ABSTRACT
While there were fairly numerous examples of small-scale resistance to specific measures of the regime, instances of public disaffection on a relatively large scale were rare in the Third Reich. Perhaps the best known is the protest movement which resisted the policy of so-called euthanasia for the handicapped, carried out during the first year of the war, a movement which eventually helped to force the shelving of that policy, at least officially.1 Another far less well-known case was the Oldenburg crucifix struggle of November 1936. Although it was admittedly more limited in its extent and in its significance than the euthanasia protest, nevertheless a study of this particular conflict may provide an insight into the possibilities and also the limits of opposition to the regime. It may also throw some light on the relations between one particular section of the population and the Nazi state.
