wolf's lair 1944 hitler is speaking to
his officers about the situation on the
front
suddenly the room is wrecked by
explosion some people are thrown off out
of the windows
one is killed on the spot and many
others are seriously injured meanwhile
klaus von stauffenberg the man who is
responsible for the bombing is hurrying
to berlin to take over the power from
the nazis but hitler is alive and their
plan is bound to failure stauffenberg
could only use one bomb
and in the last moment it was moved so
that part of the table shielded hitler
from the blast the plot involved
thousands of people
many of whom were high state officials
and took many months to prepare and all
those powerful men together
were unable to kill the fuhrer yet only
less than five years ago
one man almost succeeded where thousands
had failed today we will tell his story
we'll have to go 10 years back in time
nazis have come to power
and they are beginning to steer germany
towards war hitler is pursuing
expansionist policies and one victory
follows another
sarland is reunited with germany and
austria and sudetenland are annexed many
germans saw this as germany's return to
great power status and hitler's
popularity grew
however one man saw the things otherwise
he saw the shadow of war
where some saw the return of national
glory and stability he saw the descent
toward another
world war and he came to a conclusion
the one that would have great impact on
his life
he decided that if europe is to avert
another war the men who were behind the
aggressive policies had to be done away
with
he decided that hitler had to die but
who was this man
meet georg elser he is a craftsman a
rather skilled craftsman
however for the job he has undertaken he
has no special skills
yet he stayed serious about carrying it
out where could one kill hitler
well the best opportunity was probably
in munich around the 8th of november
back in 1923 hitler and the nazi party
attempted a coup in munich
they seized the buga ploy keller but
were later dispersed in street fighting
hitler was imprisoned after coming to
power hitler commemorated the failed
coup
every year with a procession and a
speech in the bugapoi color on the 8th
of november 1938
elsa went to munich to look for an
opportunity for the assassination
one possibility was to shoot hitler from
the crowd of onlookers however the
abundance of nazi salutes and flags made
that difficult
then hitler would speak in the bugapri
color but only veteran nazis were
allowed to enter
as shooting hitler was complicated elsa
decided that it would be better to blow
hitler up during his speech
it didn't make his task a lot easier the
keller was basically a large part that
for the most time
was open to all people so one could be
able to place a bomb there but before
hitler's speech it would be searched
the poem would have to be carefully
concealed how could you hide something
as large as a timed bomb
well you put it in a wall or a pillar if
elser could pull that off then it would
be days between placing the bomb
and the explosion that meant that elser
also needed an elaborate timer one that
could tick for days and go off with the
precision of minutes
a task considered almost impossible with
the technology of 1930s
these alone were difficult tasks not to
mention the problems with obtaining the
explosives
in theory nazi germany was a
totalitarian state where people were
tightly controlled and therefore could
not be able to acquire the explosive
materials
at least without alarming the gestapo in
practice it was quite different
military factories were crunching out
arms on an unprecedented scale
and were in need of workers elsa signed
up to work in the shipping department of
walden maya armaments factory he had to
receive
exclusive materials and deliver them to
other workers there he got some
knowledge
about the explosives and could put aside
250 pellets of powder
soon elsa had to leave that place he
didn't have enough explosives yet and he
headed out to find some more he went to
a local quarry and began helping out the
workers
when the owner questioned was arya doing
here he replied that he's been
unemployed and bought and
want to help yeah he was hired on the
spot and began
regularly working there now it was time
to steal some more explosives
as it was night germany the security was
very wait
that wasn't so hard at all he went to
the shade where the explosives were
stored and found out that it wasn't even
properly locked elsa began paying visits
to the shade at night
and carrying away small amounts of
explosives finally he carried away a
crate full of detonators the security at
the quarry was so lacks
the owner was sent to a concentration
camp after elsa's assassination attempt
was discovered
now that he had the materials it was
time to design the bomb
elser had no prior knowledge about bomb
making and at the time there was no
internet where one could look that up
but as german army was expanding it
needed more pioneers and therefore
literature about
explosives circulated freely elser
bought a booklet
and it taught him a lot he carried out a
couple of test explosions in his
family's garden shed
his uncle was working in the field
suddenly there was a loud noise from the
shed
and horses panicked elsa later explained
to his uncle that he was trying
something
out and when he was done his uncle would
certainly hear about it
the detonator was ready but it was just
the tip of the iceberg the real
difficulty was with the timing mechanism
it had to be compact
be able to work for a long time and be
precise a difficult challenge yet one
that elsa managed to carry out with
perfection
he had received some clock parts instead
of a salary in his earlier job
and now put him to good use the basis of
the mechanism was a clock
every time the hour hand made a full
circle it moved the cork wheel for 1 12
so the timer could be set for 144 hours
or exactly 6 days in advance in order to
be totally sure
he added a second clock the timer
mechanism released a nail that struck a
firing cap of a rifle shell
the powder in the shell ignited and
detonated the blasting caps these in
turn detonated the explosives
if one failed there were two more the
bomb was placed into a wooden box which
was insulated with a layer of cork from
the inside
so the ticking sounds couldn't be heard
now elsa went to munich to install the
bomb
if earlier he could manage without much
risk now it was really getting dangerous
he wanted to place the bomb into the
pillar nearest to hitler
he had to make a cavity in a concrete
pillar with primitive tools
as the pillar was in a public place he
had to do it during the night
and leave no trace this task was the
ultimate definition of grinding
he had to work in constant danger of
discovery in the evening elsa hid
himself in the burger poi color when the
night began he went to the pillar and
began his work
he worked for some hours and then slept
until morning when the killer was opened
he sneaked out
first he removed the wooden paneling at
the base of the column and added hinges
to it
turning it into a secret door it took
him three nights
now the real work began he had to dig
out the cavity in the column for the
device
at first he used a chisel but the noise
was too loud he then switched to a hand
drill if he had been discovered
a trip to the gestapo and the death
warrant would have been certain yet he
had to return for more than 30 times
meanwhile world war ii broke out as
hitler invaded poland
finally a week before hitler's speech
the chamber was ready
elser pressed as much explosives in it
as he could
he came to install the timing mechanism
but the keller was unexpectedly locked
he had to return the next day there was
a dance party in the color elsa
attended it but he was far from dancing
when everyone had left
he began installing the timing mechanism
only to discover that the cavity was too
small for it
elsa sawed off the corners of the
mechanism and attended another dance
party
during the night he installed the
mechanism into the pillar it
fitted perfectly he set the clocks in
motion the bomb
was to go off in the middle of hitler's
speech elser prepared to escape to
switzerland
he went back to the keller to check the
clocks they were on time
next day he left towards the swiss
border every year hitler would speak in
the bugapoi keller for two hours
however this time he needed to be back
in berlin to plan the war
so he cut his speed shorter and began it
half an hour earlier
on the 8th of november the broken poi
keller was filled with 1500 old nazi
party members they greeted hitler with
multiple sikhoil
then it was 1 hour and 20 minutes till
explosion hitler spoke about german
defeat in world war
1 how germany was betrayed from behind
about the rise of the nazi party and how
it made germany strong again
how the western powers have dragged
germany into another war
but now germany was strong and her
enemies were weak
this time germany will crush its
opponents the bomb was slowly ticking
now it was only 20 minutes left hitler
spoke for some time more and then
hurried to the train station thirteen
minutes later the
bugapoicella was rocked with explosion
the pillar was destroyed and part of the
ceiling caved in the hall was filled
with smoke and cries of the wounded
eight people were killed and more than
60 injured
after the chaos settled the arrests and
interrogations began
more than a thousand people were rounded
up by gestapo however
they didn't know that they already had
the bomber in their custody elser had
attempted to escape to switzerland but
he was captured by the gods just 25
meters from the border
detonator parts had been found in his
pocket with a postcard of bugapoi keller
soon evidence began to mount against him
he was recognized by many people in
munich
and there was no point in denying he
confessed however
he was not shot hitler wanted his
assassins to be tried in a public trial
after the war
it would have been a good propaganda
therefore there would be assassins were
rounded up in concentration camps
when it was clear that the war was lost
all of them
were executed among them was georg elser
he was killed on the 9th of april 1945
a month before the end of the war