Nazi Regime Essay, Research Paper
`Key figures in the opposition of the Nazi Regime Hans Scholl 22 September 1918 – 22 February 1943 Hans Scholl was born on September 22, 1918, when his father
had his first position as mayor of Ingersheim near Crailsheim. In 1919, the
family moved to Forchtenberg. In 1925, Hans entered elementary school and in
1929 the secondary school of Kunzelsau. The Scholls moved to Ludwigsburg in
1930, and in 1932 to Ulm, where their father opened his own company, a
consulting office for business and taxation. Hans enrolled in a secondary school. In late 1933, Hans
joined the Hitler Youth and soon became disappointed by the reality of National
Socialism. He sought contact with the ‘Jugendbewegung’ (Youth Movement). The
Jugendbewegung had specific cultural and socio-critical ambitions. Their
interest was focused particularly on those books Goebbels had ordered to be
burned. In 1937, Hans Scholl and some of his friends were briefly
jailed for their continued ‘Bundische Tatigkeit’ (subversive activities of the
Youth Movement). In March 1937, Hans Scholl graduated from secondary school and
was drafted by the Labor Service. A two-year military service with a cavalry
unit in Bad Cannstatt followed. As a member of the ‘Wehrmacht’ (the German army), he started
studying medicine in Munich in the spring of 1939. He was billeted in the army
barracks and was continuously on call with a students’ company. There he found
several like-minded friends who shared his concern about the collapse of a
German culture and who wanted to find new spiritual horizons. In 1940, Hans Scholl began to establish contacts with
silenced intellectuals, scientists, philosophers, and artists. From the end of
July to October 1942, he served as a medic at the Eastern front with his
friends Alexander Schmorell, Willi Graf and Jurgen Wittenstein. Before, in June
and July, Hans Scholl and Alexander Schmorell had already produced and
distributed four editions of leaflets for the White Rose Group. On February 18, 1943, the Gestapo arrested Hans Scholl and
his sister Sophie, as they distributed leaflets at the University of Munich.
Together with Sophie and their friend Christoph Probst, Hans Scholl was
condemned to death by the People’s Court on February 22, 1943, and executed the
same day by the guillotine. His last words shouted from the guillotine:
"Long live freedom!" Sopie Scholl 9 May 1921 – 22 February 1943 Born on May 9, 1921, when her father was mayor of
Forchtenberg am Kocher, Sophie Scholl was the fourth of five children. In 1930,
the family moved to Ludwigsburg and two years later to Ulm, where her father
had acquired a business consulting office. In 1932, Sophie started at a secondary school for girls. At
the age of twelve, she joined the Hitler Youth, like most of her classmates.
However her initial enthusiasm gradually gave way to criticism. She also became
aware of the dissenting political views of her father, of friends, and also of
some teachers. This soon became an important part of her life and the arrest of
her brothers and friends in 1937 left a strong impression on her. When she left school Sophie became a kindergarten teacher at
the FrÖbel Institute in Ulm-SÖflingen. She had also chosen this kindergarten
job hoping that it would be recognised as an alternate service to
‘Reichsarbeitsdienst’ (National Labour Service), which was a prerequisite to be
admitted to University. This was an error and from spring of 1941 on, she had
to serve six months of auxiliary war service as a nursery teacher in Blumberg.
The military-like regimen of the Labor Service caused her to practice passive
resistance. In May 1942, she enrolled at the University of Munich as a
student of biology and philosophy. Her brother Hans, who was studying medicine
there, introduced her to his friends. Although this group of friends were
eventually known for their political affairs, they were initially drawn
together by a shared love of art, music, literature, philosophy and theology.
Hiking in the mountains, skiing and swimming were also of importance. They
often attended concerts, plays and lectures together. Sophie was arrested on February 18, 1943, while
distributing the sixth edition of a leaflet for the White Rose Group at the
University of Munich. On February 22, 1943, Sophie, her brother Hans and their
friend Christoph Probst were condemned to death and executed by guillotine only
a few hours later. Admiral Wilhelm Franz Canaris 1st January 1887 – 1945 Canaris was born New
Year’s Day 1887 in Aplerbeck, a small town near Dortmund; he was the youngest
of three children. Following public schooling, Canaris
entered the Imperial Naval Academy at Kiel on April 1,
1905. At the outbreak of World War I, Canaris
saw duty on the light cruiser Dresden,
part of Admiral Graff Spee’s squadron that sailed into
the battle of the Falkland Islands against a superior British force and was
destroyed in December 1914 All were taken prisoner, including young Lieutenant
Canaris. He was interned with the others on the desolate Quiriquina
Island He resolved to escape alone. Stealing a small, leaky boat, he
rowed to the mainland shore, the
animal almost to death in an impossible trek over the Andes, reaching Argentina
in the disguise of a Chilean named Reed Rosas. Using this alias, he managed to book passage on a Dutch
steamer back to Europe. Canaris made his way back
to Germany where he was hailed by the Navy as a great hero and promoted to the
rank of captain. He was given an audience with Kaiser Wilhelm
who congratulated him and bestowed upon the youthful naval officer the Iron
Cross, first class. He volunteered his services to the Weimar Republic
at the end of the war. From 1931 to 1932, Canaris
was back at Kiel as chief of staff of all naval operations in that area. At
that time, Konrad Patzig, the head of German intelligence,
the Abwehr, was being replaced. Admiral Erich
Raeder had selected Canaris as Patzig’s
replacement He began at the Abwehr on January 1, 1935. Canaris went
about setting up the Abwehr so that the people around him were sympathetic to
his anti-nazi views and were willing to help him. The exception to this was
Rudolf Bambler who was a ?die-hard? Nazi and was good window dressing for the
Abwehr. He made sure that he only appointed the best from the army and navy and
that anyone in positions of responsibility were not Nazi party members. Canaris soon devoted himself with utmost secrecy to using
the Abwehr to help the army conspirators plan and carry out its numerous
assassination and coup attempts throughout their six-year effort. He spoke
Spanish fluently and had a close working relationship with Spain’s Franco whom
he warned against allying with Hitler, by providing clear evidence that Germany
would lose the war. Canaris also divulges a number of secrets to England about
Hitler’s war strategy – from Hitler’s impending western offensive against the
Low countries and France to Hitler’s plan to invade Britain. He also misleads
Hitler into believing that the Allies will not land at Anzio in 1943. Canaris is directly involved in the 1938 and 1939 coup
attempts, and in March 1943, he personally flies to Smolensk to plan Hitler’s
assassination with conspirators on the staff of Army Group Centre. He is
however not in a capacity to be of help on July 20, 1944 because he has already
been placed under house arrest. He fired from his position in 1943 by an outraged Hitler who
blames him for the defection of key German spies to the Allies in Turkey. His
connections to the Resistance are discovered when the Gestapo fall upon the
conspirators’ safe at Army headquarters in Zossen. He is executed only weeks
before the end of World War II. Helmuth James Von Moltke Helmuth James Von Moltke was the Grand nephew of a great
19th century Prussian strategist. He became the spiritual leader of the
anti-nazi conservative intellectual dissident group, the Kreisau Circle that
met frequently at von Moltke’s estate in Kreisau. Moltke used his expertise in international law
to help rescue many German and Danish Jews. During World War II, he also served
as an international law expert to the OKW in Berlin and works for the Abwehr. Admiral Canaris provided Moltke with fake
diplomatic passports and dispatches him on many
missions as emissary for the Resistance. Moltke was arrested by the Gestapo in January 1944 and
executed a year later. His name surfaced in the conspirators’ papers when the
Gestapo falls upon the secret conspirators’ safe at Army High Command
headquarters in Zossen. Claus, Graf Schenk von Stauffenburg 15th November 1907 ?
20th July 1944 Stauffenberg entered the German army in 1926 and won
distinction as a staff officer with a panzer division in the campaigns in
Poland and northern France (1939-40). After he was transferred to the front in
the Soviet Union, however, he became disillusioned with the German occupation’s
brutal policies toward Slavs and Jews. At his own request, he was transferred to the North
African campaign, where he was a staff officer in a panzer division. In that
campaign he was severely wounded (losing his left eye, right hand, and two
fingers of his left hand) in April 1943. While convalescing from his wounds, Stauffenberg decided
that Hitler must be eliminated. In the ever-widening conspiracy of army
officers against Hitler, he assumed a leading role and reserved for himself the
central task of carrying out the proposed assassination. His chance came in July 1944, after he had been promoted
to colonel and reassigned to the post of chief of staff to the Reserve Army
command; this post gave him access to situation conferences personally attended
by Hitler. After two preliminary attempts, Stauffenberg succeeded in placing a
bomb in Hitler’s headquarters at Rastenburg on July 20, 1944 this, however,
failed to kill Hitler. A planned simultaneous coup in Berlin also failed;
Stauffenberg and a few of his co-conspirators were summarily executed the night
of July 20 in Berlin. Bibliography Von Moltke??????????????????? http://www.joric.com/Conspiracy/Moltke.htm The Scholls?????????????????? http://www.jlrweb.com/whiterose/ Admiral Canaris???????????? http://members.nbci.com/_XMCM/1spy/Canaris.html Von Stauffenburg?????????? http://www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/0/0,5716,71290+1+69488,00.html
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