6. nazi opposition

• In 1933 KPD leaders were arrested and their offices closed after the Reichstag Fire.
• There were an estimated 400 illegal strikes 1933-1935
• All SPD leaders were arrested or went into exile in 1933. They established SOPADE and operated in various parts of Europe including Prague, Paris and London.
• In 1934 Niemoller sets up the protestant oppositional Confessional Church.
• In 1937 Pope Pius X1 issued a papal encyclical criticising Nazi beliefs and methods.
• Martin Niemoller, head of the Confessional Church is arrested in 1937.
• In 1939, around 2000 young people were members of the Edelweiss Pirates.
• In 1939 Georg Elser attempts to blow up Hitler in the Munich Beer Hall
• In 1941 Bishop Galen preached against euthanasia policies.
• The White Rose Group was an organised opposition group based in Munich University from 1941 to 1943.
• The Red Orchestra sent information to the USSR throughout the war years.
• The Kreisau Circle drew up plans for a new Germany after Hitler but closed down in 1944.
• In 1944, 13 people including 6 teenagers who had been members of the Edelweiss Pirates and their leaders were hanged in Ehrenfeld, Cologne.
• In 1933 the Ministry for Enlightenment and Propaganda is set up under Goebbels.
• Editors Law 1933 forbade all non-aryans from working in journalism, it also stated that content was the sole responsibility of the newspapers editor.
• In 1933 the plebiscite on leaving the League of Nations wins mass support.
• In 1933 the Gestapo is set up under Himmler.
• The first concentration camps are opened for short term punishments in 1933. Around 225,000 Germans were imprisoned for political crimes 1933-1939.
• The People's Court is set up in 1934 to try political crimes.
• National Socialist Women's League (NSF) membership rose to 1.5 million by 1934.
• At the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games, Germany win the most medals. Riefenstahl produces Olympia 1938, following on from Triumph of Will 1935.
• In 1936 the plebiscite on the remilitarisation of the Rhineland won 99% support.
• Himmler becomes Chief of German Police in 1936 and he had become Reich Leader SS in 1929, unifying all police and security forces under his control.
• By 1939 there were 240,000 in the SS.
• By 1939 70% of German households owned a people's receiver (Volksempfänger) a cheap short range radio.
• The Nazi publishing house, Eher Verlag, controlled two thirds of the German press.
• The Eternal Jew an anti semitic film is released in 1941.
• By 1940 NSDAP membership is at 5 million.
• The Nazis tried to force 3 million women aged 17-45 to go back to work during the war years. Only 1 million returned to work.
• The People's Home Guard (Volkssturm) was set up to help the war effort and morale in 1944.
• In 1939, listening to a foreign radio (or Feindsender) was made a crime.
• Cultural bans were imposed in 1939, for example, no British works were to be performed.
• Paper shortages led to the closure of almost 1500 newspapers during the war.
• More than 7,000 people were arrested and 4,980 were executed by the Gestapo and SS after the Army Bomb Plot although not all were related.
• Around 200 army officers were killed after the Army Bomb Plot, many of whom had not been directly involved.
• Non-Conformity


  the largest category: people who neither resisted nor opposed but did, in some ways fail to conform to its demands.
• Opposition


  people who opposed particular Nazi policies but did not necessarily reject the regime as a whole.
• Active Resistance 


  people who totally rejected Nazism & sought its overthrowal.
• The Swing Youth


  Middle class teenagers who went to parties and listen to banned music like Jazz and danced the jitterbug. They also refused to join the Hitler Youth.
• The White Rose Group

  Ran from 1942-43, included Hans and Sophie Scholl who organised the first public demonstration to the Nazi regime. They distributed leaflets across Munich.