Opposition Flashcards
Why did so many people conform to the Nazi regime?
❑ Effectivepropaganda
❑ Effectivecensorship
❑ Hitler’s personality
❑ The fear of the Nazi Police State
❑ The Nazi Party reduced unemployment
and gained economic recovery.
❑ The Nazi Party challenged the Treaty of
Versailles and gained successes aboard.
❑ A LACK OF ORGANISED AND EFFECTIVE
OPPOSITION.
Protestant church opposition
❑ Created the Pastors’ Emergency League in 1933.
❑ This was a group of leading pastors led by Martin Niemoller .
❑ They tried to keep regional churches running independent from the control of the Nazi Party.
❑ The Pastors’ Emergency League then created The Confessing Church in 1934.
❑ This group of pastors opposed any Nazi changes with the Protestant religion.
❑ 6,000 joined the Confessing Church while only 2,000 pastors joined the Reich Church.
❑ The Confessing Church had bigger audiences compared with the Nazi Reich Church.
❑ Pastors spoke out about against the Nazis in their sermons. The applause they received was a form of opposition towards the Nazi Party.
Catholic Church opposition
❑ There was less opposition from the Catholic church.
❑ Some priests spoke out about the Nazis in their sermons.
❑ The Catholic Archbishop of Munster, von Galen, led a successful campaign to end euthanasia of mentally-disabled people.
❑ The Pope’s
message ‘With Burning Concern’ attacked Hitler as ‘a mad prophet with repulsive arrogance’ and was read in every Catholic church.
The White Rose
The White Rose group was formed by students at Munich University. Its leaders were Hans and Sophie Scholl, who illegally
produced anti-Nazi leaflets in 1942-3. The group were small, as it had to be kept secret. They also carried out a graffiti campaign in Munich. The pair were caught throwing leaflets around the university and arrested by the Gestapo. They were put on trial, sentenced to execution and beheaded the same day.
The Edelweiss Pirates
Who were they?
The Edelweiss Pirates
• Created in the 1930s, mainly in the cities of Germany.
• Local groups of Edelweiss Pirates called themselves different
names such as the ‘Travelling Dudes’ or the ‘Navajos’.
• Members could be identified to each other as they used the
white flower of the Edelweiss plant to show their opposition. Who joined?
• Mainly teenagers who hated the military discipline of the Hitler Youth and the lack of freedoms given to them.
What would they do?
• Boys grew their hair long and copied ‘cool’ American clothing.
• They would tease and bully Hitler Youth children.
• They went on long hikes in the countryside to be away from
their parents and the Nazi authorities. They camped out, told jokes, sang songs mocking Hitler and had a good time.
The Swiss youth
Who were they?
• Teenagers from wealthy middle class families.
• Mainly located in big towns and cities.
• They liked American Jazz, films, clothes.
What would they do?
• As they were wealthy, many owned record players & played swing and jazz records illegally imported from America.
• They would meet up, smoke, dance and drink alcohol.
• They organised illegal dances which were attended by
up to 6,000 young people.
What did the Nazi Party do?
Heinrich Himmler said that any young person listening to jazz music should be ‘beaten, given the severest exercise and then put to hard labour’.
Church Focus: Martin Niemoller
What changed?
• He did not like the Nazi Party taking control of the church so became a leading member of the Pastors Emergency League and Confessional Church.
• He opposed the Nazi ban on Jews becoming Christians (although did not oppose other laws against Jews in the 1930s).
• He discovered his telephone was bugged by the Gestapo and realised the Nazi Party were areal threat to Germany.
So what did he do?
• He began to speak out openly against the Nazis.
• He was repeatedly arrested between 1934-1937.
• He was arrested by the Gestapo in 1937 and charged with
‘treason’.
• He was put into a Concentration Camp in solitary confinement .
What happened to him?
He asked to be released from prison to fight in the war for Germany and offered to serve for Hitler in any way. It is not known if this was genuine. He was freed at the end of the war.
