Opór społeczny i opozycja antyhitlerowska na ziemi kłodzkiej w świetle sprawozdań wrocławskiego Gestapo (1933–1938)
Civil defiance and anti-Nazi opposition in the Kłodzko region in light of Wrocław Gestapo reports

Summary/Abstract: Barely known reports of Wrocław Gestapo, preserved in Bundesarchiv in Berlin, allow for developing research on civil defiance and anti-Nazi opposition, i.a. in the Kłodzko region. It is widely assumed that the primary opponents of Nazis in this part of Germany, dominated by Catholics, were Catholic priests, while left-wing parties received less attention. However, reports of the secret police reveal widespread communist activity in Bystrzyca powiat (district), and particularly in Nowa Ruda powiat. The communist groups were in contact with the emigration party structures, smuggled publications banned in the Third Reich and illegally disseminated them locally and in other provinces. Gestapo broke up strong communist structures in the region of Ludwikowice Kłodzkie in 1936–1937; in consequence, about 100 people received long prison sentences. Similar activities undertaken by the social democrats, but the scope of those actions in not known. Equally scarce in the Gestapo reports is the information about the attitude of the clergymen and general population of the Kłodzko region towards the Nazi authorities, but even singular descriptions shed new light on the political activity and socioeconomic conditions in the 1930s in this part of Germany.

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