tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6130830332820181818.post2168241862320123473..comments2024-03-27T13:13:25.164-04:00Comments on johnshaplin: The Red Orchestra by Anne Nelsonjohnshaplinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17618981988062495637noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6130830332820181818.post-56339678442903302142010-02-02T05:12:47.044-05:002010-02-02T05:12:47.044-05:00"Red" was a misnomer. Only a handful of..."Red" was a misnomer. Only a handful of the members of the group were strongly credentialed in the German Communist Party. Thus, their intelligence was suspect both from the perspective of the GCP and Soviet perspective, the later regarding the German comrades as flies in the ointment of THEIR International.<br /><br />The Orchestral group had a wide range of affiliations- Catholic, Lutheran, Jewish, Social Democrat etc.- "I witnessed the strange alliance that take shape in such situations, aligning individuals with differing religious and ideological beliefs through a commitment to a common humanity", wrote the author.<br /><br />A majority of the members of the group were associated with the arts: academic,literary, theatrical, cinematic, including many painters and sculptors. Most, including their proletarian brothers, managed to maintain fairly responsible positions with in the Nazis regime. It was not possible for the Nazis to run their State without the assistance of people whose loyalty might, under close inspection, be regarded as suspicious. Many of the members of the group had been arrested and served time in the "wild camps" in the early days of the Nazi take-over, but this fact could be concealed from , ignored, or brushed aide by officials. Nevertheless, members of the group had to be very careful about how and under what circumstances they spoke.<br /><br />In some respects 'Gleichschaltung' made this easier. Among top Nazis leaders, of course, enforcement of policies were often 'arbitrary', depending on what social connections and personal opportunities were involved, perhaps somewhat like what happens in America today under the rubric of "equal opportunity, which is why "affirmative action" has appeal for those with strong ethical and historical consciousness.johnshaplinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17618981988062495637noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6130830332820181818.post-79896819968881556962010-02-01T20:20:19.691-05:002010-02-01T20:20:19.691-05:00In November 1930, Goebbels won party financing to ...In November 1930, Goebbels won party financing to take his newspaper from a weekly to a daily publication, which also allowed him to lower the newsstand price and expand the content. Goebbels used "Der Angriff" to fashion a parallel Nazi universe of ideology, behavior and myth. Like other newspapers, it covered political and economic issues, but Goebbels added women's pages, book and music reviews, even sports coverage, all of it delivered from a Nazi perspective. As Scholar Russell Lemmons writes:<br /><br />"'Der Angriff' was part of an attempt by the Nazi Party to lay the foundation of a future totalitarian society; one in which the Fuhrer and his minions would have the last say on all matters, public and private, and no one would have the information to oppose them. 'Der Angriff', and papers like it, would provide a valuable training ground for the furture leaders of the Third Reich's propaganda apparatus, and this trend towards the creation of an all-encompassing world view would continue, indeed accelerate, during Hitler's years in power."<br /><br />Perhaps not even Goebbels realized it at the time, but his vision of 'Der Angriff' would serve as a blueprint for the Nazis future policy of 'Gleichschaltung': "shaping everything into conformity" by reaching into every sector of society to erase the inconvenient aspects of the past, root out dissent and envelop the public in Nazi values.<br /><br />A large part of the Red Orchestra group's work was subverting the stranglehold the Nazis had on news and information by collecting, discussing and distributing hand printed publications about events- such as atrocities committed against Communists, Jews, Social Democrats (and all the others) or the real military situation -about which most Germans were uninformed. This 'agripop' exposed them to far greater risks of detection then their clandestine spying operations and had almost no real effect, but they felt compelled to do things like painting graffiti, passing pamphlets, mailing letters and occasionally even setting off a bomb. Workers associated with Red Orchestra in factories and on transportation lines engaged in sabotage.johnshaplinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17618981988062495637noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6130830332820181818.post-44772372298853563112010-02-01T19:19:48.204-05:002010-02-01T19:19:48.204-05:00"Red Orchestra; The Story of the Berlin Under..."Red Orchestra; The Story of the Berlin Underground and the the Circle of Friends who Resisted Hitler" by Anne Nelson, Random House, 2009johnshaplinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17618981988062495637noreply@blogger.com