national studies germany 1918 – 1939 nazism in power opposition to nazism by s. angelo head...
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National StudiesGERMANY 1918 – 1939
Nazism in PowerOpposition to Nazism
ByS. Angelo
Head Teacher HistoryEast Hills Girls Technology High School
2009
Opposition and Resistance – SPD, KPD, industrial workers
• Underground organisation• Red Shock Troop newspaper• 3000 members• Arrested and imprisoned by Gestapo in Dec 1933• Socialist Action newspaper; pamphlets• Leaders arrested in 1935 by Gestapo• Resistance ended by 1939 when most accepted Nazi
policies• New Beginning: members arrested in 1935 and then in
1938
SPD
• Underground resistance• From 1933 – 1939• 1,000 cases of resistance were before the courts in 1933• 150,000 communist arrested and placed into
concentration camps• 30,000 were executedCommunist
• Absenteeism from work• Sabotage of machinery in factories• Refusal to join the German army
Industrial Workers
Institutional Opposition
POLITICAL PARTIES; TRADE UNIONS; ARMY; CHURCHES
This was essentially eliminated by the Nazis
Abolishment of political partys
Repression of SPD & KPD
Trade unions banned
Army pacified by elimination of SA
Outspoken church officials were arrested e.g. Pastor Niemoller – imprisoned for 8yrs
Types of Personal OppositionPrivate Acts of
Defiance
• Reading banned material
• Listening to music unacceptable to the regime
• Not attending Nazi events or celebrations
• Ignoring Nazi publications
Public Acts of Defiance
• Telling anti-Hitler jokes
• Not giving the Nazi salute Heil Hitler
• Expressing sympathy for the Jews
Active Resistance
• Producing anti-Nazi material
• Meeting with others to criticise the government
• Planning to overthrow the government or the assassination of Hitler
Resistance Organisations
Edelweiss Pirates
• Youth who opposed the regime
• Young men• Working class• Evaded
requirement to serve in Reich Labour Service
• Refused to join army
• Anti-Nazi slogans
• Assisted deserters from army & people fleeing the authorities
• 13 publicly hanged in 1944
Kreisau Circle
• Conservatives• Included church
figures & scholars
• Opposed regime• Passed
information on to British
• Von Moltke arrested
• Made an attempt on Hitler’s life in July 1944
• Essentially ended by the end of 1944
The White Rose
• Founded by Hans & Sophie Scholl
• University students (Munich)
• Pamphlets demanding end to Nazi regime
• Death sentence in People’s Court Feb 1943
• Guillotined
Fritz Grünbaum (1880 –1941)
• The Viennese cabaret artist, Fritz Grünbaum, was known both in Germany and Austria.
• He wrote sketches, poems, chansons, screenplays and libretti. In March 1938,
• Fritz Grünbaum was arrested in Vienna for being a Nazi opponent and a Jew.
• Fritz Grünbaum arrived in Dachau on April 2,1938. • In September 1938 he was transferred to the Buchenwald
concentration camp and was brought back to Dachau in October 1940.
• The cabaret performances he gave for his fellow-prisoners made him very popular in both camps.
• He died on January 14, 1941, just three months before his 60th birthday
• Fritz Grünbaum as a prisoner in the Dachau concentration camp, June 28, 1938
• Photo: Friedrich Franz Bauer, commissioned by the SS • Bundesarchiv, Außenstelle Ludwigsburg
Albert Theis (b. 1920) • Albert Theis had served since May 1939 in a Luxembourg
volunteer company. • Following the occupation of Luxembourg by German troops,
this unit was forcibly incorporated into the German police force in 1940.
• For their refusal to serve in the partisan region of Slovenia and to swear an oath to Hitler, fortyfour Luxembourg
citizens, including Albert Theis, were arrested and sent to different concentration camps.
• In February 1942, seventeen members of the Luxembourg volunteer company were executed in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp for refusing to take the oath.
• Albert Theis as a candidate for the Luxembourg national service (“volunteer company”), 1939
• 1312 On March 25,1942, Albert Theis arrived with sixteen of his comrades in the Dachau concentration camp.
• During their imprisonment, each Luxembourg volunteer was required every year to swear the oath to Hitler. They refused the oath up to the very end.
• Police registration photo of Albert Theis, 1942 Photo: Police Records Department
Roll Call at Dachau KL
Terror and Repression at Dachau
Why was opposition to the Nazi Regime ineffective?
•Loss of civil and basic rights
•Failure to have legal protection
•Agencies like SA, SS, Gestapo, Secret Police
•Denunciations
FEAR
•Nazi Organisations •Hitler Youth, German Labour Front, Strength Through Joy
CONTROL
•Elimination of centres of potential opposition & political parties
•Abolition of trade unions
•Ineffectiveness of conservative forcesLACK OF
COORDINATION
•Effective in winning support of many German people
•Ministry of Propaganda – eliminated ability and desire for change through increase apathy – “if you can’t change it , join it”
PROPAGANDA
•Delivered a measure of successes – increases public support
•Weimar V Nazi – appearance of control and movement to better conditions
•Recovery of economy; elimination of communist threat; recovery of international standing (League of Nations)
NAZI SUCCESS
Essay
• How effective was the opposition to Hitler and the Nazi regime up to 1939?– Institutional Opposition
• Political parties• Trade unions• Army• Other institutions
– Personal Opposition• Private acts of defiance• Public acts of defiance• Active resistance