Key Figures In The Opposition Of The

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 FrЦbel Institute in Ulm-SЦflingen. 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, then exchanged the boat for a horse. He rode 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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