Resistance and Repression

Communists

Over half of KPD members were interned during the first year of Nazi rule, and by 1935, the Gestapo had
infiltrated the remains of the party. However, the Communist movement was never entirely broken, instead
retreating underground.
Small communist cells continued in many large cities, particularly after invasion of the USSR e.g. Uhrig Group,
Berlin and Home Front, Hamburg.
Most famous opposition was Rote Kapelle (Red Orchestra); a spy network which successfully infiltrated the
government and military through Arvid Harnack and aristocratic sympathiser Schulz-Boysen. Cell transmitted
vital info back to Moscow and produced pamphlets attacking Nazism. They were, however, destroyed in 1942.

Why did they fail?

Took orders from Moscow and were tainted by their association with Stalin and his 1930s purges.
They were seriously compromised by the period of co-operation between the Nazi government and the USSR
as a result of the Nazi-Soviet Pact 1939-41.
Even when USSR and Germany did end up at war with each other in June 1941, the resistance groups remained
very isolated.
Limited active resistance in the end, really became more focussed on self-preservation and preparation for
the day when Nazism would be defeated and Soviet liberation could take place.

Christians

As persecution intensified, Church attendance increased and many individual churchmen put their own
freedom and lives at risk in order to uphold their beliefs or to give pastoral assistance.
40% of Catholic clergy and 50% of Protestant pastors were harassed by Nazis.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer consistent opponent of Nazism, who by 1940 had moved from religious dissent to
political resistance, bringing him into direct contact with the conservative elites in the Kreisau Circle. Over the
next three years he helped Jews to emigrate and actively worked with resistance movement until he was
picked up by the Gestapo in 1943.

Bishop von Galen of Mnster conservative, nationalist, aristocrat and a strong anti-communist, yet in 1930s
he began having doubts about Nazi policy and the excesses of the Gestapo. Delivered three sermons in 1941,
which condemned the euthanasia policy. His attacks proved so powerful with his congregations that the
authorities recoiled from arresting him and actually stopped the programme.

Alfred Delp member of the inner Kreisau Circle. Implicated in the Stauffenberg Plot and executed in 1945.

Why did they fail?

Churches posed no real active threat to the strength of the regime.

Mainly concerned with self-preservation and maintaining their property and wealth and their power as
institutions.
No public condemnation of the Nazi genocide of the Jews.

Georgia Lennon
Resistance and Repression

Students: the White Rose Group

Probably the most famous of the youth groups because it went well beyond mere dissent.
Led by brother and sister Hans and Sophie Scholl.
The White Rose (symbol of peace) was the title given to a series of leaflets printed in 1942-3 distributed
initially amongst Munich Uni. students, but in time they became distributed to towns in central Germany.
Leaflet content was highly political and openly condemned the moral and spiritual values of the Nazi regime.
An early leaflet bore the headline: Isnt every decent German today ashamed of his government?
Represented brave gestures of defiance and self-sacrifice.

Why did they fail?

From the start, the groups security was weak and it was only a matter of time before the Gestapo closed in.
In February 1943, the six leaders were arrested, tortured and swiftly executed.

Sophie Scholl What we wrote and said is in the minds of you all. You just dont say it aloud.

Conservative Elites

Most influential active resistance emerged from the ranks of Germanys upper classes who dominated the civil
service and officer corps. These were the very same conservative nationalists who had initially given
sympathetic backing to Nazi dictatorship.
Army as an institution was not fully co-ordinated and therefore enjoyed freedom from Nazi control. With
access to arms, the military had the real capacity to resist and for these reasons, the development of the active
resistance of German elites formed around the army.

Kreisau Circle

Opponents within the conservative elites in the 1930s e.g. Beck and Goerdeler. In 39-41 army and foreign office
officials became outraged by criminality of massacres and destruction on Eastern Front. Therefore, elements of
an organised resistance began to emerge slowly from 42, brought together by the military setbacks of winter
42-3.
Kreisau Circle was a wide-ranging group of officers, aristocrats, academics and churchmn who met at the
Kreisau estate of Helmuth von Moltke. Meetings discussed plans for a new Germany after Hitler, and in August
1943 a programme was drawn up in the Basic Principles for the New Order. Principles were consrvtive and
strognyl influenced by Christian values. They called for:
o Principle of Law.
o Upholding of freedoms and civil rights.
o Democratic integration of Germany into independent
Europe.
Key members:
o Helmuth von Moltke
o Carl Friedrich Goerdeler
o Ulrich von Hassell
o Henning von Tresckow
o Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Georgia Lennon
Resistance and Repression

Stauffenberg Plot

By 1944, Gestapo were aware of Kreisau existence and Moltke was arrested. Remaining members, however,
became supporters of the most daring act of resistance to Hitlers Germany: the Bomb Plot of 20 July 1944.
Bomb Plot number of civilian resistance figures approached dissident army officers, such as Beck and
Tresckow, and schemed to assassinate Hitler and create a provisional government.
Key leading figure in the plot was Colonel von Stauffenberg, who believed that the only way to eradicate the
Nazi regime was to assassinate Hitler. He was an able and committed soldier who initially admired Hitler,
however his strong Catholic outlook raised increasing doubts about the regime. Initially he was on the Kreisau
fringes, but he gave the resistance group a real purpose from early 1944 when he drew up the plan codenamed
Operation Valkyrie to kill Hitler. He took personal responsibility to plant bomb in Hitlers briefing room at
East Prussia headquarters.

Why did they fail?

Briefcase was moved away from the target minutes before explosion, allowing Hitler to sustain only minor
injuries.
Generals in Berlin crucially hesitated, allowing Hitlers loyal soldiers to arrest conspirators and re-establish
order. In the aftermath, 5000 supporters of the resistance were killed, including Stauffenberg, Beck, Tresckow,
Rommel, Moltke and Goerdeler.

Conclusion

Conservative elites proved incapable of fundamentally weakening Nazi regime.

They only recognised need to resist the regime after crucial developments of 1934 and 1938; by that time
Nazism was too well established.
Due to the military oath, the army was tied to the Nazi regime and its leader.
Hitlers diplomatic and military successes in 38-42 undoubtedly blinded CE.
Even after the turn of the tide and the growing knowledge of brutal actions, the majority of army generals did
not work with the resistance.
Planning and organisation of effective resistance was always fraught with difficulties. Long-term aims of the CE
lacked clarity, and their practical plans were inhibited by the environment of suspicion of the police state.
The bad luck and confusion of the Bomb Plot became a symbol of the doomed nature of the resistance of the
elites.

Georgia Lennon