The “Memorandum of Conversations” by George K. A. Bell (Part 4)

On June 19, 1942, English Bishop  George K. A. Bell wrote the “Memorandum of Conversations”. It is a fascinating document where Bell describes the visit of two German pastors to the Bishop of Chichester in Stockholm in May of 1942. The two German pastors were Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Johannes Otto Leopold Schonfeld. The Bishop was Bell himself! This document includes even the typos!

There is a section of the document where Bell describes the “Organization of the Opposition”. I will split this section up. I was fascinated how vast and wide the opposition to Hitler was.

The opposition is based on members of the State Administration, the state police, former Trade Union chiefs, and high officers in the Army. It has an organization in every Ministry, military officers in all the big towns, Generals in command or holding high office in key places very near the Generals. It has key men in the broadcasting centres, the big factories, and in the main centres of water and gas supply services.

It is impossible to tell the numbers of the opposition.

The point is key position everywhere are held by members of the opposition, and that key positions in Germany itself are of chief importance.

(Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works: Volume 16: Conspiracy and Imprisonment: 1940-1945, 321-322)