An exploration of German resistance to the Nazi regime, examining both active opposition and passive resistance during World War II.

After the Second World War the Allies in referring to the German people used the term ‘collective guilt’, which, after minimal research, appeared unfair. There was active opposition to Hitler from the moment he led Germany into war, which ranged from young teenagers, to undergraduates, to top-level civil servants, diplomats, and to the highest ranks in the military. As the moral depravity of the Nazi regime became apparent many Germans turned against the regime, although there was always the dedicated fanatic. They had become a repressed society, watched by Himmler’s SD and above all feared interrogation by the Gestapo, what one German described as the ‘silence of the graveyard’. This did not stop what may be called passive resistance which this book also explores, using the work of German diarists who wrote their accounts not postwar with the benefit of hindsight, but with genuine integrity at the time as events were unfolding. This book explores not just the resistance culminating in the 20 July Plot, and the divisions of opinions amongst the various resistance groups, but also the reaction of the German public, a question which the reader may feel obliged to ask where he or she may have stood under the circumstance of the day and under such a regime.

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Preface
• Foreword
• Chapter 1: Failure of German Leadership 1870–1945
  • The Days of Empire, 1870–1918
  • Post 1918, The Weimar Republic
  • The Political Jigsaw Puzzle
  • The Military and Politics, Post-1918
  • 1933–39 Why the Nazis were Popular
  • Life in Germany under Nazi Rule, 1933–39
  • Rise of the Führer state
• Chapter 2: German Public Reaction to Nazism
  • Introduction
  • Nationalism
  • Indoctrinating German Youth
  • Goebbels Influence on the wider German Public
  • Subjugation by Fear
  • Fear on the Streets and in Workplaces
• Chapter 3: From Survival to Opposition
  • Meaning of Resistance and Opposition
  • Why the Jewish Persecution
  • German-Jewish Situation
  • Victor Klemperer’s Diary
  • Friedrich Kellner’s Diary
• Chapter 4: Passive Opposition to Resistance
  • Introduction
  • Individual Resisters
  • Rebellious Teenagers
  • Church Opposition
  • White Rose Students
  • Elite Conservative Doubters
  • Military Doubters
  • Early Military Resistance 1937–1940
• Chapter 5: A Divided Resistance
  • Introduction
  • The Mixture of Motives
  • Morality and Nationalistic Divides
  • Resisters and the Jewish Persecution
  • Social Democratic Party Resistance
  • Military Resistance
• Chapter 6: Resistance Efforts
  • Reaching out Internationally
  • After the Victory over France
  • Impending Military Disaster
  • The Original purpose of Valkyrie
  • Stauffenberg
  • The Search for Assassins
  • Planning the Coup
  • The July Plot Unfolds
  • 20 July Plot Activated
  • The Collapse of the Coup
  • Military knowledge of the Plot
• Chapter 7: Final Observations
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Plates