OPPOSITION AND RESISTANCE IN WARTIME

Question 1

Drop in Morale

Answer 1

• Defeat at Stalingrad February 1943, growing hardship- growing scepticism
• Propaganda became less effective, SD reports commented on denting of Hitler Myth
• Indications that Nazi Party lost support during the war; fewer people attended party meetings or activities; membership fell
  > despite scepticism majority remained loyal to regime
  > Nazi police and surveillance system highly effective- uncovered opposition and silenced them before they became a threat
  > Those who actively opposed did so at a heavy price
• Common risks: hiding Jews, listening to BBC radio broadcasts, reading banned books

Question 2

EDELWEISS PIRATES- working-class

Answer 2

• “wild cliques” never fully suppressed despite efforts, re-emerged during the war
• All independent youth groups banned 1933
• Mostly working-class 14-18 in mainly Rhineland and Ruhr
• Not overtly political but were anti-HJ and tried to avoid conscription
• Rejected official, disciplined, militaristic culture of HJ- sang songs banned in HJ and organised independent expeditions into countryside
• 1944- Cologne group linked with underground group helping free labourers and prisoners from concentration camps; attacking military depots to obtain supplies
• Gestapo and HJ arrested, shaved the heads of, and imprisoned in concentration camps members of Edelweiss; turned to more radical measures when this was not effective
• November 1944: Cologne Edelweiss leaders hanged

Question 3

SWING YOUTH middle-class

Answer 3

• Listened to American and British swing and jazz music, wore English-style clothes
• By adopting jazz music- placing themselves in opposition to regime (considered music racially inferior)
• Not overtly political, but sleaziness offended Nazi regime
• Himmler wanted to send leaders to concentration camp for 2-3 years

Question 4

White Rose

Answer 4

• formed 1942 Munich
  -Consciously political, led by Hans and Sophie Scholl, supported by Professor Huber- based at Munich University
• Influenced Bishop Galen to speak up
• Distributed leaflets, attacked treatment of Jews and Slavs
• February 1943: painted anti-Nazi slogans on buildings
• Caught and executed

Question 5

Catholic Church

Answer 5

• Supported war aims 1939 and invasion of USSR 1941
• Individual churchmen spoke out
  > Galen 1940- spoke against euthanasia programme that killed 270,000 people and led to halting of programme; not persecuted but those that distributed the sermon were
  > Archbishop Frings- denounced Nazi persecution of Jews; placed under Gestapo surveillance
• 3 Catholic priests executed

Question 6

Protestant Church

Answer 6

• Protestant Confessional Church only body to publicly protest about treatment of Jews
• Bonhoeffer called for Christian resistance to treatment of Jews; since 1940 he was banned from speaking- arrested in 1943

Question 7

Communist opposition

Answer 7

• Severely weakened by Gestapo but managed to survive in some areas
• 1939 Nazi-Soviet Pact undermined resistance to regime; but 1941 USSR invasion galvanised communist resistance
  > 1941: KPD had 89 underground cells in Berlin; issuing leaflets attacking the regime
  > Gestapo had success destroying communist cells- 22 left by 1943
• Due to hostility of Germans, pressure from Gestapo, link to USSR meant widespread support for movement was near impossible

Question 8

1938 Hitler Plot

Answer 8

• Plan by army high command and senior civil servants- never activated so undiscoverable to Gestapo
• Opposition continued but due to mixed reasons
• Some felt moral convictions, some patriotic believed Hitler was leading Germany to destruction, some were democrats, others were aristocratic conservatives

Question 9

Kreisau Circle

Answer 9

• Elite who opposed Nazism
• Kreisau- home of Count Helmut von Moltke- leading figure
• Included aristocrats, lawyers, SPD politicians, Churchmen like Bonhoeffer
• Link to diverse group was belief in personal freedom and individual responsibility
• Had 3 meetings 1942-43 before broken by Gestapo