Essay study book Ocr A Level History A: Democracy And Dictatorship In Germany of Mary Fulbrook, David G. Williamson - ISBN: 9780435312251, Edition: 1, Year of publication: -
Opposition and resistance was a complete failure in the period 1939-45
From 1939-45 opposition and resistance was undoubtedly a complete failure.
Although there were some attempts to overthrow Hitler and his regime such as
bomb plots, it was ultimately a failure and Hitler remained in power. Due to a
lack of co-ordination and sufficient planning left wing resistance, religious
opposition and organisations such as white rose did not pose as a significant
long-term consequence and was effectively shut down by the Nazi’s through the
use of terror.
One group who opposed the Nazi regime were religious groups and the church.
Initially Hitler allowed the Christian churches to retain the organisation and
beliefs as he was aware of the religious impacts on the people especially during
a war therefore a concordat was signed in 1933. In retaliation to the creation of
Reich church under Muller which taught nazified religious beliefs Niemoller and
Bonhoeffer formed a confessional church. Niemoller openly admitted that he did
not approve of Hitler's regime and taught this to the people who attended the
church. This shows the ineffectiveness of Nazi policies when religious beliefs are
threatened and also shows that people such as Niemoller and Bonhoeffer were
prepared to oppose the regime by publicly rejecting the ideology and teaching
others beliefs against the regime. Furthermore individuals such as Bishop Galen
spoke out against the Nazis euthanasia policies in sermons and Bonhoeffer called
for wider resistance against the treatments of Jews. These bold acts to protect
the Jews and their own beliefs were a clear sign of opposition however this
ultimately did not bring down the regime and only had a limited short-term
impact. The ss swiftly put an end to the resistance by initially banning them from
speaking out in public from 1940 and later in 1943 they were arrested by the
Gestapo and sent to concentration camps. The same methods of terror were
used for other individuals too such as Galen. Therefore the resistance by
religious groups were merely seen as an inconvenience and did nothing major to
bring down the Nazi’s. The Nazi’s were able to take control of the resistance
through their use of terror and therefore opposition and resistance was a
complete failure.
Opposition and resistance was a complete failure because opposition was
uncoordinated and fragmented which meant that it was harder to successfully
overthrow the regime. There were many groups who opposed Hitler but were
unsuccessful due to lack of resources, poor planning and bad luck. One
prominent group who showed opposition and resistance was the Kreisau circle
which consisted of army officers and aristocrats they met often and discussed
what would come of Germany once Hitler was overthrown in 1943 they published
“The basic principles for the new order”. The Kreisau circle demonstrated that
there were opposition to Hitler but they weren't effective. The group planned and
executed the stauffenberg bomb plot on the 20th of July 1944, however this was
a failure. Although the group had some success in that Hitler was injured overall
he was still alive and the injuries were not serious. Furthermore the plotters were
unaware of their failed attempt and continued with their operation valkyrie in
which they tried to take over cities such as Berlin however again the Nazis were
able to use machinery off terror and the SS swiftly arrested the opponents and
Stauffenberg was executed. Another example of a failed bomb plot was by Georg
Elser, he had placed a bomb near a platform where Hitler was delivering his
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