Defying the Nazis

Meet eight inspiring men and women who resisted the Reich

As the terror of Nazi rule gripped Europe, some risked life and limb to rise up against the oppression – here are the stories of just eight of those defiant people

On 27 February 1943, just over 100 people – mainly women – gathered on a street in Berlin. In the early hours of the morning, the Gestapo had pulled Jewish men out out of their beds while they were sleeping next to their ‘Aryan’ wives. Around 2,000 of them were rounded up and held at a Jewish community centre on Rosenstraße, and the women were angry. They began to gather outside and they were there day after day, chanting, “Give us our husbands back.” In March, the crowd had grown to thousands.

One day, the guards had had enough. They pointed machine guns at the crowd and told the women to disperse, but it only bolstered their resistance. They began shouting, “Murderers! Murderers!” Finally, Joseph Goebbels conceded and began releasing prisoners. Out of the 2,000 captured, only 25 were sent to Auschwitz.

The women seemed to have won, but a day later the remaining 1,975 were rounded up and sent to labour camps.

While the ending was nowhere near as happy as it could have been, it showed the citizens of the Third Reich something – rising up could make a difference. People could combat the terror that Hitler’s henchmen bestowed on the towns and cities, and they did. Members of the clergy preached against Hitler from the pulpit, while pockets of resistance opened up all over German territory. Hundreds if not thousands risked their lives to fight against the Führer’s reign of terror – here are just eight of their stories.