opposition to the nazis

swing movement

they didn’t want regimentation and training for the army or motherhood.

consisted mainly of middle-class youngsters who took up the music and imagery associated with the dance-bands of america. they rejected the narrowness of nazi culture.

swing clubs sprang up in hamburg, berlin and other german cities. the nazis condemned the members of the swing movement as degenerates and issued pictures to help identify them. they also issued a handbook. some where shown to have unkept long hair and english clothes.

himmler wanted to send leaders to concentration camps for 2-3 years.

edelweiss pirates

the opposite of hitler youth, basically they were anti-authority and anti-conformist. they were free to express what they thought. unlike hitler youth, boys and girls weren’t segregated. aged between 14 and 17. in all the groups there was a general objection to the way nazis wished to control the lives of youths.

they could be identified by checked shirts with an edelweiss pin, a windcheater and ‘flashy white socks’. they went on hiking trips and sang ‘degenerate’ songs banned by nazis - mainly blues and jazz which filtered from france. they could have open discussions, forbidden in cities. between ‘36 and sept 39 nazis considered them a small scale irritant.

swing movement

they didn’t want regimentation and training for the army or motherhood.

consisted mainly of middle-class youngsters who took up the music and imagery associated with the dance-bands of america. they rejected the narrowness of nazi culture.

swing clubs sprang up in hamburg, berlin and other german cities. the nazis condemned the members of the swing movement as degenerates and issued pictures to help identify them. they also issued a handbook. some where shown to have unkept long hair and english clothes.

himmler wanted to send leaders to concentration camps for 2-3 years.

edelweiss pirates

the opposite of hitler youth, basically they were anti-authority and anti-conformist. they were free to express what they thought. unlike hitler youth, boys and girls weren’t segregated. aged between 14 and 17. in all the groups there was a general objection to the way nazis wished to control the lives of youths.

they could be identified by checked shirts with an edelweiss pin, a windcheater and ‘flashy white socks’. they went on hiking trips and sang ‘degenerate’ songs banned by nazis - mainly blues and jazz which filtered from france. they could have open discussions, forbidden in cities. between ‘36 and sept 39 nazis considered them a small scale irritant.

edelweiss pirates nazi reaction

in the war years, their ‘subversive activities’ grew markedly. in cities they had pitched battles with nazi youth and daubed subways with anti-nazi slogans such as ‘down with hitler - we want freedom’. they posted the american and british anti nazi leaflets through letterboxes. towards the end of the war they shielded army deserters and joined other resistance fighters especially communists.

the gestapo initiated a major crackdown against them. on 7 december 1942 739 pirates were arrested. they were placed in a ‘reeducation camp’ to instil conformity to nazi ideas.

in oct 44 the ss issued a decree on the combating of ‘youth groups’ leading to further arrests. in nov 44 the leaders of the cologne edelweiss pirates were publicly hanged.

the white rose movement

student resistance movement led by siblings hans and sophie scroll. developed in munich 1941. they wanted a post hitler germany based on freedom of speech, freedom of confession and protection of all european citizens from arbitrary criminal power states.

from summer ‘42- feb ‘43, they produced 6 pamphlets distributed at night in multiple bavarian cities. they also daubed anti nazi graffiti on public buildings in many major german cities. they printed details about the euthanasia t4 programme and the atrocities in the eastern front of ww2.

on 18th feb 1943 they were spotted by the university’s head porter and arrested. they were sentenced to death by guillotine.

catholic church opposition - bishop galen

the roman catholic church signed the concordat in 1933 and supported germany’s 1939 war aims and the ussr invasion in 1941.

galen spoke out in a sermon in 1940 condemning the t4 euthanasia programme that killed 270k mentally and physically disabled people.

his sermon struck a chord with other christians and the programme was temporarily halted. he wasn’t persecuted but other priests who distributed the sermon were. 3 catholic priests were executed.

apart from galen, archbishop frings of cologne condemned the killing of prisoners of war.

catholic church opposition - the crucifix in bavaria

in april 1941 the gauleiter of munich and upper bavaria, adolf wagner, demanded all crucifixes in bavarian schools be removed as it signalled the continuing strength of the catholic church in the region.

this was met with meetings, letters, petitions and even demonstrations from angry bavarians forced wagner to overturn his original order.

however, most bavarians weren’t expressing a dislike to the regime rather defending their distinct regional culture without challenging the fuhrer’s authority. therefore, not an outward sign of opposition.

catholic church opposition - the pope’s encyclical 1937

called ‘with burning grief’ against the background of mounting pressure on the catholic church in germany.

it condemned nazi hatred upon the church. it was smuggled into germany, secretly printed and distributed by messengers on a bicycle or on food and read out from nearly every church pulpit in march 1937.

this was the only time the catholic church placed itself in open conflict with the regime. the regime’s response was repression.

protestant churches

nazi regime’s efforts to co-ordinate the protestant church led to division within the protestant congregation. the pastor’s emergency league in 1933 and it’s development into the confessional church in 1934 were acts of resistance. this was led by pastors who weren’t members of the nazi party and who came from largely academic backgrounds.

their refusal was for 3 main factors:

• trying to protect the protestant church’s independence.

• resisting attempts to remove pastors who had converted from judaism

• trying to defend orthodox lutheran theology based on the bible.

during 1934 pastors spoke out against the ‘nazified church’ from their pulpits. many churches refused to display swastika flags. when two confessional bishops were arrested there were mass demonstrations.

in 1936 leading members of the confessional church sent a memorandum to hitler calling for an end to state interference, complained about the anti-christian state and denounced anti-semitism. 100s of the confessing chutch were arrested and some included niemoller sent to concentration camps.

protestant churches - opposition from key individuals

pastor martin niemoller was one of the cofounders of the protestant confessional church in 1934. it resisted nazi regime but wanted more to defend the church than weaken the regime. he ended up in a concentration camp in 1937.

dietrich bonheffer, a scolar and evangelical theologian opposed the regime initially through religious dissent and supported the confessional church but from 1940 developed political resistance.

he helped jewish people escape to switzerland. he was arrested in 1943 and spent the rest of the war in a concentration camp. after being associated with the plot to assassinate hitler he was quickly tried and then executed by hanging on 9 april 1945 as the nazi regime was collapsing.

catholic and protestant opposition effectiveness

they distrusted the policies of the left wing. there was a nationalist sympathy for nazism especially after the problems of 1918-33. fear. the official policy of the churches remained one of pragmantic cooperation even to the extent of cardinal faulhaber’s condemnation of the bomb plot in 1944. even though the catholic church knew of the extermination of the jewish people as early as 1942, it failed to publicly condemn it.

by the end of 1937 over 700 pastors were imprisoned. the nazis failed to silence the confessional church but they also failed to form a full opposition. the majority of its members professed loyalty to hitler. like catholics, individual pastors spoke out rather than the churches.

the threat from the right: the kreisau circle

with the military disasters in russia 42-43 military and conservative elite opposition began to surface.

a wide ranging group of officers, aristocrats and churchmen who met sporadically between 42-44 at the kreisau estate of helmuth von moltke.

they aimed to discuss the political and social landscape after the nazi regime had fallen. they wanted to restore personal freedom, the rule of law and a democratic system in which self-governing regions would govern for the benefit of local communites.

in 1943 they created their ‘basic principles for the new order’ which called for the restoration of law, freedom of conscience and destruction of totalitarian constraint. '

however the kreisau circle was discovered by the gestapo in 1944 and moltke was arrested but the group continue to meet and were closely involved in stauffenburg’s plot to kill hitler.

after the plot many were arrested, tortured and executed. althought there were few, there were brave individuals.

the threat from the military

by 1939 the army had become a subordinate part of the nazi regime. most generals were ideologically committed to the regime.

the victories won by blitzkrieg in poland 1939 and in western europe in 1940 confirmed hitler as a military genius. it was in 1943 when a serious nationwide opposition led by generals emerged. for a few this was due to moral opposition but mainly it was pragmatic opposition.

the ss’ political interference was intolerable and some eastern front generals were shocked by the atrocities committed against partisans and jewish people.

however for most generals opposition was due to the belief germany was going to lose the war. these beliefs stemmed from america’s entry to the war in dec 41, failure to defeat russia, and most importantly, germany’s defeat at stalingrad in dec 42-jan 43.

beck-goerdeler group

the leading conservative and military resistance faction led by general ludwig beck and carl goerdeler. this group was behind the 1944 bomb plot on hitler. they coordinated the resistance: engaged in discussions with like minded people, established important diplomatic contacts abroad and made detailed plans to bring about hitler’s downfall.

operation valkyrie

in july 1944 stauffenburg offered to assassinate hitler at his military headquarters in rastenburg with a bomb with a pre-set firming device.

the aim was to trigger a rising that would spread across germany. they would seize the radio station and arrest the ss and nazi leaders and set up a pg with beck as president and goerdeler as chancellor, making peace with allies, ending war before russia invades.

20 july 44, it failed and goebbels broadcast of hitler’s survival undermined stauffenburg’s desperate attempts to ignite conspiracy. loyalist troops led by colonel remer surrounded army headquarters. general fromm, stauffenburg’s superior, switched sides and arrested them. he ordered the 4 to be shot in the bendlerblock courtyourd. beck excecuted in his own office.

consequences of valkyrie

on 21 july 1944 hitler informed german radio listeners that a military coup had failed and would be dealt with in true nazi fashion.

the remaining figures were arrested by the gestapo and brought before show trials in the people’s court. a number of army officers included in the plot were hanged horrifically.

on 22 august 1944 the ss launched operation thunderstorm - 5k former ministers and party officials arrested.

the army was now fully subordinated. the nazi salute was compulsory in all ranks and political offices were appointed to root out dissent. himmler became commander in chief of the home army. but only 22 out of 2k generals were executed for their part in the conspiracy.

army resistance was therefore heroic but confined to a few individuals. its leadership was too isolated and naive to be a threat.