When many people think about Germans during World War II, they either think of them as villains who rejoiced in the persecution of Jews and wholeheartedly supported the Second World War, or they think of cowards who blindly obeyed Hitler’s orders rather than speak out about the injustices of the Nazi Regime. While some Germans did agree with Nazi ideology and others simply did what they had to do to survive, many Germans sacrificed their time, money, their families’ safety, and ultimately their own lives in order to help victims of the Nazi Regime and to bring World War II to a quicker end.
These German resistance groups existed in all levels of German society. German nobility, the best and brightest of German’s intellectual elite, and even leaders of the German military made great sacrifices to act against the Nazi regime. Common laborers, college students, and current and former members of the Hitler Youth also organized their efforts against Hitler’s war effort.
German-led resistance groups saved many Jewish Germans from concentration camps by hiding them and providing them with documents allowing them to flee the country. They also participated in the trafficking of tactical information to other resistance groups, and therefore to the Allies, in the hopes of shortening the span of the war and saving lives that would be lost in fighting.
This website was created to celebrate the efforts of these German Resistance groups and to dispel any notions that all Germans were equally complicit in the crimes against humanity perpetrated by the Nazis. Many of the people featured on this website sacrificed their lives to protect others during a very dangerous time for all German citizens. Not only that, but the government that killed them also devoted great effort to erasing their memory from the records of time. By perpetuating their memory, these brave heroes can have the life that was denied them by the National Socialist Party.
These German resistance groups existed in all levels of German society. German nobility, the best and brightest of German’s intellectual elite, and even leaders of the German military made great sacrifices to act against the Nazi regime. Common laborers, college students, and current and former members of the Hitler Youth also organized their efforts against Hitler’s war effort.
German-led resistance groups saved many Jewish Germans from concentration camps by hiding them and providing them with documents allowing them to flee the country. They also participated in the trafficking of tactical information to other resistance groups, and therefore to the Allies, in the hopes of shortening the span of the war and saving lives that would be lost in fighting.
This website was created to celebrate the efforts of these German Resistance groups and to dispel any notions that all Germans were equally complicit in the crimes against humanity perpetrated by the Nazis. Many of the people featured on this website sacrificed their lives to protect others during a very dangerous time for all German citizens. Not only that, but the government that killed them also devoted great effort to erasing their memory from the records of time. By perpetuating their memory, these brave heroes can have the life that was denied them by the National Socialist Party.