The church opposed the regime as early as 1937 when the Pope's message 'With Burning Concern' attacked Hitler as 'a mad prophet with repulsive arrogance' and was read in every Catholic Church.
The Catholic Archbishop of Munster, von Galen, led a successful campaign to end euthanasia of mentally-disabled people
A protestant pastor Dietrich Bonhöffer, was linked to the bomb plot.
The main youth opposition group was the Edelweiss Pirates, based in the Rhineland. They reacted to the discipline of the Hitler Youth by daubing anti-Nazi slogans and singing pre-1933 folk songs. The White Rose group was formed by students at Munich University in 1943. They published anti-Nazi leaflets and marched through the city in protest at Nazi policies.
During the war, ‘Swing Youth’ and ‘Jazz Youth’ groups were formed. These were young people who rejected Nazi values, drank alcohol and danced to jazz. Jazz of course was labelled ‘degenerate’ by the Nazis.
Perhaps the most widespread and persistent opposition to the Nazi regime came from ordinary German workers, often helped by communists, who posted anti-Nazi posters and graffiti, or organised strikes. In Dortmund the vast majority of men imprisoned in the city’s jail were industrial workers. Workers went on strike over high food prices in 1935 and during the Berlin Olympics in 1936.
The most well-known demonstration is probably the Rosenstrasse protest in Berlin between 27 February and 6 March 1943. It was initiated by wives and non-Jewish relations of Jews and Mischlinge. Many of their Jewish husbands were incarcerated in Rosenstrasse and were threatened with deportation. .
For days the women shouted ”Give us our husbands back.”
