Cross Purposes: British Reactions to the German Anti-Nazi Opposition

Abstract

The treatment of all aspects of German resistance is saturated with a moralistic approach. Moral judgment came back into historiography with a vengeance, after decades of banishment, with the Nuremberg Trials. The judgments of the tribunal were in fact historical reconstructions on the basis of a legal examination of evidence, and yet were impregnated with a moral tone. Their style and content are recognizable in subsequent historical writings, as is illustrated to perfection in the work of Namier. Namier's criticism of the first harvest of resistance memoirs' is often quoted as an example of his harshness.2 He sets out to combat two charges against England voiced by the survivors of the opposition: first, that Chamberlain saved Hitler from the generals in 1938, and second, that Churchill foiled the efforts of the wartime opposition by insisting on unconditional surrender. Such issues are still debated today as questions of personal responsibility. It is said that just as Chamberlain is personally guilty of badly judging the Hitler state, so Churchill is guilty of misjudging and distrusting the German opposition. Almost as common is the view that the opposition was ignored so that revenge would not have to be restrained. 3 Though Namier's method might be considered outdated, it has not completely gone out of use. Recent and more discriminating examinations still have the object of apportioning merit or blame:4 for example, the revived debate on whether General Beck opposed war on principle or only when he thought it likely to fail, or for reasons of professional and personal interest;5 and the debates on English policy sparked off by the biographies of Trott and Moltke by English authors.6 There is no getting away from the human element in a subject like this, but we shall try to focus on the issues. The basic facts which give rise to this inquiry are first, that although the German opposition both before and during the war consistently sought help and encouragement from England it never got any. Second, some of the members of the German opposition were extraordinarily well placed to make their case heard and yet the record is one of continuous failure. Third, this attitude