The History of the German Resistance 1933-1945
Widerstand, Staatsstreich, Attentat

Hoffman, Peter
Publisher:  MIT Press, USA
Year Published:  1969  
Resource Type:  Book
Cx Number:  CX6322

A thorough portrayal of the plans, hesitations, frustrations, and failures of the opposition to Hitler.

Abstract:  Peter Hoffman has produced an extensive text on the Third Reich Germans who tried to remove Adolph Hitler. He draws upon "every available source, including such primary sources as personal statements from survivors of the period, diaries, unpublished memoirs, letters, and documents preserved in public and private archives." The book also contains detailed notes, appendixes, bibliographies, maps and diagrams. The book is a thorough portrayal of the "plans, hesitations, frustrations, and failures" of the opposition to Hitler and covers the background of terror against which this opposition operated. Divided into ten parts, the book starts by giving a background to Hitler's appointment as Reich Chancellor. It goes on to describe "Plans for a Coup, "Assassination Attempts," and "Contacts With the Enemy," amongst other things, ending with the "Wreck of the Opposition."

[Abstract by Nabeeha Chaudhary]


Table of Contents

Author's Foreword

Part I - The Background
1. The Year 1933
2. Forms of Resistance
3. Top-Level Crisis

Part II - The Sudeten Crisis and the Attempted Coup of 1938
4. Operation 'Green'
5. Foreign Policy and Resistance
6. Beck's Plans
7. Halder's Plans

Part III - Plans for a Coup 1939 - 1940
8. Before the Outbreak of War
9. Plans, Probings and Memoranda
10. Halder's New Plan
11. Further Efforts
12. Soundings Abroad

Part IV - Internal Political Plans
13. Schmid Noerr
14. Hassell
15. Popitz
16. Goerdeler
17. The Kreisau Circle
18. Socialists

Part V - Contacts with the Enemy 1940 - 1944
19. Albrecht Haushofer 1940 - 1941
20. Hassell 1941 - 1942
21. Lochner 1941 - 1942
22. Trott, Bonhoeffer, Schönfeld 1942
23. Moltke 1943
24. Trott 1943 - 1944
25. Gisevius
26. Miscellaneous Contacts
27. 'Eastern Solution'?
28. Otto John 1944

Part VI - Assassination Attempts 1933 - 1942
29. The Early Days
30. Attempts of 1938 - 1942

Part VII - Tresckow and Army Group Centre
31. Preparations
32. Projections of 1943
33. Abortive Plans
34. 'Valkyrie'

Part VIII - Stauffenberg and the Replacement Army
35. Stauffenberg's Career
36. Assassination Attempts - Bussche, Kleist, Breitenbuch
37. Procurement of Explosive
38. Communications Planning
39. Internal Political Planning
40. Stauffenberg's First Two Assassination Attempts

Part IX - 20 July 1944
41. 'Wolfschanze'
42. Berlin: The Coup
43. The Coup in the Provinces
44. Prague, Vienna, Paris
45. Collapse in Berlin

Part X - Wreck of the Opposition
46. Summary Court Martial
47. Arrests
48. People's Court, Executions, Concentration Camps

Notes
Appendices
Abbreviations and Glossary
Sources and Bibliography
Index
Errata and Addenda

Subject Headings