Reports Concerning Support and Opposition to the Nazi Regime
(1935 & 1938)
The SOPADE reports on Germany had tried several times to assess the extent of the 'grumbling', the degree of serious opposition and the level of support for the regime.
November 1935:
Discontent has increased again and is more extensive
than last year's grumbling ['Meckerei'], but it is no stronger than
before. It is expressed more openly, but it has just as little political
content. People say, 'Things can't go like this' and they also say,
'Things can't be worse after Hitler', but behind these phrases there
is neither the will to overturn the system nor any conception of what
should take its place.
This being so, and given past experience, when waves
of grumbling have always been followed by periods of general disappointment
and disillusionment, we must again face the possibility that the present
very widespread grumbling may switch round into very general indifference
and resignation. After 'Things really can't go on like this' there is:
'What's the point, the Nazis are dug in much too tightly'. These extraordinary
swings of mood, which are typical of Hitler's Germany, place great strain
on the mental strength and resilience of everyone involved in illegal
opposition.
February 1938:
To the extent that the attitude of a whole nation
can ever be reduced to a formula, we can assert roughly the following
three points:
1. Hitler has got the approval of a majority of the
nation on two vital questions: he has created work and he has made Germany
strong.
2. There is widespread dissatisfaction with prevailing
conditions, but it affects only the worries of daily life and has not
so far led to fundamental hostility to the regime as far as most people
are concerned.
3. Doubts about the continued survival of the regime
are widespread, but so is the sense of helplessness as to what might
replace it.
The third point seems to us to be the most significant,
as far as the present situation in Germany is concerned. Despite the
regime's enlargement of its political and economic power, and despite
the far-reaching approval this has gained for it among wide sections
of the nation, there is a feeling of uncertainty about the future. Whether
this feeling springs from worries about a war, or is a result of shortages,
the regime has not so far succeeded in eradicating the idea that its
rule may only mark a period of transition. This point is more important,
as far as the regime's inner strength is concerned, than the recording
of temporary oscillations between satisfaction and dissatisfaction.
Nor does it contradict our observations that the political indifference
of the masses is on the increase.
Sources: Yad
Vashem; D. J. K. Peukert, "Inside Nazi Germany:
Conformity, Opposition and Racism in Everyday Life," Yale, 1987,
p. 64.
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