William Tyler
WWII: The Homefront

In Germany, the attitudes of 1940-41 were not those of 1942-45, when defeats replaced victories, and consequently created a fall in morale. The regime’s propaganda increasingly began to diverge from the reality of the war, which led to further collapses of morale. Additionally, food was in short supply and towards the end of the war, the whole infrastructure of the country began to fail.

Yet strangely, the government sought to mitigate the deteriorating conditions at home, especially for the Nazi elite.

On the other hand, there were Germans who sought to stand up to Nazism and those who were actively involved in plots to overthrow it. The question of why so few Germans made a stand and fewer still took part in plots has been put down to the fact that in a police state, it is nearly impossible to resist. Not only would the individual pay the price, but their family would too.

This argument has been challenged in more recent times by historians who argue that a sizable part of the German nation were actively involved with the regime, and not just passively complicit.

What is not in question is the bravery of individuals, whether acting alone, or in consort with others. They came from many strata of German society - religious, communist, socialist, aristocratic conservatists, disillusioned army officers, and so on. Of the resistance plots, that of July 1944 came closest to success as senior officers and others plotted the assassination of Hitler and the destruction of the Nazi State.