Transcript Nonviolent Resistance to Hitler

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Nonviolent Resistance to
Hitler
Denmark, Norway and the
Netherlands
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Questions…
• What were the conditions for effective
nonviolent resistance to the Nazis?
• How successful in the long term was such
resistance, and to what extent did it help in
the overall anti-Nazi struggle? What were the
long-term post-war consequences?
• How effective is sabotage against property in
a nonviolent struggle? Is it more akin to
terrorism than nonviolent resistance?
• When does the punishment of collaborators
and traitors cross the divide between violence
and nonviolence?
Map
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Denmark
9th April 1940: Operation Weserubung
Co-operation:
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No chance of resisting
‘Samarbejd Spolitik’
Few small acts of resistance e.g. the ‘free’
Danish ambassador
Nazi need for a compliant Denmark
July 2nd 1940 Committee of Nine created
with the intention of making the real decisions
in government
However compliance remained
The arrest of the Danish Communist Party
January 1941 the government gave the Nazis
six new torpedo boats
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Resistance:
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Focus on establishing a greater sense of
national identity
The ‘Ten Commandments for Danes’
The Danish Youth Association
The underground press and ‘De Frie
Danske’ printed in 1941, by 1945 over 24
million copies of such papers had been
printed
King Christian a symbol of Danish heritage
Success seen in the elections of March 1941
A culture of solidarity had been created
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Increasingly direct action
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Did not happen until 1941
National strikes
‘folk-strike’
September the 9th 1944; 58 towns on strike to
protest the arrest of 10,000 police men
August 28th 1943 the Nazis gave the government
an ultimatum
The government refused and the Nazis took over
the now uncooperative government
Lead to harsher measures
September 8th 1943 Nazis called for all Danish
Jews to be rounded up
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Success?
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The rescue of Danish Jews
Georg Duckwitz
Nation-wide effort to get the Jews to Sweden
The Students Information Service
7220 Jews successfully escaped
Due to the centralised control of the
resistance movement
The Committee of Nine and the Freedom
Council
Provided a united voice and a concentration
on nonviolent tactic
Large success in organising general strikes,
such as the ‘Go Home’ campaign
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Failure?
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It was not until allied success in 1945
that the country was free from
occupation
As a nonviolent campaign some
violence was used
Strikes and protests turned violent and
damage was done to property
Asked the RAF to bomb the three most
important Gestapo headquarters
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The Netherlands
May 15th 1940
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Did not have the military strength to
resist
Small acts of resistance were successful
The Royal family were a symbol of the
nation
A culture of jokes
Helped to create a unified, patriotic
feeling among nationals
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Increasingly direct action
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Targeting of the Dutch Jews
Larger forms of resistance in the forms
of strikes
Establishment of organisations to aid
those who had been targeted
Establishment of an underground press
Continuance of small acts, for example
the painting of ‘V’
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Success and Failures
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Efforts remained uncoordinated,
though ‘De Kern’ or ‘The Core’ was
eventually established
No cohesion within the government
Property was attacked, e.g. the
railway system in 1944
Many resistance movements turned
violent
Were not as successful as the
Danish in helping their Jewish
population; 8 out of 10 Jews were
deported to concentration camps
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Norway
9th April 1940
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Came under the guise of friendship
Norwegian King and government turned down
the German conditions for surrender, starting
60 days of fighting, which ended with the King
and government being exiled from their own
country
Quisling became prime minister, soon
Nasjonal Samling came to work with Quisling
to lead Nazi rule in Norway
Again resistance took a nationalistic edge: ‘No
Norwegians for Sale’
Establishment of the underground press by
summer of 1940
By the autumn of 1943 there were around 60
underground newspapers in circulation
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Occupation intensifies:
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750,000 delivered a written protest to Samling, who reacted by removing many
from office
Those removed came together to create the Coordinating Committee in the
autumn of 1941
Along with this the civilian based organisatin the ‘Sivorg’ formed as one half of
the resistance leadership
The ‘Milorg’ formed the other half of this leadership, it was the Military
Organisation
The establishment of an intelligence service to help the allied forces
Line of communication with the UK meant that instruction was received from
London on how to organise the resistance effort
The Norwegian Merchant Navy was used to help the Allies.
1944 the two main streams of resistance merged to form the Resistance
Leadership, which organised the country into 14 different districts
Successes
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“Look to Norway” - Roosevelt
‘Holdingskamp’ or ‘battle of the minds’
Resistance to compulsory national service for
the young: ‘I do not wish my child to participate
in the service of the youth association of the NS,
as the lines laid down for this activity run counter
to my conscience.’
Quisling: “You teachers have ruined everything”.
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Use of Violence?
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Resistance was not ideologically peaceful
Sabotage of punch-card machines against
Nazi attempts to call 75,000 Norwegians to
service
Milorg staged attacks on German shipping,
petrol, oil supplies and various industrial
targets
Supreme Headquarters of the Allied
European Forces instructed them to attack
Norwegian railway lines
Later instructions were reversed
Milorg numbered 40,000 stationed around
the country, did clash with the Germans.
8th May 1945 the Germans surrendered
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Q1: What were the conditions for effective
non-violent resistance to the Nazis?
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Amassing general support, often by placing a large emphasis on
national identity, for example through key figures such as the royal
families of the occupied country
Effective means of communicating resistance ideas to the masses and
gaining access to uncensored information, for example the
establishment of an underground press
Central, unified control to give direction to the resistance movement, for
example used in Denmark and used in Norway. In the Netherlands this
was less successful.
The lack of opportunity to use violence successfully?
The importance for the Nazis to treat the occupied country well; the
majority of inhabitants were seen as members for the Aryan race and
their labour and goods seen as important for the Nazi war effort.
Q2. How successful in the long term was such
resistance, and to what extent did it help in the
overall anti-Nazi struggle? What were the long-term
post-war consequences?
• Reliant on the allied forces violent measures to relive selves of
German occupation.
• However efforts did aid the Allied forces
• Arendt believes that a nonviolent approach would never have
been successful against the Nazis, Gandhi’s techniques would
be met with ‘massacre and submission’.
• What were their aims though? Was it really liberation or did they
know that they could never be successful, instead they aimed to
re-affirm their national identity to resist political submission
(Semelin)
• In the long-term created a sense of unification that was of
importance when re-building the countries after the war.
Q3. How effective is sabotage against property in a
nonviolent struggle? Is it more akin to terrorism
than nonviolent resistance?
• Many examples of these countries being violent against
property: e.g The Dutch and the Norwegians attacked railways.
For the Dutch this was not so effective.
• Examples in the Netherlands, it often legitimised the violence of
the Nazis and ended with Dutch deaths
• All countries relied and encouraged use of allied violence to help
their cause.
• If take Gandhi’s view of nonviolence, then these countries were
not proper nonviolent movements as they were not ideologically
nonviolent
Q4. When does the punishment of
collaborators and traitors cross the divide
between violence and nonviolence?
• Notably after the war Danish collaborators
were arrested and given violent punishments,
many showed their disappointment that
Denmark did not use more violence against
their occupiers.
• In Norway over 90,000 people were charged
with collaborating with the Nazis.
• Does not agree with Gandhi’s view of
nonviolent resistance