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On July 20, 1944, German army officer Claus von Stauffenberg and other conspirators
attempted to assassinate Adolf Hitler inside his headquarters near Rastenburg, East Prussia.
After dozens of failed attempts to take Hitler’s
life, several high-ranking German officials had formed a resistance
unit to take him down and launch a coup to reclaim Germany from the Nazi forces.
Operation Valkyrie was then launched, and a plan was hatched to strike Hitler
with a bomb as a desperate attempt to end the oppression and the war.
But Providence would be on the dictator's side,
as he claimed after walking out of a bombed conference room during a warm summer afternoon.
Much has been said about what could have been if Hitler did not get to power.
While many hypothetical scenarios have been crafted where the Fuhrer was assassinated,
there were very real attempts on the dictator’s life both by outsiders and his fellow Germans.
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A Resistance
Even before World War II started, a lot of Germans opposed the radical Nazi regime.
Several different resistance cells eventually surfaced, the most important one
being a coalition of active and retired officers working with civilians
to overthrow the dictatorship and restore the Rule of Law.
As far back as 1933, Chief of Staff Generaloberst Ludwig Beck was already forming the intellectual
and moral basis for a coup that would take more than a decade to accomplish.
In March of 1938, Beck was outraged when Germany invaded Austria and refused to participate.
Months later, he opposed the seizing of the sovereign state of Czechoslovakia and appealed
to his fellow Generals: (QUOTE) "Your military duty to obey [orders] ends where your knowledge,
your conscience and your responsibility forbids the execution of an order."
But not everyone opposed the Fuhrer,
and the lack of support left Beck with no choice but to resign his post.
Beck's successor, Franz Halder, also tried to bring down the regime but planned a
conspiracy instead of a confrontation. Hans Oster of the Counter Intelligence Agency
and Generals von Witzleben and von Stülpnagel were part of it too. They planned to put Hitler
on trial or send him to a mental hospital and sought the cooperation of civilian leaders.
The only way to bring down the regime would be if people with power made the first move.
The resistance needed high-ranking collaborators to command troops and infiltrate the government
and its apparatus, like the Army Officer Corps.
Aristocrats were the backbone of the corps for generations, conferring them the authority and
opportunity to strike, assassinate Hitler, and carry out a coup d’état.
However, the Germans, British, and French were all wary of another war,
and a treaty was signed in which Hitler took command of the German
territories in Czechoslovakia without resorting to force.
There was no case against a mad dictator,
and what would be known as the September Conspiracy was dissolved.
Hitler would eventually take the rest of Czechoslovakia and Poland six months later
and then expand his dominion to half of Europe, from the Arctic to the Mediterranean.
Still, a minority of Germans remained true to their moral principles,
but the challenge to overtake such a popular leader became highly implausible.
Operation Valkyrie
After the invasion of the Soviet Union, most German troops realized the atrocities being
committed by the SS, and their outlook on the Nazi methods changed. In addition,
the Chief of the General Army Office, General Friedrich Olbricht,
soon began developing a General Staff Plan to suppress any revolt by the prisoners of war.
However, that was merely a facade to overthrow the Nazis in what became known as Operation Valkyrie.
To ensure the plan’s success, there were two pre-conditions. First, the population had to
be at least neutral to the removal of Hitler, so a greater degree of disillusionment was needed.
Second, it was no longer feasible to arrest the Fuhrer; he had to be neutralized.
Hans Oster was entrusted with planning the assassination,
while Olbricht was to plot the coup that would follow. Meanwhile, Oberstleutnant
Henning von Tresckow would seek to recruit a Field Marshall so that his troops could join the coup.
By the autumn of 1942, the Gestapo was closely examining the activities of the
Counterintelligence Service, forcing Oster to stop collaborating with the resistance.
Tresckow would then take over the assassination plot.
After the tragic Battle of Stalingrad in the winter of 1942,
the conspirators decided to exploit the population’s discontent and use
it in their favor. And by February of 1943, the plans for the coup were ready.
In addition, Tresckow had won over Feldmarschall von Kluge,
who was desperate to overthrow the Nazis after the outcome of Stalingrad and willing to risk
his men. His only condition was that Hitler needed to be dead before the coup was launched.
Many options were considered to end the Fuhrer's life, including sending a solitary
shooter or even having a collective shooting. However, the idea of using a bomb prevailed.
Oster provided Tresckow with British explosives, which he crafted into the
shape of a bottle of cognac. The bomb was fused for 30 minutes and wrapped as a gift.
The plan seemed perfect: the bomb would set off,
and the plane would crash in Soviet-controlled territory,
thus delaying the investigations. This gave enough time to launch the coup under legal orders.
In addition, the British explosives would be blamed on foreigners instead of national rebels,
while the German movement took over the Nazi organs. And the population
was likely to support the Army given their recent disillusionment.
The mission was carried out as planned. Tresckow handed the gift to an officer
boarding the Fuhrer's airplane and asked him to deliver it to a mutual friend.
However, the bomb didn’t detonate, and Hitler landed safely.
The incriminating gift was then retrieved before it aroused any suspicion.
Last Chance
Many brave men volunteered as suicide bombers, and serious attempts were carried out to reach Hitler
in seemingly safe environments like a gallery exhibition and a uniform modeling appointment.
But the Fuhrer was more elusive than ever.
To make matters worse, Tresckow and his staff were transferred to new assignments,
and the assassination was now the responsibility of Olbricht alone.
Olbricht was weighed down by official responsibilities and had to look for a reliable
assistant. The conspirators selected Lieutenant Colonel Claus Graf Schenk von Stauffenberg.
The young man had been supportive of the Nazis at the beginning of the war, but he eventually lost
an eye, a hand, and three fingers while defending the German empire and, like many, turned around.
In August of 1943, Stauffenberg was welcomed into a resistance that he didn’t even know existed.
He was more than willing to join the conspiracy,
and Olbricht delegated the responsibility to plot the assassination to him.
Between October 1943 and July 1944, there were many plans but no results.
However, on July 1, Stauffenberg gained personal access to Hitler when he was made Chief of
Staff to the Commander in Chief of the Home Army and decided to take the dictator's life himself.
After two failed opportunities to strike on the 11 and 15,
Stauffenberg planned a last attempt to take place on July 20.
On that day, Stauffenberg left for a meeting at the East Prussian Headquarters as usual.
The attempt would take place at 1:00 pm, and nothing was expected to happen before then.
Upon arrival, Stauffenberg was informed that the meeting had been pushed forward half an hour
because of Mussolini's visit. He then excused himself to change his shirt and didn't have time
to prepare the two bombs that he carried in his briefcase, so only one was ready.
To complicate matters, the meeting would not take place in the bunker as usual,
but in a conference room because of the intense summer heat.
Stauffenberg asked to be as close to the Fuhrer as possible, arguing that his hearing was impaired.
When he walked into the room, Hitler stood at the center of a long, wooden table with many officials
present. To the conspirator’s disappointment, neither Himmler nor Goering were there.
Stauffenberg then got close to the right side of the Fuhrer
and casually left the briefcase beneath the table.
He then used a phone call as an excuse and walked out of the room, leaving the compound altogether.
Suddenly, the bomb exploded, and a full lockdown was ordered.
Sometime later, fellow conspirator General Fellgiebel informed Olbricht that: (QUOTE)
"Something terrible has happened. The Führer lives!"
Aftermath
Stauffenberg was able to escape and get to Berlin safely. When he reached Olbricht,
he assured him that he personally saw a body covered with the Fuhrer's coat.
Olbricht believed his word, and they took the matter to General Fromm, the head of the Home
Army, who refused to commence Operation Valkyrie as he had just learned that Hitler survived.
Stauffenberg was convinced that this news was a Nazi trick to seize control.
But then Fromm ordered the conspirators arrested, and when two junior officers came into the room,
he was the one taken into custody, as they were loyal to the resistance.
Everything seemed to be going according to plan,
and the rebels issued orders to their loyal army units to start the coup.
However, a radio broadcast suddenly confirmed their worst fears:
the Fuhrer had survived the assassination attempt. An officer had moved the briefcase with
the bomb to the other side of the table's base, which had shielded Hitler from the explosion.
Operation Valkyrie was canceled,
and as Fromm was released, he ordered the execution of the conspirators.
Beck, Olbricht, Stauffenberg, and two others were arrested and sentenced to death for high treason.
Before he was shot, Stauffenberg's last words were: (QUOTE) "Long live our sacred Germany."
It is estimated that almost 5,000 men were executed for complicity in the coup attempt.
Fromm, who had betrayed his fellow conspirators to save himself,
was also arrested and executed months later.
To this day, the rebels are no longer regarded as traitors,
and their actions are recognized as bravely trying to change the course of history.
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