The German opposition to Hitler: the resistance, the underground, and assassination plots, 1938-1945

Abstract

Between 1933 and 1945, more than 500,000 non-Jewish German civilians were imprisoned for so-called political crimes. Most of the resistance was, therefore, underground--within the religious, political, civilian, and even military communities. This history of the various segments of the German resistance movement covers groups and methods from underground newspapers--Rote Kapella, Internal Front, The Opponent, The Front Line--to conspiracy movements within unions. While emphasizing the active plots to either arrest or assassinate Hitler, the work embraces also the passive resistance seen in the Protestant and Catholic churches, the Kreisau Circle, trade unions, the foreign ministry and the civil service. The opposition's planned coup d'tat of 1938 is fully detailed, as well as the deep involvement of the Abwehr (military intelligence) in the plots against Hitler.