ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the issue of the German resistance’s position on the murder of the Jews. It examines representative examples mainly among the groups which contributed to the insurrection of 20 July 1944. The anti-Semitism of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP) was, apart from Adolf Hitler's personal obsession, politically motivated. Responses and reactions were subject to the circumstances of the National Socialist dictatorship. The anti-Semitism of the NSDAP was, apart from Hitler’s personal obsession, politically motivated. From 1918 onward, it was designed to combat the Social Democratic Party and the Communist Party by alleging that their leadership was Jewish or under Jewish control, and therefore ‘international’, ‘un-national’, ‘un-German’, controlled by Germany’s enemies and by ‘international capitalism’, generally corrupt and mercenary, and treasonous. Responses and reactions were subject to the circumstances of the National Socialist dictatorship. Immediately after Hitler’s appointment as Chancellor, the National Socialists moved to seize control of all aspects of life in Germany.
