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Peace through Coup d'État: The Foreign Contacts of the German Resistance 1933–1944
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 December 2008
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A history, both comprehensive and detailed, of the foreign contacts of the German Resistance does not yet exist. The subject is vast, and many sources are not yet accessible, notably those in the custody of intelligence agencies, and also those relating to contacts between the German Communist underground and foreign authorities or individuals. This paper will, firstly, consider some conditions and circumstances of foreign contacts sought and established by the German Resistance; secondly, survey some of those contacts; and, thirdly, attempt to draw some conclusions.
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References
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30. Cf. Hassell, 218; [Clarita von Trott zu Solz], “Adam von Trott zu Solz: Eine erste Materialsammlung, Sichtung und Zusammenstellung,” mimeogr. typescript, n.p. [1958], 244–45; H. O. Malone, letter to the author 13 Dec. 1978;Lindgren, 281–82, 289–91; Herschel V.Johnson (American Minister in Stockholm) to Secretary of State 26 June and 14 Sept. 1944, FRUS 1944, 1: 523–53Google Scholar; Rothfels, “Trott,” 309–10.
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38. Akten 7, nos. 228, 229.
39. See Hoffmann, History, 99–110 for a summary; intelligence report on a conversation between Goerdeler and Frank Ashton-Gwatkin, dated 29 Aug. 1939, Public Record Office, C12878/15/18, FO 371/22981.
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43. Halifax to Osborne 17 Feb. 1940, Ludlow, 337.
44. See the correspondence in Ludlow, 325–41; for developments on the German side see Hoffmann, History, 158–69; cf. Müller, Konsequenz, 130–37.
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47. Dohnanyi, “Aufzeichnungen”; Moltke, Balfour, Frisby, 220; Freya von Moltke, interview with the author 16 January 1985.
48. Hoffmann, History, 280–83.
49. Dohnanyi, “Aufzeichnungen.”
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54. Cf. Thun-Hohenstein, 153.
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59. Hassell, 217, 221–22.
60. Ibid., 222, 241.
61. Ibid., 253.
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63. Ritter, 318–20; Dulles, 142–46.
64. Jacob Wallenberg, interview 16 Sept. 1977.
65. Jacob Wallenberg, interview 16 Sept. 1977; in his statement for Allen Dulles (Dulles, 142), Wallenberg said “very early, probably in 1940.”
66. Dulles, 143; Ritter, 333–34.
67. Ritter, 320, 334.
68. Dulles, 143–44.
69. Ritter, 334.
70. Dulles, 144.
71. Dulles, 144; Ritter, 334–36.
72. Goerdeler, plan, 19/20 May 1943, Bundesarchiv Nl. Goerdeler 23.
73. Ritter, 336; Dulles, 144–45.
74. Goerdeler, plan; Goerdeler, “Unsere Idee,” typescript, Nov. 1944, Bundesarchiv Nl. Goerdeler 26.
75. Ritter, 337.
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79. Rothfels, “Zwei,” 393–95.
80. Ibid., 388.
81. The Times (Late London ed.) 9 May 1942, 5; Kettenacker, 189.
82. Boyens, Armin, Kirchenkampf und Ökumene 1939–1945 (Munich, [1973]), 213.Google Scholar
83. Bielenberg, Christabel, The Past is Myself (London, 1968), 141–42.Google Scholar
84. Bielenberg, 175, 142.
85. Bonhoeffer, Dietrich, No Rusty Swords: Letters, Lectures and Notes 1928–1936 (London, 1965), 46–47.Google Scholar
86. Bonhoeffer, , GS, 1: 320Google Scholar; Bethge, Bonhoeffer (German ed.), 732–37.
87. Bethge, Bonhoeffer (German ed.), 844–48; Moltke, 182–84; Roon, 139, 325–27; Brodersen, Arvid, Fra et nomadeliv: Erindringer (Oslo, 1982), 176–77Google Scholar; Arvid Brodersen, interview with the author 13 Jan. 1985.
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90. Roon, p. 327, has Bishop Berggrav present; Brodersen, Fra, 177 and interview 13 Jan. 1985 does not confirm this; Bethge, Bonhoeffer (German ed.), 846, says Bonhoeffer and Moltke did not meet Bishop Berggrav then; Balfour, Michael and Frisby, Julian, Helmuth von Moltke (London and Basingstoke, [1972]), 183 and 374, n. 4CrossRefGoogle Scholar, say that Roon's inclusion of Bishop Berggrav “has been established to rest on a confusion with later visits,” but they give no source.
91. Roon, 327, only says “it was believed that the time was not ripe”; this must have been primarily the Norwegians' position since the Germans were seeking the contact.
92. Brodersen, interview 13 Jan. 1985.
93. Brodersen, interview 13 Jan. 1985. When Brodersen was pressed by the military-intelligence wing of the Norwegian Home Front (Resistance) to tap Steltzer for military information, he called a gathering of the leaders of the Home Front and it was agreed not to press Steltzer for military information with regard to his honor “which we respected” and to his future in Germany; but Steltzer confirmed an estimate of German troop strength in Norway offered by Brodersen which he had arrived at through calculations involving German requisitions of toilet paper: Brodersen, interview 13 Jan. 1985. The Home Front military intelligence also learned a great deal through official contacts between the Norwegian and German administrative authorities, as when matters of rail transport had to be dealt with.
94. Roon, 327; Bethge, Bonhoeffer (German ed.), 847; see also Bonhoeffer's consideration, in 1929, of the necessity of murder in some circumstances: “no acts are evil in themselves, even murder may be sanctioned”; “Grundfragen einer christlichen Ethik,” Bonhoeffer, Dietrich, GS, 5 (Munich, 1972): 166.Google Scholar
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96. Bethge, Bonhoeffer (German ed.), 850–55.
97. Schönfeld's memorandum in Rothfels, “Zwei,” 388–97; see further documents in Bonhoeffer, , GS, 1: 372–89, 488–503Google Scholar; Roon, 308–14.
98. Rothfels, “Zwei,” 396.
99. Rothfels, “Zwei,” 389; Bethge, Bonhoeffer (German ed.), 855–58.
100. Bethge, Bonhoeffer (German ed.), 852–53; Bonhoeffer, , GS, 1: 372–89Google Scholar; George Cicestr [sic] [Bell], “The Background of the Hitler Plot,” The Contemporary Review, Oct. 1945, 203–8; Kettenacker, 193–94.
101. See also Dohnanyi, “Aufzeichnungen.”
102. Cicestr, 206; Bishop Bell's memorandum, point B 4, in Bonhoeffer, GS, 1: 373.
103. Cicestr, 207.
104. Cicestr, 208. Bethge, Bonhoeffer (German ed.), 811–12 comments on certain simplifications in Bell's reproduction of Bonhoeffer's words and declares highly unlikely Bonhoeffer's use of the term Anti-Christ for Hitler, adding that Bonhoeffer had once told him: “‘No, he is not the Anti-Christ, for this Hitler is not great enough; the Anti-Christ uses him, but he [the Anti-Christ] is not as stupid as he [Hitler].’”
105. Fieldmarshal Wilhelm Keitel to Oster 16 Dec. 1943; Bethge, Bonhoeffer (German ed.), 884.
106. See details in Hoffmann, History, 225–48.
107. Hassell, 222.
108. The exposé which resulted from Moltke's visit in Istanbul in December 1943 is printed in Roon, 582–86; Balfour, Frisby, 273–77 print the English translation that was transmitted to America; see also Balfour, Frisby, 271–72; Moltke, 219, 262–64, 2X5; OSS report DOGWOOD 234 of 30 Dec. 1943 and related correspondence in the possession of Freya von Moltke; cf. Hoffmann, History, 735–37 nn. 66–68c, and Hoffmann, , Widerstand, Staatsstreich, Attentat: Der Kampf der Opposition gegen Hitler, 4th rev. ed. (Munich, 1985), 278–79.Google Scholar
109. The exposé is confirmed to have contained the views of Moltke and his “Kreisau” friends by Moltke's letter to Freya von Moltke of 7 Jan. 1944 and by what Steltzer and Gerstenmaier had told Dr. Ivar Anderson, the Editor of Svenska Dagbladet, on 6 Oct. 1943; Moltke, 285; Anderson diary 17 Sept., 6 Oct., and 30 Oct. 1943; the views are reflected as well in William J. Donovan's memorandum of 29 July 1944 for President Roosevelt, FDR Library PSF OSS file.
110. Cf. Paret, Peter, Yorck and the Era of Prussian Reform 1807–1815 (Princeton, 1966), 191–96.Google Scholar
111. Donovan to Roosevelt 29 July 1944, FDR Library PSF OSS file; Moltke was arrested on I9 Jan. 1944: Moltke, 285.
112. FRUS 1944, 1: 510–13. This report, dated 16 May 1944, states that the OSS representative in Bern [A. W. Dulles] had been “approached periodically by two emissaries of a German group proposing to attempt an overthrow of the Nazi Regime“; the two emissaries are identified as Gisevius and Waetjen. They are reported further as having carried to Dulles essentially the same offer as Moltke's Istanbul proposal: that military commanders in the west would “cease resistance and aid Allied landings, once the Nazis had been ousted. […] The condition on which the group expressed willingness to act was that they would deal directly with the Western Allies alone after overthrowing the Nazi regime.”
113. See n. 109 above, and below at nn. 118 and 119; Dulles, A. in FRUS 1944, 1: 510–13Google Scholar; Hassell, 338 (for December 1943); Gisevius, Hans Bernd, Bis zum bittern Ende, one-vol. ed. (Zurich, [1954]), 524Google Scholar; Herschel Johnson to Secretary of State Hull 26 June and 14 Sept. 1944, FRUS 1944, 1: 523–53; cf. also Hildebrand, Klaus, “Die ostpolitischen Vorstellungen im deutschen Widerstand,” Geschichte in Wissenschaft und Unterricht 29 (1978): 213–41Google Scholar. See also below, at n. 121.
114. Roon, 582–86.
115. Roon, 317; Rothfels, “Trott,” 309; Steltzer, Theodor, Sechzig Jahre Zeitgenosse (Munich, 1966), 158Google Scholar; Johnson to Hull (n. 113 above).
116. See above, p. 4.
117. See sources cited in Hoffmann, Widerstand, 743–46, nn. 132–44.
118. Anderson, diary; Lindgren, 274–91.
119. Anderson, diary; cf. Hoffmann, Widerstand, 284.
120. Anderson, diary 14 and 18 Mar. 1944; Hoffmann, History, 236–37, 246–47.
121. FRUS 1944, 1: 493–94, 501–2, 513–14, 517–18. For the following, see The Times, 23 July 1943 (for Stalin's proclamation of 12 July 1943); FRUS 1944, 4 (Washington, 1966): 805, 872, n. 62Google Scholar. On 14 August 1943, six days after a proclamation by Fieldmarshal Paulus, Molotov told the British Ambassador in Moscow that the “National Committee ‘Free Germany’” was being used “entirely for propaganda purposes”; on 13 January 1944 the American Ambassador in Moscow, Averell Harriman, reported to the Secretary of State: “At the Moscow Conference the Soviet Government stated that its support of Free German Committee in Russia had been from its inception a propaganda move designed to weaken German resistance and that the statements of Free German Committee were not expressions of policy of [the] Soviet Government.” Harriman pointed out at the end of this report “that [the] Soviet Government at the Moscow Conference expressly asked that its attitude toward the Free Germany [sic] Committee be kept secret.” Whether or not it will ever be possible to penetrate the levels of deceit and duplicity visible here, there can be no doubt that much cause existed for distrust between the Western Allied Powers and the Soviet Union.
122. Dulles, 137–38; Dulles's reports to OSS in FRUS 1944, 1: 505–7, 510–13Google Scholar; Kessel, Albrecht von, “Verborgene Saat: Das ‘Andere’ Deutschland,” typescript, Vatican City 1944/1945, 255–59Google Scholar.
123. Trott, 244–45; H. O. Malone, letter to author 13 Dec. 1978; Lindgren, 281–82, 289–91; Johnson to Hull 26 June and 14 Sept. 1944, FRUS, 1944, 1: 523–53; Rothfels, “Trott,” 309–10; Roon, 316–17.
124. Rothfels, “Trott,” 309; Steltzer, 158; FRUS 1944, 1: 510–11; Lindgren, 282.
125. Osborne to Halifax 19 Feb. 1940, Ludlow, 337; cf. Harrison, G. W., “German Dissident Groups,” memorandum 8 06 1944, Kettenacker, 200–3; see above, pp. 16–18Google Scholar.
126. Martin, “Versagen,” 1053–54, besides criticizing the Resistance in this regard, maintains the Resistance should have pursued a separate peace with the Soviet Union because it was a more promising prospect. In view of Anglo-Russian agreements on annexations of German territory and expulsion of German populations (see at n. 26 above), the prospect can hardly be considered promising. Allied intentions were known to the Resistance better than merely vaguely. General Beck was entirely clear at all times what sort of peace awaited Germany after a lost war; see Beck's Memorandum for the Commander-in-Chief of the Army, Colonel-General von Brauchitsch, of 15 July 5938, in Müller, Klaus-Jürgen, General Ludwig Beck: Studien und Dokumente zur politisch-militärischen Vorstellungswelt und Tätigkeit des Generalstabschefs des deutschen Heeres 1933–1938, Schriften des Bundesarchjvs, vol. 30 (Boppard am Rhein, 1980), no. 48.Google Scholar
127. Balfour, Frisby, 186. The following quotation is from Dulles to Donovan 29 Jan. 1944, IN 1891, OSS Archive, Central Intelligence Agency, Washington, D.C.
128. Eden had done this in his Edinburgh speech on 8 May 1942; cf. at n. 81 above; Hassell, 218; n. 124 above.
129. Cf. Nawratil, Heinz, Die Vertreibungsverbrechen an Deutschen: Tatbestand, Motive, Bewältigung (Munich, 1982).Google Scholar
130. See Hoffmann, History, chap. 36.
131. Martin, “Versagen,” 1048.
132. Spiegelbild, III.
133. Cf. Gisevius, Hans Bernd, Bis zum bittern Ende (Zurich, 1946) 2: 322Google Scholar; Leber, Annedore, Das Gewissen steht auf, 9th ed. (Berlin and Frankfurt a. M., 1960), 126Google Scholar; von Schlabrendorff, Fabian, Revolt Against Hitler (London, 1948), 145Google Scholar; cf. Hoffmann, History, 373–76.
134. Haeften: Film of the trial, Bundesarchiv, Koblenz, film no. 3179–1; Bonhoeffer: Bonhoeffer, Dietrich, Widerstand und Ergebung: Briefe und Aufzeichnungen aus der Haft, new ed. (Munich, 1970), 16.Google Scholar
135. Leber, 222; Rothfels, “Trott,” 300.
136. Schlabrendorff, 131.
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