Resistance against Hitler and his Nazi Regime - Essay Example

? Resistance against Hitler and his Nazi Regime School The main aim of this paper is to critically analyze the resistance of the Germans against the Nazi regime under the leadership of Adolf Hitler. The paper also analysis the activities of the various resistance groups, and also shows how the various resistance groups became stronger and stronger over time despite Hitler’s brutal mistreatment of the resistance movements’ leadership. The paper also analysis the strengths and the weaknesses of the various resistance groups, and lastly, a conclusion is made based on the findings in the paper. Resistance against Hitler and his Nazi Regime The Nazi regime under the leadership of Hitler faced a lot of resistance from a section of German population between the years 1939-1945. The Nazi regime actually faced a lot of resistance and challenges from the opposition parties that did not agree with Nazi’s ideologies and manner of doing things. But despite the concerted effort by the opposition parties to resist the Nazi regime, none of the resistance attempts succeeded for all the resistance attempts were nipped in the bud by the Nazi administration (Rich, 1973). As a way of discouraging and threatening the potential rebels, the Nazi regime always dealt firmly with the resistance movement ring leaders, the ring leaders were severely punished for resisting against the Nazi regime. But despite these severe punishments against the rebels by the Nazi regime, resistance attempts continued throughout the Nazi regime. This paper analysis the resistance groups that bedevilled the Nazi regime. The paper also analysis how the resistance movements became stronger and stronger over time, despite the brutal mistreatment of the resistance movements’ top brass. Such resistance attempts took place in places like in the churches. Civilians also protested and at one time the military attempted to topple the Nazi regime through a coup d’etat. As a measure to completely quash the resistance movements, the Nazi regime established a police unit called Gestapo, the unit was mandated to spy on the rebels, especially the socialist and the communist adherents who were deeply opposed to the Nazi ideologies (Sax & Kuntz, 1973). The Nazi regime murdered many communist adherents who were critical to the Nazi ideologies. For instance at one time, the Nazi regime issued 35, 200 death sentences, and out of this number, 20,000 victims were communist adherents. Also, in 1941, approximately 405 people were put in custody for being either followers of communism or Marxism. The enabling act of 1993 gave Hitler a lot of power, and Hitler misused this power by establishing a concentration camp at Dachau to deal firmly with the enemies of the Nazi regime (Sax & Kuntz, 1973). The rebels were arrested and brutally punished in the concentration camp. Hitler also used his enormous power to empower the Gestapo police unit more, so as to deal with the Nazi regime critics. Resistance Groups Doris Berger Understanding of Resistance Before we look at the various anti-Nazi forces in Germany, let us look at the meaning of the term resistance as understood by the historian Doris Bergen. Doris Bergen views resistance as any act that portrays disagreement and discontent with the status quo. For instance in pages 203- 204 of Berger’s book, War and Genocide: A concise History of the Holocaust, Berger details how the Nazi regime dealt with the perceived resistance movements, especially the Jews, whom the Nazi administration saw as the main threat of the Nazi administration. Berger’s conception of resistance therefore is any act that portrays opposition to the established system or to the status quo. This view of resistance is actually in agreement with the conventional understanding of the term resistance. German Youth Resistance against the Nazi Regime The main critics of the Nazi administration were the German youth. And to deal with this challenge, the Nazi regime established a system to make the youth remain loyal to the Nazi regime. The young men in Germany were supposed to be members of the Hitler youth movement and the girls were supposed to be members of the German Girls league movement. The youth movements limited the leisure time for the youth in an attempt to make them loyal to the Nazi regime (Rich, 1973). Notwithstanding these youth movements, some young people refused to be members of these movements and they continued with resisting the Nazi regime, some of the resistance youth groups that were formed included Edelweiss Pirates, and the Swing group. These groups mainly lived on the run as the Nazi administration was constantly hunting for them and punishing them through very cruel means. The youth were mainly advocating for the freedom of the people in various aspects of the peoples’ lives. In 1942, a congregation of University students from the University of Munich created the White Rose Resistance Group, which was headed by Professor Kurt Huber. The White Rose resistance movement mobilized the youth against the Nazi administration. They did this by distributing anti- Nazi leaflets throughout the University compound. The White Rose movement members mainly wrote and distributed leaflets with messages that opposed the Third Reich. As a result of this resistance attempt, the leadership of the Rose resistance group was arrested by the Gestapo police and they were executed later in 1943 in Munich city (Rich, 1973). The anti- Nazi movements made many plots to assassinate Hitler, with the most memorable attempt being the attempt to overthrown Hitler through a coup d’etat that was led by the Army. The leader of the coup was Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg who personally planted the bomb next to Hitler in his headquarters at Rastenberg, in Eastern Germany. The bomb went off and although Hitler did not die, he escaped the bomb blast with some minor injuries and burns, damaged ear drums, and a partially paralyzed right arm. As expected, the four officers involved in the coup attempt were shot dead immediately after the incident, while other two hundred people were convicted for their involvement in the development of the plan to overthrow Hitler (Sax & Kuntz, 1992). Communist Resistance Groups The communist party members were opposed to the Nazi ideologies and they fought for the liberation of the people of Germany from the tyranny of the Nazi regime. As a result, many communists died in the liberation struggle. Between the years 1933 to 1939 more than 150,000 communists were detained while more than 30,000 were executed. Hitler sought to completely annihilate the communist party which he viewed as the main threat of the Nazi regime. The Nazi administration used Gestapo and spies to apprehend the communists, especially those that were deemed to be most notorious for resisting the Nazi regime. The punishments to the apprehended culprits were based on the culprit’s level of involvement in the resistance movements; the culprits who were actively involved in the resistance against the Nazi regime were either hanged or publicly executed, while the others whose mistakes were deemed less grave were held in concentration camps to serve the various sentences depending on one’s level of involvement in the resistance against the Nazi government (Williamson, 2011). The resistance movement strengthened over time when more and more people joined the resistance movement. The main reinforcement of the resistance movement came from the religious organizations when they started opposing the Nazi regime for the atrocities that they were committing against the people of Germany. The main religious organizations that were against the Nazi regime were the Catholic Church and the protestant churches. These two religious organizations mobilized their followers to protest against the Nazi regime. This made the resistance movement to become stronger over time. Catholic Resistance Group Christians of the Catholic Church also took active part in opposing the Nazi administration. Catholic Priests were very vocal in opposing the excesses and the draconian doctrines of the Nazi administration. This prompted execution of the Catholics by the Nazi government, the execution was a mean to reduce the threats that were posed by the Catholic priests to the Nazi regime. The Nazi administration also felt that the Catholic Church was mobilizing people against the Nazi government, and this was a real threat to the Nazi administration (Bergen, 100). Protestant Churches Resistance Group The protestant churches also took part in opposing Hitler administration. And to counter this resistance, Hitler tried to bring all the protestant churches under one Reich church in an attempt to gain control over the churches (Williamson, 2011). But this move by Hitler was not successful and as a result, Hitler resorted to persecuting the protestant church leaders especially those who were so vocal in criticizing the Nazi regime. The protestant leaders were arrested, prosecuted, and they were convicted to either spend time in the correctional camps or they were executed. Hitler was a very brutal leader and he is infamously remembered for killing all his political rivals immediately after taking over power. Hitler’s main reason for eliminating his rivals was that he was afraid that his rivals would hatch a plot to overthrow him (Williamson, 2011). The night of long knives is remembered as the day when Hitler struck all his political opponents to ensure that he enjoyed his power unrivalled. After eliminating his enemies and ensuring that there was no more political rivalry, Hitler made all the army to swear an oath of loyalty to him. Hitler then combined the offices of the Chancellor and the office of the president to ensure that he had absolute power over the people of Germany. Strengths and Weaknesses of the Resistance Movement in and out of Nazi Germany Strengths of the Resistance Groups The resistance movements brought to light the challenges that came up because of the poor administrative practices of Nazi rule so that people increasingly became aware of the things that were being done wrongly in the society (Williamson, 2011). This helped to counter the oppressive rule that Hitler was forcefully trying to impose upon the people of Germany. For instance, through enlightenment and sensitization of the people by the resistance movements, the protestant church members were able to resist the attempts by Hitler to squeeze the entire protestant churches under one umbrella. Anti-Nazi resistance movements also helped even the core of the Nazi regime to realize the gravity of the atrocities that they were committing against the people of Germany. This realization made some of the Nazi stalwarts to feel guilty for their actions, and consequently to abandon the Nazi ideologies and to join the resistance movements that were fighting for the liberation of the people of Germany from the Nazi regime (Williamson, 2011). Resistance efforts against the oppressive Nazi regime also helped to unite the people of Germany against the dictatorial regime, the resistance movements therefore fostered unity among Germans (Kitchen, 2003). Different professionals, religions and citizens of Germany put aside their differences in fighting against the oppressive Nazi regime. Weaknesses of the Resistance Movements The resistance attempts were mostly not successful because of lack of a common goal amongst the different groups that championed for the liberation of the people of Germany from the Nazi regime. For instance, religious groups pushed for different themes from the themes that the communist groups were fighting for; and the communists’ views were also different from the themes of the youth groups (Bergen, 100). This lack of a clear common theme weakened the resistance movements’ effort to overcome the oppressions of the Nazi regime. Existence of spies amongst the resistance fighters also compromised the effectiveness of the operations of the resistance groups (Kitchen, 2006). For instance, in the case of the execution of the leaders of the Rose resistance group, it was the janitor of the University who gave the report about their activities and the presence of leaflets to the Gestapo who later arrested them and eventually prosecuted them and later executed them. Existence of the Nazi spies made it very difficult for the resistance groups to come up with any concrete plan to counter the Nazi regime oppressions. In conclusion, the Nazi administration faced a myriad of challenges throughout the period that it was in power. And although the Nazi administration employed every conceivable mean in an effort to dismantle the resistance movements, the resistance movements became stronger and stronger over time. The brutal and inhuman means that Hitler employed to dismantle the resistance movements did not dampen the spirits of the people to fight for their freedom. This fact shows that no matter how brutally you may punish the people in an effort to stop them from fighting for their rights, people can never stop fighting for their rights and freedoms. If anything, the brutal punishment only serves to strengthen the forces of resistance against the injustices that the people are going through. Resistance against the evils of the Nazi regime continued until when the Nazi regime was eventually defeated and toppled out of power. References Bergen. D. (2009). War and Genocide: A Concise History of the Holocaust, 2n ed. United States of America: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. Kitchen M. (2006). A History of Modern Germany. Canada: Wiley Publishers. Rich N. (1973). Hitler's War Aims: Ideology, the Nazi State, and the Course of Expansion. United States of America: Norton Publishers. Sax B. & Kuntz D. (1992). Inside Hitler’s Germany: A documentary history of life in the Third Reich. United States of America: D.C. Heath Publishers. Williamson D. G. (2011). The Third Reich, 4th ed. United States of America: Longman Publishing Group. Read More