Cornell University ILR School DigitalCommons@ILR International Publications Key Workplace Documents 2013 Workers' Resistance Against Nazi Germany at the International Labour Conference 1933 Reiner Tosstorff Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/intl Thank you for downloading an article from DigitalCommons@ILR. Support this valuable resource today! This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Key Workplace Documents at DigitalCommons@ILR. It has been accepted for inclusion in International Publications by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@ILR. For more information, please contact
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[email protected] for assistance. Workers' Resistance Against Nazi Germany at the International Labour Conference 1933 Abstract Eighty years ago, the delegation of national socialist Germany made an early exit from the International Labour Conference. An attempt to install the German Labour Front as legitimate worker representatives, instead of the free trade unions, had failed due to resistance from the Workers’ Group and, not least, the persistent silence maintained by Wilhelm Leuschner, the German unions’ representative on the ILO Governing Body. Wilhelm Leuschner was a courageous man whose actions were carefully thought through, and right from the start he was an opponent of the Nazi regime. As a resistance fighter for Germany and against Hitler, he was murdered by the Nazis in 1944. In June 1933, his participation in the International Labour Conference opened up the possibility of going into exile, but he opted instead to resist from inside Germany.