July 20 plot
The July 20 plot (German: Attentat vom 20. Juli 1944 or Putschversuch am 20. Juli 1944) was a 1944 conspiracy by members of the so-called German resistance that included a failed attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler and a failed attempt to subsequently take power in a coup, by means of an altered Operation Walküre (English: Operation Valkyrie) plan, which originally was supposed to subdue possible internal unrest. Wehrmacht officer Claus von Stauffenberg had a key role in the assassination attempt, since he had access to Hitler. Otto Ernst Remer had a key role in preventing the coup from succeeding. The failure of the conspiracy led to the arrest of more than 5,000 people and to the trial and execution of about 200 people.
Contents
History
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Background
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Conspiratorial groups planning a coup of some kind had existed in the German Army and the military intelligence organization (the Abwehr) since 1938. Early leaders of these plots included Brigadier-General Hans Oster, head of the Abwehr Military Intelligence Office, former Army Chief of Staff, General Ludwig Beck, and Field Marshal Erwin von Witzleben. Plans to stage a coup and prevent Hitler from launching a new world war were developed in 1938 and 1939, but were aborted because of the vacillations of Army Generals Franz Halder and Walter von Brauchitsch, and the failure of the western powers to oppose Hitler's aggressions until 1939. This first military resistance group delayed their plans after Hitler's extreme popularity following the unexpectedly fast success in the battle for France.
In 1941 a new conspiratorial group formed. It was led by Colonel Henning von Tresckow, a member of his uncle Field Marshal Fedor von Bock's staff, who commanded Army Group Centre in Operation Barbarossa. H. v. Tresckow systematically recruited oppositionists to the Group’s staff, making it the nerve center of the Army resistance. Little could be done against Hitler while his armies advanced triumphantly into the western Soviet Union through 1941 and 1942, even after the setback before Moscow (in December 1941) that caused the dismissal of both von Brauchitsch and von Bock.
During 1942 Oster and von Tresckow nevertheless succeeded in rebuilding an effective resistance network. Their most important recruit was General Friedrich Olbricht, head of the General Army Office headquarters at the Bendlerblock in central Berlin, who controlled an independent system of communications to reserve units all over Germany. Linking this asset to von Tresckow’s resistance group in Army Group Centre created a viable structure for a coup.
In late 1942 von Tresckow and Olbricht formulated a plan to assassinate Hitler and stage a coup during Hitler's visit to the headquarters of Army Group Centre at Smolensk in March 1943, by placing a bomb on his plane. The bomb did not go off, and a second attempt days later with Hitler at an exhibition of captured Soviet weaponry in Berlin also failed. These failures demoralized the conspirators. During 1943 they tried without success to recruit senior Army field commanders such as Field Marshal Erich von Manstein and Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt, to support a seizure of power.
By mid-1943 the tide of war was turning decisively against Germany. The Army plotters and their civilian allies became convinced that Hitler must be assassinated so that a government acceptable to the western Allies could be formed and a separate peace negotiated in time to prevent a Soviet invasion of Germany and to avoid as much bloodshed as possible. In August 1943 von Tresckow met a young staff officer, Colonel Count Claus von Stauffenberg, for the first time. Badly wounded in North Africa, von Stauffenberg was a political conservative and a zealous German nationalist with a taste for philosophy. He had at first welcomed the NSDAP but had become rapidly disillusioned. He was at first put off by the systematic executions of Jewish civilians and the treatment of the Russian POWs. Then, since the beginning of 1942 he shared the widespread conviction among Army officers that Germany was being led to disaster and that Hitler for both reasons must be removed from power. For some time his religious scruples had prevented him from coming to the conclusion that assassination was the correct way to achieve this. After the Battle of Stalingrad in December 1942, however, he came to the conclusion that not assassinating Hitler would be a greater moral evil. He brought a new tone of radical, revolutionary decision-making to the ranks of the resistance.
Olbricht now put forward to von Tresckow and von Stauffenberg a new strategy for staging a coup against Hitler. The Reserve Army had an operational plan called Operation Walküre (Valkyrie), which was to be used in the event that the disruption caused by the Allied bombing of German cities caused a breakdown in law and order, or a rising by the millions of slave laborers from occupied countries now being used in German factories. Olbricht suggested that this plan could be used to mobilize the Reserve Army to take control of German cities, disarm the SS and arrest the leadership, once Hitler had been assassinated. Operation Valkyrie could only be put into effect by General Friedrich Fromm, commander of the Reserve Army, so he must either be won over to the conspiracy or in some way neutralized if the plan was to succeed. Fromm, like many senior officers, knew in general about the military conspiracies against Hitler but neither supported them nor reported them to the Gestapo.
During late 1943 and early 1944 there were at least four failed attempts to get one of the military conspirators near enough to Hitler for long enough to kill him with handgrenades or a revolver. But this task was becoming increasingly difficult. As the war situation deteriorated, Hitler no longer appeared in public and rarely visited Berlin. He spent most of his time at his headquarters at the Wolfschanze (Wolf's Lair) near Rastenburg in East Prussia, with occasional breaks at his Bavarian mountain retreat near Berchtesgaden. In both places he was heavily guarded and rarely saw people he did not already know and trust. Himmler and the Gestapo were increasingly suspicious of plots against Hitler, and specifically suspected the officers of the General Staff, which was indeed the place where most of the young officers willing to sacrifice themselves to kill Hitler were located.
By the summer of 1944 the Gestapo was closing in on the conspirators. There was a sense that time was running out, both on the battlefield, where the Eastern front was in full retreat and where the Allies had landed in France on 6 June, and in Germany, where the resistance’s room for maneuver was rapidly contracting. The belief that this was the last chance for action seized the conspirators. By this time the core of the conspirators had begun to think of themselves as doomed men, whose actions were more symbolic than real. The purpose of the conspiracy came to be seen by some of them as saving the honor of themselves, their families, the Army and Germany through a grand, if futile gesture, rather than actually altering the course of history.
One of von Tresckow’s aides, Lieutenant Heinrich Graf von Lehndorff-Steinort, wrote to von Stauffenberg:
- “The assassination must be attempted, coûte que coûte [whatever the cost]. Even if it fails, we must take action in Berlin. For the practical purpose no longer matters; what matters now is that the German resistance movement must take the plunge before the eyes of the world and of history. Compared to that, nothing else matters.”
In retrospect, it is surprising that these months of plotting by the resistance groups in the Army and the state apparatus, in which dozens of people were involved and of which many more, including very senior Army officers, were aware, apparently totally escaped the attention of the Gestapo. In fact the Gestapo had known since February 1943 of both the Abwehr resistance group under the patronage of Admiral Wilhelm Canaris and of the civilian resistance circle around former Leipzig mayor Carl Goerdeler. If all these people had been arrested and interrogated, the Gestapo might well have uncovered the group based in Army Group Centre as well and the July 20 assassination attempt would never have happened. This raises the possibility that Himmler knew about the plot and, for reasons of his own, allowed it to go ahead.
Himmler had at least one conversation with a known oppositionist when, in August 1943, the Prussian Finance Minister Johannes Popitz, who was involved in Goerdeler's network, came to see him and offered him the support of the opposition if he would make a move to displace Hitler and secure a negotiated end to the war. Nothing came of this meeting, but Popitz was not arrested and Himmler apparently did nothing to track down the resistance network which he knew was operating within the state bureaucracy. It is possible that Himmler, who by late 1943 knew that the war was unwinnable, allowed the July 20 plot to go ahead in the knowledge that if it succeeded he would be Hitler's successor, and could then bring about a peace settlement. Popitz was not alone in seeing in Himmler a potential ally. General von Bock advised von Tresckow to seek his support, but there is no evidence that he did so. Goerdeler was apparently also in indirect contact with Himmler via a mutual acquaintance Carl Langbehn. Canaris' biographer Heinz Höhne suggests that Canaris and Himmler were working together to bring about a change of regime, but all of this remains speculation.
July 20th
On 1 July 1944 von Stauffenberg was appointed chief-of-staff to General Fromm at the Reserve Army headquarters on Bendlerstrasse in central Berlin. This position enabled von Stauffenberg to attend Hitler’s military conferences, either in East Prussia or at Berchtesgaden, and would thus give him a golden opportunity, perhaps the last that would present itself, to kill Hitler with a bomb or a pistol. Conspirators who had long resisted the idea of killing Hitler on moral grounds now changed their minds—partly because they were hearing reports of the mass murder at Auschwitz of up to 250,000 Hungarian Jews, the culmination of the Holocaust. Meanwhile new key allies had been gained. These included General Carl-Heinrich von Stülpnagel (de), the German military commander in France, who would take control in Paris when Hitler was killed and, it was hoped, negotiate an immediate armistice with the invading Allied armies.
The plot was now as ready as it would ever be. Twice in early July von Stauffenberg attended Hitler’s conferences carrying a bomb in his briefcase. But because the conspirators had decided that Himmler and probably Göring must also be assassinated if the planned mobilization of Operation Valkyrie were to have any chance of success, he held back at the last minute because Himmler was not present. In fact, it was unusual for Himmler to attend military conferences. By 15 July, when von Stauffenberg again flew to East Prussia, this condition had been dropped. The plan was for von Stauffenberg to plant the briefcase with the bomb in Hitler’s conference room with a timer running, excuse himself from the meeting, wait for the explosion, then fly back to Berlin and join the other plotters at the Bendlerblock. Operation Valkyrie would be mobilised, the Reserve Army would take control of Germany and the other leaders would be arrested. Beck would be appointed head of state, Goerdeler would be Chancellor and Witzleben would be commander-in-chief. The plan was ambitious and depended on a run of very good luck, but it was not totally fanciful.
Again on 15 July the attempt was called off at the last minute, for reasons which are not known because all the participants in the phone conversations which led to the postponement were dead by the end of the year. C. v. Stauffenberg, depressed and angry, returned to Berlin. Due to the false assumption that the assassination had succeeded, Operation Valkyrie had been partially unleashed on July 15. Only with severe efforts and much luck had the plotters been able to 'smother up' the events as an exercise. On 18 July rumors reached von Stauffenberg that the Gestapo had wind of the conspiracy and that he might be arrested at any time—this was apparently not true, but there was a sense that the net was closing in and that the next opportunity to kill Hitler must be taken because there might not be another. At 10:00 hours on 20 July von Stauffenberg flew back to Rastenburg for another Hitler military conference, once again with a bomb in his briefcase. It is remarkable in retrospect that despite Hitler’s mania for security, officers attending his conferences were not searched.
Around 12:10 hours, the conference began. Von Stauffenberg had previously activated a pencil detonator, inserted it into a two pound block of an plastic explosive prepared by Wessel von Freytag-Loringhoven, and placed it inside his briefcase. He then entered the room and placed his briefcase bomb under the table around which Hitler and more than 20 officers had gathered. After ten minutes, von Stauffenberg made an excuse and left the room. At 12:40 the bomb went off, demolishing the conference room. Three officers and the stenographer were seriously injured and died soon after. But Hitler survived, suffering only minor injuries. It is possible he had been saved because the briefcase had been moved behind the heavy leg of the oak wood conference table, which deflected the blast. Another theory is that the briefcase was moved by an officer to the other end of the massive table from where Hitler was, because it was in the way, and so the main force of the blast did not reach Hitler. Von Stauffenberg, hearing the explosion and seeing the smoke issuing from the broken windows of the concrete dispatch barracks, assumed that Hitler was dead, leapt into a staff car with his aide Werner von Haeften, and made a dash for the airfield trying to escape before the alarm could be raised. By 13:00 hours his Heinkel He 111 was airborne.
By the time von Stauffenberg’s plane reached Berlin at about 15:00, General Fritz Erich Fellgiebel (de), an officer at Rastenburg who was in on the plot, had phoned the Bendlerblock and told the plotters that Hitler had survived the explosion. This was a fatal step (literally so for Fellgiebel and many others), because the Berlin plotters immediately lost their nerve, and judged, probably correctly, that the plan to mobilize Operation Valkyrie would have no chance of succeeding once the officers of the Reserve Army knew that Hitler was alive. There was more confusion when von Stauffenberg’s plane landed and he phoned from the airport to say that Hitler was in fact dead. The Bendlerblock plotters did not know whom to believe. Finally at 16:00 Olbricht issued the orders for Operation Valkyrie to be mobilized. The vacillating General Fromm, however, phoned Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel at the Wolf's Lair and was assured that Hitler was alive. Keitel demanded to know von Stauffenberg’s whereabouts. This told Fromm that the plot had been traced to his headquarters, and that he was in mortal danger. Fromm replied that he thought Stauffenberg was with Hitler.
At 16:40 von Stauffenberg and Haeften arrived at the Bendlerblock. Fromm now changed sides and attempted to have von Stauffenberg arrested, but Olbricht and Stauffenberg restrained him at gunpoint. By this time Himmler had taken charge of the situation and had issued orders countermanding Olbricht’s mobilization of Operation Valkyrie. In many places the coup was going ahead, led by officers who believed that Hitler was dead. The Propaganda Ministry on the Wilhelmstrasse, with Joseph Goebbels inside, was surrounded by troops—but Goebbels's phone was not cut off, another fatal error. In Paris, Stülpnagel issued orders for the arrest of the SS and SD commanders. In Vienna, Prague and many other places troops occupied Party offices and arrested Gauleiters and SS officers.
The decisive moment came at 19:00, when Hitler was sufficiently recovered to make phone calls. He was able to phone Goebbels at the Propaganda Ministry. Goebbels arranged for Hitler to speak to the commander of the troops surrounding the Ministry, Major Otto Remer, and assure him that he was still alive. Hitler ordered Remer to regain control of the situation in Berlin. At 20:00 a furious Witzleben arrived at the Bendlerblock and had a bitter argument with Stauffenberg, who was still insisting that the coup could go ahead. Witzleben left shortly afterwards. At around this time the planned seizure of power in Paris was aborted when Kluge, who had recently been appointed commander-in-chief in the west, learned that Hitler was alive, changed sides with alacrity and had Stülpnagel arrested.
The less resolute members of the conspiracy in Berlin also now began to change sides. Fighting broke out in the Bendlerblock between officers supporting and opposing the coup, and Stauffenberg was wounded. By 23:00 Fromm had regained control, hoping by a show of zealous loyalty to save his own skin. Beck, realizing the game was up, shot himself—the first of many suicides in the coming days. Fromm declared that he had convened a court-martial consisting of himself, and had sentenced Olbricht, von Stauffenberg, Haeften and another officer, Albrecht Mertz von Quirnheim, to death. At 00:10 on 21 July they were shot in the courtyard outside, possibly to prevent them from revealing Fromm's involvement. Others would have been executed as well, but at 00:30 the SS, led by SS-Obersturmbannführer Otto Skorzeny, arrived on the scene and further executions were forbidden. Fromm went off to see Goebbels to claim credit for suppressing the coup. He was immediately arrested.
Meeting Attendees
The following persons were in attendance: The Fuehrer Adolf Hitler, Field Marshall Wilhelm Keitel, General Alfred von Jodl, General Walter Warlimont, Franz von Sonnleithner, Major Herbert Buchs, stenographer Heinz Buchholz, Lieutenant-General Hermann Fegelein, Colonel Nicolaus von Below, Rear Admiral Hans-Erich Voss, Otto Gunsche (Hitler's adjutant), General Walter Scherff, General Ernst John von Freyend, stenographer Heinrich Berger, Rear Admiral Karl-Jesco von Puttkamer, General Walther Buhle, Lieutenant-Colonel Heinrich Borgmann, Major-General Rudolf Schmundt, Lieutenant-Colonel Heinz Waizenegger, General Karl Bodenschatz, Colonel Heinz Brandt, General Gunther Korten, Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, and Lieutenant-General Adolf Heusinger.
Casualties
A total of nine persons were killed or injured by von Stauffenberg's bomb. Those killed included: stenographer Heinrich Berger, Major-General (Generalmajor) Rudolf Schmundt, Colonel (Oberst) Heinz Brandt, and General Günther Korten. The injured included: General Walter Scherff, Rear Admiral Karl-Jesco von Puttkamer, Lieutenant-Colonel (Oberstleutnant) Heinrich Borgmann, General Karl Bodenschatz, and Lieutenant-General (Generalleutnant) Adolf Heusinger.
- On July 20, 1944, something that was thought to be impossible happened here in the Führer's headquarters: Mrs. Morell described how her husband was in his study when there was a terrible bang at around 1 p.m. "He said to his orderly: 'Now they've got us. That's a bomb.' To which he replied: 'Oh no, I know that sound from the first war.' [...] At that moment, Hitler's servant rushed in and said: 'Quickly, quickly, Professor, you must come to the Führer immediately!'" "In the situation room," noted stenographer Thöt, "before the situation began, [[Claus von Stauffenberg<Colonel Graf Stauffenberg]], who had been ordered to give a presentation, had placed a mine with a time fuse in a briefcase under the situation table..." His colleague Heinz Buchholz noted: "I remember thunder combined with a bright, glaring jet of flame. At the same time, thick smoke developed. Glass and wood splintered through the air. The large table on which all the situation maps were spread out and around which the participants had gathered standing – only we stenographers were sitting – collapsed. After a few seconds of complete silence, I heard someone shout, probably Field Marshal Keitel: 'Where is the Führer?' Then cries of pain and groans could be heard." "For us," wrote Captain at sea Heinz Assmann, "who witnessed the assassination attempt in Hitler's immediate vicinity, Hitler's unharmed status was a real miracle." And Thöt described: The situation room was terribly devastated, but it must be described as an incalculable stroke of luck that the assassination attempt did not take place in a bunker, but in a barracks, in a room with four windows, all of which were open, so that a large part of the air pressure could escape [...] Unfortunately, our colleague Heinrich Berger (stenographer), who was taking pictures together with Buchholz, was hit the hardest [...] He was immediately taken to hospital and operated on, which meant that his legs were amputated. The operation was carried out by the chief medical officer Dr. Hans Karl "Hanskarl" von Hasselbach (army doctor and escort physician, deputy for Dr. Brandt).« The participants rushed out of the destroyed barracks, some injured, bleeding, with burned and blackened faces and hands, their hair singed and yellowed, their uniforms torn and dirty. »The Führer's doctors came immediately,« recalled Buchholz. Dr. Brandt removed more than a hundred splinters of oak from Hitler's legs. When Morell arrived, Hitler said dismissively: »It's not that bad.« He is even said to have smiled and exclaimed: »I am invulnerable, I am immortal!« Morell treated him. Then Hitler changed his clothes and said: "Morell, we must leave immediately, Mussolini is coming." A few days later, during his visit to the surviving injured in the Karlshof reserve hospital near Rastenburg, Hitler said: "There you are, lying there with serious injuries, and yet the assassination attempt was not intended for you at all. The gentlemen were after me alone, me alone. But I myself remained completely unharmed. This is the fourth time in this war that my opponents have tried to kill me in order to eliminate me once and for all. But they have not succeeded even once!"[1]
Operation Valkyrie
- Before he joined the conspirators against Hitler, Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg was a staff officer in North Africa where he led the 10th Panzer Army. In the spring of 1943, his command station was attacked by fighter-bombers. The doctors believed that he would not last the rest of the night because he had major injuries. As a result of the attack he lost his left eye, his right hand, and several fingers on his left hand. After numerous surgeries, he was discharged from the hospital three months after his injuries and he joined the Reserve Army staff, which was based in Berlin. Stauffenberg was a very proud and strong man, even when he was in the hospital he wanted to button his own shirt just to prove that he could do it. Many men thought very highly of him, even Hitler who took a liking to him the first time he met him. His appearance alone gained respect. The first time that General Walter Warlimont, a member of the Third Reich, saw Stauffenberg he stated that he was the classic image of the warrior through all of history. I barely knew him, but as he stood there, one eye covered by a black patch, a maimed arm in an empty uniform sleeve, standing tall and straight, looking directly at Hitler … he was … a proud figure, the very image of the General Staff officer … of that time. Stauffenberg had the warrior-like characteristics and the charisma that was needed to develop the plan to assassinate Hitler. Stauffenberg joined the conspiracy leaders because like many others he believed it was best for the national interest. He was very determined to assassinate Hitler and every failure only made him more determined. Stauffenberg was an important part of the conspiracy; it was his plan, Operation Valkyrie that took place on July 20, 1944.
- Operation Valkyrie was originally written by Hitler in 1943 to protect Germany from a SS revolt, a revolt within the foreign labor in Germany, or in the case of foreign enemy paratroops landing in Germany. Stauffenberg’s Operation Valkyrie required changes to the original plan. The original Operation Valkyrie was meant to be a quick assembly of military defenses if any attack were to occur on Germany’s territory. If it was necessary to operate this plan, only the “Supreme Army Command in Berlin” could initiate it. Stauffenberg’s plan had one very important change, which was that the plan could be activated if Hitler were to be assassinated and the “loyal and dutiful troops of the Wehrmacht would seize control of the Reich in unwitting support of the resistance.” In reality, the conspirators would seize control of the Reich while it was in a state of confusion to form a democratic socialist state. Any changes in Operation Valkyrie had to be signed by Hitler himself, and fortunately for Stauffenberg Hitler signed the improvements without question. After receiving Hitler’s signature for Operation Valkyrie, the conspirators were able to continue planning his assassination. The assassination plot included Operation Valkyrie, a “shadow government,” and a well-planned “coup d’état,” but the conspirators felt that they were missing people who were vital to the plot. The next step was to find someone who had personal access to Hitler. This person needed to be fully committed to the assassination of Hitler. They also needed the assistance of senior army personnel. Other major participants in the conspiracy were Friedrich Olbricht, the Director of the General Army Office, and Albrecht Mertz von Quirnheim (de), a very close friend of Stauffenberg.
- Olbricht’s job was to launch Operation Valkyrie if Hitler was assassinated. Mertz was to be with Olbricht to help make the decision of whether or not to issue Valkyrie. Another important man to the plot was Fellgiebel because his job was to prevent any communication in or out of the military quarter after the assassination attempt. The conspiracy leaders realized that there was not anyone who had access to Hitler, as a result, Stauffenberg was promoted to the chief of staff of the Reserve Army to aid the conspiracy. He was responsible for replacements needed in the Army as well as other tasks but, as chief of staff, Stauffenberg had access to Hitler. He was the only one among the conspirators that had personal access to Hitler; therefore, he was the only one that could kill him. Stauffenberg himself was highly valued by the conspirators. General Beck, who was to become the President of Germany if Operation Valkyrie had been successful, told Stauffenberg, promise me that you will leave before the explosion. You’re indispensable here, as you know, if the Valkyrie plan is to be carried out. You’re the only one who knows how our liaison with the army is going to be worked out in detail. Claus von Stauffenberg was to be responsible for placing the bomb at the meeting in Wolf’s Lair and for operating military movements of Operation Valkyrie in Berlin after the explosion killed Hitler. Stauffenberg was convinced that only he could perform the task because the earlier plans of Valkyrie had failed because of complications with other assassins. Colonel Helmuth Stieff, “the diminutive head of the General Staff’s organization branch” had planned on killing Hitler but had changed his mind by the time the explosives for the assassination had arrived. After Stieff had refused to perform the task, Stauffenberg was contacted by Axel von dem Bussche, who wanted to help the conspirators. Bussche did not get the opportunity to kill Hitler because the military clothing that he was going to wear at a “demonstration” for Hitler was annihilated by a British air raid. Bussche was sent to the front in Eastern Europe and soon became a wounded veteran when he lost his leg. These early attempts were hindered by unfortunate luck, but Stauffenberg believed it would be successful if he became the assassin. Stauffenberg had attempted to detonate the bomb two separate times before he was able to do so successfully. July 11, 1944, Stauffenberg was ordered to meet with Hitler and had planned on planting the bomb, but on arrival, he noticed that Göring and Himmler were absent. The conspirators had hoped to kill three birds with one stone when all the leaders of the Reich could be eliminated. Stauffenberg was convinced by Colonel Stieff to postpone the assassination. The second failed attempt by Stauffenberg took place on July 15th of 1944, when he was again summoned to meet with Hitler. Stauffenberg had to enter and leave the meeting room several times without arousing suspicion. He had to make sure that Hitler was at the meeting, and then he had to leave to detonate the bomb. When he returned he had to place the bomb as close to Hitler as possible and then he needed to leave before the bomb exploded.
- The reason this attempt failed is unclear, but there are theories, such as Stauffenberg being unable to excuse himself. The conspirator’s cover had nearly been blown after this attempt because Olbricht had issued the warning orders for Operation Valkyrie. He was not aware that Stauffenberg had decided not to plant the bomb as planned. They had to find an excuse to tell the confused commanders. Their excuse was that it was only a practice drill and there was no reason to worry. The fact that the earlier attempts of Operation Valkyrie had failed should have been a warning sign that it would not succeed, but Stauffenberg was determined to accomplish the assassination. When Stauffenberg was called to meet with Hitler on July 20, 1944, he decided that it would be the day he killed Hitler, but he had no idea that ultimately his attempt would fail. On July 20th Stauffenberg arrived at the Wolf’s Lair, a highly protected military quarter in East Prussia, with anticipation. He knew that if Hitler was not assassinated that evening after the explosion, he and everyone he worked with would be dead. Upon arrival Stauffenberg was told by Hitler’s assistant, Field Marshal Keitel the chief of staff, that the conference was pushed forward to 12:30. Five minutes before the meeting was supposed to begin, Stauffenberg asked to freshen up with his assistant's help. His assistant, Lieutenant Werner von Haeften, who was a wounded veteran just like Stauffenberg, helped to prime the bombs in a side room. The type of bomb being used was two 1-kilogram slabs of plastic explosives that could only be activated by a time-pencil. There were two time-pencils, one for each slab. Once pressed into the slap, pressure needed to be exerted on them with pliers to crush a glass vial so that the acid would be released. The bomb would explode when the acid that was released deteriorating a wire that held a spring-loaded detonator. This type of bomb gave Stauffenberg about ten minutes to plant it, but because a time-pencil was unpredictable, the amount of time until the bomb exploded was unknown. The time-pencil could be affected by temperature, so the bomb could go off several minutes early or several minutes late. That day, in particular, had been very hot and humid meaning the bomb could go off at any time. This shortened the amount of time Stauffenberg would have to fuse the bomb and plant it close to Hitler; all before escaping to a car Haeften had waiting for him. While priming the bombs in the side room, Stauffenberg and Haeften were interrupted by a sergeant, asking them to hurry because the conference was starting. Stauffenberg had given the unprimed bomb to Haeften to dispose of, rather than placing it in the briefcase with the set bomb.
- This was interference to the operation because they had only had time to prime one bomb before Stauffenberg was rushed to the conference room. If the second bomb had been in the briefcase, the size of the explosion would have been roughly doubled even though it was not detonated by a time-pencil. It would have been possible for Stauffenberg to successfully assassinate Hitler, even with the physical barriers and poor time management, if he had placed the second charge into the briefcase. The conference took place in a barrack, rather than a bunker, where they normally take place. The barrack was made of plaster, wood, and fiberglass, and a roof that was reinforced with concrete pillars. Since the conference had taken place in a barrack the blast was able to escape through the windows and because there was only one charge in the explosion, it was much weaker than it should have been. There was a large oak table inside the room, which was covered with maps and surrounded by the other generals and commanders. When Stauffenberg entered the barrack room he claimed a seat next to Hitler, after stating that he was still having a hard time hearing from the attack in Africa. He quickly set down the briefcase behind a table leg before exiting the room; it was about three feet from Hitler. The large oak table became a lifesaver for Hitler. He was protected because at the time of the explosion he was leaning over the table looking at maps and because the location of the bomb also provided a barrier. The men standing around the table, nearest Hitler, also created a blockade that protected Hitler from the bomb. If Hitler had not been leaning over the table, if there had not been men standing close to Hitler, and if the bomb was not placed behind a leg, there would have been a greater chance that the explosion would have created more damage that would have led to Hitler’s death. The explosion that happened around 12:40 caused minimal damage compared to what it could have done. The windows of the barrack-room were shattered, the floor buckled, the ceiling collapsed, and parts of the walls exploded. Hitler emerged from the room virtually untouched by the bomb except for a few cuts, bruises, and splinters. As for the other men in the room, several died, some had major injuries such as the loss of a leg, but others escaped with only shattered eardrums and a few minor injuries. While the men were taking in the aftermath of the explosion, Stauffenberg was making his way to Berlin to carry out Operation Valkyrie. He saw the explosion and believed that no one could have survived. It was a big mistake to assume this because the one person he had wanted to kill had survived.
- Hitler’s survival only allowed several hours of confusion, which did not help the conspirators. If Hitler had been killed, then there would have been several days of confusion that would have helped the democratic socialist government take hold of Germany. “Valkyrie began to die almost as soon as it was born.” The commands made by the conspirators were immediately countermanded by Hitler’s orders coming from the Wolf’s Lair. Officers in the army were forced to face a decision, follow the commands of the conspirators and lose their lives or to follow the commands of Hitler. Men were confused and scared and as a result, delayed any action at all. Otto Ernst Remer stationed his men around the city of Berlin as he was told to do when the orders for Operation Valkyrie went out, but he was not part of the conspiracy because the plotters had not had enough time to replace him and hoped that he would remain on their side. After a phone call with Hitler, Remer quickly realized what was going on and rejoined his side. It was becoming more and more inevitable that this plot would fail, but after Remer removed his troops from protecting the conspirators it was clear that the conspirators were condemned. Soldiers in Berlin were unaware of the situation but were still loyal to Hitler. The confirmation of Hitler’s’ survival from the explosion made the soldiers fear any association with the conspirators and Valkyrie. This led to the end of the conspirators and to the end of Valkyrie. Before midnight on July 20, 1944, Stauffenberg, Mertz, Olbricht, and the other members of the conspiracy were killed.[2]
Initial order to the Wehrkreise
I. The Führer Adolf Hitler is dead!
- An unscrupulous clique of party leaders alien to the front has attempted, under the exploitation of this situation, to betray the hard-struggling front and to seize power for their own selfish purposes.
II. In this hour of greatest danger, the government of the Reich has declared a state of military emergency for the maintenance of law and order and at the same time has transferred the executive power, with the supreme command of the Wehrmacht, to me.
III. With this, I order:
- 1. Transfer of executive power – with the right of delegation, to the territorial commanders – on the home front, to the commander of the army reserves under the simultaneous appointment to the supreme commander in the homeland war – in the occupied western area, to the supreme commander west – in Italy, to the supreme commander southwest – in the occupied eastern area, to the supreme commander of the army groups and the commander of the Wehrmacht eastern land for their respective area of command – in Denmark and Norway, to the Wehrmacht commander.
- 2. The holders of executive power have control over:
- a) all sections and units of the Wehrmacht, including the Waffen-SS, RAD and the OT, within their area of command;
- b) all public authorities (of the Reich, Germany, the states and the municipalities), especially the entire law enforcement police, security police and administrative police;
- c) all office bearers and subdivisions of the NSDAP and those of its affiliated associations;
- d) the transportation services and public utilities
- 3. The entire Waffen-SS is integrated into the army with immediate effect.
- 4. The holders of executive power are responsible for the maintenance of public order and security. They especially have to ensure:
- a) the protection of communications
- b) the elimination of the SD (Security Service).
Any opposition to the military power of enforcement is to be ruthlessly crushed.
In this hour of highest danger for the Fatherland, unity of the Wehrmacht and the maintenance of full discipline are the uppermost requirements.
That is why I make it the duty of all commanders of the army, the navy and the air force to support the holders of executive power in carrying out their difficult task with all means at their disposal and to guarantee the compliance of their directives by the subordinate sections. The German soldier stands before a historical task. It will depend on his energy and attitude whether Germany will be saved.The same is true for all territorial commanders, the supreme commanders of the sections of the Wehrmacht and the subordinate commanders of the army, navy and air force.
[Signed] The Commander-in-Chief of the Wehrmacht Field Marshal von Witzleben
Aftermath
In the next view weeks Himmler’s Gestapo, driven by a furious Hitler, rounded up nearly everyone who had the remotest connection with the July 20 plot. The discovery of letters and diaries in the homes and offices of those arrested revealed the plots of 1938, 1939 and 1943, and this led to further rounds of arrests, including that of Franz Halder, who finished the war in a concentration camp. Under Himmler’s new Sippenhaft (blood guilt) laws, all the relatives of the principal plotters were also arrested. Many people killed themselves, including von Tresckow, von Kluge and Erwin Rommel, who was accused of having knowledge of the plot beforehand and not revealing it to Hitler. He was given the option of suicide via cyanide or a public trial. Stülpnagel also tried to commit suicide, but survived and was subsequently hanged.
Very few of the plotters tried to escape or to deny their guilt when arrested. Those who survived interrogation were given perfunctory trials before the People’s Court and its highest judge Roland Freisler. Eventually some 5,000 people were arrested and about 200 were executed, not all of them connected with the July 20 plot, since the Gestapo used the occasion to settle scores with many other people suspected of opposition sympathies. After 3 February 1945, when Freisler was killed in a USAAF bomb raid, there were no more formal trials, but as late as April, with the war weeks away from its end, Canaris’s diary was found, and many more people were implicated. Executions continued down to the last days of the war.
The first trials were held in the People's Court on 7 and 8 August 1944. Hitler had ordered that those found guilty be "hung like cattle". The treatment that had been dealt out to those executed as a result of the Rote Kapelle was that of slow strangulation using suspension from a rope attached to a slaughterhouse meathook. For the July 20 plotters piano wire was used instead.
The executions and trials were reportedly filmed and later reviewed by Hitler and his entourage. A version of these films was later combined into a 30 minute movie by Goebbels and also shown to cadets at the Lichterfelde cadet school but viewers supposedly walked out of the screening in disgust.
Hitler, as did others, took his survival to be a 'divine moment in history', and as such, commissioned a special decoration to be made. The resulting decoration was the Wound Badge of 20 July 1944, which Hitler awarded to those who were in the conference room at the time. This badge is one of the rarest decorations made in the Third Reich.
See also
Further reading
- Pierre Galante: Operation Valkyrie – The German Generals’ Plot Against Hitler, Harper & Row Publishers, Cambridge 1981
External links
- My Role in Berlin on July 20, 1944 - By Otto Ernst Remer
- The "German resistance" section in "External links" section in the article on National Socialist Germany and partisans/resistance movements
- Worm in the Apple: German Traitors and Other Influences That Pushed the World Into War. The little-known story of the men who destroyed Adolf Hitler's Germany.
References
- ↑ Secret Diaries of Hitler's Doctor by David irving
- ↑ Brandy Willetts: Operation Valkyrie: A Failed Assassination Attempt on Hitler, 20 October 2019
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