Nazistowscy przywódcy przedwojennego Opola i opozycja antyhitlerowska w latach 1933–1945 w świetle akt z Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej oraz z Archiwum Państwowego w Opolu

Abstract

The article is a new contribution to the local history of Opole of 1933–1945 in the light of not known and not published archival documents about the pre-war Nazi leaders of the Opole Regency and the anti-Hitler opposition as well. Those documents are stored both in the State Archive in Opole (file: Gestapo Oppeln) and in the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN Archive – various archive files). The first part of the article describes the Nazi elite of the Opole Regency in the period of 1933–1945. This interesting and complicated history of Opole and Opole region concerns the operation of the NSDAP monoparty, as well as its affiliated organizations and repressive organs of a totalitarian state. This part of the article was developed mainly from various files from the Institute of National Remembrance. The second part describes the anti-Hitler opposition in the Opole Regency in the period of 1933–1945. Very interesting and also not known in the scientific circulation are materials about political opponents, collected by Gestapostelle Oppeln, which are right now being published by the author of the article, following the previous article about the files relating to the Jews (dealt with in articles by J. Oszytko) and to the Poles (in a book by Dermin and Popiołek) which were kept by the Gestapo in Opole. To summarize, the article casts light on the history of the city, with respect to, on the one hand, the rise of German totalitarianism changing into one-party domination of the NSDAP party, and – on the other hand – the scope of persecution of parties and persons standing in opposition to Hitler’s rule in our city and region.