opposition and resistance in wartime Flashcards
What were the indications that the Nazi Part had lost support during the war? [2]
- Fewer people attended Party meetings or participated in party activities
- Party membership fell
What had happened to groups that may have become focus of opposition to the Nazis?
They had either been banned or compromised themselves by cooperating with the Nazis.
What risks did some people take to resist the Nazis as an undercurrent of resistance? [3]
- Hiding Jews
- Listening to BBC radio broadcast
- Reading banned books
What was a long-standing tradition among working class youths?
To form independent youth groups.
What was the nature of the ‘wild cliques’?
They were criminal or semi-criminal.
What was the nature of the Wandervogel?
They were law-abiding but unconventional youth groups.
What is a significant ‘wild clique’ group that re-emerged during the war?
The Edelweiss Pirates.
What did the Edelweiss Pirates consist of?
They were groups of mostly working-class young people aged 14-18.
Where were the Edelweiss Pirates mainly active?
In the Rhineland and the Ruhr.
How political were the Edeilweiss Pirates?
They were not overtly political but they were anti-Hitler Youth and tried to avoid conscription.
What did the Justice Ministry report state about the Edelweiss Pirates?
‘They hate all discipline and thereby place themselves in opposition to the community. However, they are not only politically hostile but as a result of their composition, they are also criminal and antisocial’.
How did the Edelweiss Pirates consciously reject the official, disciplined and militaristic culture of the Hitler Youth?
They organised independent expeditions into the countryside, where they sang songs banned in the Hitler Youth.
What happened to the Cologne Edelweiss Pirates in1944?
They became linked to an underground group that helped army deserters, escaped prisoners of war, forced labourers and prisoners from concentration camps.
How did the Cologne Edelweiss Pirates obtain supplies to support the underground group?
They attacked military depots.
How did the Gestapo and Hitler Youth crush the Edelweiss Pirates?
They arrested them, shaved their heads and banished them to labour camps, but none of this worked and so the Gestapo turned to more severe measures.
7th December 1942, Gestapo broke up 28 groups in Dusseldorf, Duisburg, Essen and Wuppertal. Leaders of the Cologne group were publicly hanged November 1944.
What youth rebellion emerged from the prosperous middle class?
The Swing Youth.
What did the Ministry of Justice report say the Swing Youth were motivated by?
‘The desire to have a good time’.
What did the Swing Youth listen to in rejection of Nazi values?
They listened to American and British swing and jazz music, wearing English-style clothes.
What did Himmler want to do to the leaders of the Swing Youth?
To send them to concentration camps for 2-3 years.
Where were the White Rose group based?
Munich University, and were a more consciously political movement.
Who led the White Rose group?
Hans and Sophie Scholl, supported by Professor Kurt Huber.
What was the main target audience of the White Rose group?
The educated middle class.
What did the White Rose group attack?
The Nazi treatment of Jews and Slav peoples of Eastern Europe.
What did the White Rose group do during 1942-43?
Issued 6 pamphlets that were distributed mainly in Munich but also taken further by sympathisers.
How did the White Rose group become more daring in February 1943?
They started painting anti-Nazi slogans such as ‘Hitler Mass Murderer’ on buildings.
How and when were the White Rose group caught?
They were caught in February 1943 when they were seen distributing anti-Nazi leaflets to University of Munich students.
What influenced the Christian Churches response to the Nazi regime in the 1930s? [2]
- Their desire to protect their organisations
- Their support for many of the regime’s policies
What Nazi policy did the Roman Catholic Church support?
Germany’s war aims in 1939 and gave wholehearted support to the invasion of the USSR in 1941.
How did Bishop Galen speak out?
In a sermon in 1940 to condemn the euthanasia programme that killed 270,000 mentally and physically disabled.
What did Bishop Galen’s sermon in 1940 result in?
The euthanasia programme being temporarily halted by the regime as he struck a chord with other Christians.
Who was persecuted for Bishop Galen’s sermon?
Not himself, but other priests who distributed it were. There were 3 Catholic priests who were executed for it.
Who was the other leading Catholic who spoke out against the regime other than Bishop Galen?
Archbishop Frings of Cologne, who condemned the killing of prisoners of war.
What was the Protestant Confessional Church of Prussia the only Christian body in Germany to publicly protest about?
The treatment of the Jews.
Who was Dietrich Bonhoeffer and what did he do?
He was an outspoken critic of the regime since 1933 and a pastor, calling for wider Christian resistance to the treatment of Jews.
What happened to Bonhoeffer in 1940?
He was banned from speaking in public and his criticisms could not reach a wide audience in Germany.
When was Bonhoeffer arrested?
By the Gestapo in 1943, held in prison until his execution in 1945.
What had the Nazis done that had remotivated communist resistance to the regime?
They had invaded the USSR in June 1941.
How many underground cells did the KPD have at the time of Germany’s invasion of the USSR?
They had 89 underground cells operating in Berlin, and other cells in Hamburg, Mannheim, and Central Germany.
What was the KPD’s main means for spreading their ideas and attempting to recruit?
Through issuing leaflets attacking the regime.
What was always a huge problem for the KPD underground cells?
The Gestapo were always infiltrating them, and had considerable success in 1942-43 in destroying the communist underground network.
How many of the communist underground cells in Berlin had been destroyed by the end of 1943?
22.
Why did the communist movement have no prospect of gathering widespread support?
Because they were under large pressure form the Gestapo and were linked to the USSR, which was considered by Germans to be their main enemy.
What types of people were involved in a 1938 plot to overthrow Hitler?
Members of the army high command and senior civil servants. However, the plot was never activated and therefore remained undiscovered by the Gestapo but those involved continued to oppose the regime.
What was the issue among those who opposed Hitler?
There was no unity of purpose among those who opposed his policies. Some acted from moral conviction that the Nazis were evil, while others acted out of patriotism and the belief that Hitler was destroying Germany. Some were democrats whilst others were traditional, aristocratic conservatives who wanted a return to an authoritarian non-Nazi government.
What type of people were apart of the Kreisau Circle?
Many of the diverse views of the elites who opposed Nazism, with aristocrats, lawyers, SPD politicians, and churchmen such as Bonhoeffer.
What was the common denominator of the Kreisau Circle?
A belief in personal freedom and individual responsibility.
What was the Kreisau Circle described as?
The ‘intellectual powerhouse of the non-communist opposition’ in Nazi Germany.
How many meetings did the Kreisau Circle hold in 1942-43?
3 before they were broken up by the Gestapo.
Who were those involved in the 1938 plot against Hitler who continued to discuss acting against the regime? Who did they have links to?
General Beck, Karl Goerdeler and Ulrich von Hassell. They had links to Dietrich Bonhoeffer and General Hans Oster.
What did General Beck and Karl Goerdler concentrate on trying to do?
Persuading senior army generals to arrest Hitler, as well as making contact with the British government, through Bonhoeffer and Bishop Bell of Chichester, hoping for a negotiated peace if Hitler was removed.
What did conspirators decide they had to do in 1943? What event pushed this thought further?
None of their plans were effective, and so they decided they had to assassinate Hitler.
The defeat at Stalingrad which had been due to Hitler’s refusal to allow a retreat, confirming Hitler was leading Germany to disaster.
When was a first assassination attempt on Hitler made? What happened?
March 1943, when a bomb was placed on Hitler’s plane. However it failed to explode.
What arrests happened in April 1943? What did this show those who were plotting assassination?
Bonhoeffer and other members of the Kreisau Circle. It was a warning that the Gestapo were getting close to uncovering the full extent of the conspiracy.
Who joined the conspiracy in 1943? What did he successfully do?
Colonel Claus von Staffenberg, successfully planting a bomb in Hitler’s headquarters in East Prussia in July 1944.
What was Operation Valkyrie?
It was the plan of a military coup to take over Berlin after Hitler was assassinated in July 1944.
What was the plan if the assassination attempt on Hitler had been successful?
That the conspirators would have established a provisional government of Conservatives, Centre Party, SPD and non-Party representatives which would have tried to open immediate peace negotiations with the western Allies.
What were the actual results of Operation Valkyrie?
The bomb had exploded but Hitler escaped with minor injuries. The planned coup did not materialise because of confusion among conspirators, who failed to seize control of the radio stations. A radio broadcast confirmed Hitler was still alive and that the plot had failed.
What happened in the events after the failed assassination attempt of Hitler in July 1944?
Himmler was placed in charge of rounding up conspirators, with the SS arresting 7000 people and executing 5764. Beck committed suicide and Stauffenberg was shot.
What happened to the army after the July 1944 assassination attempt?
Led to the last vestiges of its independence from the regime, and it was effectively placed under SS control.
What did SD reports about the feelings of Germans after the July 1944 failed assassination?
There was very little sympathy among the majority of ordinary Germans, as the plotters came from the old elite and made no attempt to arouse popular support. There was widespread relief that the plotters had failed to kill Hitler, and there is no reason to doubt the general accuracy of these reports.
