Anti-Nazi movement Germany

The German resistance to Nazism (German: Widerstand gegen den Nationalsozialismus) included both unarmed and armed opposition and disobedience to the Nazi regime by various movements, groups and individuals by various means, from attempts to assassinate Adolf Hitler or attempts to overthrow his regime, defections to the Allies and acts of sabotage against the German Army and the apparatus of repression and attempts to organize an armed struggle or open protests, the rescue of persecuted persons, the harboring of dissidence and acts of "everyday resistance". It was not a united resistance movement, unlike the more organised efforts in other countries, such as Italy, Denmark, the Soviet Union, Poland, Greece, Yugoslavia, France, the Netherlands, Czechoslovakia, and Norway. It consisted of small, isolated groups that were unable to mobilise mass opposition, which severely limited their operations. It had no unified leadership or common agenda because its members had a wide spectrum of backgrounds and goals. The resistance included members of the Polish minority, who formed resistance groups like Olimp. Some leaders of the Wehrmacht considered attempting a coup d'état against the regime; the 20 July plot of 1944 against Hitler was intended to trigger such a coup. Although the plot was more a rebellion against Hitler than Nazism per se, there was still opposition to his ideas in the Wehrmacht even before the war. Hundreds of thousands of Germans deserted from the Wehrmacht, many defecting to the Allies or anti-fascist resistance forces. After 1943, the Soviet Union made attempts to launch guerrilla warfare in Germany with such defectors and allowed the members of the National Committee for a Free Germany, which consisted mostly of the German prisoners of war, to participate in the military operations of the Red Army and form small military units. As World War II turned against the Axis, secret peace negotiations with the Allies floundered. The German resistance made unreasonable demands—sometimes including retention of some of the conquered territories—while the Allies insisted on unconditional surrender. It has been estimated that during the course of the war, 800,000 Germans were arrested by the Gestapo for resistance activities. It has also been estimated that between 15,000 and 77,000 Germans were executed. Resistance members were usually tried, mostly in show trials, by Sondergerichte (Special Courts), courts-martial, People's Courts, and the civil justice system. Many of the Germans had served in government, the military, or in civil positions, which enabled them to engage in subversion and conspiracy. The Canadian historian Peter Hoffmann counts unspecified "tens of thousands" in Nazi concentration camps who were either suspected of or engaged in opposition.