Nazi Germany, 1933–1945: Nonconformity as “Degeneration”

The Nazis believed that they saw evil on all sides—in the form of liberalism, democracy, communism, abstract art, and atonal music; and behind all of these diverse “evils,” the Nazis claimed, stood Jews. Accordingly, the Nazis set out to remove all those they identified as Jewish, resulting in the Holocaust, in which an estimated 5,933,900 Jews were annihilated. The Nazis confronted nonconformity and dissent in religion, art, even in dance, with the Protestant Confessing Church rejecting the Nazification of Christian doctrines. Both Catholic and Protestant prelates also denounced euthanasia, while Pope Pius XII repeatedly denounced the Nazi idolatry of the state, racism, euthanasia, and other violations of the moral law. There were several opposition groups in the Third Reich, most of whose members were eventually arrested and executed. There were also several failed attempts to assassinate Hitler, most famously in July 1944.