Nazi Regime Face Serious Opposition 1939-45

- 2,000 members 1939

- WC male 14-17

- Attacked members of Hitler youth

- Hated regimentation

- ambush patrols

- 'Eternal war on the Hitler Youth'

- But poorly organised,

- No unity- fragmented such as the Raving Dudes of Essen.

- NOT SERIOUS OPPOSITION

- SERIOUS(could be considered as resistance)

- Led by Hans and sophie Scholl and Christopher Probst.

- Rile opposition by handing out anti-Nazi leaflets and sabotarge war efforts.

- Leaflets about atrocities against Jews and Russians and failure of German people to do anything.

-active resistance by leading anti-Nazi demonstraton in Munich is 1943.

- But the Nazis dealt with it- arresting and torturing them and 6 members beheaded.

- upper middle class

- Directed effort against the cultural indocronation of the Reich by celebrating and listening to British and American jazz - regarded by the Nazis as Negro music and degenerate

- opposition but wouldn't have been considered opposition under a different regime.

- not serious as lacked organisation and in 1942 Dec clamp down of youth and 700 gang members arrested and executed.

- Conservitives domoniated civil service and army.

- Lyton said it was most the 'most influencial active resistance'

- Hitler needed army to fulfil his ideological ambtions and foreign policy

- Threatened by ss

-Many army Generals didn't believe Germany wa in a position to enter another war.

- 1938

- Officers and conservative politicians developed plan to carry out coup as soon a war with chzechslovakia broke out

- however army had sworn oath of alliance to hitler which caused hezidancy among conspiritors and under the false pretence that Brit woud fight if Czech was attacked.

- 1943

- 2 officers tried to assassinate by placing bomb disguised as a brandy bottle on his plane- if successful then serious to regime.

- Detanator failed to go off.

- Met at the estate of Count Helmuth Von Moltke

- officers aristocrats , acedemics

- serious threat as inflencial people in high positions

-August 1943 drew up pricipes for new order- blueprint of new German state without hitler and democratic values

-The gestapo infiltrated the circle and 2000 conspirators were tracked down and executed

-Moltke arrested in Jan 1944.

-Remaining claimed to be 'oppressed by the feelings of failure'

- many would say that resistance from the army and conservatives was too little too late and continued to only a few individuals.

- July 1944

- Members of Kres circle

-replace Hitler with provisional gov led by General Beck to make peace with allies before Germanys invaded.

- Klaus Von Staffenberg left briefcase near to Hitler which contained a bomb

- Exploded at his Headquaters at Radtenburg

- killed four but Hitler only suffered minor injuries

- SPD leadership gone into excile to Prague

- organised SOPADE led by Earnest Schumacher

- Organised groups such as the 'berlin red patrol' and 'Whispering campaign'

- those left went underground setting up small groups that published reports.

- SOPADE - smuggled into Germany and spread amongst the workers hoping to encourage an effective resistance.

- faced opposititon from communists.

- Handed out leaflets

-1934 there was 1.25 million pamphlets seized by Gestapo.

- red orchestra - soviet spy network that contained agents within the German government and passed on useful material to the Soviet Union

- however they took orders from Moscow and thus restricted by Nazi-soviet pack 1939

- Kpd and SPD failed to work together- unable to mobolise support from working classes and trade unions.

- attempts to remove crucifixes from catholic schools.

Bavaria 1941 adolf wagner demanded all crucifixes removed from schools but met with storm of protests - meetings letters petitions demonstrations.

Wegner forced to overturn original order.

- Not really attempt to overthrow.

didn't publicly speek out against treatment of jews and Pius XII was afraid that overt political action would result in persecution of catholics and Nazi pope.

protestant - fragmented into number of sects and couldn't form unified force of serious opposition.

- Gestapo as they believed they were everywhere - listening and watching for any opposition and therefore terrified of the consequences of resisting the Nazi regime.

- Those who did dare had to go underground and even then found it hard to trust each other- difficult to organise.

-Many actually agreed- restoring Germanys prestige through re-militirisation of the Rhineland and rearmament generating jobs.