History doesn't focus much on the people and groups in Germany who opposed the Hitler's Nazi regime. But it is clear that a large number of Germans and other nationals work individually and in circles of resistance sacrificing greatly to rid the German nation of its immoral totalitarian rulers. The light of democracy was never fully snuffed out during the Third Reich.

The following paragraphs continue (see # 1, 2, and 3 in this series) presenting the booklet from the Ploetzensee Memorial Centre in Berlin - a thumbnail sketch of the history of the Third Reich. The adaptation from German is my own.

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Circles of Resistance

When we speak of resistance to the Nazi dictatorship in Germany we think not only of the attack on Hitler and the attempted coup d'etat of 10 July 1944, but also of the many groups or individuals who resisted the Nazis' system of injustice on ethical, moral , religious, or legal grounds.

Annually on the 20th of July, men and women - both civilian and military personnel - are remembered for taking part in this costly attempt to remove Hitler and his regime, but also all those of whatever political or religious conviction, who contributed to the resistance movement from 1933 to 1945.

At the same time we remember also the millions of martyrs murdered during this time and also for all those whose death is associated with the terrible names Auschwitz and Maidanek.

The action of 20 July 1944 became the symbol of German resistance. But resistance to the Nazis began from the first day of the Nazi dictatorship. Thousands of women and men - later after the occupation of Austria, Czechoslovakia, and the start of World War II also in the occupied countries - fought desperately and persevered against this barbaric system of injustice.

We hardly know their names, seldom do we know their achievements. They came from all classes, from all world-views and political directions, from pronounced right-wing conservatives right over to informal communists. Not a few had allowed themselves to be deceived, not a few erred, leaned this way and that, appeared weak. But in the end, the voice of conscience and the awareness of accountability were stronger for them.

Not all saw the goal as a democratic re-arrangement of the nation. But beyond all their differences they were of one mind to risk their lives on behalf of humanity, freedom, human rights, and peace.

Communists were among the first victims of political persecution. Of the approximately 300,000 members of the Communist Party of Germany in 1933, more than half were imprisoned and countless murdered. Repeated waves of detention frustrated all efforts to organize systematically. The leadership of the CPG had found refuge in Moscow and were caught up in doctrines that were alien to their domestic reality. So members had to develop and follow their own ideological and political routes - including cooperation with their previous opponents: social democrats, Christians, and bourgeois citizens. Many Communists in the underground gained their independence and no longer struggled for a different, hardly less inhuman totalitarian Stalinism, rather they were driven to fundamentally humanitarian values.

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Resistance to evil is a crucial Christian and humanitarian virtue. We know that apathy is a wonderful ally of oppression and evil. The shadow side of resistance is the danger to succumb to the same means that oppressors uses to oppose their enemies. The ethical dilemma in resistance is always the degree to which force and violence can be used to be rid of evil. The conspirators of July 20, 1944 decided that the Hitler regime no long had the capacity to raise its head above its evil ways. They chose to use the violence of an explosive to rid the nation of the dictator, but failed. It made many martyrs for justice.

The preferred choice, of course, is to ensure that the totalitarian regime - Nazi fascist, state communist, or othere - never gets close to grasping the nation's levers of power. That means that paying attention to what is happening in politics, economics, religion, and other public spheres of societal life. The early signs of democracy sliding down the slippery slope to fascism must be taken seriously and resisted by people of good will working individually, in circles of awareness, in civil society organizations, and in political parties honoring human rights and freedoms.

People of faith - Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Sikh, etc. - have every reason to maintain awareness about the state of democracy and its values. It is a divine calling to actively cooperate with other faithful people, including those of no faith commitment, in protecting the human family and its earth home, including its creatures from the power plays of those advocating fascist forms of controlling society and nation.

The Holocaust Museum in the USA identifies these symptoms of as early warning signs of the slide toward fascism:

1. Powerful and continuing nationalism
2. Identification of "enemies" as a unifying cause
3. Supremacy of the military
4. Rampant sexism
5. Controlled mass media
6. Inter-twined religion and government
7. Corporate power protected
8. Disdain for intellectuals and the arts
9. Rampant cronyism and corruption
10. Fraudulent elections

In Canada - whether federally or provincially - it would not be hard to identify examples of any of these "early warning signs". When they occur there is every reason to "name" the sign as a symptom of anti-democratic impulses. Failure to do so is too easily read as consent.

Democracy may not be a perfect system. But it is so far the best imperfect human system most inclined to honour humanity in all its diversity. For Christians, this comes closer to recognizing the indefatigable self-giving love of God for all as revealed in the life, death and rising of Jesus the Christ.