18

Although Germany did not experience foreign occupation until its eventual defeat, it did witness the development of its own internal resistance in the 1930s, aimed solely at bringing down the totalitarian system established by the Nazi regime from 1933. The only resistance that posed a real threat to Hitler, to the extent that it had everything needed for a coup d’état, was military. The assassination attempt on 20 July 1944, which has been much discussed, was the finest hour if not the fulfilment of a resistance that had been brewing for a long time within the armed forces. The confessions of an anti-Nazi officer published in Germany in 1976, and not translated into French for another 36 years, offer an opportunity to revisit this very particular German experience of resistance.