This pamphlet, disguised as a horticultural guide on how to care for cacti, conceals material from the German Communist Party’s 1935 Brussels Conference including a manifesto and an article entitled ‘the new way to overcome the common struggle of all working people for the overthrow of the Hitler dictatorship’. C.1935.
Courtesy of The Wiener Holocaust Library Collections.
In Nazi Germany, Tarnschriften (anti-Nazi or illegal pamphlets camouflaged as everyday publications) were used to resist Nazi rule and spread opposition. This pamphlet, published in 1934, contained anti-Nazi jokes and humour. To avoid detection and allow for easy distribution, it was disguised as a SA songbook, and even pretended to be published by Franz Eher Nachfolger – the central publishing house of the Nazi Party.
Courtesy of The Wiener Holocaust Library Collections.
At each stage of the Nazis’ persecution of Jews and others that they deemed ‘undesirable’, people resisted their rule, responded to their policies, and collaborated with them in a variety of ways.
This section will explore how people, groups and countries across the world reacted to the Nazi rule and persecution.
On 1 April 1933, the Nazi Party led a nationwide boycott of Jewish-owned businesses across Germany
On 25 April 1933, the Law Against Overcrowding in Schools and Universities was issued, restricting the number of Jewish students.
On 7 April 1943, the SS shut down the Chełmno death camp for the first time. They would later reopen it to liquidate the Łódź ghetto.
On 19 April 1943, the beginning of the liquidation of the Warsaw ghetto was met with organised armed resistance by its residents.
On 11 April 1945, the US army liberated Buchenwald camp.
On 15 April 1945, Bergen-Belsen camp was liberated by the British Army.
On 30 April 1945, Hitler took his own life in his bunker underneath the Reich chancellery in Berlin.
