Some historical illustrations of the power of creative non-violence compiled by the Rev. Amy Morrison Heinrich, Sr. Dori Gapczynski, Carolyn Diem and Tobi Hanna-Davies, for dramatic reading at an Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice commemoration of Hiroshima Day: 
Berlin, 1943
On February 28, 1943, two dozen women gathered at what had been a Jewish Community Center on Rose Street in Berlin. The women were Gentiles who were married to Jewish men. Their husbands, along with hundreds of other Jews, were being held at the Rose Street Center to await transfer to Auschwitz concentration camp. The crowd, that February 28, slowly grew until about 1,000 people were in the street. "Give us back our men," the women shouted. The women refused orders to leave. On March 4, SS troops set up machine guns, aimed them at the women, and ordered the street cleared. The women stood their ground. Six days after the protest began, without explanation, Joseph Goebbels ordered the release of the 1,500 prisoners inside the center on Rose Street. Twenty-five prisoners already en route to Auschwitz were returned.1
Norway, WW II
Early in World War II, Hitler took over the country of Norway and put the head of the Norwegian Nazi Party in power -- a man named Quisling. Quisling said that he would make Norway into a Nazi state like Germany, where the schools taught all the children the Nazi doctrine that one racial group of people is superior to all the others. But the Norwegian teachers refused to cooperate. Through the underground resistance, the teachers circulated a statement of refusal. Between 9,000 and 10,000 of Norway's teachers signed the refusal.
Quisling was furious. He arrested two hundred of the teachers and took them up north to live in extremely cold temperatures with very little food. They still would not give in. They were willing to die if necessary. Quisling had to admit defeat. He cried, "You teachers have ruined everything for me! You ruined my Nazi state!" He knew if he executed the teachers he would create even more resistance, so he let them go. Norway was still occupied, but it could not be turned into a Nazi state.2
Pakistan and India
When Mahatma Gandhi roused millions in civil disobedience to British rule, a much less well-known figure in the remote northwest corner of India raised history's first nonviolent "army": 100,000 men from a Muslim people known for their fierce fighting, the Pathans of the Khyber Pass.
The Pathans lived by a code of honor and revenge. If a Pathan could not avenge an enemy's insult with his blood, what kind of man was he? How could he face his clan or his wife? To die seeking revenge was more honorable. Yet from this nation of warriors a leader emerged, Badshah Khan, who had directly experienced the military power and arrogance of the British on the one hand, and the spiritual truth-force and nonviolent resistance of Gandhi on the other.
Badshah Khan appealed to his people's honor, to their capacity to love, to their patience, and to their capacity to endure pain. He inspired 100,000 of his people to form an "army" that took a vow of nonviolence. Together, Gandhi and Badshah Khan, by means of their spiritual leadership, ended the British rule of what is now India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Badshah Khan's words: "There is nothing surprising in a Muslim or a Pathan like me subscribing to the creed of nonviolence. It is not a new creed. It was followed 1400 years ago by the Holy Prophet Mohammed, and it has been followed by many who want to throw off the oppressor's yoke." In 1985 Badshah Khan was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, for offering a weapon of hope for conflicts around the globe.
Notes:
Detroit Free Press, Feb. 26, 1993, p. 1A
The works of Gene Sharp, Harvard University
Easwaran, Eknath, Badshah Khan, Nonviolent Soldier of Islam, Nilgiri Press, 1984