Rettungswiderstrand in der deutschen wehrmacht: Anton Schmid und Wilm Hosenfeld

Abstract

The Freiburg historian Wolfram Wette has published several books documenting that, especially in the Wehrmacht, but also in other uniformed units there existed a rescue resistance, which consisted of men and women who spontaneously committed their lives tosave vulnerable Jews from arrest and to protect them from concentration camps. This type of unplanned resistance, which was not aimed at overthrowing the regime or eliminating Hitler, is still receiving little attention in German public opinion. The members of the Wehrmacht used the space for action available to them to provide efficient humanitarian aid. Some paid for it with their lives and were executed by the National Socialist tyranny. Others survived the war, but were not honored and died in captivity or oblivion. Among a not very large number of such silent and almost unknown heroes - in comparison to the men of July 20, 1944 in the environment of Colonel von Stauffenberg – we have knowledge of the heroic actions of two soldiers from their own records and letters: Sergeant Anton Schmid and Captain Wilm Hosenfeld.