What would you do if you were German in 1936?

[Itis]

Hypothetically, if you were a German citizen in 1936 what action would you take? How would you combat the Nazi regime? Organize and fight? What could be done in the face of a repressive totalitarian regime?

To keep the responses staying on topic due to the sexism and racism of the time, let's try to keep it within the parameters of being a non-jewish, german man.

[PRC-UTE]

well by that point there wasn't much that could be done. the organisations that could have led resistance were just smashed.

It would have been easy to see your options being to fight in Spain or flee to the SU to join the Red Army.

[Bankotsu]

Flee the country or else risk being imprisoned or killed by the Nazis.


(http://english.pravda.ru/)

[Yehuda Stern]

I have no idea why you want us to talk from the perspective of a Jewish man, but either way, I would try working with what was left of the revolutionary movement in the underground if possible, and if not, would try to find another place where such work would be possible for me.

[Old Man Diogenes]

Hypothetically, if you were a German citizen in 1936 what action would you take? How would you combat the Nazi regime? Organize and fight? What could be done in the face of a repressive totalitarian regime?

To keep the responses staying on topic due to the sexism and racism of the time, let's try to keep it within the parameters of being a non-jewish, german man.

Hitler consolidated his power very fast so resistance was hard and even those who tried usually got crushed, I'd have either fled the country or gone to fight it Spain, or both, it would have been join the Anarchists. :thumbup1:

[Bankotsu]

Anybody willing to join Otto Strasser's Black Front against the Nazi regime?

Black Front

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Front

[New Tet]

Every time I was in a crowd of people yelling "Sieg Heil!" I would join them saying "mumbledy-mumbledy!" Thus throwing off their 'ki'.

Also, I would wear the swastica in reverse--like the ancient Asian symbol--until someone noticed and pointed it out to me. Then, I would pretend not to understand and talk German backwards.

A stinkbomb in the middle of Hitler youth rally would do a lot to scatter the crowd. Graffitti saying "Hitler's rabbi clipped his dick!"

Seriously, though, in Nazi Germany I probably would have behaved like most other Germans that went along with the mass insanity: Loyal, compliant, submissive and stupid.

[scarletghoul]

id have assassinated loads of nazis

[bricolage]

This is a pointless questions, anything we say we would have done implies that it should have been done therefore indirectly criticising those who didn't do that. Without any real personal understanding if what it was like to live under the Third Reich we are in no place to do that.

[Steve_j]

To further the above, and this might piss people off. But if you were raised in that environment and manipulated in those ways many of us might have even supported Hittler.

[9]

I think its very easy to argue in the present that, were we all non-Jewish males in Germany in 1936, we would have fought the Nazis. But the question is really pointless because we're not in 1936 Germany and we don't know what we would have done in that situation. So --what more is there left to say?

[ComradeNegatron]

Hypothetically, if you were a German citizen in 1936 what action would you take? How would you combat the Nazi regime? Organize and fight? What could be done in the face of a repressive totalitarian regime?

To keep the responses staying on topic due to the sexism and racism of the time, let's try to keep it within the parameters of being a non-jewish, german man.


In all honesty, i think that if i was around in Germany at that time, i would probably have followed the Nazis. Germany was downed and ready to give up, then Hitler came along and gave the German people purpose and a reason to keep going.

[narcomprom]

I've heared from a German that joke:
in 1936, two former activists, one from the SPD and the other from KPD, are standing face-to-wall about to get shot by a member of the Staffel Angriff.
The SA scum puts his pistol to the back of the communist's head and at that moment the communist shouts:

"Long live the revolution! Long live the comintern! death to the bourgeoisie! we will bury every single fascist! death to capitalism!"

Then the social democrat looks at the communist in reverence and shouts:

"Shut up! You'll get us into problems!"

I can't dare to say what I would have done, because it would be hypocrisy not to support my words by deeds. I guess I would have settled at doing the legal small scale agitation I do now. Respect goes to those who have gone, go and will go further.

[Invader Zim]

I would like to think that I would have engaged in active resistance to the Nazi's, but the reality is that like the majority of those opposed to the Nazis, my part would probably have been purely passive. As others have noted, we weren't there we have no idea what it was like.

[Dr Mindbender]

I probably wouldve defected to the Soviet union and joined the red army.

I could do more on the eastern front than in a concentration camp.

Besides, i am a kick arse sniper i am a 3rd class major at CoD5 online. :D

[LOLseph Stalin]

Haha, questions like this are always fun. :lol: Anyway, if I was stuck in that situation I would probably just flee Germany. If we're taking this from a Non-Jewish perspective then I doubt it would have been difficult to leave. I would have probably went to Spain or something to help out the Communists and Anarchists in the civil war.

[RedCommieBear]

Anybody willing to join Otto Strasser's Black Front against the Nazi regime?

Black Front

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Front (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Front [/QUOTE)

umm Is that a joke? Isn't Tom Metzger, you know the founder of White Aryan Resistance, a Strasserist?

[Pogue]

I always wondered how worthwhile tactic it would have been to have joined the Nazi Army then simply killed your commanding officer and other soldiers as an easy means to take a whole bunch of people out, cos they wouldn't expect it.

[Killfacer]

Legged it across the boarder and hidden. I don't know whether or not it would have worked but in all honesty it's probably what i would have done.

[Pogue]

I think going to Spain is the best and most obvious idea that alot of people have missed. Loads of people did it, then they went and joined the French Resistance after Spain.

[Dr Mindbender]

I always wondered how worthwhile tactic it would have been to have joined the Nazi Army then simply killed your commanding officer and other soldiers as an easy means to take a whole bunch of people out, cos they wouldn't expect it.

Unless you killed Hitler and all of his political sympathisers it would be pretty much suicidal.

[Dr Mindbender]

I think going to Spain is the best and most obvious idea that alot of people have missed. Loads of people did it, then they went and joined the French Resistance after Spain.

Im pretty sure the UK hired a load of European partisans to work on decoding the enigma machine.

I reckon that wouldve been a good skive compared to dodging bullets in Russia or Spain.

:lol:

[PRC-UTE]

I remember reading in the WSM paper years ago, like probably ten years ago about some anarchosyndicalist efforts to organise under the Nazis. I'll try and find that paper, I might still have it, and scan it and put it up.

[PRC-UTE]

Im pretty sure the UK hired a load of European partisans to work on decoding the enigma machine.

I reckon that wouldve been a good skive compared to dodging bullets in Russia or Spain.

:lol:

Yeah but like going to Spain at least you'd get the chance to hit back at the scum.

[Pogue]

I remember reading in the WSM paper years ago, like probably ten years ago about some anarchosyndicalist efforts to organise under the Nazis. I'll try and find that paper, I might still have it, and scan it and put it up.

There are articles about this on libcom I'll dig it up too.

[Random Precision]

This is not a serious historical discussion, so I'm moving it to Chit-Chat.

[Revy]

I would probably engage in a number of terrorist activities aimed at the state or join an underground leftist group.

Going into exile would have been the safest option. Public dissent would have been suicidal.

[Bilan]

I'd be all heroic so I could get rep points.

[hugsandmarxism]

I'd have taken a dump in one of Hitler's boots... then laughed, and ripped his head off.

Ok, more seriously, it depends on the situation. If you are low profile, unattached from family concerns and the like, and had less to lose, you could probably afford to be more daring and do things like major sabotage and assassinations. If, however, you had more to loose, it is understandable you would do less risky things.

I'd have tried to smuggle intelligence to the NKVD. I wouldn't expect to be as effective as Richard Sorge, but I'd do my damnedest to contribute what I could. I'd also stock up on supplies and try to help out local resistance forces. And if by some miracle of fate, the opportunity came to dispatch an important figure, foil a major plan of the 3rd Reich, or otherwise severely harm Nazi Germany, I'd do it... or so I hope, at least.

[khad]

Would you have been a Nazi test:

http://www.okcupid.com/tests/take?testid=17675020579094199926

Back when I was younger and more nationalistic, I scored resistance fighter, but these days I'm just a measly expatriate.

[Misanthrope]

Anybody willing to join Otto Strasser's Black Front against the Nazi regime?

Black Front

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Front

a Nazi resistance to Nazism..nty.

[Comrade B]

I would have been born into my family's home village of Eppenbrunn as a carpenter or lumberman. I would own neither a radio nor a television. I would one day receive notice that I have been drafted into the army to serve the leader that one has only heard positive propaganda about, the local church would tell me it is the right thing, and I would have been sent to Stalingrad to be torn in half by a machine gun.

I am only a communist because I had the means from my birth to educate myself. Were I born a couple generations before, I would probably not know a damn thing about communism.


Or, if we all want to pretend we are bad ass super humans with communism in our genes, I would have blown up Hitler with the rocket launcher I have hidden in my watch.

[RainbowLeftist]

Well, since you said non-Jewish, it would depend on how far back my German Heritage went.

Waffen-SS probably. Though, it would really depend on my family. If they immigrated to the US, I probably would to. From there I guess I'd enlist in the Marines, so I wouldn't be killing old friends and family, just Tojo in the Pacific.

Find me a nice wife if I don't die. Then I would spend the rest of my life telling Korea/Vietnam/Gulf War/Iraq/Afghanistan vets that I was in the "real war".

Raise a decent family, go to church on Sunday, and Wednesday. Maybe get a job farming in the South.

[An archist]

I'd be all heroic so I could get rep points.
The following user likes to thank you for this useful post:
An archist

[Bilan]

My work here is done.

[Raúl Duke]

Go to Spain and fight...by 1936. I think the KPD was already reduced to a small core gone underground (although I heard of an attempt to organize a major strike via the Nazi's labor front...if I couldn't go to Spain I might participate in that) thus I would just flee away from Germany.

[Bilan]

Most people wouldn't do any thing they're suggesting they would here (except for the one guy who admitted he'd be obedient and stupid). You couldn't just travel to Spain to escape the fascists because you felt like it. More, in retrospect, it's quite easy to assume some heroic persona - but the fact is, most of us would seize whatever opportunity presented itself, and if none did, then you'd seize that instead.

Party Pooper out.

[Killfacer]

Most people wouldn't do any thing they're suggesting they would here (except for the one guy who admitted he'd be obedient and stupid). You couldn't just travel to Spain to escape the fascists because you felt like it. More, in retrospect, it's quite easy to assume some heroic persona - but the fact is, most of us would seize whatever opportunity presented itself, and if none did, then you'd seize that instead.

Party Pooper out.

Hence why i said i would flee in terror and hide.

[Bilan]

Which is why I like you, and want to join the Federation of British Hardmen. Are convicts admitted?

[Sam_b]

Absolutely no idea. However, I certainly would not have jumped on one side or another of imperialism because its apparently the 'lesser evil'.

[Killfacer]

Which is why I like you, and want to join the Federation of British Hardmen. Are convicts admitted?

No, only hard as nails bad asses like myself.

[Stand Your Ground]

This is a pointless questions, anything we say we would have done implies that it should have been done therefore indirectly criticising those who didn't do that. Without any real personal understanding if what it was like to live under the Third Reich we are in no place to do that.
I kinda agree with that. But then again everyone has the chance to either do something about it or take it, not doing anything was their choice.

I would have pretended to go along with the Nazis until I found a group with guns and help fight against them. Take as many out as I can until I'm dead.

[Pogue]

No, only hard as nails bad asses like myself.

Its true, he really is as hard as nails.

[RainbowLeftist]

Further adding on to mine. I think I would have tried to get into the Tank Corp. for either side. Would've been interesting.

[Sarah Palin]

I would have used my knowledge of the future, warn people, then go off to Switzerland.

[Black Sheep]

I would join the swing revolution.

[Il Medico]

EDIT: Scratch what I said before, I thought the question was in the context of being the person you are now, somehow transplanted into WWII Germany. If I was just a person living then with no idea what was going to happen, I'd probably just run away.

[Comrade B]

Here are the paths we would more likely take.

1. If you were born into a communist family (or were part of any other persecuted group) who taught you to believe in it firmly, you would be
a. arrested and killed in a concentration camp.
b. shot attempting to resist

2. If you were born into an apolitical family you would have been drafted and sent to die somewhere else in the world, or survive and live out your life miserable and regretful, like my Uncle K.

3. If your family taught you to be obedient, you would have joined the Hitler youth, had a lovely time, perhaps gotten a promotion, and joined in doing horrible things, possibly directly.

If you say you would have left Germany for Spain to fight in the civil war, consider that you would be abandoning a problem which would grow much greater at home.
If you say you would, some how, kill Hitler, or anything like that, you would have failed. And been killed. Germany has always had plenty of communists, no one is particularly unique.
Maybe a couple of you would have actually fought out, but you wouldn't have succeeded. By saying that nearly every one of you would have, you are insulting the bravery of those who did.

[Bilan]

Way to rip off my post, CB.

[9]

Way to rip off my post, CB.

Actually, he was sort of just elaborating on a point he'd already made, and if you go back a page, you'll see that he basically beat you to the punch:p

[Manzil]

What would you do if you were German in 1936?

"Run to the hills, run for your liiiiives...!" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Run_to_the_Hills)

[Angry Young Man]

It would have been easy to see your options being to fight in Spain or flee to the SU to join the Red Army.

They might think you're a spy if you picked the latter. So really the only option was flee to fight in Spain.

Off topic a bit, but I have a German friend whose grandad was sent to Hitler Youth camps, where they taught him to be neat and orderly and iron his sheets, and now to this day, he always wakes up, makes his bed and puts a massive crease in it.

[Comrade B]

Actually, he was sort of just elaborating on a point he'd already made, and if you go back a page, you'll see that he basically beat you to the punch
A victory for public education having 3 years of mandatory typing classes.

[bcbm]

I would've smoked a cigarette and then taken a nap.

[ev]

I would've taken a nap and then smoked a cigarette.

[Jazzratt]

Hidden, ran away and, if pressed into the army, deserted at the soonest possible oppurtunity. This is because I am a thorough coward.

[spiltteeth]

I would've invented rap.

[Angry Young Man]

I'd find all the other anti nazis, and hum during Hitler's public broadcasts. Then by night I'd be codename V.

[Verix]

i'm pretty sure everybodys political views are build from life expieces, there is not a single person here who would have the EXACT same views if they lived in 1936, most would either support hitler or not give a damn, anybody who had communist views would probally keep there mouth shut, and to all the people who are saying they would go to spain, do you really think that the average german citizin had a postive of the republicans in spain at that time?

[Pogue]

i'm pretty sure everybodys political views are build from life expieces, there is not a single person here who would have the EXACT same views if they lived in 1936, most would either support hitler or not give a damn, anybody who had communist views would probally keep there mouth shut, and to all the people who are saying they would go to spain, do you really think that the average german citizin had a postive of the republicans in spain at that time?

Many Germans went to Spain.

[marxistcritic]

I would most likely just go to America and wait it out.

[Comrade B]

I would most likely just go to America and wait it out.
Enjoy McCarthyism.
Also, the US was rejecting immigrants

[Sarah Palin]

Many Germans went to Spain.

Oh hell yes. Go fight with the Anarchists in Spain is my first choice.

[Red Raw]

I would pinch adoff butt and tell him his hair style is sooooooo Elizabethan:scared:

[Pawn Power]

Go to spain to fight with the international brigade or something.

[RedScare]

Probably joined the KDP underground.