The Nazis › Resistance to the Nazis
Resistance to the Nazis
Under a dictatorship, saying no cost people their freedom and their lives. This page looks at the people who resisted, what they did and why resistance rarely changed events.
What counts as resistance?
Historians use "resistance" broadly. It includes armed uprisings and assassination plots, but also printing leaflets, sheltering a persecuted neighbour, refusing to join in, and keeping quiet acts of defiance in daily life. The risk was always severe, so the number of people who took it was small compared to the number who complied.
Resistance inside Germany
According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, socialists, Communists, trade unionists and others secretly wrote, printed and distributed anti-Nazi literature despite the risk of informers. Many were arrested and sent to concentration camps. Some youth groups, such as the Edelweiss Pirates, played pranks on young Nazis and helped French prisoners of war.
The White Rose
Hans Scholl, Sophie Scholl and Christoph Probst founded the White Rose movement in June 1942 at the University of Munich. They distributed leaflets and painted anti-Nazi slogans on university walls. The Scholls were caught in February 1943 and executed four days later with Probst. Hans's last words were reported as "Long live freedom!"
The military plots
After the Soviet victory at Stalingrad in early 1943, some German military officers planned an assassination attempt, carried out in July 1944. Hitler survived with minor injuries. The four leaders were shot immediately and about 200 others convicted in the plot were later executed. Other individuals, such as the carpenter Georg Elser, who tried to kill Hitler with a bomb in Munich in November 1939, acted alone.
Jewish resistance
Jews resisted in many ways: by keeping schools, libraries and religious life going in the ghettos, by smuggling food and documents, by hiding children, by joining partisan groups and by armed uprisings. The best known is the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of April 1943. Resistance by people who faced starvation, deportation and overwhelming force showed remarkable courage, and survival itself, under such conditions, was an act of defiance.
Rescuers
Some non-Jews risked their lives to hide or help Jews. Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust memorial, honours them as "Righteous Among the Nations". Their stories show that individual choices mattered, and they also show how rare such choices were.
Resistance across occupied Europe
In occupied countries such as France, Poland, Yugoslavia, Greece and the Netherlands, resistance movements sabotaged transport, gathered intelligence, sheltered airmen and carried out attacks. Britain supported some of these networks through the Special Operations Executive, and many resisters were captured and killed.
The limits of resistance
The Holocaust Encyclopedia notes that very few of the Germans who opposed Hitler openly protested the genocide of Jews. Much opposition was aimed at ending the war or removing Hitler rather than protecting persecuted people. Resistance was also divided, constantly watched and brutally punished. It is important not to overstate its scale, and also not to forget those who tried.
Why it still matters
These stories show that conscience is possible even in the worst conditions. They connect with today's question of how to respond when you see prejudice or hatred: see recognising and reporting modern extremism. For the broader history, read the Nazi state and persecution and the Holocaust.
Frequently asked questions
Who were the White Rose?
A group of students and a professor in Munich, including Hans and Sophie Scholl, who distributed anti-Nazi leaflets from 1942. The Scholls and Christoph Probst were executed in February 1943.
Did Germans try to kill Hitler?
Yes. A group of army officers carried out an assassination attempt in July 1944. Hitler survived, and about 200 people connected with the plot were later executed.
Who are the Righteous Among the Nations?
It is the title Yad Vashem gives to non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust.