Church

• Catholic bishops


  • Had to swear allegiance to the Nazi Regime
  • Catholic schools and Catholic youth groups were closed
• Protestant pastors


  • Were told to join the German Christian Church, which accepted Nazi interference in the running of Protestant churches
  • Many pastors conformed, but some Christian leaders resisted
• The Pastors' Emergency League (PEL)


  1. Set up in 1933 by a group of Protestant pastors, including Martin Niemöller

  2. Opposed the joining of regional churches into one national German Christian Church

  3. Opposed Nazi attempts to stop Jews becoming Christians and to ban the Jewish Old Testament from Christian teaching
• The Confessing Church


  • Set up by the PEL in 1934
  • Opposed Nazi interference in the running of Protestant churches
  • About 6,000 Protestant pastors joined the Confessing Church, in opposition to Nazi policy
  • About 800 pastors were arrested and sent to concentration camps
• Catholic opposition


  • Some Catholic priests spoke out against Nazi ideas and policies
  • Around 400 Catholic priests were imprisoned in the Priests' Block at Dachau concentration camp
• The Churches offered less than fundamental resistance to Nazism
• Their energies were used in opposing Nazi interference with their traditional practices
• This was not matched by equally vigorous denunciation of Nazi inhumanity and barbarism
• Martin Niemöller


  A German U-Boat commander during World War I, who later became a key opponent of the Nazis
• Martin Niemöller's opposition to the Nazis

  1. Opposed the Weimar Republic in the 1920s and voted for the Nazis in 1924 and 1933

  2. Welcomed Hitler's appointment as Chancellor in 1933

  3. Opposed Nazi interference in the running of the Protestant Church

  4. Spoke out against the Nazis more and more, resulting in repeated arrests between 1934 and 1937

  5. Arrested by the Gestapo in 1937 and charged with 'treasonable statements'

  6. Imprisoned in Sachsenhausen and later Dachau concentration camps
• Martin Niemöller: 'First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Socialist. Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Trade Unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.'
• Most young Germans conformed to the Nazi youth groups
• Alternative youth groups


  • Edelweiss Pirates
  • Swing Youth
• Edelweiss Pirates


  • Consisted of teenagers who resented the military discipline of the Nazi youth groups and the general lack of freedom in Nazi Germany
  • Hung around on street corners, taunting or attacking Hitler Youth
  • Went on long hikes in the countryside
• Swing Youth


  • Mainly teenagers from wealthy middle-class families
  • Admired American culture, such as clothes, films and music
  • Gathered together to listen and dance to swing music, often illegally
• The motives of the alternative youth groups were limited
• Their opposition to the Nazis was mainly cultural — concerned with clothes, music and behaviour — rather than political
• The Edelweiss Pirates and Swing Youth wanted freedom from Nazi controls, but they were not a political opposition
• The existence of these alternative youth groups shows that a minority of German youth remained unconvinced by Nazi expectations and were opposed enough to defy Nazi expectations
• The Edelweiss Pirates and Swing Youth were not typical of German youth and did not pose any threat to Hitler's Germany