Opposition

Question 1

Edelweiss Pirates

Answer 1

• continued into WW2
• HJ complained that due to the Edelweiss pirates they faced no-go zones in Dusseldorf
• 739 youths were arrested, and many were sent to labour camps
• the Cologne Edelweiss Pirates leaders were hanged in 1944

Question 2

Swing movement

Answer 2

• made up of middle class youths listening to jazz music from America
• this was considered subversive by the Nazis, since it undermined morale
• swing movement members were arrested

Question 3

White Rose student group

Answer 3

• Munich University
• student group distributed leaflets between June 1942 and Feb 1943
• these leaflets were anti- Nazi
• Sophie and Hans Scholl and Christoph Probst, the leaders of the operation, were executed in Feb 1943

Question 4

Church opposition - confessional church

Answer 4

• split from reich church
• Bonhoeffer was banned from preaching and publishing in 1940
• he was arrested in 1943 because of his work with the resistance and British contacts
• he was initially sent to Buchenwald, then to Flossenburg
• he was executed there in 1945
• another protestant pastor was executed in November 1943 for criticising the Nazi regime

Question 5

Church opposition - Catholic Church

Answer 5

• Clemens von Galen, a Roman Catholic Bishop, criticised the racist and euthanasia policies
• his sermons criticising euthanasia in 1941 were widely circulated
• Von Galen was too popular to be punished or made a martyr
• three catholic priests were executed in Hamberg in November 1943 for criticising the regime

Question 6

Military opposition

Answer 6

• there were several plots against hitler from 1939 that the Military elites were involved in
• Action Group Zossen was formed by young army high commands officers against Hitler

Question 7

Instances of military opposition

Answer 7

• the head of the Abwehr, Canaris, worked against the regime, and had links with the resistance
• He was executed in 1945 alongside Bonhoeffer
• Von Moltke was a member of the Kreisau Circle and worked for the Abwehr
• he leaked intelligence info to the resistance
• he was arrested in Jan 1944, tried at People’s Court and executed in Jan 1945
• he was opposed to assassinating Hitler as it may have made him a martyr

Question 8

Abwehr

Answer 8

• German military intelligence service

Question 9

attempted coup

Answer 9

• Generals Stulpnagel and Witzleben planned a coup in autumn of 1939
• however, it came to nothing

Question 10

opposition from the left wing

Answer 10

• USSR encouraged German communists to form resistance cells
• the two cells were called the ‘Red Orchestra’ by the Gestapo
• the 1st was made up of communist spies
• the other included non-communist, such as Catholics or Jews
• both encouraged civil disobedience and distributed anti-Nazi propaganda
• eventually both were betrayed and their leaders executed in secret

Question 11

Assassination attempts during WW2

Answer 11

• overall there were about 20 attempts to assassinate Hitler from 1939-45

Question 12

July Bomb Plot

Answer 12

• this was the most famous assassination attempt against Hitler
• took place in 1944, by military leaders
• they planned to leave a bomb in a suitcase where Hitler would be seated for a conference at his Eastern Front command centre, the Wolf’s Lair
• the bomb, however, was moved
• four people were killed and two seriously injured
• Hitler was left shaken and slightly singed but he had survived

Question 13

Consequences of the July Bomb Plot

Answer 13

• Stauffenberg, Beck, Oster, Witzleben, Stulpnagel and some others were the ringleaders of the plot
• they were all executed after trials in People’s Court
• the trials and executions were filmed
• 7000 suspects were arrested as well, and 5000 were executed
• Canaris and the head of the Reich Police, Helldorf were executed as well