Danger from Within

Communist resistance to National Socialism in practice: fraught with tension and contradictions.

Treason had disastrous consequences in the Communist Party’s resistance to National Socialism. Being a peripheral matter imposed on the party, it was nevertheless deadly serious and not only a matter of life or death for the individual, but also a threat to the existence of the scattered remnants of the Communist Party organisation.
Udo Grashoff carries out the first systematic analysis of the manifestations of treason in the illegally active Communist Party of Germany (KPD) during the »Third Reich«. He examines matters including the communist defections in 1933, the collaboration of KPD intelligence service employees with the Gestapo, the resignation of emigrated communists and the KPD's attitude towards killing informers. The author dissects a broad spectrum of behaviour ranging from unscrupulous betrayal enforced by torture to pretence of betrayal. Numerous stories of weakness, violence, tragedy and perfidy reveal the blind spots in the normative image of the »anti-fascist resistance« that was widely propagated – particularly in the GDR.