German Language Humanities : Widerstand im Dritten Reich

What does it mean to “resist” an authoritarian regime? 

The study of German resistance to Nazism (Widerstand gegen den Nationalsozialismus) has generated much discussion as to what methods, goals, or types of behavior—regardless of their limited effectiveness—can be called “resistance.” In general, various individuals, groups, and movements opposed or disobeyed the Nazi regime by means ranging from private nonconformist behavior and acts of “everyday resistance” to public displays of ideological opposition, the aiding of persecuted persons, assassination attempts, defections, and sabotage. Below are a few approaches into the study of German resistance to Nazism, with sample resources. Following subject heading links within catalog records will lead to additional resources.

Online Resources | Reference and Contextual Resources 

Topical approaches:  Jewish Resistance | Individuals | Military Resistance | Religious/Church Resistance | Students | Swingjugend | Women | Communists | Austrian Socialist Writers | Inner Emigration

Useful Search Terms

Dokumentationsarchiv des österreichischen Widerstandes / Documentation Center of Austrian Resistance (DöW)
Founded in 1963 by former members of the Austrian Resistance, victims of NS-persecution, and committed scholars from the sciences and humanities, the DöW is committed to documentation and research concerning resistance and persecution within Austria from 1938 until 1945, exile, Nazi crimes, right-wing extremism after 1945, and victims' reparations.
See: Themenkatalog: 1934-1938: Widerstand / 1938-1945: Widerstand

Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand / German Resistance Memorial Center
Memorial opened in 1980 to commemorate Colonel Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg and other leaders of the failed 20 July plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler; it has grown to include all elements of opposition and resistance under the Nazi regime.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
“Resistance Inside Germany,” 2020, https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/resistance-inside-germany.

Wiener Holocaust Museum: Opposition

 Benz, Wolfgang and Walter H. Pehle, editors. Encyclopedia of German Resistance to the Nazi Movement. New York, Continuum, 1997.
Reference Stacks, Floor 2 South (No loan)
DD256.5 L51313 1997
In-library use only

Broszat, Martin, Elke Fröhlich and Falk Wiesemann, editors. Bayern in der NS-Zeit. München; Wien, Oldenbourg, 1977-1983.
"Veröffentlichung im Rahmen des Projekts 'Widerstand und Verfolgung in Bayern 1933-1945.'”
Memorial Library Stacks Regular Size Shelving
DD801 B42 B29

Hill, Leonidas. “Towards a New History of German Resistance to Hitler.” Central European History, vol. 14, no. 4, 1981, pp. 369–399. www.jstor.org/stable/4545942.

Hoffmann, Peter. The History of the German Resistance, 1933-1945. McGill-Queen's UP, 1996.
E-book.

Kochanski, Halik. Resistance: The Underground War against Hitler, 1939-1945. Liveright, a division of W. W. Norton & Company, 2022.
College Library Main Collection 1st Floor, Rm. 1191
D802.A2 K63 2022

Lamberti, Marjorie. “The Search for the ‘Other Germany’: Refugee Historians from Nazi Germany and the Contested Historical Legacy of the Resistance to Hitler.” Central European History, vol. 47, no. 2 2014, pp. 402–429. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0008938914001290

Large, David Clay, editor. Contending with Hitler: Varieties of German Resistance in the Third Reich. Cambridge UP, 1991.
E-book.

McDonough, Frank. Opposition and Resistance in Nazi Germany. Cambridge UP, 2001.
Memorial Library Stacks Regular Size Shelving
DD256.3 M35 2001

Markewitz, Friedrich. "Perspektiven auf widerständisches Argumentieren im Dritten Reich." Zeitschrift für angewandte Linguistik, vol. 2024, no. 81, pp. 333-335. De Gruyter Journals, doi:10.1515/zfal-2024-2015

Markewitz, Friedrich. "Tarnschriften als Medium des diskursiven Bedeutungsbruchs sowie der diskursiven Bedeutungserweiterung und -destabilisierung: Texttypologische Reflexionen einer kaum bekannten textuellen Gattung des Widerstands." LiLi, Zeitschrift für Literaturwissenschaft und Linguistik, vol. 52, no. 4, 2022, pp. 569-590. Springer Nature Link Journals, doi:10.1007/s41244-022-00270-2

Nicosia, Francis R. and Lawrence D. Stokes, editors. Germans against Nazism: Nonconformity, Opposition and Resistance in the Third Reich: Essays in Honour of Peter Hoffmann. Berghahn, 2015.
E-book.

Orbach, Danny. “Criticism Reconsidered: German Resistance to Hitler in Critical German Scholarship,” Journal of Military History, vol. 75, no. 2, 2011, pp. 565–590. www.jstor.org/stable/4545942

Petrescu, Corina L. Against All Odds: Models of Subversive Spaces in National Socialist Germany. Bern, New York, Peter Lang, 2010.
Memorial Library Stacks Regular Size Shelving
DD256.3 P465 2010

Rabinbach, Anson and Sander Gilman, editors. The Third Reich Sourcebook. U of California P, 2013.
See: "Part Eleven. Resistance, Communists, Socialists, Youth, and the Conservative Resistance."
E-book.

Ramet, Sabrina P. Nonconformity, Dissent, Opposition, and Resistance in Germany, 1933-1990: The Freedom to Conform. Palgrave Macmillan, 2020.
E-book.

Stoltzfus, Nathan and Robert Gellately, editors. Social Outsiders in Nazi Germany. Princeton UP, 2018.
E-book and Memorial Library Stacks Regular Size Shelving
DD256.5 S579 2001

Stoltzfus, Nathan and Birgit Maier-Katkin, editors. Protest in Hitler's "National Community": Popular Unrest and the Nazi Response. Berghahn Books, 2016.
E-book.

Wolfgram, Mark. “Rediscovering Narratives of German Resistance: Opposing the Nazi ‘Terror-State.’” Rethinking History, vol. 10, no. 2, 2006, pp. 201–219. https://doi.org/10.1080/13642520600649382.   

Jewish Resistance

Brothers, E. “German-Jewish Resistance and Gestapo Research: The Example of the Herbert Baum Group.” European Judaism, vol. 57, no. 2, pp. 140-153. https://doi-org.ezproxy.library.wisc.edu/10.3167/ej.2024.570211. Accessed 29 Jan 2025. 

Gruner, Wolf. "How Individual, Ordinary Jews Fought Nazi Persecution: A New View of History." The Conversation, 29 August 2023.

Gruner, Wolf. Resisters: How Ordinary Jews Fought Persecution in Hitler's Germany. Yale UP, 2023.
E-book.

Hoffmann, Peter, 1930-2023. Carl Goerdeler and the Jewish Question, 1933-1942. Cambridge UP, 2011.
E-book.

Huebel, Sebastian. "Disguise and Defiance: German Jewish Men and Their Underground Experiences in Nazi Germany, 1941-45." Shofar, vol. 36, no. 3, Winter 2018, pp. 110-141. Gale Literature Resource Center, https://doi.org/10.1353/sho.2018.0041.
 

Resistance by Individuals

Georg Elser and the Assassination Attempt of November 8, 1939

Roger Moorhouse, “The Lone Bomber: Georg Elser.” Killing Hitler: The Plots, the Assassins, and the Dictator Who Cheated Death, Bantam Books, 2006, pp. 49-78.
Memorial Library Stacks Regular Size Shelving
DD256.35 M66 2006

Benz, Wolfgang. Allein gegen Hitler. Leben und Tat des Johann Georg Elser. München, Beck, 2023.
Memorial Library Stacks Regular Size Shelving
DD247.E6 B469 2023

Helmuth Hübener, 1925–1942

Sander, Ulrich. Jugendwiderstand im Krieg: Die Helmuth-Hübener-Gruppe 1941/1942. Bonn, Pahl-Rugenstein, 2002.
Memorial Library Stacks Regular Size Shelving
DD256.5 S23 2002

Kiep, Otto Karl, 1886-1944 (Wikipedia)

Leber, Annedore. Conscience in Revolt; Sixty-Four Stories of Resistance in Germany, 1933-45. London: Vallentine, Mitchell, 1957.

Mayer, Rupert, 1876-1945 (Wikipedia)

Ohler, Norman. The Bohemians: The Lovers Who Led Germany's Resistance against the Nazis. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2020.
College Library Main Collection, 1st Floor, Rm. 1191
DD247.S379 O4513 2020

Military Resistance

Johnson, David. Righteous Deception: German Officers against Hitler. Westport, Conn., Praeger, 2001.
Memorial Library Stacks Regular Size Shelving
D810 S7 J47 2001

The Conspiracy of July 20th, 1944

Peter Hoffmann, Peter, editor. Behind Valkyrie: German Resistance to Hitler. Documents. McGill-Queen's UP, 2011.

Pröse, Tim Wir Kinder des 20. Juli. Gegen das Vergessen: Die Töchter und Söhne des Widerstands gegen Hitler erzählen ihre Geschichte. München, Heyne, 2024.
Memorial Library Stacks Regular Size Shelving
DD247.S342 P76 2024

Religious/Church Resistance

Chapman, Paul.“The Widerstand: Religion and German Resistance to Hitler.” Kairos Center, 2019, kairoscenter.org/religion-and-the-german-resistance-to-hitler/. Accessed 10 Feb. 2025.

Gallin, Mary Alice. German Resistance to Hitler: Ethical and Religious Factors. Washington: Catholic U of America P, 1962.
Memorial Library Stacks Regular Size Shelving
DD256.3 G32

Garbe, Detlef. Between Resistance and Martyrdom: Jehovah's Witnesses in the Third Reich. U of Wisconsin P, 2008.
Memorial Library Stacks Regular Size Shelving
BX8525.8 G3 G3613 2008

Griech-Polelle, Beth. “Image of a Churchman-Resister: Bishop von Galen, the Euthanasia Project and the Sermons of Summer 1941,” Journal of Contemporary History vol. 36, no. 1, 2001, pp. 41-57.

“Third Sermon by Bishop Graf von Galen, August 3, 1941.” Cardinal von Galen, by Rev. Heinrich Portmann, translated by R.L. Sedgwick, 1957, pp. 239-246. http://www.priestsforlife.org/preaching/vongalen41-08-03.htm

Hesse, Hans, editor. Persecution and Resistance of Jehovah's Witnesses during the Nazi Regime, 1933-1945. Bremen, Edition Temmen, 2001.

Student Resistance: Sophie Scholl and The White Rose 

The Leaflets of the White Rose (1942-43) http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/revolt/wrleaflets.html 

Dumbach, Annette E. Sophie Scholl and the White Rose. Oxford, Oneworld, 2006.
Memorial Library Stacks Regular Size Shelving
DD256.3 D88 2006

Grosso Ciponte, Andrea. Freiheit! The White Rose Graphic Novel. Walden, New York, Plough Publishing House, 2021.
Request from UW-Platteville

The White Rose as presented to American youth

Freedman, Russell. We Will Not Be Silent: The White Rose Student Resistance Movement That Defied Adolf Hitler. Boston: Clarion Books, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016.
MERIT Library PreK-12 Stacks
DD256.3 .F74 2016

Wilson, Kip. White Rose. Boston: Versify, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2019.
Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)
(No loan) Wilson In-library use only

Youth Resistance: The Swing Youth / Swingjugend

Lange, Sascha. Meuten, Swings & Edelweiss-Piraten. Jugendkultur und Opposition im Nationalsozialismus. Mainz, Ventil, 2015.
Memorial Library Stacks Regular Size Shelving
DD253.5 .L36 2015

Peukert, Detlev. Inside Nazi Germany, Conformity, Opposition, and Racism in Everyday Life, pp. 145-174.
Memorial Library Stacks Regular Size Shelving
DD256.5 P4613 1987

Barber-Kersovan, Alenka and Gordon Uhlmann, editors. Getanzte Freiheit. Swingkultur zwischen NS-Diktatur und Gegenwart. Hamburg, Dölling und Galitz, 2002.
Music Library (Mills)
ML3518 G483 2002

Women

Geyken, Frauke. Wir standen nicht abseits. Frauen im Widerstand gegen Hitler. München, C. H. Beck, 2014.
Memorial Library Stacks Regular Size Shelving
D810 C82 G49 2014

Oldfield, Sybil. “German Women in the Resistance to Hitler.” Thinking Against the Current. Liverpool UP, 2014, pp. 177-195.
E-book.

Seger, Ilse. The Memoir of Ilse Seger Wife, Mother, Hostage, Nazi Resister. Indiana UP, 2024.
E-book.

Stoltzfus, Nathan, Mordecai Paldiel, and Judy Baumel-Schwartz, editors. Women Defying Hitler: Rescue and Resistance under the Nazis. Bloomsbury Academic, 2021.
Request from UW-Eau Claire or UW-Stevens Point.

Timms, Edward. Anna Haag and Her Secret Diary of the Second World War: A Democratic German Feminist's Response to the Catastrophe of National Socialism. Oxford, New York, Peter Lang, 2016.
Request from UW-Green Bay.

Communist Resistance

Grashoff, U. (2022). “Outwitting the Gestapo? German Communist Resistance between Loyalty and Betrayal.” Journal of Contemporary History, vol. 57, no. 2, 2022, pp. 365-386. https://doi-org.ezproxy.library.wisc.edu/10.1177/0022009421997906

The Red Orchestra / Die rote Kapelle
Roloff, Stefan. Bearing Witness: Survivors of the "Red Orchestra" Speak. Berlin: German Resistance Memorial Center, 2022.
Memorial Library Stacks Regular Size Shelving
DD256.4.B47 R6513 2022

Benner, Julia. Federkrieg. Kinder- und Jugendliteratur gegen den Nationalsozialismus 1933-1945. Göttingen, Wallstein Verlag, 2015.
Maria Gleit, Kurt Held, Fritz Rothgießer and Lisa Tetzner.
Memorial Library Stacks Regular Size Shelving
PT1021 .B46 2015

The Red Orchestra / Rote Kapelle. Produced by Stephen Roloff. Amherst, Mass., DEFA Film Library, 2004.
Verona Shelving Facility, by request only
GR2.106.451

Austrian Socialist Writers

Herbert Exenberger (Hg.). Als Stünd' die Welt in Flammen. Eine Anthologie ermordeter sozialistischer SchriftstellerInnen. Wien, Mandelbaum, 2000.
Benedikt Fantner, Adele Jellinek, Else Feldmann, Käthe Leichter, Walter Lindenbaum, Thekla Merwin, Heinrich Steinitz, and Adolf Unger.
Memorial Library Stacks Regular Size Shelving
PT3823 A56 2000

Inner Emigration

Donahue, Neil H. and Doris Kirchner, editors. Flight of Fantasy: New Perspectives on Inner Emigration in German Literature, 1933-1945. New York, Berghahn Books, 2003.
E-book.

Klapper, John. Nonconformist Writing in Nazi Germany: The Literature of Inner Emigration. Camden House, 2015.
Memorial Library Stacks Regular Size Shelving
PT405 .K5264 2015

Kroll, Frank-Lothar and Rüdiger von Voss, editors. Schriftsteller und Widerstand. Facetten und Probleme der "Inneren Emigration." Göttingen, Wallstein, 2012.
Stacks Regular Size Shelving