Nonviolent Resistance to Hitler Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands.

Nonviolent Resistance to Hitler

Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands

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Questions…• What were the conditions for effective nonviolent

resistance to the Nazis?• How successful in the long term was such resistance,

and to what extent did it help in the overall anti-Nazi struggle? What were the long-term post-war consequences?

• How effective is sabotage against property in a nonviolent struggle? Is it more akin to terrorism than nonviolent resistance?

• When does the punishment of collaborators and traitors cross the divide between violence and nonviolence?

Map



Denmark

• No chance of resisting• ‘Samarbejd Spolitik’• Few small acts of resistance e.g. the ‘free’

Danish ambassador• Nazi need for a compliant Denmark• July 2nd 1940 Committee of Nine created

with the intention of making the real decisions in government

• However compliance remained• The arrest of the Danish Communist Party• January 1941 the government gave the

Nazis six new torpedo boats



9th April 1940: Operation Weserubung

Co-operation:

Resistance:• Focus on establishing a greater sense of

national identity• The ‘Ten Commandments for Danes’• The Danish Youth Association• The underground press and ‘De Frie

Danske’ printed in 1941, by 1945 over 24 million copies of such papers had been printed

• King Christian a symbol of Danish heritage• Success seen in the elections of March 1941• A culture of solidarity had been created



Increasingly direct action

• Did not happen until 1941• National strikes• ‘folk-strike’• September the 9th 1944; 58 towns on strike to

protest the arrest of 10,000 police men• August 28th 1943 the Nazis gave the government

an ultimatum• The government refused and the Nazis took over

the now uncooperative government• Lead to harsher measures• September 8th 1943 Nazis called for all Danish

Jews to be rounded up



Success?

• The rescue of Danish Jews• Georg Duckwitz• Nation-wide effort to get the Jews to Sweden • The Students Information Service• 7220 Jews successfully escaped• Due to the centralised control of the

resistance movement• The Committee of Nine and the Freedom

Council• Provided a united voice and a concentration

on nonviolent tactic• Large success in organising general strikes,

such as the ‘Go Home’ campaign



Failure?

• It was not until allied success in 1945 that the country was free from occupation

• As a nonviolent campaign some violence was used

• Strikes and protests turned violent and damage was done to property

• Asked the RAF to bomb the three most

important Gestapo headquarters



The Netherlands

• Did not have the military strength to resist

• Small acts of resistance were successful• The Royal family were a symbol of the

nation• A culture of jokes• Helped to create a unified, patriotic

feeling among nationals

May 15th 1940



Increasingly direct action

• Targeting of the Dutch Jews• Larger forms of resistance in the forms

of strikes• Establishment of organisations to aid

those who had been targeted • Establishment of an underground press• Continuance of small acts, for example

the painting of ‘V’



Success and Failures• Efforts remained uncoordinated,

though ‘De Kern’ or ‘The Core’ was eventually established

• No cohesion within the government• Property was attacked, e.g. the

railway system in 1944• Many resistance movements turned

violent• Were not as successful as the

Danish in helping their Jewish population; 8 out of 10 Jews were deported to concentration camps



Norway

• Came under the guise of friendship

• Norwegian King and government turned down the German conditions for surrender, starting 60 days of fighting, which ended with the King and government being exiled from their own country

• Quisling became prime minister, soon Nasjonal Samling came to work with Quisling to lead Nazi rule in Norway

• Again resistance took a nationalistic edge: ‘No Norwegians for Sale’

• Establishment of the underground press by summer of 1940

• By the autumn of 1943 there were around 60 underground newspapers in circulation

9th April 1940



Occupation intensifies:

• 750,000 delivered a written protest to Samling, who reacted by removing many from office

• Those removed came together to create the Coordinating Committee in the autumn of 1941

• Along with this the civilian based organisatin the ‘Sivorg’ formed as one half of the resistance leadership

• The ‘Milorg’ formed the other half of this leadership, it was the Military Organisation

• The establishment of an intelligence service to help the allied forces• Line of communication with the UK meant that instruction was received from

London on how to organise the resistance effort• The Norwegian Merchant Navy was used to help the Allies. • 1944 the two main streams of resistance merged to form the Resistance

Leadership, which organised the country into 14 different districts

Successes

• “Look to Norway” - Roosevelt• ‘Holdingskamp’ or ‘battle of the minds’• Resistance to compulsory national service for

the young: ‘I do not wish my child to participate in the service of the youth association of the NS, as the lines laid down for this activity run counter to my conscience.’

• Quisling: “You teachers have ruined everything”.



Use of Violence?

• Resistance was not ideologically peaceful• Sabotage of punch-card machines against

Nazi attempts to call 75,000 Norwegians to service

• Milorg staged attacks on German shipping, petrol, oil supplies and various industrial targets

• Supreme Headquarters of the Allied European Forces instructed them to attack Norwegian railway lines

• Later instructions were reversed• Milorg numbered 40,000 stationed around

the country, did clash with the Germans. • 8th May 1945 the Germans surrendered



Q1: What were the conditions for effective non-violent resistance to the Nazis?

• Amassing general support, often by placing a large emphasis on national identity, for example through key figures such as the royal families of the occupied country

• Effective means of communicating resistance ideas to the masses and gaining access to uncensored information, for example the establishment of an underground press

• Central, unified control to give direction to the resistance movement, for example used in Denmark and used in Norway. In the Netherlands this was less successful.

• The lack of opportunity to use violence successfully?

• The importance for the Nazis to treat the occupied country well; the majority of inhabitants were seen as members for the Aryan race and their labour and goods seen as important for the Nazi war effort.

Q2. How successful in the long term was such resistance, and to what extent did it help in the

overall anti-Nazi struggle? What were the long-term post-war consequences?

• Reliant on the allied forces violent measures to relive selves of German occupation.

• However efforts did aid the Allied forces• Arendt believes that a nonviolent approach would never have

been successful against the Nazis, Gandhi’s techniques would be met with ‘massacre and submission’.

• What were their aims though? Was it really liberation or did they know that they could never be successful, instead they aimed to re-affirm their national identity to resist political submission (Semelin)

• In the long-term created a sense of unification that was of

importance when re-building the countries after the war.

Q3. How effective is sabotage against property in a nonviolent struggle? Is it more akin to terrorism

than nonviolent resistance?

• Many examples of these countries being violent against property: e.g The Dutch and the Norwegians attacked railways. For the Dutch this was not so effective.

• Examples in the Netherlands, it often legitimised the violence of the Nazis and ended with Dutch deaths

• All countries relied and encouraged use of allied violence to help their cause.

• If take Gandhi’s view of nonviolence, then these countries were not proper nonviolent movements as they were not ideologically nonviolent

Q4. When does the punishment of collaborators and traitors cross the divide

between violence and nonviolence?

• Notably after the war Danish collaborators were arrested and given violent punishments, many showed their disappointment that Denmark did not use more violence against their occupiers.

• In Norway over 90,000 people were charged with collaborating with the Nazis.

• Does not agree with Gandhi’s view of nonviolent resistance

Nonviolent Resistance to Hitler Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands.

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