The editors and contributors of this book are part of a group that seeks to redress one of the important blank, or blind, spots in historical studies and in commemoration celebrations relating to the German Resistance. They insist that a fair and full accounting must include the leftist and lower-class opposition to Nazism, especially the efforts of unionists, Communists, Social Democrats, Trotskyites, anarchists, and forced laborers.

The history of the resistance to Nazism has been a political issue beginning even before the Nazis established their regime. Though acknowledged in many textbooks that in the early 1930s the main opposition to fascism in Europe came from Communists and Social Democrats, yet for the time after 1933 those groups’ endeavors have received limited acknowledgment. This book helps correct that omission though a distinction needs to be made: the history of German trade union resistance and Communist and Social Democratic opposition efforts has been explored by numerous experts, the problem remains that the research results have received limited public acknowledgment, especially in comparison with conservatives’ endeavors.

The book's preface by Coppi provides an informed historiographic overview of the problem of the politicized nature of historical memorialization, and illustrates the omission of workers’ activities by examining the preoccupation with the July 20th plot and other attempts to assassinate Hitler. The case study employs an exhibit at the Berlin Deutschen Historischen Museum, where the usual heroes, who have now become movie legends, received exclusive coverage.

Seventeen essays follow under sections entitled Unions; Social Democrats and Communists; Trotskyites, Anarchists and Other Oppositional Communists; Forced Laborers and Poles Living in Germany; and Reception [in public memory and research projects in Berlin]. Sixty pages of small print provide short biographies of hundreds of individuals who participated in some form of resistance. Under Unions, the Berlin metal workers, including female protesters, strikes, and the move into illegal or underground activities once the Hitler regime attained power are examined in two essays. Supplemented by interviews and internal party reports, Gestapo and trial documents provide most of the source bases for those essays, as they do for one on the Wuppertal trade unions mass arrests in 1935. In the latter, 849 persons were tried for treason and their resistance destroyed by Gestapo terror, spying, and bribery. A different perspective is offered in the essay on the International Transport Workers Federation's attempts to operate across borders. More than one hundred illegal groups operated in Germany, with contacts abroad, though those with ties to political parties in Berlin, Stettin, and Hamburg were arrested when the Gestapo obtained the latter's contact lists. The essay relates the manner in which the contacts, especially of railway and shipping workers, operated via Amsterdam and Antwerp, though the Gestapo again undercut it. Since these groups had been aligned with international socialism, they found no political home after the war. Hence, the author speculates, their efforts have been forgotten.

Though all the essays offer novel information, especially about individuals who have not received due recognition, two deserve special comment. In “Freidenkerinnen und Freidenker: Hilde Schimschok und die Widerstandsgruppe um Paul Winzen,” Giesela Notz examines a small group committed to cosmopolitanism, socialism, nature and atheism, but rejected Communist and Social Democratic affiliations. Notz utilizes the childrens’ nurse, Hilde Luke Schimschok, to illustrate the activities of a group led by the book dealer Paul Winzen. She refused to give the Hitler salute and avoided the racial indoctrination of children. Under the guise of a hiking club, the Winzen group distributed oppositional leaflets as well as planned for a post-Hitler society. In 1940, its members were arrested and charged with undermining the war and treason. Some were tortured into giving evidence against others. Luke Schimschok was not, but suffered isolation for seven months. She survived by singing and thinking about goodness. Paul Winzen and others were beheaded, while some ended in Mauthausen concentration camp. Luke Schimschok's difficulties in obtaining restitution as well as her disgust at former Nazis obtaining important offices in the Federal Republic, form part of the story as does the devaluation of workers and free thinkers’ opposition.

One of the subjects of an essay, “Otto Weidt Vom Anarchisten zum ‘Gerechten unter den Völkern’” by Robert Kain, has received acknowledgment, especially in Israel. He is known for having saved at least seventeen Jews using his workshop for the blind as a cover. Repeatedly, he succeeded in having workers’ names taken from the deportation lists after negotiating with the Gestapo. He received help from the merchant Karl Deibel who was sympathetic to communism and though arrested once was freed for lack of evidence. Another helper, Hedwig Porschütz, ran a small brothel. She had gathered foodstuffs for hidden individuals and was arrested for smuggling, but survived the war in jail. Kain provides specific examples of Jewish families whom Weidt helped survive and then explores the motives for his actions. Those he finds in the unknown anarchist past of Weidt.

By such case studies, the book convincingly shows the breadth of lower-class resistance to Nazism. It provides an important perspective on the difficulties of those without social standing and large incomes to oppose a totalitarian regime. Ironically, in 2013, when July 20th commemorations took place, again only the resistance of the plotters received acknowledgment. However, the Deutschen Historisches Museum is now participating in a project to research and exhibit the broader aspects of the German Resistance, including some of those presented here. Further, a book series published by the Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand has been underway since 1983, with fourteen volumes to date. The intent involves presenting all aspects of the diverse Berlin resistance from 1933 to 1945. What is needed to increase awareness of this aspect of German history is publicity, transmission to the general public, and better speech writers for politicians at commemoration events.