Crocker Snow Reports From Germany; Men Against Hitler

Immediately following the report you're about to hear six persons now living in New England who have a deep interest in the topic will discuss the program and the questions it raises. Man against Hitler God was. That. God. That was the voice of a judge a Nazi judge in Nazi Germany in 1944. His name Roland fries were head of the infamous People's Court of Berkeley and you hear him doing a job for which he was well suited trying and sentencing those men of Nazi Germany who chose to resist Adolf Hitler. Operation Val Curie was what ignited frys was hysterical ravings. This was the code name for what was the most nearly successful of a series of attempts to assassinate Hitler July 20th 1944. A German officer planted a bomb in Hitler's headquarters.

The bomb went off. Hitler was present but due to a combination of fate and fortune he lived. His reaction was swift and terrible. A special Gestapo commission was set up immediately to ferret out the men involved. This soon blossomed into an organization of 11 departments and 400 officers according to British Admiralty figures four thousand nine hundred eighty Germans were executed for their part in the resistance movement by the wars and less than a year later. The voice of. The leader of the civilian resistance to the Nazi regime. The secret police. You Fox not really you know and didn't know how to do it is not a hope because in that case it probably would have been sentenced to death. And so you got ended in years of hard labor.

OKso funding Bush who was a young officer in 1943 agreed to blow up himself and the leaders of the third at the same time in autumn 43. I got into cult stuff in bags of his who was then chief of staff of the home of me and he made what then was laughingly Read on to be the very indecent proposal to give me a bomb then to go to use pressure to blow up. It. Fabi unfunctional gunned off. Who is a representative of a group of conspirators spoke with Winston Churchill the 1938. Engine in which no Harvard or Frogger. Yeah I'm interested to know you got your gun on TMM just a dark object shown from George Cross. I still remember his question to me. Can you guarantee that the German opposition

will have any influence. In those shows whose brother and sister were beheaded for printing and distributing anti Nazi leaflets. I would never take a day. I'm ashamed that I haven't then why I haven't been clearly in a bed to train. Those of the contact man between a group of military conspirators and the Vatican in 1939. He wanted only say help I suppose. Fuck peace then be dated that good tool it is seeing. Fuck peach. The German Army was the power base which at least passively permitted the rise of Naziism during the

1980s and early 30s its extreme nationalism was clear. But when Adolf Hitler took control in 1933 he did it legally not by force but as a result of receiving the plurality of the votes in a general election within the legality of Hitler's position. It was the German army which was necessarily the instrument for his aggressive foreign ventures though the army didn't make the initial decisions it held the power and wielded it. And in this way had its own responsibility a few visionaries recognized this early such as General Ludwig Beck who as chief of the general staff and one thousand thirty seven. Shortly before resigning in protest to Hitler's actions wrote to a fellow general in our army worshipping nation the Vemma enjoys an almost boundless trust responsibility for the coming events now rests completely on the army. There is no way out of this fact.

The coming events Hitler's war against the nations of Europe his brand of power politics was perfect for the times while the Allied Powers bowed to German bluster half of the nations of Central Europe bowed to her military might. By the autumn of 1939 Hitler was riding a wave of success. This more than anything stifled most of the dormant opposition to him that did exist in military circles. A few of the more outspoken quick like General Beck. Another small group whose opposition was well known were fired like General could find how much time former commander in chief of the army. Funny how much time son Conrad a young officer in the Ponza Corps at the time tells of the background of this event you know he was not a nationalist nationalist and Highland head ended with a success but I did learn it. There may be no business for that commanding positions. As this is and he kicked out the

ones who with whom he could trust very much and the officers the officers generally in the army. But their position you have been an officer in the land while he bit one had nothing against him. Within the officer within the officer corps and the officers this had not been trained to understand and live to L.A. and they Seanez in their mentoring Lida. But she was too and then he was saying America. Nothing succeeds like success and many successes. Despite these early successes several members of the general staff still sought ways to track the Nazi express Hitler's premature orders in the autumn of 1939 to prepare for a winter invasion of the West rekindled their hopes. The army was almost unanimously against the move. The leading conspirators saw it as the perfect excuse for a coup d'etat.

This prompted them to try a trump card and listing the help of the Vatican in Rome. The high points of this story be first of all of course the decision to try to reach the allies. Professor Harold Deutsch of the University of Minnesota a specialist on World War 2. It was felt that the pope who enjoyed a great deal of confidence in the West. He was one of the very few people in the Vatican for example who had been pro allied in World War One and the British knew this very well and that they would certainly first of all because he was pope have to treat such an overture politely. And secondly because of his special character and their confidence in him would probably be treated with very serious consideration as did turn out to be the case. And these negotiations though they were unfortunately delayed very seriously at the end. The last part of one thousand thirty nine. And it did come to a climax at the end of February the assurance was given via the

pope through the German opposition was then translated to the good transport of for a minute onto the generals. But the most important of them from the standpoint General housed there on the 4th of April and that first of all there would be no allied offensive. To take advantage of a turnover in Germany which would of course create a stab in the back legend for ever after and that secondly they would make with a non Nazi government which would compensate for Nazi crimes for example pay for the damage done in Poland said with a touch of government they would make what would be regarded as a fair peace. But by that time things were already well along for the offensive in France and the great anger of the general over his generals over Hitler's insane desire to attack in the autumn of 39 or actually the winter of 39 40 had now given way to a certain amount of confidence the Army had tripled in size within these months and so

far as well trained divisions were concerned the armor had doubled in size the whole outlook was entirely different. The man most involved in the actual contact with the Vatican was one. Jolie Oxman a Munich attorney closely associated with the Catholic Church traveling under military orders of the ob they are a counter espionage organization which in reality was a hotbed of anti Hitler opposition led by Admiral Canaris Miller made countless journeys between Berlin and Rome. The Gestapo caught up with him in 1943 but he survived concentration camps. Doc how Auschwitz look involved and Fleischmann book to tell about it. I brought commissions to fairs Christian books visible. I wouldn't give this quote that was the end of it I got the gaze as I provoked a sick fish. It's got

us by the question I think which I don't like to speak about so long as the English Government don't speak up about it because. Four to five saves some confusion about so questions wrong to only say hey what's a poke for a piece. And B intended to do every scene for a piece. The significance of this attempt of the pope to effect an agreement between the allied powers and the German opposition. Professor Deutsch I personally feel a great tribute to the courage of Pius the 12th because if this had become known it would have been even in the eyes for example of American Catholics an action of great questionable character to have imagined in the

Vatican which had always tried to adopt a political and politically international neutral position and which according to the latter in pact with the Italian government was supposed international affairs to keep out of major relations of this kind. Actually negotiating with a rebel group in one country planning to overthrow that government and the enemy government during a period of war it was a most remarkable decision in my view. Thus in the years between 1933 and 1940 several small groups of general officers of the German military machine tried to upset their commander in chief Adolf Hitler. They talked they cogitated and sometimes they plotted. There was a scheme to arrest the furore. Another scheme to disobey his orders but the vital move was never made. Why there didn't exist any basic fundamental and take on something between the military and Hitler.

Professor Theodore Adorno a leading sociologist of Frankfurt university after all was the one who reconstructed the drum and me and the idea that they always hated Hitler. Couric only with respect to a few people it was much more the difference. It's a difference of taste that is to say the high class people of society with a capital S who considered the army as more or less their property despised the ill bred voters he didn't want to spoil their hands of a too close knit community with him but they considered him as a very valuable instrument for their own aims. And there was no basic difference with

regard to the center problem. That is to say military expansion of Germany. This meant of course that for a long time and particularly after he had proved so successful in his diplomatic strategy he quite willing to exploit a more or less exploits for their own purposes only when it became absolutely soaked and to them that he would be defeated. They particularly the more intellectual and more critical heads among them began to take a different view from the whole thing and started to organize resistance. But in and of the last one who not to have the greatest admiration for all the people of the army

who finally risked their lives and more than their lives in order to get rid of Heatley I think they made made good. A marker of what they had seen before about this. Not to deflect from the effect that the problem Hitler or no Hitler was more a problem of expediency for their aims than a problem of basic political or social differences between them. And this explains why they sprang into action. And also perhaps why they didn't do more efficiently than they actually did. I think that the often repeated problem of the oath which played a concert over

this whole thing is more or less for the effect that they felt of themselves in spite of everything so deeply linked not to Hitler as a person but to the political deals of Hitler and to the aggressive nationalism of Hitler that it meant to have them in a way to act against their own ideals. If they would rebel against him. Professor I don't know refers to the much discussed oath of allegiance which all members of the German military had to swear in the name of God I take this sacred oath that I will be unconditionally obedient to the truth of the German people and the German of Adolf Hitler and that I will be ready as a brave soldier to offer my life for this oath at any time. The simple fact of this oath coupled with the traditional honor bound subordination of the German officers corps to their leader has often since World War Two

been used as a justification of the general past 70 of the German military in the resistance movement. Maybe they didn't like the former World War One corporal and his methods but because of their oath their duty was clear. But of course there was a resistance movement. Some men chose to disregard the oath. They felt justified in doing so. Conrad found how much time then a young lieutenant helping the resistance leader Karl good away lives quietly today in Cologne. I had no no matter how dense I was so much against him that I try not to over to him given oh I didn't tell him how this was day of the legions today yes when I was a recruit maybe I did a man but I'm sure I didn't say what you felt no moral obligation. Just my story actually. And less and less. And yes because I knew him on hindsight it had been committed by his regime.

The reason that I wanted that headline you know. But what of the Army in general. Could they so easily disregard their oath OXO fund them Bushehr was a battalion commander on the eastern front. The only government represented battlefield lead the dictator to whom the entire army was bound in an oath of allegiance which was a bar if not the bondage of its own and that is strong bondage. So the general legal ethical theory was that in order to throw over the government you had to kill Hitler first. So to unleash this book and make the army free to get this brought one to the absolutely necessity from the very beginning to get rid of it look. For years they had talked about just putting him into prison and then into

court and they then they had gradually accepted the idea of of plot of him of murder. All right. It was a motive he did and justified as I feel but all the things I'd seen the word murder. It began to arise more frequently in the secret meetings of those who opposed the Nazi regime. World War 2 was in full thunder. The German army was struggling in Russia. The Homeland devastated by Allied bombs as the ravages of war increased. So too did the toughness of the Nazi regime. The number of forced labor camps was stopped up imprisoned Jews by the thousands and the tens of thousands gassed in the infamous concentration camps all open domestic criticism to the Nazis stamped out. Such acts only serve to strengthen the determination of the diehard conspirators

to do away with the one man most responsible. In March 1943 General Funk Tresco had a bomb planted in his plane. It was a dud. This marked the first of a series of false alarms during the next year. OKso Fonda and Bush are today the director of the young West German peace corps took part in another. I happened to be sued and then an officer in the regiment of the German which produced more officers imprisoned hanged and shot by Hitler than any other regiment. That means that the general climate in that regiment from the very start of the Third Age had already been and was to the end. If not skip to Google. At any rate. Critical and then increasingly filled by oppositional spirit in the Ukraine he ran into mass mass extermination of Jews at that

time not as later in camps. Stoves and poison at that time they were still being shopped individually. Sixteen hundred Jews in one day by a platoon of S. And from that moment on Woods I went around quite decided to stop criminal performances by offering myself anything. Worthwhile that I did. It took me one year to get into the inner circle. In the end primarily the headquarters in East Prussia being a front office I was an infantry man. By that time I believe Captain and battalion commander they accepted my. Office as sound as motivated strongly enough to try to let me blow up the general headquarters of Hitler presiding.

In autumn 43 I got into country stuff from Beck's office who was then chief of staff of the who me and he made what then was laughingly Read on to be the very indecent proposal to give me a bump and go to ease pressure to blow up him buying Gooding who we were supposed to be together to be shown new uniforms for the Eastern Front and they needed a young man motivated as I was highly decorated if possibly looking rather what the third I expected a man to look like sort of blond and tall stuff makes me out to ease pressure. We had quotas they have and they have those bombs was sitting and I didn't like these bombs they were too British bombs with 10 minutes silent fuse. I wanted the German stuff because I didn't know how to use

these gadgets but they had the great advantage of having a 10 minute fuse which then was later used indeed on July 20th. A silent she was wild at that time and the German army did not have a silent fuse the fuse in the German army always made a hissing noise. Of course you can't have 10 minutes he sing in the air. In the meeting of out of it love I got myself a four point five second fuse of the German hand Grant and I got these people who were of the same idea as at the headquarters to fly out to Smolensk to get me a German explosive one kilogram explosive and it was square block which could easily be fitted into a pocket. I could take it in my pocket and I had constructed this form to have second if used to sit on it. It went quite within the book. When one morning Colonel Steve the head of the

organization branch of the general stuff of the Army sent for me and said that the recent attacks on Burlington had unfortunately damaged half of the railroad cars and they couldn't possibly go through with the stuff in headquarters because they were booked. Did you have to go back to your battalion which was the in-betweens Molinsky and Leningrad and we call you back. OK I went and on the defense of general I was wounded I lost my leg. That was the end of my enterprise. Despite the failure of actual funding Bush's enterprise at this point midway through the war the military conspirators still held high hopes for success in toppling Hitler. One of the most determined and dynamic of these men was kind of glass fun stuff and as the chief of staff of the home army he had both the rank and position necessary and he was laying careful plans under the code name Operation valor Kiri a

contingency plan set up by the Nazis themselves in event of internal revolution. Key generals controlling key troops were alerted including the famous Desert Fox Erwin Rommel a provisional government was drawn up to take control immediately upon Hitler's death. And there was little doubt among those involved that death. It must be Fritz Erle who was jailed in 1938 and survived to become a leader of the minority Social Democratic Party in Bonn today explains the feeling in 44. There was no other choice. Hitler was a moderate. And I think self defense of the nation against the man was allowed because Hitler normally wore a bulletproof vest a bomb was thought to be the best for the job kind of stuff and decided to do the deed himself. Twice in July he carried a British bomb in his briefcase to meetings with a furor. But each time something went wrong.

On July 20th 1944 another chance came when he was called to a meeting at it was headquarters in East Prussia. Kind of a little sound of the headquarters staff talked with both shelf and we're going to have her on the fateful day he was a witness of the bomb explosion. His account from my window I could see stuff and back I also said he was carrying it out Schmall unpleasant bag. Seven times Jack offends us and I had to do it gigs his bag and stuff. Mick would not let Sam. He didn't want to attract attention. His was the big dish the ball was in the meeting took place in as many bidding bollard hundred fifty medals for my office. Soon go and stuff get built. You know Laura carried his big issue in Riyadh's explosion at this moment going as of back into his car. He lived this in South this ignorance of

second cousin stuff. Meg and his agent and Seldon So it's a decision Ishant attempt has succeeded to say well sure said Hitler was dead. Perhaps they saw the body of the dead secretary Bendigo. He often in the same clothes as as would look good in court and big pants. Four men were killed in the explosion. Hitler was not one of them. His right arm and his ear drums were injured and he was badly shaken up. But history credits a large oak table over which he was leaning at the exact moment of the explosion with saving his life history also records the fatal actions of the conspirators based on false assumption that Hitler was dead. Nazi leaders were temporarily overcome in Berlin more than a thousand arrested in Paris. While this was happening however Hitler was not idle because of the close call. He was more convinced than

ever of his godlike destiny as the future of the German people. Colonel Sanders a communications officer tells of Hitler's first reactions after the explosion. I was ordered to see if he asked me how soon can I be buns of a jewel. I told him a bird tonight a clerk said not to be absent. Later I did notice that if you looked and he was then. He acted as if a gnostic happened. But here's what I had last if you at most probably south out of existence Chuck and even Inc. I had arranged it leasing for Hitler speech because he was very excited you into speech. But his was nothing new to this kind of excitement was a command for Hitler. Even before as a nation attempt within hours then Hitler's voice was being heard by the people of Germany. The soldiers the

workers the loyal Nazis the conspirators and it meant the end for this last group still struggling to gain control out of Berlin. And what's going to happen. Not really. I don't mind. I got what I want but I prefer Hitler spoke of the plot and its futility. He spoke of his own divine destiny. Most of all he assured the German people of the right and the might of the Nazi regime. The German resistance was at an end. The Inquisition had begun. Part one of men against Hitler has examined the opposition to Hitler within the German army. We now continue with part 2 and the story of the civilian resistance inside the Third Reich. To.

Joseph Goebbels Berlin in 1943 the German army had been beaten in North Africa. It was on the defensive in Russia Allied bombs were splattering the homeland. Goebbels appeal was for a more total war in response to the Allied Casablanca conference call for the country's unconditional surrender. And apparently even at this late date the Berwyn population was ready for more. This is the voice of Germany that the world heard. Prompted by this very speech of Goebbels a little poem began to make the rounds among German workers in outlying parts of the country. Tommy Pfleger Vita V isn't all about flying Tommy spellers So we're just working here if a code for you vital enough building a yagi scene go and bomb on burn ins door. They all want to go to war discussed under spair should not be confused with the resistance. But this rime of the German workers in reply to the

public voice of the Third Reich is somehow typical of the nature of the civilian resistance against Adolf Hitler. Always the cry of this resistance was like a whispered poem behind the brute back of the Nazi oppression. I was in the socialist U of movement before the Nazis came to power. And we maintained a clandestinely organisation. For presently a leader of the West Germany minority Social Democrat Party. I. Was in a district in Berlin and later I was at the head of the whole network inside Germany and did very close relations with my friends outside Germany and of course the inevitable end. For most of ours was to be caught. What exactly were you caught for. What exact activities. Both the main painting of the socialist social democratic organisation. Which had a network

and in Germany mainly in the large cities. And the secret police. You folks in Italy and little part of it is not the whole because in that case probably I would have been sentenced to death. And so I got down to 10 years of hard labor. We try to maintain intellectual into costs between the non-Nazi minded people in Germany and the intellectual development outside of Germany. This was the main purpose that Germany should not be cut off. And. From the development in the rest of the house because after the breakdown of the Nazi regime there should be a frame of people able to build a new democracy. Do you feel that the civilian resistance was primarily then passive and negative.

The resistance in 1933 because this was the exact date when the Nazis came to power. Was in the first wave still a kind of movement but it was broken down by bloody terror. Hundreds and thousands of people have been killed and 10000 have been brought immediately to the forerunners of the concentration camps provision of installations. And people have been beaten and have been tortured and all of this broke down that mass. Why. And what remained since the middle of the year 33 was rather a set of different networks and different localized groups. And mainly those who went not in the leadership of the great parties before 33

because these were known personalities who were either killed or arrested or forced into emigration or had emigrated. And therefore a new team new groups which were not so known before 33 had to take the lead. A few leading civilian figures managed to take the lead themselves. Carl good for example. His break with the Nazis came in one thousand thirty seven when he quit his post as mayor of Leipzig because of the destruction of a memorial to the Jewish composer Felix Mendelssohn. Good to have spent the rest of his life trying to organize an effective opposition to Hitler and was an acknowledged leader of any post Nazi rule. He was not directly involved in the July 20th 1904 assassination attempt because he believed murder to start a new age was a bad omen. But he was arrested in the round up that followed and executed in February 1945 on how

much 9 was an aid to Goodwill and his underground activities. My ration was. That he thought to wear people he hired other German people like against Hitler and I bet most of the damage people wear even when knowing that and they are aware of the crimes for its ally are an active member of the civilian opposition during the 30s supports Hammerstein's assessment of the mood of the people. The Hitler regime had an overwhelming support of the population. There's no doubt about that one. Hitler came to power. Democracy in Germany. Unfortunately it was rather discredited by the great economic crisis. By the fact that the different Democratic parties had not achieved stability. And in a country with a good deal of misery it was unemployment. Two of the

great difficulties in the founding population with hundred intellectuals and so on the democracy was really not only in danger but there was a majority of the nation which in free elections had voted against democracy. Part of that is that majority voted for the Nazis part for the Communists but none of them was in favor. Of maintaining parliamentarian democracy and therefore we had to break down. And immediately after. Having come to power. His first measure gave to the population the impression that he could solve the economic and political problems of cars he created from the very start a bloody regime of terror against the opponents. But the majority was not in the position and therefore they did not suffer directly

but they saw that unemployment was over come that nearly full employment could could be reached and rather short a time they did not understand that it was the done mainly by a very huge rearmament that the policy of the regime visibly was directed towards a new law. This was not understood by the population. The minority knew it but this minority was persecuted. The boot hero of the Gestapo and the SS It was enough to stamp out all but the most committed and courageous of the population. Professor théodore Adorno nobody who didn't live under a fascist dictatorship or under any kind of kookie Tarion dictatorship can imagine to what extent the Hudl system and the atmosphere of Terra permeates every sphere

of life. It prevents from any effective action I think the measure against the omnipotence of the dictatorship is the importance of individual resistance. Quite understandable and all attempts to all get their resistance went into pieces because the spies and the stool pigeons and the the technique of pigeons was developed to the degree that Nazis. Incidentally I think of that the very fact of talks of the fact that people who appear to be resistant to the tree that they have to feel worse than that. This is also one of the effects which make it quite understandable that no organized resistance on the need arose from the

population. I think one has to admit that the only ones who really were in a position to resist will those who commanded the size of our positions who other than the Nazis held such a power position in fascist Germany the German churches the Catholic and the Protestant held one kind of power base it largely moral one based on words. As soon as he took control in 1933 Adolf Hitler tried to assert his authority over them. He set up a German Christian church with the support of sympathetic Protestant clergyman in an attempt to attract and thereby control the bulk of the Protestant church. What was the reaction. Or again guessed on my own. Today the president of the West German parliament was away executive in the Protestant church at the time that the mouthpieces couldn't comfort them. The theme of the church resistance was quite different from that of the political resistance the church did not aim at toppling Hitler I must stress this.

Rather it only wanted hands off the church at will to get fuel. So it's a saga. The pilot had to make for the kitchen. In 1936 a few Protestant leaders such as Martin e-mailer a Berlin minister were aroused enough by Hitler's actions to publish a manifesto when blood race nationalism and honor are being ranked as eternal values. The Protestant Christian is forced to oppose these values because of the First Commandment. The Catholic Church was not silent at this time either. In one thousand thirty seven. After meeting with a group of German bishops Pope Pius the 11th announced his ardent concern about developments in Germany. From that time on a number of Catholic priests used the pulpit to voice their opposition to Naziism. Of course the robes of the clergy did not isolate them from the disciplines of the times. Many of the most outspoken of the church men were arrested according to American figures 400 Protestant and 800 Catholic priests were killed in the single

concentration camp of Dhaka. In general however the Church did not take an active role in the resistance movement. Sociology Professor Theodore Adorno the churches were in drum and he loudly from a party and they gave the Sultan political importance as a result of a reservoir for those who did not identify themselves with Nazis to be a devote a devote Catholic or devote Protestant During the right that meant enduring one was and now it's on the other hand I do not think the truck in the truck just says commanded any action political they wish they might have resisted activity. Nazis in fact only the German Army had the kind of power necessary to upset the Nazi caterers. The leaders of the civilian

resistance quickly recognized us and one of the army with a war imminent and then waging the military men were busy in their work. They had a tradition of loyalty to their leader strengthened by the required oath of allegiance to Hitler with a few notable exceptions military opposition consisted of disagreement and dissatisfaction and a little more. To translate this general dissatisfaction into action the few confirmed conspirators and the general staff constantly sought the absolute support of their comrades. Professor Howard Deutch one of the most fantastic aspects of the whole story the military leadership of Germany in World War 2 is that almost every single significant jungle of one time or another was approached to be recruited for the opposition. And of course a very large number actually went along up to some point. Very different degrees but this feature is that not one gave away the persons who tried to recruit them and that according to Nazi law they were

guilty of something which was equivalent to treason right there and made themselves subject to the death penalty at that moment. The generals were disgruntled enough to accept this risk. But one very practical concern the limited their action the possible consequences to Germany in event of an overthrow of Hitler the allies could take great military advantage of an internal revolution. This the general is worried about. For this reason several different opposition groups made contact with the allies. They sought some sort of assurance of fair treatment to a Germany without Hitler. That's even before the start of the war the leaders of the Allied powers were aware of the internal resistance to the Third Reich. This was made clear in Winston Churchill's radio broadcast to the American Congress in October 930 years DVD on that bed and so rounded by the banning of that and a bunch of them only that are made of wood and thought I would open a Braun

off during a dome all the more popular because of it would be carried by a little mouse a little tiny mouse of thought to be in the room and even the might be an up to date thrown into panic. They made right again but a body don't and wouldn't that have radio of the working of the human mind. Churchill's words weren't simply speculation. One of his later sources was Fabio von Schwab one door a man active in both civilian and military resistance circles throughout the war function and off was sent to England in March 39 in behalf of conspirators in the German Foreign Service to explain to Churchill that after all the tiny mouse of oppositional thought needed support to grow and to enrich No Harvard or Frogger. Yeah I'm interested to see you got your gun on him.

If she does show up to join him to still remember his question to me. Can you guarantee that the German opposition will have any influence. I'm sorry to be the frogger 9 but on proctored. Right man and to fight kinda guy on me my bitch even named Carl. Then I answered No because one could never guarantee such a thing. I'm a church's rep shorn of tea were taught how to communicate nor did I say hi to me. Clara just. Overdid shown. And 40 just in front door action by Winston Churchill's reaction to this conversation of June 1939 made it clear to me that he counted on the German opposition as a political factor. PETA was at Norden ship to ship to release this deep dish

I'd sheesh. We don't you only announce Sinjar by churchy via later on in 1949 after 10 years. This impression was strengthened when I met Churchill again why do you think you are leading a hike back to church. No team that's never gotten that Sheen is used in a car bomb as it should be or discreet Is he read us the doors nobody Jorn orders at all on this occasion he said. After everything that has happened it is clear to me now that during the war I was not well enough informed about the growth and the effectiveness of the German opposition to Hitler. There was no reason for the Allies to underestimate the opposition to Hitler. They were told of it constantly in the late fall of thirty nine by a group of leading generals

negotiating through the Vatican with the British Foreign Service in 1900 to buy a Protestant minister Dietrich Bonhoeffer during secret talks with Bishop Bell of Chichester in Stockholm in the same year by several sources contacting Allen Dulles of the American Office of Strategic Services in Switzerland in the end however all these talks led nowhere. The reason is clear. The demands by each side were too great. The concessions too small. At the Casablanca conference of January 1943 Roosevelt Churchill and Stalin agreed upon the goal of Germany's unconditional surrender. With this all hopes of the resistance circles for indirect allied support in overthrowing the Nazis vanished the Allied commitment was clear and irrevocable. Professor Harold Deutsch was working in the Office of Strategic Services in Washington during the war. A good vantage point from which to observe this commitment.

The president was firmly convinced that it was important to really give them a licking all the way to Berlin. There would not be like in 1918 an armistice where there could have to the war be a legend in Germany that the army had never been beaten. And so anything which involved a negotiated peace was disagreeable to him. By midway through the war then the civilian resistance within Germany was groping in the dark a number of key men had been arrested. The various groups were forced into deep hiding and isolation from one another. The Allies were cold to any contacts. Who could or did resist sociology professor Theodore Adorno the forces of resistance in drone e. Well much more to be found among the nameless people who sacrificed their lives in order to save persecuted Jews or who took isolated action and often apparently

crazy action. I think that the none of the official men of the stalls in a whose names can be forgotten and whose names we largely don't even know that they are represented much more the more force of resistance against Hitler. Then let's meet up them I see no other way I'll see to that. A good example of the efforts of these unknown people comes from the documents of the Nazi secret service a report concerning the general mood of the population in one thousand forty three details the following incident which took place in the Ruhr Valley City of Dortmund on the 12th of March an Army captain stopped an anti-aircraft gunner for careless saluting.

It turned out that the soldier had deserted his unit so the officer arranged for his arrest. A crowd of about 400 people gathered mostly women. Unbelievable rumors spread all directed against the captain. The crowd became violent and charged him. He had to escape into a street car. The excited crowd yelled there's going to be a revolution. Give us back our sons and husbands. Yet there was no revolution. The sons and husbands kept on dying on the fields of battle. At home the mere fact of opposition meant arrest and often death. But still some people spoke out like the small group of Munich university students who call themselves the white rose in one thousand forty two they began to pass out anti-Nazi leaflets in Munich. One such urging the passive resistance of the population ended with the words remember that every nation deserves the government it endures. The White Rose group was caught in one thousand forty three. Their leader Han showed

25 and his sister Sophie were sentenced to death together with three other students and a professor. They were beheaded in the same year. The show's sister Anna was arrested too but survived to tell the story of the white rose in her book six against tyranny. Initial lives today in the southern German town of oval where she is director of the Adult Education school nearly in every leaflet they cart a punch to the passive resistance and I think it's good to tell what they mean about passive resistance. They meant that the people of this stance then fat themselves from the government from the Nazi movement and from all who watch meant Hitler and his followers they tried to reach first the groups of students teachers the so-called educated classes because after their opinion these parts of the

society at the most responsibility was fashionable to resist. Or was it just unique for you. For Munich Jews. I think it was fashionable in Munich and in Germany to think like my brother and my sister. But it must have been rather unique to do any DVDs. The tenor was so perfect that even a spoken Freebird had been punished because prison was a concentration camp. Do you have any examples I can give you one example. My father had been denounced by his own secretary to whom he had carelessly expressed his opinion of Hitler. He had called Hitler a Scotch of God a part of the human race and one early morning the Gestapo came. That was in the year nineteen hundred forty two and he had to sit in

prison in the civil service when only the spoken word most so dangerous and how much more was the written word. My little sister told to the president of the people caught. She said so many people think what you have said and written but do not dare to say in actual fact the civilian opposition could not be measured in terms of political success. There was no hope for that. What could one do except prepare for the future. Most representative of this thinking was count how much fun Marca a scholar an aristocrat and the acknowledged leader of the cries out circle. This group was drawn from a cross-section of German society liberals and conservatives. Politicians and churchmen their discussion is concerned not how to overthrow Hitler but rather how to lay a foundation for a new society to follow. Von Moltke was arrested early in 1904. He was tried and later

sentenced to death for his complicity in the resistance movement. In his farewell letter to his wife from prison he wrote We are hanged because we thought together thoughts of the tortured present thoughts of a brighter future thoughts in this way characteristic of the entire resistance movement. For a one time member of this resistance and now a leading member of the German parliament in the resistance there was a great. Homogeneity of opinion in the direction of a new democratic state and conservatives labor union leaders soldiers they all had more or less a similar concept. Hitler called the intellectuals and people in the resistance and much of the upper crust. Really I think there has been such a muff across again

said I would you rather agree on Thomas Mann who said that there has been a capitulation of the intellectuals. Neither the one nor the other position. It is true that in already in 1932 a good deal of the intellectuals in Germany did not defend active democracy but others did. Our intellectuals university people our writers were divided divided into the same groups of opinion and the rest of the nation. You feel that this division of the intellectuals that you spoke of in 1933 was a division in actual thought and philosophy or was it a division of the courageous and courageous both. A good deal of intellectuals consciously and. Actively for the Nazi regime by their conviction they were not only cowards but they fought for

the right thing to do. This worked against them and have been persecuted or driven out others left the country because they couldn't borrow and they didn't see any chance to to work in Germany because foreign intellectuals necessary to speak out what he is thinking and therefore they left the country about the world. Her son who had another opinion didn't do too to spell it out. Remained in Germany did not take part in any activity against the regime but just to try to make a life of. In a totalitarian regime every kind of deformed nation of human nature is possible. There was not a unique class. They were all human beings with all the variety of of thinking and of acting as in other groups of the nation too.

And after thirty three I must say that all those who worked at different places and the rest of the resistance in my view were the leading moral personalities in Germany and work out their spirit of sacrifice for freedom for democracy and for a new Germany. Probably the nation could not have been rebuilt after 45 a good deal of the spirit of the resistance. That has become the basis. Boring democratic like John. Edwards. With three weren't. Men against Hitler was written and produced for WGBH FM in Boston by Crocker snow and Michael Naumann natural radio dacha Volokh alone

West Germany. Speakers work rockers know Michael Naumann and Robert Montague. We invite you to stay tuned for a critical discussion of the program you have just heard. Participants will include persons now living in New England who for reasons of academic research or personal experience have a deep interest in the topic. This is the eastern educational radio network.