Lack of Opposition

Most people did not oppose the Nazis because of Terror and propaganda and also because many thought they were doing a good job, for example by apparently getting rid of unemployment.

Youth Opposition Groups

The Edelweiss Pirates were mostly working-class teenagers who avoided joining the Hitler Youth and attacked Hitler Youth Groups. They were never a serious threat to the Nazis but did murder a Gestapo official in Cologne. 13 members were then executed.

The White Rose Group were students who secretly printed leaflets criticising the war and the murder of the Jews. Their leaders, Hans and Sophie Scholl, were caught in 1943 and were executed.

Swing Youth were groups of mainly middle-class youths who rebelled by listening to jazz and having long hair. It was more of a counter-culture than active opposition.

Opposition from Churches

Cardinal Galen of the Catholic Church openly criticised the Nazi's T4 programme of 'euthanasia' (killing disabled people). Martin Niemoller was a Protestant pastor (vicar) who preached against the Nazis and set up an illegal Confessional Church with Dietrich Bonhöffer. Niemoller was sent to a concentration camp but survived. Bonhöffer was executed.

Opposition from the Army

In 1944 several army officers plotted to kill Hitler. They were angered by the terrible losses in the war, especially in Russia. The plot was known as the Stauffenberg Plot or July Bomb Plot. It failed as the bomb was accidentally moved. Stauffenberg and 5000 others were executed.

Jewish Opposition

There were many examples of Jewish resistance to the Nazis. Amongst the most famous is the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1943. Jewish fighters joined up with the Polish resistance to attack Nazi soldiers using home-made bombs and stolen guns. Up to 150 Nazis were killed. The Nazis responded by burning the ghetto, killing about 13,000 Jews.

In the Auschwitz Revolt, Jewish workers (sonderkommando) including Rosa Robota smuggled in tiny amounts of gunpowder at a time. They used this to make a bomb and blew up the crematoria (ovens used to burn the bodies of the victims of the gas chambers). There were also successful escapes from several concentration camps and extermination camps.

Jewish resistance succeeded in slightly disrupting the Nazi's programme of genocide. Jewish prisoners also managed to document the terrible crimes that were being committed and, in some cases, they were able to pass these to Britain and the USA.

GCSE Germany 1890 - 1945 AQA

Opposition