Editing Georg Elser (section)

===Ideology and religion===
Elser, a carpenter and cabinet-maker by trade, became a member of the left-leaning Federation of Woodworkers Union. He also joined the [[Rotfrontkämpferbund|Red Front-Fighters' Association]], although he told his interrogators in 1939 that he attended a political assembly no more than three times while a member. He also stated that he voted for the [[Communist Party of Germany|Communist Party]] until 1933, as he considered the KPD the best defender of workers' interests.<ref name="Gestapo Interrogation Report 1939"/> There is evidence that Elser opposed [[Nazism]] from the beginning of the [[Third Reich|regime]] in 1933; he refused to perform the [[Hitler salute]], did not join others in listening to Hitler's speeches broadcast on the radio, and did not vote in the elections or referendums during the Nazi era.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Georg Elser |url=https://www.gdw-berlin.de/vertiefung/biografien/personenverzeichnis/biografie/view-bio/georg-elser/ |access-date= |website=Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand}}</ref><ref name="Hellmut G 2013"/>

Elser met Josef Schurr, a Communist from Schnaitheim, at a Woodworkers' Union meeting in Königsbronn in 1933. Elser had antifascist views, supported by a letter that Schurr sent to a newspaper in [[Ulm]] in 1947 which stated that Elser "was always extremely interested in some act of violence against Hitler and his cronies. He always called Hitler a 'gypsy'—one just had to look at his criminal face."<ref name="Hellmut G 2013"/>

Elser's parents were Protestant, and he attended church with his mother as a child, though his attendance lapsed. His church attendance increased during 1939 – after he had decided to carry out the assassination attempt – either at a Protestant or Roman Catholic church. He claimed that church attendance and the recitation of the [[Lord's Prayer]] calmed him. He told his arresting officers: "I believe in the survival of the soul after death, and I also believed that I would not go to heaven if I had not had an opportunity to prove that I wanted good. I also wanted to prevent by my act even greater bloodshed."<ref name="Gestapo Interrogation Report 1939"/>