CFP: Other resistance movements

This list of "other resistance movements" is by no means exhaustive! By some estimates, approximately 15,000 Germans participated in some sort of real acts of defiance against their corrupt and murderous regime.

While we are very careful about claims of "resistance" - too many reinvented themselves post-war and adopted the mantle of honor to cover their deeds - we do believe that the stories of those who genuinely risked their lives on behalf of others should be told. Must be told. And the sooner, the better.

If you know of a person or a group not listed below, please do query us about them!

Reminder that we accept queries for short-short essays, white papers, and short or long book treatments. Additionally for these individuals or groups, we would welcome translations of primary source materials, such as arrest records, Gestapo interrogation transcripts, trial transcripts. If you have or can obtain permission for access to their diaries, journals, letters, memoirs, or video testimony, we would gladly publish those materials as well!

A few of these stories have gained a bit of traction, but we wish to be careful to avoid "legend" or unsubstantiated oral testimony.

  • Father Jean Bernard - but not the movie version. Please also ask the hard questions, including: Why was he released in August 1942, and never re-arrested?
  • Heinz and Willi Bollinger, Helmut Bauer, Rudi Alt - We know of them solely through their connection to White Rose resistance. But there is more to their story than that. Why is some of their archival material in Washington, DC, and why is it so hard to get copies of those documents?
  • Max Stefl - The #1 Prime Suspect when the Munich Gestapo began its investigation into the White Rose leaflets. Stefl traveled between Munich and Vienna. Additionally, he sub-let rooms to people associated with White Rose, though not in its inner circle. What was Stefl's actual connection to resistance?
  • Helmut ("Helle") Hirsch - German-American-Jewish youth who tried to assassinate Hitler. Why is so little about the actual plot known? Where are the arrest, interrogation, evidence, trial documents? Who was the double agent who betrayed him?
  • Helmuth Hübener, Rudolf Wobbe, Karl-Heinz Schnibbe. Hübener was the youngest person executed by the Nazis for resistance efforts - the three boys were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
  • The BMW leaflet writers. These people bugged the Gestapo in Munich, as the interrogators were certain the BMW leaflet writers were associated with White Rose. Which they were not. They used stationery from the BMW plant in Munich to mail their seditious message. As far as we have been able to ascertain, they were never caught. The leaflets were called 30.1.33-30.1.43: Ten Years of National Socialism.
  • August Landmesser. More about the man who stood alone among longshoremen, not raising his arm in the Hitler salute.
  • Hans Steinbrück, Bartholomäus (Barthel) Schink, Günther Schwarz, Gustav Bermel, Johann Müller, Franz Rheinberger, Adolf Schütz, Roland Lorent, Peter Hueppeler, Josef Moll, Wilhelm Kratz, Heinrich Kratina, Johann Krausen, ages 16 to 57, from Ehrenfeld. Sometimes called the Edelweiss Pirates.
  • Hans Wolfgang von Gronau - This one is personal. His daughter Marie Luise Pieratt geb. Gronau was first German teacher for many of us. She told us about growing up in Nazi Germany with a father who would not let her join BDM, and who would bring his co-conspirators to their home. As a teenager, she hated him. As an adult, she admired him beyond words. He was a famous aviator, the German version of Charles Lindbergh. New York City even gave him a ticker tape parade in 1930.
  • The Hamburg group around Rudolf Degkwitz. Degkwitz is on our list of biographical publications, but we want to know more about this predecessor group to White Rose. They were actively involved in resistance work long before White Rose leaflets were thought of. More about them.
  • The Chemistry students in Munich around Hans Leipelt. Successor to White Rose resistance, yet distinct. How did they function? What were their strengths and weaknesses?

Please note that for now, we are not interested in the July 20, 1944 resistance movement, as it has been well-documented. However, we would be interested in primary source documents, or in well-researched biographies of lesser-known members.