German Resistance Against National Socialism and Its Legacies
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John J. Michalczyk, ed.. Confront! Resistance in Nazi Germany. New York: Peter Lang, 2004. xiv + 251 pp. $39.95, paper, ISBN 978-0-8204-6317-9. Reviewed by Doris L. Bergen Published on H-German (August, 2006) These three books approach the topic of resis‐ before and during World War II. Informed by tance in National Socialist Germany in different decades of research and personal connections ways, but all raise questions familiar to historians with Stauffenberg's family and friends, this book of modern Germany and relevant to anyone con‐ is the product of a mature scholar at the peak of cerned with why and how individuals oppose his powers. It is at the same time a moving tribute state-sponsored violence. What enabled some to an extraordinary man whose intelligence, no‐ people not only to develop a critical stance to‐ bility of spirit and ability to withstand pain set ward the Nazi regime but to risk their lives to him apart from his peers long before his most fa‐ fight against it? How should such heroes be re‐ mous act of defiance against Nazi evil. membered and commemorated? What particular Tatjana Blaha's exploration of Willi Graf and challenges face scholars who try to write the his‐ his involvement with the "White Rose" in Munich tory of resistance? marks the beginning, rather than the culmination Peter Hoffmann's "family history" of Claus, of its author's career. A revised Ph.D. dissertation, Count Stauffenberg, is the second edition of his Blaha's study seeks to correct the widespread no‐ book Stauffenberg (1995), originally published in tion that the White Rose was essentially the work German in 1992 under the title Claus Schenk Graf of Hans and Sophie Scholl. Graf, too, was an im‐ von Stauffenberg und seine Brüder. Hoffmann, the portant fgure in the group, Blaha argues, and in‐ dean of studies of the German resistance, uses a vestigation of his involvement draws attention to traditional biographical approach that locates the motivations for resistance that have often been roots of Stauffenberg's opposition to National So‐ overlooked. In particular, Graf's formation in the cialism and his attempt to kill Hitler on July 20, Catholic youth movement, his independent nature 1944, in his unusual family background, his devo‐ and his longstanding opposition to National So‐ tion to the poet Stefan George and the George cir‐ cialism prepared him to join the Scholls, Alexan‐ cle and his experiences in the German military der Schmorell, Christoph Probst and Professor H-Net Reviews Kurt Huber in their resistance activities. Like and sometimes conflicting contributions that fol‐ Hoffmann, Blaha left no stone unturned in her low. quest for sources, and Graf's diaries, letters and All three of these books are valuable and in‐ the recollections of his sister add a personal di‐ spiring additions to the literature on resistance to mension to the scholarship. In contrast to Hoff‐ the Third Reich, and each of them merits a place mann, whose study ends with July 1944, leaving on the reading lists of scholars and students en‐ only a seven-page epilogue to address Stauffen‐ gaged in the study of Nazism and its opponents. berg's legacy, Blaha devotes half her book to the But even in combination they leave many ques‐ postwar reception of Graf and the White Rose. She tions open and puzzles unresolved. The authors' examines treatments of the White Rose in selected admiration for their remarkable and heroic sub‐ scholarly and popular works, including press cov‐ jects is appropriate and well substantiated by erage, and looks at public acts of commemoration, careful research, but what does the life and death for example at the Ludwig-Maximilians Univer‐ of an extraordinary person like Claus, Count sität in Munich and in Graf's hometown of Saar‐ Stauffenberg really tell us about the possibilities brücken. Graf, Blaha concludes, has not received for resistance that were available to less gifted in‐ the credit he deserves. dividuals in Nazi Germany? Even within his own The volume edited by John Michalczyk comes family, Claus Stauffenberg was atypical. Hoff‐ out of a conference on "Resistance in Nazi Ger‐ mann provides an intriguing look at the child‐ many" held at Boston College in 2002. Its fourteen hood of the three Stauffenberg brothers, but nev‐ chapters cover a wide range of topics. There are er accounts for the fact that two of them--Claus personal accounts of resistance (by the Jehovah's and Berthold--numbered among those who lost Witness Rudolf Graichen; Freya von Moltke in their lives in the effort to destroy Hitler's regime, conversation with Rachel Freudenburg and oth‐ whereas the third, Berthold's twin Alexander, an ers; and George Wittenstein, who was connected early and outspoken critic of the Nazi system with the White Rose); essays by prominent schol‐ whose wife was the granddaughter of a Jewish ars in the feld (among them Peter Hoffmann, convert to Christianity, does not seem to have Nathan Stoltzfus and Dennis Showalter); surveys been directly involved in the conspiracy. of German resistance (Paul Bookbinder's over‐ Blaha gets us closer to the situation of "ordi‐ view); and portraits of individual resistors (Ina R. nary Germans" with her focus on Willi Graf, in Friedman on Cato Bontjes Van Beek and the Red many ways an unremarkable young man who Orchestra). Like most conference volumes, the nevertheless became a determined and active op‐ book provides a tantalizing sample of issues with‐ ponent of the Third Reich. But she is more inter‐ out developing any themes in depth. The title of ested in elevating Graf to a hero's status equiva‐ the collection and the fnal chapter, Anna Ros‐ lent to that of the Scholl siblings than she is in mus's discussion of "Hate Crimes in Germany To‐ identifying the factors that led him to move be‐ day," call on readers to continue the legacy of yond the passive criticism that characterized Nazism's opponents and "confront!" prejudice and many of his counterparts in the Catholic youth xenophobia in our own world. Unfortunately, the movement, even its underground association, the volume's editor did not take the opportunity to Graue Orden. Blaha succeeds in drawing attention write an introductory essay that would have tied to Graf, but ends up giving short shrift to others the contributions together to support this chal‐ involved in the White Rose, most notably the stu‐ lenge. Instead, Michalczyk offers only a brief fore‐ dent Hans Leipelt, who was denounced for col‐ word (one-and-a-half pages) that leaves readers to lecting funds to aid Professor Huber's widow and find their own connections among the diverse 2 H-Net Reviews executed in January 1945. Leipelt is relegated to a Hoffmann makes an effort to link Stauffen‐ footnote in Blaha's work (p. 90), only to appear on berg's resistance to the Holocaust, but his claim the fnal page as "Konrad Leipelt" (p. 194). Nathan that outrage at the murder of the Jews was a cen‐ Stolzfus's chapter in Michalczyk, on the women tral--even the central--motivation for both Claus involved in the Rosenstraße protest of 1943, is one and Berthold remains open to debate. To support of the few examinations of resistance that consid‐ his point, Hoffmann observes that when Claus ers defiance and accommodation together, as they Stauffenberg tried to recruit certain people for the must have functioned for most Germans under conspiracy, he pointed to the slaughter of Jews in Nazi rule. Stoltzfus's category of "civil courage" Eastern Europe as indicative of the evil of Nazism. provides a useful way around the tired debates In other cases, however, Stauffenberg used differ‐ about defining "resistance" that continue to domi‐ ent arguments, presumably in line with what he nate many discussions of the subject. deemed most likely to convince reluctant candi‐ Oddly, none of the three books under review dates. Hoffmann's assertion is further complicat‐ has much to say about the particular targeting of ed by evidence he provides of anti-Jewish atti‐ Jews for persecution and killing, nor about the tudes on the part of both Claus and Berthold central place of antisemitism in Nazi ideology and Stauffenberg: for example, their support of mea‐ practice. None of the chapters in Michalczyk's col‐ sures in the 1930s to limit the place of German lection addresses Jewish resistance, a gap all the Jews in public life, and their approval of the more unfortunate because it ends up reinforcing phrase "the thousand-year curse of their blood," the old stereotype of Jewish passivity in the Holo‐ referring to Jews, in Rudolf Fahrner's poetic trib‐ caust. With the exception of Stoltzfus's essay, none ute to Stefan George, "Der Tod des Meisters." Hoff‐ of the contributions discusses resistors whose ef‐ mann concedes that the phrase was "intolerable forts focused on saving Jews. Donald Dietrich's to Jews after the mass murders of Auschwitz," yet piece on "Christianity in the Third Reich" men‐ dismisses the Stauffenberg brothers' position as tions the churches' role in "spawning" anti‐ merely "lacking in tact" (p. 247). The Stauffen‐ semitism, but is more concerned with what Diet‐ bergs may have been exceptional in many ways, rich calls Christianity's "death struggle with but it appears that at least some members of the Nazism." Blaha's study of Graf emphasizes his family, like many of their European Christian Christianity and points to his experiences at the peers, held Jews in vague contempt. front as a crucial turning point in his moral devel‐ Hoffmann attempts to clinch his case for opment, but provides no clues as to his own atti‐ Claus and Berthold's anti-antisemitism by remind‐ tudes toward Jews or his encounters with German ing readers that Gestapo records described oppo‐ crimes against them.