Control and opposition

Part two

Political and youth opposition

Aims of the lesson

By the end of the lesson you will

• Understand why the Nazis faced little political opposition and how they dealt with it

• Describe the main features of anti-Nazi youth movements and to evaluate their effectiveness and the reasons for their failure

Political opposition

• When Hitler came to power the opposition was divided

• One party state – all other parties banned

• State governments abolished and replaced by a Nazi Gaulieter

• Concentration camps for those who opposed Nazis

Communists and Socialists

• Communists and SPD forced underground – leaders put in prison

• Others fled abroad – communists to Moscow, socialists to Paris

• Most activists gave up the chase and decided to wait for the Nazi government to fall

Conservative opposition

• Many conservatives accepted Nazi rule as a better alternative to the communists

• Most conservatives went along with Nazi policies

• Only when the war started to go wrong in 1943 did they start to turn against Hitler

Youth opposition

• Nazis targeted young people – had to join HJ or BDM

• Curriculum was tightly controlled at school

• Teenage years a natural time to rebel against authority

• Many young people tried to take on the Nazis and all failed

Hitler Youth and the war

• War in 1939 caused problems in the Hitler Youth – leaders sent to war

• Teenagers put in charge – caused problems

• Many refused to obey orders from their peers

• This type of opposition was common towards then end of the war

Swing Youth

• Nazis banned jazz music and controlled what young people could do and wear

• Many middle class youths rebelled against this and started to play jazz music and wear banned clothes

• Nazis clamped down on them – sent to concentration camps

• Sent out a powerful message

Edelweiss Pirates

• Groups of youths who beat up Hitler Youth members and sheltered army deserters

• Killed the head of the Gestapo in Cologne

• A small group but caused havoc

• Most of its members had been hung by the end of the war

White Rose Movement

• Based at Munich Uni• Led by Hans and Sophie

Scholl• Distributed leaflets

publicising atrocities committed in Poland and Russia

• 1943 the Scholls and the other leaders were caught and executed