ABSTRACT
In the courtyard of Berlin’s Plötzensee prison stands a large memorial wall commemorating the members of the German resistance movement. Placed just opposite the wall, seeming a bit forlorn, is a small urn symbolically containing the ashes of Jews who “died” (not “were murdered”) in the concentration camps. This memorial wall provides a clear manifestation of the means with which the historical discourse in Germany strives to safeguard and remember the resistance movement. The resistance movement is perceived as having encompassed all strata of German society and as having expressed a certain state of mind prevalent among most of the German people during the Third Reich. It transcended boundaries of status and education, professions and geographtcal differences. In cities and towns, working-class neighborhoods and affluent villas, among senior military officers, teachers, and factory hands, the resistance movement pervaded their entire being as they struggled against the Nazi regime during the Third Reich.
