Alone in Berlin: the tragic couple who stood up to Hitler Seventy-three years ago, Berlin residents Otto and Elise Hampel were found guilty of ‘Wehrkraftzersetzung’, or “preparing for high treason”. No sooner […]

Seventy-three years ago, Berlin residents Otto and Elise Hampel were found guilty of ‘Wehrkraftzersetzung’, or “preparing for high treason”.

No sooner had they been found guilty, the married couple were decapitated at Plötzensee prison in their home city.

Their crime?

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Over the course of two years, the couple had been secretly – and peacefully – protesting against Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party, clandestinely handing out postcards around their neighbourhood decrying the fascist regime.

The writer Hans Fallada told the brave couple’s story in his novel Every Man Dies Alone, also known as Alone in Berlin, originally released in 1947.

Now, Fallada’s book has been adapted for the big screen, starring Emma Thompson and Brendan Gleeson as the Hampels.

German resistance historian Nathan Stoltzfus spoke to i about the importance of their protest.

A civil resistance

“Hitler’s war is the workers’ death!” reads the opening line on one of Otto and Elise Hampel’s postcards.

These words were an attempt to muster a resistance from the bottom up.

“What really occurs to me is the way they set out,” says Stoltzfus.

“It’s really a kind of civil resistance. Not because they are civilians, but because they wanted to mobilise civilians against Hitler and that’s exactly how Hitler came to power himself, by mobilising opinion.

“It’s very unlike the conspiratorial attempts to assassinate Hitler. Getting rid of Hitler wouldn’t have got rid of national socialism.

“I think that was a tragic miscalculation. But we are of course very grateful for that resistance as well.”

Striking out at the height of Hitler’s popularity

Otto and Elise began denouncing the government in 1940, following the death of Elise’s brother – who was killed in action during the invasion of France.

Stoltzfus notes that protests at this time were swimming against the tide.

“They called for the downfall of Hitler – an unpardonable challenge at the time”

Early victories in France had restored the sense of national pride that had taken such a hit after the humiliating World War One defeat.

“The time that the Hampels were protesting was not the ideal time for resistance,” he explains.

“It started just after the victory in France, when Germans were really high on Hitler and the regime.

“They called for the downfall of Hitler – an unpardonable challenge at the time – but Hitler was much more popular than anything else about Nazi Germany.

“If there were any doubts about what the Nazis were doing, Germans often gave Hitler the benefit of the doubt.

“Once Germany was in a war Hitler noted how favourable that would be to him.”

Betrayed by their fellow citizens

The Hampel’s protestations eventually caught up with them. After handing out more than 200 postcards, the couple were tracked down and arrested by the Gestapo.

“If it hadn’t ended in tragedy we wouldn’t know about it, because we wouldn’t have the Gestapo records”

Tragically, most of their cards were met with disgust by fellow citizens, who informed the Nazi secret police.

Stoltzfus says the regime manipulated people into a hatred of dissidents.

“The Gestapo was nothing without the people. It depended on these denunciations. Everyone who got a postcard sent it into the Gestapo, instead of spreading the resistance.

“It was not only an unpardonable challenge to the Führer, it was also something that the Nazis called a crime against the folk.

“The Nazi motto was ‘common good before individual good’ and this of course erased progress towards individual civil liberties.”

While resistance seemed far from widespread, Stoltzfus points out that the only examples we typically know about come from Gestapo records.

The Hampel’s story ended in their execution. Ironically, it is precisely because of this fact that their story could be told.

“If it hadn’t ended in tragedy we wouldn’t know about it, because we wouldn’t have the Gestapo records.

“Regardless of how sacrificial or selfless somebody’s act was, we don’t know about it unless it’s enough to stir up enough awareness.”

Their brave protest suggests that German resistance was more widespread than commonly believed.

Alone in Berlin is in cinemas across the UK from Friday (10 March). Nathan Stoltzfus’s book Hitler’s Compromises: Coercion and Consensus in Nazi Germany is available now.