
….. informants by end of war
150,000
Hitler Myth
Portrayed as a divine figure sent to save Germany
Spoke for whole of Germany not a group
Leader above politics (put Germany above needs of his party)
By 1939 …. of German homes had a ‘people’s receiver’
70%
Nazi publishing controlled …. of German press by 1939
2/3
