Wednesday marks the 67th anniversary of Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg's attempt to assassinate Hitler. While some question whether he acted out of altruism, most Germans are taking a positive view. Annual commemorations take place in Berlin and Dresden on Wednesday to mark the anniversary of the failed plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler.
The center, formally a prison, was the site of nearly 3, executions. There were also ceremonies at the Bendler Block, the site of the execution of some of the main conspirators, and now the German Defense Ministry.
On July 20, , Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, an aristocratic colonel in the Nazi army, took the fate of the German people into his own hands. Increasingly disillusioned with Hitler's campaign in the war, Stauffenberg and numerous other co-conspirators within the German military, including Friedrich Olbricht and Henning von Tresckow, plotted to assassinate the dictator and seize the reins of power.
Shortly after noon on a hot summer day, Stauffenberg smuggled an explosives-filled briefcase into a meeting at Hitler's "Wolf's Lair" hideaway in what is today Poland , where the dictator was seated around a large wooden table with 22 other Nazi officials. Stauffenberg placed the briefcase under the table, made an excuse to leave, and watched the explosion from afar as he raced towards his getaway car.
Confident he had completed his mission and an impending coup would soon place him and like-minded co-conspirators in power, Stauffenberg made haste to return to Berlin. But, in what is largely viewed as one of the greatest tragedies in history, things did not work out that way. By midnight - just twelve hours later - Hitler had regained the upper hand and squashed the rebellion. Stauffenberg and three others were executed by firing squad in Berlin. In the coming weeks, an additional people implicated in the plot were killed and more than 5, conspirators and political opponents were rounded-up.
Had Stauffenberg been successful, the final phase of the war would certainly have gone differently. The fact remains that more people died between the July assassination attempt and the end of the war than in the four-and-a-half years prior to that. The film portrays him as a man on a mission, the de facto leader of the conspirators. It suggests that his vigor is the inspiration that pushes other into the resistance.
In reality, Colonel Henning Von Tresckow did most of the legwork. He managed to get a great many resistors assigned under his command, making his officers a hivemind for conspiracy. There, several plans to assassinate Hitler were conceived, but they were all aborted or failed. Historically, the other military leaders did not waver their decisions or need as much guidance as they receive in the film.
Hitler had many steadfast dissenters and critics in the German military, but the S. Stauffenberg himself: This is actually the biggest misstep of the film. Stauffenberg is portrayed as a straightforward hero, but his life story is not so simple.
Earlier in his career, Stauffenberg was a major support of Hitler and the National Socialism ideals he preached. He and Tresckow both participated in heinous massacres on the eastern front, and Stauffenberg believed in Nazism and was even an anti-semite.
Although he was very much opposed to genocide as most German leaders were, he did believe that the removal of Jewish culture would be beneficial to his country. His trousers were in tatters and he suffered a perforated eardrum, but he was alive.
Stauffenberg and Von Haeften swiftly drove to a nearby airfield, convinced that Hitler was dead, as no one could have possibly survived the explosion. On his return to Berlin, Stauffenberg, General Friedrich Olbricht and General Ludwig Beck of the German general staff put their military coup into action, but when Goebbels later announced by radio that Hitler had survived, and when Hitler himself personally spoke on state radio that same evening, the conspirators soon realised that the coup had failed.
They were hunted down to their Bendlerblock offices in Berlin, where they surrendered after a brief shoot-out. Over the years, the event has been commemorated in a variety of ways. The website www. Bendlerblock Memorial source. Hitler exacted a terrible retribution for the events of July 20th General Friedrich Fromm convened an impromptu court martial on the night of July 20th and condemned the leaders of the conspiracy to death.
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