2.3.10

Opposition

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Student Opposition During World War Two

Whilst student resistance was not widespread, it did exist. Key groups included the Edelweiss Pirates, the Swing Movement and the White Rose

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Edelweiss Pirates

  • The Edelweiss Pirates continued into World War Two.
  • In 1942 the HJ complained they faced no-go areas in Düsseldorff because of the Edelweiss Pirates. 739 youths were arrested, many were sent to labour camps.
  • In 1944 leaders of the Cologne Edelweiss Pirates were hanged.
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Swing Movement

  • The Swing Movement was mostly middle class youths listening to American Jazz music.
  • This activity was considered subversive by the Nazi regime as it undermined Nazi morale.
  • Members of the Swing Movement were arrested.
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White Rose

  • In Munich University, the White Rose student group distributed leaflets between June 1942 and February 1943.
    • The leaflets were anti-Nazi.
  • Leaders, Sophie and Hans Scholl and Christoph Probst were executed in February 1943.

Church Opposition During World War Two

Church opposition continued into World War Two.

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Confesional Church

  • The Confessional Church split from the Reich Church.
  • Bonhöffer was banned from preaching and publishing in 1940. He worked with the resistance in Germany, hoping find a way to bring peace.
  • He had contacts with the British and was arrested in 1943. After being sent to Buchenwald, he was moved to Flossenbürg where he was executed in 1945.
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Catholic Church

  • Roman Catholic bishop Clemens von Galen criticised the Nazis’ racism and euthanasia policies. He was too popular to be punished or made a martyr.
  • Galen’s 1941 sermons criticising euthanasia were circulated widely.
  • Three Catholic priests and a Protestant pastor from Lübeck were executed in Hamburg in November 1943 for criticising the Nazi regime.
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Historical assessment

  • Churches in occupied European territories also generally failed to speak out against the crimes that the Nazis were committing.
  • Paul Hanebrink (2000) explores how the Christian Churches of Hungary reacted to emigration and extermination policies. He concludes that while there were lots of religious individuals who helped people facing persecution, these people were exceptional.
    • The church as an institution failed to use its 'public moral authority' to question what was happening.

Jump to other topics

1The Weimar Republic 1918-1933

2Nazi Germany 1933-1945

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