family. Arrests occurred on a huge scale, for example, there were more arrests in Germany in 1933 than there were in twenty one years of fascist rule in Italy. Most people believed that the risks of voicing their concerns publicly about the regime far outweighed any likely advantages for themselves or their families.
A major problem for those who wanted to oppose the Nazis was knowing who to trust. Within resistance groups it was hard to know who you could rely upon and it was even more of a risk if you tried to work with outsiders.
Sources of Opposition
There was always some opposition to the Nazis: this ranged from grumbling to wholehearted resistance. However, most active opposition was dealt with by the Nazi Police State. However, considerable political resistance did survive. Most of those who did resist the Nazis did so from a particular standpoint, for example a deep religious or political conviction. Others turned to opposition as a result of their treatment at the hands of the Nazis.
The main threats to the Nazis came from the following:
The Left: Communists and Social Democrats remained resolutely opposed to the Nazis, but many of their number were sent to concentration camps. A mutual suspicion and a failure, in the main, to work together did not help their cause.
Young People: About one million young people failed to join the Nazi youth movements. Counter culture groups like the Edeiweiss Pirates and Swing Youth developed. The number of anti-Nazi groups increased during the war years. One such example was the White Rose group based at Munich University who distributed anti-Nazi leaflets and were eventually arrested and murdered in 1944.
Intellectuals: Many intellectuals opposed the cultural barbarism of the Nazis and many were forced to emigrate and express their opposition from abroad. Famous emigrants included the playwright, Bertolt Brecht and the physicist, Albert Einstein.
Conservatives: Many lawyers, diplomats and landowners had disliked the Nazis from the start. Others, including a number in the military, at first supported Hitler’s desire to create a stronger Germany; but came to oppose Nazi recklessness, their policies and perhaps most importantly their failures in the war. The most important of these groups was the Kreisau Circle who planned to restore a democratic government to Germany. Many of their members were arrested and executed for their part in the ‘July Plot’.
Religious Groups: The Nazis were keen to foster good relations with the churches as many Germans were committed Christians and opposition from the Church would prove difficult to counter. Initially many in the Christian churches were keen to work with the Nazis both through fear, through support for some Nazi policies and as a result of their fear that the Communists, who were atheists, could come to power. As the irreligious nature of the Nazi regime became more apparent many individual priests spoke out against the regime, such as the Protestant pastors Niemoeller and Bonhoeffer and the Roman Catholic Cardinal Innitzer. In 1941 the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Munster, von Galen. led opposition to the ‘euthanasia’ programme which led to the deaths of 76,000 mentally ill patients. This challenging of Nazi actions resulted in a rare U-turn in Nazi policy and the programme was halted.
Opposition as a Pyramid
Opposition in Nazi Germany can be viewed as being pyramidal. There was most opposition at the lower levels of Nonconformity, for example people might tell anti-Nazi jokes or make complaints within the family circle. The next level can be described as Refusal or Non-Cooperation; this was rarer and might involve such activities as listening to foreign radio broadcasts. The next level of Protest would be rarer still with the risks becoming greater. This could involve such activities as the
production of opposition leaflets. Finally, the fourth level can be described as Resistance. Activities in this category might involve demonstrations or strikes and at their most dangerous even included assassination attempts.
The Nazi Regime during the War
It has been suggested that in war the Nazi regime returned ‘to its real essence’. Nazism was incapable of being a lasting force owing to its self-destructive nature. After the initial successes of the war as ideological concerns came to the fore, particularly with regard to the Final Solution, the Nazi leadership moved further away from the desires of the bulk of the German population.
Unlike in the occupied countries, resistance in Germany during the Second World War was often viewed as traitorous rather than patriotic and many moderate Germans often detested those who were involved.
The Stauffenberg Bomb Plot (20 July 1944)
By the summer of 1944 the German army was clearly in retreat. A group of army generals realised that Germany could not win the war. They plotted to kill Hitler and once he was dead they intended to make peace with the Allies.
On 20 July 1944, Colonel von Stauffenberg, leader of the plotters, attended a meeting with twenty four other officers held by Hitler at his headquarters near Berlin. The intention was to kill Hitler with a time bomb that he had placed in his briefcase. Soon after the meeting began Stauffenberg made an excuse to leave and ten minutes later the bomb exploded in the crowded room. He then flew to Berlin where he announced that Hitler was dead and the army generals were taking power.
However, Stauffenberg had spoken too soon. Despite causing enormous damage and killing four other men, Hitler was still alive. His hair was singed, and his hearing and clothing had been damaged, but he was not seriously injured. He quickly set about getting his revenge and the leading conspirators were murdered.