I must, however, confess that the question “Where was this resistance?” readily suggests itself to such people as are not acquainted with the internal conditions of Germany, above all during the war. I must also grant the fact that scarcely more than Stauffenberg’s plot with its staggering consequences came before the public.
He who puts such a question completely misjudges the conditions under which the whole resistance movement had to work against the Nazi Government. He forgets that up to the fatal date of 20 July 1944, he had also no idea of the group round Stauffenberg. I am therefore all the more forced to give a concise exposition of the situation which in the Third Reich everybody opposing the Nazi Government had to face.
From the very beginning it was the aim of the authoritarian government to get hold of every German man, every German woman, all children, and old men in order to bring them up in the spirit of the new method of government. The totalitarian striving for power did not stop short at personal freedom. It removed professional and economic organizations, cultural and social institutions, some of which were reestablished in another form, subject to the control of the Nazi Government.
It was against this state of things that the struggle set in from the very beginning. Nothing would be more wrong than to believe that this struggle could be waged in the open street with large quantities of propaganda material, display of physical force, with fire arms, bombs, war, and rumors of war. Even in the trade unions, the most consistent and resolute adversaries of the new government in 1933, such a method was not possible. This government kept a tight rein over the whole public apparatus controlling in an increasing degree the private spheres through the organizations of the SD, Gestapo, etc. The ambiguous stipulations of the law against malicious acts or insults to the state and party (Heimtueckegesetz) made possible the imprisonment of people even for accidental deprecatory remarks. Political discrimination and the constant danger of being sent to a concentration camp were the effects of many innocent remarks. No newspaper could have been found to agitate against the oppressors. But if handbills were secretly distributed the contents of which defamed the Nazi government, the whole apparatus of the police, Gestapo, SD, etc., was set in motion. The possession of weapons was considered circumstantial evidence of treasonable enterprises and meant capital punishment for the imprudent. It must be added that there was a widely extended spy system sticking to everybody’s heels. One had even to guard oneself against one’s nearest relations and children.
These few words concerning the internal situation of Germany were necessary as an answer to the absurd question put in Stockholm to the witness Hielscher: “Why did you not speak in the open market place [publicly]?” (Tr. p. 5935.)
The most obvious kind of opposition was offered by the two great Christian churches. How much and how often were the antichrist and his false prophets not preached against, how many clergymen of all confessions were sent to prisons, penitentiaries, concentration camps, nay, to death? It is true, the churches could venture forth more openly than other people. For they did not intend to participate in a forcible removal of the system, in the killing of its leaders and representatives, in the fight with arms. But the nonecclesiastical resistance groups had realized that the Nazi dictatorship could not be overthrown without violence; they were not subject to the political-philosophical impediments and restrictions of the churches, they could not throw off the mask until the day of action had dawned. Up to that time they were condemned to be silent, they had to camouflage, acting on the old principle of all conspirators: “Never speak of your aim, but always think of it!” If they had forgotten this principle, sooner or later unquestioningly they would have been betrayed by a spy and liquidated by the Gestapo. They would never have got as far as action. Did not the group round Stauffenberg act in this way too? Who knew of its existence before the bomb burst in Hitler’s headquarters on 20 July 1944? The same was the case with all the other resistance groups which unfortunately no longer had the possibility of acting and some of which were traced and secretly killed in spite of this.
The fact that all of them existed is proved, however, by the small number of publications: the pamphlets of Emil Henk, of Franklin L. Ford and other authors, and Neuhaeusler’s book, “Cross and Swastika”.
But downright classical witnesses are the numerous bloody victims whom the People’s Court of Justice [Volksgerichtshof] and the Gestapo had sent to the concentration camps and to death.
One of these groups was the group around Hielscher, a member of which was the defendant Sievers.
There was a Hielscher group, it existed, it acted. Hielscher himself is an unimpeachable witness of this. In connection with 20 July 1944, he was imprisoned for three months and was to be hanged. Hielscher’s illegal activity is sworn to by many other no less trustworthy witnesses. As the first of them I mention the political emigrant Dr. Borkenau, who had been working against National Socialism at least since 1928. He had known Hielscher since 1928. He speaks of his hostility to National Socialism, of a “sharp attitude”. At that time he frequently negotiated and conspired with Hielscher, who set forth the methods of his fight. During his emigration, Dr. Borkenau watched Hielscher’s activity from abroad and again and again he heard: “Hielscher keeps on fighting”. If we are told so by an emigrant, we may well believe it. Another witness who never lost connection with Hielscher was Dr. Topf, who himself was an active member of the resistance movement. He too described Hielscher as a violent antagonist of National Socialism, working and struggling unswervingly. I refer to the many affidavits which I presented in this connection.