Why Didn't Public Grumbling Become Open Opposition??

there was no organised opposition
1. Nazis had dismantled or taken over virtually all other organisations
  1. no groups which people could join to resist them
2. main exceptions were the Christian churches
  1. formed some of the most public opposition to the Nazis in the early years
Germans were afraid
1. the SS and Gestapo could destroy people's lives if they did not follow the rules
2. as long as people kept complaints to themselves, they were tolerated
3. if complaints became open opposition then the apparatus of the police state was there to deal with it
people were pleased with the Nazis
1. many Germans were pleased with what the Nazis were doing
  1. particularly with success of Nazi foreign policy
2. even if they did not agree with something the Nazis did, people would tolerate it for the sake of the stability and prosperity they thought the Nazis were creating
people did not know what was going on
1. censorship and propaganda stopped people from receiving reliable information
2. some of the extremes of Nazi policy were kept secret
3. those who did suspect had learned not to ask questions for fear of their own lives
criticisms were minor
1. Those who were dissatisfied with the Nazis had very minor complaints
  1. e.g. in Northeim the decision to merge the four sports clubs into one raised more opposition than the victimisation of the Jews
"we did vote for them"
1. Nazis had achieved electoral success
  1. most Germans (and people in other countries) saw Nazis as having the legal authority to do what they wanted
Nazis did drop unpopular policies
1. the Nazis sometimes moderated their policies if they seemed to be alienating normal Germans
2. Kristallnacht produced such widespread condemnation among ordinary Germans that from then on all measures against the Jews were kept secret
3. 1940- Nazi programme of euthanasia was halted after a popular outcry against it led by church leaders
opposition was divided
1. Left-wing groups like Communists and Social Democrats were natural enemies of Nazism
  1. both banned in 1933
  2. did not trust eachother so did not cooperate to resist the Nazis
    1. resisted in different ways
      1. Social Democrats: did little more than meet in small groups, talk, start whispering campaigns against the Nazis
      2. Communists: for a long time just assumed Nazis would fall; later decided on more active campaign of spreading discontent amongst factory workers

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Why Didn't Public Grumbling Become Open Opposition??

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	Created by k m about 10 years ago