Widerstand (Resistance). Audio stories from Thuringia 1939-1945

Three German women give soup to three starving Polish forced laborers. The consequences are public humiliation, imprisonment in concentration camps, and executions.

The majority of the German population had internalized Nazi ideology. Small gestures of humanity violated the racist rules – such “betrayal” was met with ostracism.

The communist Johann Ollik repeatedly comes into conflict with the Nazi regime. He calls for strikes, shows solidarity with forced laborers, and obtains a rifle.

Active in the resistance from 1933 onward, many communists and socialists organized themselves even during the war and fought against National Socialism – led by their convictions.

French forced laborers stole food and rabbits, selling some of them on the black market. They were reported and arrested.

Forced laborers often committed petty theft and engaged in black-market trading to improve their meager rations – a form of self-help that the Nazi justice system punished severely.

Since 1943, the Social Democrat Hermann Brill has been a prisoner at Buchenwald concentration camp. There, he works in secret with like-minded people on plans for a different Germany after the war.

Even in the concentration camps, long-time political opponents of National Socialism continued their resistance – through intellectual means as well.

Marcel Callo, a French forced laborer, finds new courage to face life through his faith and passes it on: Together with others, he organizes religious services and provides spiritual support for his compatriots.

Practicing his religion was an act of self-assertion and was always viewed with suspicion by the German authorities – tolerance, bans, and persecution were all just a hair’s breadth apart.

Wilhelmine Krauslach, a German peasant laborer, maintained contact with a Polish prisoner of war and later with a French one as well. She was sent to prison for “forbidden contact.”

Refusing to participate in the racist treatment of forced laborers was viewed with suspicion – even compassion was frowned upon.

Prisoner of war François Mitterrand escapes and runs all the way to the French border before being recaptured. It is the first of three escape attempts.

These escape attempts demonstrated his determination to regain control of his own life. In a hostile environment, they could only succeed with the help of others – but help rarely came.

The two Ukrainian women, Anna Burlaka and Lida Deinela, meet the communist couple, the Wolfs. The Wolfs treat them like family and welcome them into their resistance group.

Political resistance opposed Nazism at every level – from showing solidarity with the persecuted to building underground networks.

After Mussolini’s fall, Italian soldiers are captured and deported to the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp. Some complain about their treatment and are shot.

Any form of resistance against the SS’s tyranny was ruthlessly crushed in concentration camps – even the slightest dissent often had fatal consequences.

Disguised as a Ukrainian forced laborer, Naum Spektor joins a resistance group. They conceal his Jewish heritage; together, they plan acts of sabotage.

Despite their differing political beliefs, some Germans and forced laborers decided to fight together – resistance was more important than the consequences.

At the successful and highly respected Greifzu family business, Ukrainian forced laborers were treated well, almost as friends.

Employers had some leeway in how they treated forced laborers and could thus mitigate the racist directives –but few took advantage of it.

Locksmith Johannes Drößler works side by side with Jewish concentration camp prisoners in the factory. He slips them food and even goes a step further.

Saving Jews was an extraordinary act and often only possible through collective effort. Yet it took individuals who courageously led the way – selflessly and with benevolence.