Attempt on Hitler's life July 20, 1944. Attempts on Hitler's life

Army against Hitler.

The idea of ​​carrying out a military coup never left the minds of the military after Hitler came to power. The generals were irritated towards the upstart - a plebeian who imagined himself to be a great strategist. A coup d'etat was very real during the Sudetenland crisis, but the leaders of England and France, showing simply incredible political myopia, agreed to the Munich Agreement with Hitler and thereby plunged their people into great trouble. At this time, German generals were ready to overthrow the possessed Fuhrer. England and France just had to take a tough position and declare mobilization. And already in 1938, Hitler would have gone to jail for a long time if he had survived.

Hitler's stunning foreign policy and then simply incredible military successes added many new sympathizers to the Fuhrer of the German people in military circles and reduced the number of opponents. The Germans' love and trust in Hitler exceeded even the current rating of Russian President Putin. But easy victories soon ceased, losses both at the front and in the rear began to quickly increase, and the military realized that a terrible defeat was just around the corner. The development of plans for a military coup has entered the practical stage.

The Allied landings in Normandy on June 6, 1944 spurred the organizers of the anti-Nazi resistance. The conspirators did not expect the landing of Anglo-American troops in 1944. We thought that such an attempt would happen much later. The “premature” invasion was initially received quite positively by the conspirators. It was believed that the Allies would not be able to gain a foothold in France, there would be heavy losses and this would give additional trump cards in negotiations with America and England.

However, the landing was successful. And the conspirators scheduled a performance for the month of July. The main striking force of the planned coup was the Reserve Army, whose chief of staff was Colonel Stauffenberg. This man, despite his disability (in 1943 he lost an eye, his right hand and two fingers on his left), was ideally suited to eliminate Hitler. He was unusually cold-blooded.

Germany strained all its strength in an unequal struggle and its armed forces were on fronts that were still outside its own territory. Therefore, the Reserve Army, preparing new divisions to replace those destroyed, was the only force located throughout the country. The second largest force was the air defense troops, subordinate directly to Goering and armed with excellent anti-aircraft guns. Air defense forces covered the largest cities and main industrial areas. SS security units were located in Berlin and several other key places, although the bulk of them fought at the front.

Noble conspiracy.

The conspirators had to solve difficult problems. While the German army was winning stunning victories, there was no chance of involving authoritative generals in the conspiracy. The people of Germany had unconditional faith in the Fuhrer. Most Germans believed that it was not Hitler who started the war, but England. Hitler, in their opinion, sought universal peace, but without discrimination against Germany. Hitler's seizure of the territories of the Czech Republic and Poland was regarded by the German people as “restoration of historical justice.” In the Sudetenland and Pomerania, the Germans were indeed the ethnic majority. But the fate of the Czechs and Poles did not bother them.

As the situation on the fronts worsened, more and more officers and generals, mostly of noble origin, came to the idea of ​​removing Hitler from power, who was going to fight to the last German. However, most of the military were ready to act only after the death of the Fuhrer. Quite a lot of officers and generals were fans of Hitler and would not oppose him under any pretext. The conspirators were going to use ordinary soldiers in the dark.

Conspiracy on the Eastern Front. Operation Flash.

The conspiracy against Hitler first took shape on the Eastern Front. It was led by General Henig von Treskow, Chief of Staff of Army Group Center. Von Treskow and Friedrich Olbrecht, head of the Army Directorate, developed Operation Outbreak. The conspirators convinced Hitler to visit the army group headquarters in Smolensk on March 13, 1943. The commander of the security unit at the headquarters, Colonel von Beselager, was ready to shoot Hitler and his guards right at the airfield. He only needed the order of Field Marshal Kluge. But he hesitated, although he gave his consent in principle to participate in the rebellion in the event of a successful assassination attempt.

Henig von Treskow. Shot himself on the Eastern Front on July 21, 1944. Relatives were subjected to repression.

Then the conspirators decided to blow up Hitler, either at a meeting or in the officers' mess. But in this case, Kluge, who was ready to support the rebellion with his authority, would also die. The best solution turned out to be the decision to blow up the plane with the Fuhrer on the way to Berlin. The bomb, disguised as a parcel of cognac for a general in Berlin, was handed to Colonel Brandt from the General Staff. However, the bomb did not explode. Now it was necessary to urgently fly to Berlin and remove the bomb. Chief Lieutenant Fabian von Schlabrendorf, who was sent to the capital, took the bomb from Brandt under a plausible pretext. Having disassembled it, they discovered the reason - the acid from the crushed ampoule corroded the wire, the firing pin pierced the primer, but the detonator did not ignite.

Georg von Boeselager. I was ready to finish off Hitler back in 1943. Killed in action on August 27, 1944.

"Overcoat" attempts.

The next chance came on March 21st. Hitler, together with his immediate circle, was supposed to visit an exhibition of captured Soviet equipment. The head of intelligence at Kluge's headquarters, Colonel von Gersdorff, put two bombs in his overcoat pockets, set to a minimum time of 10 minutes. In this case, the Fuhrer’s closest associates would also be destroyed. But von Gersdorff would also have to give his life, to which the courageous officer agreed. At the last moment it was announced that the inspection would last 8 minutes and the assassination attempt had to be postponed.

Rudolf-Christoph von Gersdorff. One of the few surviving members of the conspiracy.

Between September 1943 and January 1944, 6 more attempts to destroy Hitler failed. In September they were going to blow up Hitler at his headquarters in Rastenburg (Prussia). But General Stiff, who was sent “cognac” through Brandt, chickened out at the last moment. In November, at a demonstration to the Fuhrer of a new overcoat, the “model” infantry captain Axel von dem Bussche, with bombs in his pockets, was supposed to grab Hitler and fly into the air with him. However, the day before, during the bombing of Berlin, all samples of the new uniform were destroyed.

The new “fashion show” was supposed to take place in December, but the Fuhrer unexpectedly left to celebrate Christmas in Berchtesgaden. On February 11, instead of Bussche, who was wounded at the front, another young officer, Heinrich von Kleist, came to demonstrate his overcoat. However, the Fuhrer did not arrive.

Hitler's tactics.

Hitler understood perfectly well that they would definitely try to eliminate him. A shorthand recording of his statements on March 3, 1942 has been preserved: “I am aware of why 90% of historical assassination attempts were successful. The only preventive measure that should be taken is not to observe regularity in your life - in walks, trips, travel. It is better to do all this at different times and unexpectedly. As far as possible, when going somewhere by car, I leave unexpectedly without alerting the police.”

Hitler's tactics of constantly changing his schedule required the conspirators to change their plans. They came to the conclusion that they could realistically count on meeting the Fuhrer only during meetings held twice a day. On December 29, 1943, a young officer, Claus von Stauffenberg, arrived at a meeting at the Fuhrer's headquarters in Rastenburg with a time bomb in his briefcase. But the meeting was cancelled, the Fuhrer left to celebrate Christmas.

Operation Valkyrie.

The coup plan was called "Valkyrie". Valkyries, beautiful but terrifying maidens from German-Scandinavian mythology, hover over the battlefield and select fighters who are destined to die. The plan was developed by General von Treskow and finalized by Colonel von Stauffenberg. Instructions were also prepared for commanders of military districts, declarations and appeals to the German people and armed forces.

For better secrecy, the cunning Canaris suggested that Hitler develop an action plan in case of an uprising of millions of foreign slaves brought to work in German factories. Such an uprising was unlikely, but a suspicious Hitler agreed to develop a plan to suppress the uprising. The same Canaris “suggested” to the Fuhrer the name of the plan - “Valkyrie”. Thus, the conspirators in the army could work almost openly on a plan to seize power. One of the Abwehr employees, Hans Oster, was among the leaders of the conspiracy.

Colonel General Beck was to become the new head of state. Field Marshal von Witzleben was slated for the role of commander-in-chief, and the former mayor of Leipzig Goerdeler, the ideologist of the coup, was given the post of chancellor. The great success of the conspirators was to attract Field Commander Rommel into their ranks, although he objected to the murder of Hitler. Time was running out. In addition, Beck, Goerdeler, Hassel, Witzleben and some other conspirators were under vigilant surveillance by the Gestapo.

July 1944. Three tries.

On the eve of the attempt to eliminate Hitler on July 11, the conspirators considered that it was necessary to eliminate Himmler and Goering along with Hitler, especially since they usually attended the meetings. But on July 11, Himmler was absent. Stauffenberg, leaving the meeting for a minute, called General Olbricht in Berlin and he persuaded him to wait for the next meeting, when all three would gather.

That same evening, returning to Berlin, Stauffenberg talked with Beck and Olbricht and decided that next time they would not wait for the whole trio. On July 15, the conspirators were so confident in success that at 11.00, two hours before the start of the meeting, Olbricht gave the order “Valkyrie 1” and the troops began to move out. Stauffenberg left the meeting and reported to Olbricht that Hitler was in place and he was starting the task. But when Stauffenberg re-entered the meeting room, Hitler was no longer there. I had to urgently run to the phone and inform Olbricht.

The general, in a rage, canceled the alarm and the troops tried to return to the barracks as quickly and unnoticed as possible. But rumors have already spread throughout Berlin that the Fuhrer’s headquarters will soon be blown up and the military will take power into their own hands.

Field Marshal Rommel. Forced to commit suicide on October 14, 1944. Buried as a national hero. The Nazis could not announce to the country that the most popular military man among the people was involved in a conspiracy against Hitler.

On July 17, the conspirators suffered a severe blow - an American fighter shot down the headquarters vehicle and Field Marshal Rommel was seriously wounded. The most energetic and capable leader of the rebellion was lost. Now an unbearable burden rested on Stauffenberg's shoulders. He himself needed to eliminate Hitler and lead the uprising.

The fate of Colonel Brandt.

Stauffenberg and Keitel were a little late for the meeting. General Heusinger made a report on the situation on the Eastern Front. Four minutes have passed since the ampoule was crushed. Stauffenberg put the briefcase with the bomb under the table, whispered to Colonel Brandt to keep an eye on it and went out supposedly to call Berlin for up-to-date information. This was exactly the Brandt who carried the bomb on the Fuhrer’s plane under the guise of a parcel of cognac.

Above is a diagram of the location of meeting participants. The briefcase with the bomb, placed by Stauffenberg to the left of the cabinet, was moved by Brandt to the right side of the cabinet.

Brandt’s briefcase was in the way under his feet, so he moved it a little further, behind a massive cabinet. In this way he saved Hitler and ensured his certain death. Stauffenberg quickly walked out of the room. At 12.42 a bomb exploded. An air wave threw the bodies of several people out of the windows and debris flew. Stauffenberg decided that everyone in the conference room was dead.

General Felgiebel, chief of communications for the Wehrmacht, disrupted the connection between Hitler's headquarters and the country after the assassination attempt. Executed on September 4, 1944.

Werner von Heften, Stauffenberg's adjutant. Participated in the assassination attempt on Hitler. Executed on July 20, 1944, along with his boss.

Goering inspects the consequences of the explosion.

Hitler was saved by hot weather. The meeting was moved from the stuffy bunker to the summer pavilion and all the windows in the conference room were opened, which significantly reduced the impact of the blast wave. If the meeting had taken place in a bunker, then nothing would have saved the Fuhrer.

Conspiracy failure.

Rommel’s injury and the unsuccessful “rehearsal” for the July 15 mutiny, when it was difficult to justify himself due to the appearance of troops with tanks in Berlin, seemed to paralyze the conspirators. And when Stauffenberg arrived in the capital three hours later, he saw with horror that no one had done anything. A German general, even if he is a conspirator, needs an order to begin vigorous action. In addition, many officers and generals were not privy to the plans of the conspirators. And many still had unlimited trust in Hitler. After all, as of July 1944, a foreign soldier had not yet set foot on German territory. In the east, all of Poland was occupied by the Wehrmacht, and in the west, almost all of France.

Karl Goerdeler. Should have become chancellor if the coup was successful. Executed on February 2, 1945.

General Wagner. Provided the aircraft to Claus von Stauffenberg. He committed suicide on July 23, 1944.

It was only around six in the evening that Hitler and the Nazi leadership began to realize that, in addition to the assassination attempt, which they initially perceived as an individual terrorist attack, something was happening in the country. The telephone connection was disrupted. One small fry, who happened to be in Berlin at the moment, hurried to Goebbels, who at first did not want to listen to him. Then he asked the propaganda chief to go to the window, look at the movements of military units and see for himself what was happening.

Merz von Quirnheim. An active participant in the conspiracy. shot along with Stauffenberg, Heften and Olbricht. These four got an easy death.

The commander of the Reserve Army, Fromm, was not privy to the conspiracy, although all orders for the Reserve Army were prepared by the conspirators on his behalf. They hoped to win him over to their side after the assassination of Hitler. Fromm was at first furious at the use of his name, was put under arrest in his own office, then began to hesitate, but in the end, when it became known that Hitler had survived, he decided to cover his tracks. After the failure of the coup attempt became obvious, Fromm ordered the shooting of people who could testify about his hesitations, i.e. Stauffenberg and Olbricht. Quirnheim and Heften were included in the company.

General Fromm. Shot a group of conspirators on the night of July 20-21. But that didn't help him. He was shot on March 12, 1945.

Unfortunately, the conspirators in Berlin did not have enough strength and skill to carry out a coup. Although if Hitler had died, everything could have turned out differently. In Paris, the rebellion was carried out successfully - General Stülpnagel arrested all 1,200 SS officers and soldiers. But in Berlin by evening the conspiracy was suppressed. Hitler executed 5,000 people during 1944-45. The Nazis were simply shocked that they had missed such a vast conspiracy under their noses.

I shared with you the information that I “dug up” and systematized. At the same time, he is not at all impoverished and is ready to share further, at least twice a week.

If you find errors or inaccuracies in the article, please let us know. My e-mail address: [email protected] . I will be very grateful.

A.R.M.

SLUPPED

The bomb was English. It looked like a thick piece of cardboard and just fit inside a folder. To activate the chemical fuse, an ampoule of acid had to be crushed with tongs, which Claus von Stauffenberg did before entering the barracks, where the meeting had already begun. Having modestly and with dignity responded to the Fuhrer’s heartfelt greeting, he arranged his briefcase closer to the idol of German youth, inattentively listened for a couple of minutes to the report of the head of the operational department of the OKH headquarters, Heusinger, after which, quietly apologizing for the need to take an urgent call from Berlin, he glanced one last time at the dead man standing over the cards and left the mined room. A few minutes later there was a powerful explosion. The walls of the barracks were twisted, the shutters were torn out, the roof was torn apart, and the burnt ceilings fell on the meeting participants. The living and the dying were enveloped in thick, acrid smoke. It was 12 hours 42 minutes.
According to von Stauffenberg himself to other participants in the conspiracy, he, along with his adjutant (and accomplice) Werner von Haften, waited outside until the moment of the explosion, and then... No, the freshly minted terrorists did not run away immediately, they retreated only after they witnessed a sad sight - some people were carrying somewhere what was left of Adolf Hitler... And only then did they leave the orphaned Wolfschanze and, having slipped through the triple security ring in their car, flew from the local airfield to Berlin. After a three-hour flight from East Prussia, Stauffenberg (according to other sources, it was Haften) contacted the OKW headquarters by telephone from the Rangsdorf airfield and, in response to General Olbricht’s question, is Hitler dead? – answered in the affirmative. The question was not idle: the head of OKW communications and an active participant in the conspiracy, General Felgiebel, only managed to inform Olbricht: “A terrible tragedy has occurred... Hitler is alive!”, when his communication channel was intercepted by the SS men and the tragic message was cut off mid-sentence. According to the plan of the operation, General Felgiebel was supposed to confirm the fact of Hitler’s death, after which the connection between Rostenburg (Hitler’s headquarters) and the rest of the world was supposed to be interrupted. She interrupted, but not at all with the message that General Olbricht was expecting. For more than three hours the general was tormented by the eternal Russian question: “What to do?” and didn't do anything! What was happening was reminiscent of a bad dream - incoherent, illogical! Felgiebel's words reported the failure of the assassination attempt on Hitler, but the actions - cutting off communications with Wolfschanze - said the opposite: the Fuhrer's headquarters was cut off from the outside world, Operation Valkyrie should begin! The troops should be alerted, they should be used to crush the resistance of the SS and the opposition of the party structures, but how can this be decided if “the Fuhrer is alive”?! General Olbricht was brought out of his prostration only by a call from Stauffenberg (or Haften?) and Operation Valkyrie began, not shaky, not slowly, with more than three hours of delay. 45 minutes later, Olbricht was joined by Stauffenberg and Haften, who had arrived on Bendlerstrasse, and just as things began to improve, the commander of the Reserve Army, General Fromm, intervened, demanding an end to the outrages in the institution entrusted to him and, in a fatherly manner, inviting Colonel Stauffenberg to shoot himself! For the nervous Olbricht and Stauffenberg, this was too much! The cantankerous old man had to be disarmed and isolated. This, and even the luck that accompanied the conspirators in the city of Paris, were, in essence, the only gratifying moments in the entire epic to overthrow the satanic regime - due to the saboteurs entrenched in the lower headquarters, everything else was a lot of turmoil and little use. The rebels captured the Berlin radio station, but the message about the death of Hitler and the formation, on this occasion, of a new government of Germany, planned for 6 pm, did not go on air - the radio station was famously recaptured by the SS. But, at 6.30 pm, Goebbels’ message was heard on the radio that an attempt had been made on the Fuhrer, but, fortunately, he was alive and almost healthy. For the hesitant military, this news served as a cold, sobering shower. At 8 pm, commands were transmitted by teletype to all commanders canceling orders from Berlin. Instead of General Fromm, locked by the rioters in a room next to his own office, the shell-shocked Fuhrer appointed Heinrich Himmler as commander of the Reserve Army. He was entrusted with responsibility for the security of the Reich. Colonel Roemer and his battalion were sent to the headquarters of the conspirators (OKW building on Bendlerstrasse) to make arrests and establish iron military order (even in the morning, before the telephone conversation with Hitler - Major) Roemer. The matter was moving towards a denouement... This is how the famous English popular historian Allan Bullock describes it:
“The position of the group of conspirators on Wendlerstrasse was now hopeless. During the evening, a group of officers loyal to Hitler, who had previously been placed under arrest, broke out of custody, freed General Fromm and disarmed the conspirators. Fromm's own behavior had previously been ambiguous, and he now sought to show zeal and devotion, freeing himself from those who could compromise him. When troops arrived to arrest the conspirators, Fromm ordered von Stauffenberg, Olbricht and two other officers to be shot in the courtyard, where they were executed by the light of an armored car's headlights. Beck was allowed to commit suicide. Fromm was prevented from finishing off the rest only by the arrival of Kaltenbrunner, Himmler’s chief assistant, who was much more interested in finding out what the survivors had to say than in shooting them on the spot when the putsch had already failed.” ("Hitler and Stalin")

As an extremely scrupulous person, I cannot help but report that the figures I cited above are disputed. Some authors provide other information: 200 executed and 5-7 thousand imprisoned in prisons and camps. It is also reported that von Stauffenberg’s relatives were not shot, but only arrested, which, however, does not fit well with the speech Heinrich Himmler made to the Gauleiters. The exact number of those repressed has nothing to do with the essence of the research I am conducting - I just want to emphasize that the number of those involved in one way or another in the July coup runs into many thousands. Now let's think about it...
It is unlikely that there will be many people who regard the Security Service of Nazi Germany as something frivolous, capable only of providing food for jokes about the handsome Stirlitz and the handsome Müller. The Gestapo (unlike the NKVD) was never accused of bullshit, hack work, falsifying investigative cases, working on indicators handed down from above, or spreading rot on the innocent and uninvolved - in any case, I don’t know about anything like that. By all accounts, it is a serious, very serious organization. A huge, very extensive network of informants, professional investigators who are no strangers to analytics. In other words, those thousands and thousands who were arrested as conspirators actually had something to do with the putsch. There were either no random people among them, or only a few. And from all this follows an extremely bleak fact for Messrs. Müller, Kaltenbrunner and Himmler: the all-pervasive, omnipresent, ultra-reliable network of informants failed, almost leading these comrades and their department to disaster! A resounding failure! Unthinkable! Incredible! Simply killer! For Hitler - it’s almost literally! The putsch was crushed, but if the Fuhrer had died in the explosion and his (the putsch, of course) chances of success would have increased exponentially! But even if the rebellion failed, the future of the above-mentioned gentlemen did not look rosy - what would Hitler’s successor, Goering, this bull, whose predecessor was turned into a red rag, into bloody rags, do with the entire far from holy trinity? It's not hard to guess. Not only the shoulder straps and braid would fly off. How could Himmler (and he is fully responsible for both the actions and inactions of his subordinates) set himself up like that? But the SS was initially created as a security structure precisely to protect the party leadership of the NSDAP (primarily Adolf Hitler), which over time turned into a counterweight to the SA, an organization of stormtroopers. The confrontation between both structures ended in the “night of long knives” - the beating of the leaders of the “brown” movement, led by its leader Ernst Rehm, who was accused of preparing an armed rebellion. Question: who, after the defeat of the SA, had the potential sufficient to seize and maintain power in Germany? Choice: veterinary service? Society of Philatelists and Numismatists? 1936 Olympic team? Funny? But certainly among veterinarians, and among philatelists, and among athletes, voluntary assistants to law enforcement agencies and full-time Gestapo employees grazed like horses in a meadow! Weren't there any among the military? A funny incident: on December 18, 1940, Mr. Hitler signed Directive No. 21. 11 days later, on the eve of the new year, 1941, the Barbarossa plan (already in Russian translation) lay on Comrade Stalin’s desk. Two days later, Generals D. Pavlov and G. Zhukov conducted a war game, taking into account the main provisions of the most secret document stolen from the German command. Those. at the very time when most of Hitler’s generals were still just whispering about the existence of, supposedly, a plan for war in the East and, in great secrecy, conveying to each other the name of Friedrich the Red, their Soviet colleagues were in full swing destroying the virtual armies of the “blues” on headquarters maps in Moscow! Can you imagine the level and position of a Russian agent in the military hierarchy of the Reich?! What a Stirlitz! And the SD, it turns out, was just walking around and licking its lips at the Wehrmacht... In the structure where the “moles” of all the world’s leading intelligence services comfortably settled down, there was no place for Mr. Himmler’s wards alone! I cried...
And now seriously: it was the Wehrmacht that was the main concern and object of close attention of Heinrich Himmler. No other area of ​​activity of the structures subordinate to him was as important as the work to identify potential opponents of the regime among the military. Himmler never trusted the military. And how else could the head of the “combat detachment of the party” relate to a non-party organization that has clearly distanced itself from politics? Himmler generally considered the apolitical Wehrmacht an anachronism, which should be replaced by the National Socialist armed forces - the Waffen SS. Essentially, with regard to the Wehrmacht, the SS followed the same line as against the SA, only with a lag of ten years.
Apparently, the military (like Rem’s stormtroopers before them) were no strangers.
“On January 12, 1942, Walter von Reichenau, despite the frost, went for his usual morning jog over rough terrain, several miles long. A little later, in the officers' mess, he suffered a severe heart attack and lost consciousness. On January 17, he, who never regained consciousness, was tied to an airplane seat and sent to Leipzig, where a team of famous doctors was already waiting. On the way, the plane had an accident, and Reichenau received, among other things, a serious head injury. Why he died, from a skull injury or a heart attack, is unclear and unimportant. The important thing is that when he was taken to Leipzig on the evening of January 17, he was already dead.” (Mitchum Jr., Samuel William; Jean Muller COMMANDERS OF THE THIRD REICH)
Here it is: in the morning he ran like a horse across rough terrain and was cheerful and healthy, but he went into the officers’ mess - and then what happened to him! He bit something, swallowed it, and didn’t even realize when the Devil grabbed his armpits! And what a field marshal he was! Decisive, smart, lucky! One problem - a Nazi! Convinced. A white (one can argue about the color) crow among the gray ones. The Wehrmacht did not favor such people. Bad things have happened to people like that...
But, let's return to our sheep. To Himmler and his people, who in the headquarters corridors looked for and sniffed out treason, but never found it. Could it be that the military conspiracy bypassed them, went around the bar like a soccer ball? No. This couldn't happen. Because it couldn’t be that the secret informant had a reputation that Savonarola would envy! Because he speaks openly and honestly about things that are scary for others to even think about! Because he’s one of the best, this freethinker and Voltairian! Put yourself in the place of a conspirator: among whom would you look for like-minded people? Among those who scold Hitler and the regime or those who remain silent? Among honest and brave guys or among the gray mass of conformist compromisers? You don't have to answer. And so it is clear.
It is difficult to be sympathetic to Himmler, but one should still pay tribute to his intelligence and foresight. And if we understand that while the army is winning victories, then let other governments be afraid of it, and when it suffers defeats, its own should be afraid, then Himmler understood this very well. And he had to double and triple his vigilance when the series of Wehrmacht successes gave way to a streak of failures. From all of the above, one single conclusion can be drawn: Himmler knew about the military conspiracy.

And now about the Fuhrer’s favorite, who planted a “pig” in his briefcase for his boss, about Claus von Stauffenberg: count, disabled (after being seriously wounded in Tunisia he lost an eye, right hand and two fingers on his left), chief of staff of the Reserve Army, thirty-seven years old and I don't seem to be a fool. And, it seems, he should have understood that the fate of thousands of his fellow conspirators, the fate of Germany and his own depended on how successful the assassination attempt on Hitler was. They say that the force of the bomb's charge was insufficient, that if the explosion had occurred not in a light barracks, but in an underground bunker, Hitler's song would have been sung. But, as if Klaus Schenck was not a boy, and had every opportunity to slip a double charge under the Fuhrer (the second, unused bomb was thrown out by Stauffenberg and Haften on the way back from Wolfschanze), and, having learned that the meeting would not be held in the bunker, and in the barracks, he could postpone (as he had already done on July 11 and 15) his patriotic act until a better opportunity. But the count considered the charge power sufficient and the change of places unimportant. And indeed, a kilogram of hexite, a very powerful explosive, is serious! The RGD grenade, for example, contains only 75 grams of explosive less powerful than hexite, but so far no one has complained. The force of the explosion, which occurred one and a half meters (!) (official message) from the Fuhrer, in terms of its high-explosive effect, was equal to the force of the simultaneous detonation of 15 (!) grenades... It would have been enough for a mature medium-sized bear! But our Adolf Hitler was not like that!
. “Everyone who stood at the end of the table where von Stauffenberg placed the briefcase was either killed or seriously wounded. Hitler was saved partly by the top of the table and partly by the heavy wooden support of the table, to which von Stauffenberg pushed his briefcase.” (A. Bullock)
I wonder if it was the fucking Fuhrer himself who left such memories of himself, or if those who were at the meeting were looking closely - would Hitler lean on the table top at the moment of the explosion or would he lean back? The “top of the table” didn’t save any of his neighbors, but covered him! And the “heavy wooden support” acted just as selectively! You can blame the hapless von Stauffenberg, but let's not forget that Hitler had fate and an indestructible oak table on his side! “Everyone who stood at the end of the table where von Stauffenberg placed the briefcase was either killed or seriously wounded” - these are the key words! One Hitler, like the prophet Daniel, emerged from the flames in burnt trousers, with slight burns (the skin turned red!) and scratches, slightly deaf, but so healthy that he preferred a trip to a meeting with Benito Mussolini to bed rest... Five people were in the zone of greatest impact of the explosion - four were killed, the fifth did not receive any fractures, lacerations, severe burns, or damage to internal organs! 20% of the total luck went entirely to the Fuhrer. But Klaus Schenk himself was extremely lucky! All exits from Wolfschanze were blocked at 12.45, i.e. already three minutes after the explosion, but Stauffenberg managed, by some miracle, to slip through all three (!) security rings and fly to Berlin! How could it happen that in front of a little-known colonel (not Field Marshal Keitel, not Reichsmarshal Goering or Party Genosse Bormann), contrary to the received order, the barriers at all SS posts were raised one after another? And this at the same time when the head of communications of the OKW, General Felgibel, was taken by the throat in his own enterprise, which was not accountable to any SD! As they say - feel the difference!

A few words about Koshchei the Immortal, about our fabulous Hitler Adolf: after the explosion, he himself, they say, got up, joked about ruined trousers and went up for air... However, if someone thinks that the emergency in the barracks passed almost without a trace for the Fuhrer, then it will be greatly will be wrong! The explosion, without causing much harm to the physical shell of Adolf Hitler, had a strong and extremely destructive effect on the previous views and habits of the victim. Until July 20, 1944, he could not stand the sight of corpses, after which every evening he admired the scenes of the execution of the conspirators, captured especially for him on film in Plötzensee prison. And the desktop was decorated with a group photo of the executed.
“Hitler’s mental trauma was stronger than the injury he received. The deep-rooted distrust of people in general, and of the General Staff and generals in particular, characteristic of his character, has now turned into hatred. Due to his illness, which imperceptibly leads to a revaluation of moral concepts in the human psyche, rudeness turned into cruelty, a tendency to bluff into deceit. He often told lies without noticing it himself (!), and assumed in advance that people were deceiving him. He didn't trust anyone. Conversations, which had previously been very difficult to conduct with him, now became real torture. He often lost his composure and was not aware of his expressions.”
“His peace of mind was forever disrupted. All the evil spirits that lived in his soul came out. There was no restraint on his actions." (G. Guderian. “Memoirs of a Soldier”)
Evil spirits have come in - they don’t cut off the heads of the convicts, they are slowly crushed with a string! The satanic thing burst out - I had never been a sugarcoat, but I had not yet descended to the point of cutting out the families of enemies at the root. And he didn’t drag the dead out of the ground for fun. Something wrong happened to his mental balance - before our eyes he turned into an evil hyena, bared his teeth, hunched over... How the national leader was replaced... So I think - how?

“After the failure of the Beer Hall Putsch in 1923, Adolf Hitler was arrested. During his arrest, as expected, his fingerprints were taken, and thus criminologists have reliable samples. These prints match those found on Reich Chancellery documents intended for Hitler, but only on those dated before July 20, 1944. After this date, there are no fingerprints of the Fuhrer on the documents! There are others, repeating themselves all the time.” (Operation Valkyrie. Unknown)
These are the results of research by Munich forensic historian Werner Schulz conducted in 1993. Perhaps it's a "duck". Perhaps the samples of Adolf Hitler’s signature that I happened to see are a blatant fake: before 1944 it was the handwriting of one person, in 1944 and 1945 it was completely different.
And reports that after the assassination attempt Hitler had an adjutant who skillfully reproduced the Fuhrer’s signature on documents, so his hand was shaking, may not correspond to reality. Anything is possible. Doubt is the midwife of truth. But, eleven years ago, not knowing anything like that, I was already convinced: on July 20, 1944, Adolf Hitler was killed.

Germany was heading towards disaster. After the defeat of Group Center and the Allied landings in Normandy, the question of victory was no longer raised. The question was: what kind of defeat would it be? Will this be a defeat, after which the majestic building of Germany will turn into smoking ruins, or will there be a new Versailles, albeit difficult, albeit humiliating, but salutary for a country no longer capable of winning? With Hitler and his regime, Germany was not on its way - long gone were the days when the Fuhrer dragged it uphill, but now he was dragging it downhill... It was time to put an end to this, it was time to separate the German people from their leaders, like wheat from chaff... For Germany to stay, Hitler had to go! Make room for those with whom the winners agree to negotiate! To those who will tell them: “You said that you are waging a war not against the people of Germany, but against Hitler and Hitlerism? Are you ready to repeat your words now that Hitler and Hitlerism have been torn out of Germany?” This is what the military thought, believing that service to Germany and loyalty to its ruling regime were not the same thing.
How and what Hitler thought we may never know. But we can guess. To do this, we should discard everything that happened after July 20, 1944 and focus on what happened before... Review the entire life path of this person and decide what he was like. Perdue. A mediocre artist, not alien to pastoral, typically German sentimentality. A mediocre, boring and verbose writer. Nationalist. A talented speaker and enterprising politician. Man poses. Artistic. Almost completely devoid of a sense of humor. Convinced of his own chosenness. Strong will. Great intuition. Decisive, prone to adventurism. Lack of strong attachments, family and friends. In general, a vinaigrette of qualities and disadvantages! But what is most important here, and what can be neglected as external and superficial? You can agree with me or not, but, in my opinion, the main thing about Hitler is his fatalism! The rest is from the evil one! This man entrusted himself to Providence. His path is predetermined. The failures of youth are only a way to strengthen the will, to prepare it for the unknown and inevitable. Such a person stands on the ground with only one foot. Such a person is alien to the fear of death, confident that he will not die without completing his mission. He is lonely, because his path is for one. Vain, earthly things are dust under his feet. It's almost sacred. He is a hero and a victim rolled into one. He is not of this world. And so, his path ended - there, in the snow near Moscow, for the first time he realized with surprise that he had begun to wander... He still did not want to give up, he still tried to convince himself that everything would work out, but every time he was convinced that he was lying to himself... He passed his peak and did not find the strength to return. And he looked back, and saw Alexander, whose power had collapsed, and saw Genghis Khan, the fruits of whose bloody labors crumbled into dust, and saw Napoleon, who signed the abdication... He remembered Versailles, which became a springboard for his own rise, and indignantly drove away thought that his whole fate was, perhaps, just running in a circle, and he was returning to what he was trying to get away from... And he remembered himself as a young man, and remembered thoughts about death, so inherent in youth - death is always heroic, filled with lofty pathos and deep meaning! He will not allow a new Versailles! If this requires his life, he will give it! Germany, his wife, his child will live! He will transfer power to the military and leave, but he will leave only after he receives firm guarantees that his sacrifice will not be in vain...

The von Stauffenberg bomb was British. Moreover, she was extremely unusual. The person who made it gave it the appearance and shape of a piece of cardboard, and adjusted the size to fit the format of a standard paper folder. In other words, it was created for a specific situation: von Stauffenberg smuggles it to the Fuhrer’s headquarters in his briefcase, hiding it among confidential documents, switches the fuse to the firing position, then - according to the situation... And from this, in turn, it follows that the British were involved into the conspiracy, knew about its purpose and, therefore, to one degree or another shared the views of its organizers regarding the fate of Germany and Europe after Hitler. The piquancy of the situation was that Soviet intelligence did not sit idly by, and it, dear one, was approaching the body of Adolf Aloizovich from its side, but Joseph Vissarionovich, being of sound mind and good memory, strictly forbade any attempt on the life of the head of the hated regime. And it’s not a matter of Comrade Stalin’s particular scrupulousness (where was she when the future Hero of the Soviet Union Ramon Mercader stuck an ice ax into the crown of Lev Davidovich Trotsky?), It’s a matter of simple foresight and a correct assessment of the political situation: what will happen to the anti-Hitler coalition when Hitler gives up ? German industrialists will always be able to come to an agreement with British and American industrialists. Protestants in Germany can easily find a common language with Protestants in Great Britain and the USA. Anti-communists on both sides will merge in ecstasy. And what should the atheists and the unmercenaries, red and ugly, do on this holiday? Keep smashing plates? No... Stalin needed Hitler, simply needed him! And Churchill, this “greatest hater of Soviet Russia”, according to Comrade Lenin’s definition, was not needed? And he was not needed precisely at the moment when the Red Army reached the borders of Poland and Romania? Very nice, isn't it?

...Colonel von Stauffenberg came out of the barracks where the meeting had begun a few minutes ago. Without your portfolio. There is very little time left to wait. Have you forgotten anything? No, everything is okay! A stretcher with a man in it who looks exactly like Hitler. His face is scratched, his hair is singed, his clothes, exactly the same as the Fuhrer is now wearing, are torn and burned in many places. I especially liked the trousers. A man is wearing custom-made orthopedic shoes. A tarpaulin covers it from above. Everything is clean here. What else? The group’s actions are practiced to the point of automaticity. The guys work with the precision of a Swiss watch. As soon as the explosion thunders, they will rush to the barracks - one in front, the other two, with a stretcher, behind. Following them, a cover group will fan out - its task is to cut off outsiders, insuring the departure of those three when they return, replacing the one who looks like Hitler with the one who was... Now this is all going to happen - an explosion, clouds of dust, puffs smoke, falling beams... Tens of meters to the place where the Fuhrer now stands. You need to go through them in one jerk, find HIM, put a stretcher next to him, help a very similar person get out of them, and put THAT in his place... For everything - seconds, for the whole operation - less than a minute. Everyone at the other end of the table will either be dead or seriously wounded. A little later, Blondie will be taken out of the enclosure and carefully shot with a pistol with a silencer. The guard returns from a walk, leading another dog... Explosion! Went! Went…

“Among the smoke and general confusion, guards scurrying back and forth and the cries of the wounded coming from inside the doors, covered in dust, staggering, Hitler came out with singed hair, his right hand hanging lifelessly, a burnt leg, a falling beam hit him in the back, and, as It turned out that both his eardrums were damaged from the explosion. But he was alive."
“Despite the severe shock, Hitler looked surprisingly calm and appeared on the station platform in the afternoon to meet Mussolini. Apart from the motionless hand hanging, nothing spoke of what had happened, and Mussolini's account of what happened was very restrained.
As soon as they arrived at Hitler's headquarters, Hitler's first duty was to show Mussolini the remains of the deliberation room. Reliving the whole situation, he became more and more excited: “Today, after my miraculous salvation, I am more confident than ever that I am destined to bring our common cause to a successful conclusion.” Nodding his head, Mussolini could only agree: “After what I saw here, I absolutely agree with you. This is a sign from above." (A. Bullock)

Mussolini could only agree... Hitler, holy man! True, he doesn’t walk on water yet, but he’s already coldly indifferent to all sorts of explosions... And his “burnt” leg doesn’t bother him, and his “damaged” eardrums don’t interfere with communication with the shocked Duce... Let the guest look at the miraculous support of the table, let him look at the God-protected oak tabletop! Pinch off a piece of both for Benito - Italians love this kind of thing... Miracle! A true miracle! But let's move on...

“In a state of exaltation, Hitler and Mussolini went to Hitler’s personal apartments, where a group excited by what had happened gathered for tea. Göring, Ribbentrop and Dönitz joined Keitel and Jodl, and mutual recriminations began over who was most responsible for the war. Hitler sat with Mussolini in the middle, quietly observing the scene, until someone mentioned the Röhm "plot" of 1934. Suddenly jumping up from his seat in a rage, Hitler began shouting that he would take revenge on everyone, that Providence had chosen him to make history, and anyone who stood in the way would be destroyed. This went on for about half an hour.” (Ibid.)

Yes... “Hitler” had considerable talent for improvisation! Half an hour of curses interspersed with odes to oneself - this is serious! You can’t prepare this in advance! This can only be said from the heart! And not very healthy. I wonder where Heinrich Himmler dug up such a “miracle”? It's interesting, isn't it?

“Dr. Mengele was particularly interested in twins. In 1943, Mengele selected twins from among those arriving at the camp and placed them in special barracks. Out of 3 thousand twins, only 300 survived. Among his experiments were attempts to change the color of a child’s eyes by injecting various chemicals into the eyes...” (Wikipedia)

Experiments on the twins continued in the spring of 1944. Their blood was taken, measurements were taken, they were examined. The purpose of the experiments remained unclear - the program was strictly classified. SS-Hauptsturmführer Josef Mengele, known as the “Angel of Death,” took this secret with him. Whether experiments on twins have anything to do with our “client” is impossible to say for sure, but the timing of Dr. Mengele’s special interest in this particular category of Auschwitz prisoners suggests some thoughts. He was a serious... man.

The very behavior of “Hitler” bears little resemblance to the actions of a simple puppet in the wrong hands. Active. Too active and too independent at the end of his short career. He did not demonstrate dependence on the Reichsführer Himmler, which would inevitably manifest itself in a person who only superficially resembled Hitler. He just didn’t interfere with Himmler in his affairs and only... No, this is different!.. Here is a conviction in one’s own exclusive role, in one’s SPECIALITY and INVOLVEMENT! Hitler, the real Hitler, did not have a twin brother, but he did have other relatives. Growing up in the same linguistic environment as the Fuhrer. And if I were Heinrich Himmler, it would be among the “chief’s” relatives that I would look for a replacement for him...

Slouchy (and the man who played the role of the Fuhrer was very stooped) was not in good health... He, “having suffered from the explosion,” surprisingly soon, according to Heinz Guderian, “recovered from it very quickly.” But after a few months it turned into a complete ruin. Into ruins. The commander of the defense of Berlin, General Weidling (the same one whom “Hitler”, knowing by his last name, did not recognize during a personal meeting):
“The sight of the Fuhrer struck me. He became a wreck: his head hung limply, his hands trembled, he muttered something inaudibly.”
An anonymous note from a staff officer: “This was a man who knew that he had lost the game and no longer had the strength to hide it. Physically, Hitler was a terrible picture: he moved with difficulty and awkwardly, throwing his upper body forward, dragging his legs... He could hardly maintain his balance. His left hand did not obey him, and his right hand was constantly trembling... Hitler's eyes were bloodshot. Saliva dripped from the corners of his lips - a pitiful and disgusting picture.”

Yes... Stooped was not a handsome man in the last days of his life. The unbearable burden of power and the use of psychotropic drugs (which helped him stay in shape at first) led to the complete collapse of his personality. To decay. He looked even worse after death: Stalin definitely did not like his corpse. And Comrade Stalin is easy to understand - Joseph Vissarionovich was interested in Adolf Hitler himself, and not in his charred, terrible, disgusting and pathetic caricature...

“Grif: “Very quickly, top secret.” Inscribed in the hand of Stalin’s secretary Poskrebyshev:
“From Comrade Zhukov." "To Comrade Stalin
At the 8th Guards Army sector, the Chief of the General Staff of the Ground Forces, Infantry General KREPS, appeared and stated the following:
1. 30.4. at 15.50 Berlin time, Hitler committed suicide...” (63).
A lot has been written about this famous mission of General Krebs (in the document he is mistakenly called Kreps), including by me. Krebs brought a letter signed by Goebbels and Bormann and offering Stalin not capitulation, but negotiations. He gave the letter to Chuikov, who immediately forwarded it to Zhukov. The recording “To Stalin personally from Zhukov” was dictated via HF and received at 5:05 am. Following this, the full text of the Goebbels-Bormann documents was dictated over the phone. At 10 o’clock the following message was received from Zhukov (again with an inscription in Poskrebyshev’s hand) with the text of the document brought by Krebs (63):
"Berlin. April 30, Imperial Chancellery.
Message:
We authorize the Chief of the General Staff of the Army, General of Infantry Krebs, to transmit the following message:
I inform the leader of the Soviet peoples, as the first non-German, that today is April 30, 1945. at 15.50 the leader of the German people Adolf Hitler committed suicide..."
There followed a long text of the message from Goebbels and Bormann and an addition from Zhukov outlining the questions asked of Krebs. When asked where Hitler’s body was buried, “Krebs replied that Hitler shot himself in Berlin, and the corpse was burned in accordance with the will of 30.4.45.” (Bezymensky L.A. Operation "Myth", or How many times Hitler was buried.)

On May 4, 1945, in the garden of the Reich Chancellery, the SMERSH search group of the 3rd Shock Army found two burnt corpses in a bomb crater, and the next day they seized two burned corpses - a man and a woman. In the same crater, but deeper, the bodies of two dogs were found... The corpses of a man and a woman were identified by personal guard soldier Gary Mengershausen as the remains of Adolf and Eva Hitler (nee Braun).

“But even greater luck - real military luck - fell to the lot of three officers of the 3rd Shock Army: Colonel Vasily Gorbushin, Major Boris Bystrov and Senior Lieutenant Elena Kagan. It was thanks to them that they were able to delve into the mystery of the corpses found in the garden of the imperial chancellery. Luck, blind chance? Not only. For, setting out on the morning of May 9, 1945 in an unfamiliar city to search for possible witnesses, Gorbushin made the right decision: we must look for them among the doctors. According to reference data, it was known that in the center of Berlin there is the famous Charite clinic, known throughout the world. Gorbushin, Bystrov and Kagan quickly found the Charite, and in it - the otolaryngologist von Aiken, who, firstly, used Hitler and, secondly, gave the name and address of the dentist Blaschke, and yet Gorbushin already had dentures in the box and the jaws of Hitler and Brown.
Rare luck! On Kurfürstendamm, where Blaschke practiced, the three were even more fortunate: they found Blaschke’s assistant Käthe Heusermann, who described the teeth of her patients in the most accurate way, which was then confirmed by the dental technician Fritz Echtmann, who made the dentures.” (Ibid.)

As if everything was confirmed - the burned corpses really belonged to Adolf Hitler and Eva Hitler (Brown). But, back on May 8, i.e. The day before, a forensic medical examination was carried out, which established the following:

"ACT No. 12
forensic examination of the burned corpse of a man (presumably Hitler's corpse).
May 8, 1945, city of Berlin - Buch. Mortuary of KhPPG No. 496.
A commission consisting of the Chief Forensic Expert F.I. Shkaravsky, the Chief Pathologist of the Red Army Lieutenant Colonel of the Medical Service N.A. Kraevsky, Acting Chief pathologist of the 1st Belorussian Front, Major of the Medical Service Marants A.Ya., Army Forensic Medical Officer. expert of the 3rd Shock Army, Major of the Medical Service Boguslavsky Yu.I. and army pathologist of the 3rd Shock Army, Major of the Medical Service Gulkevich Yu.V. on the orders of a member of the Military Council of the 1st Belorussian Front, Lieutenant General Telegin, on May 3, 1945, she carried out a forensic medical examination of the corpse of a man (presumably the corpse of Hitler).
The study revealed:
A. External inspection
The remains of a burnt corpse of a man were delivered in a wooden box 163 cm long, 55 cm wide and 53 cm high. A piece of knitted fabric measuring 25 x $ cm, yellowish in color, similar to a knitted shirt, was found on the corpse, burnt at the edges.
Due to the fact that the corpse was burned, it is difficult to judge the age, we can assume that the age was about 50-60 years, his height was 165 cm (the measurement is inaccurate due to charring of tissue), the length of the right tibia was 39 cm. The corpse was largely charred, it smells like burnt meat. The skull cap is partially missing; parts of the occipital bone, the left temporal bone, the lower part of the zygomatic and nasal bones, as well as the upper and lower jaws are preserved. The right side of the skull was burned more than the left. Parts of the burnt brain and dura mater are visible inside the skull. There is no skin on the face and torso; only remnants of charred muscles remained. There are multiple small cracks in the nasal bones and upper jaw bones. The tongue is charred, its tip is tightly compressed between the teeth of the upper and lower jaws. The 9 teeth of the upper jaw are a single yellow-metal (gold) bridge, which is supported by pins of the 2nd left and 2nd right incisors. This bridge has 4 upper incisors (2j1JL1L2), 2 canines (3j) (L3), left first molar (1-4), 1 and 2 small molars on the right (4jsJ) (see diagram). The left 1st incisor (1-1) is a white dental plate with cracks and a black enamel defect at the bottom, which is inserted from the front into a metal (gold) tooth, the 2nd incisor, canine and 1st molar on the left, as well as 7 /2 incisors and the 1st small molar on the right are ordinary enamel dental plates, fixed in their posterior part on the basis of the bridge. The right canine has a solid yellow-metallic (gold) crown. The bridge of the upper jaw on the left behind the 2nd molar (L4) is sawn vertically. The lower jaw lies free in the burnt oral cavity. The posterior parts of its alveolar processes have a pointed fracture surface. The bone plate of the lower jaw is charred on the anterior surface of the lower edge. The charred tips of the tooth roots are also visible on its front surface. The lower jaw has 15 teeth, of which 10 are artificial (2J iJLlL 2) and the first (4J) right small molar is natural with a significantly worn chewing surface and an exposed neck of the crown. The enamel of the teeth has a bluish tint, and the neck is dirty yellow, the 4th, 5th, 7th and 8th left teeth are artificial, hinged, yellow-metallic (gold), they represent a single bridge of gold crowns fixed on 3rd, 5th (on the bridge of the 6th) and 8th (on the bridge of the 9th) teeth. The 2nd right small molar (5) is covered with a yellow-metallic (gold) crown connected by an arched plate-plate to the right canine (3). Part of the chewing and posterior surface of the right canine is covered with a yellow-metallic (golden) bridge plate. The 1st right molar is artificial, white, mounted on a gold base connected to the bridge of the second molar and the right incisor.
Pieces of glass were found in the mouth, forming part of the walls and bottom of a thin-walled ampoule. The neck muscles are charred, the ribs on the right are missing, burnt out. The right side of the chest and abdomen are burned out, and the right lung, liver and intestines are visible through the resulting holes. The penis was charred; only the right testicle was found in the burnt but preserved scrotum. Along the inguinal canal, the left testicle was not found. The right arm was significantly burned, the ends of the broken bones of the shoulder and forearm were charred. The muscles are black and in places brown, dry, and disintegrate into individual fibers when touched. Remains of the charred upper two-thirds of the left shoulder remain; the free end of the humerus is charred and protrudes from the dry soft tissue. Both legs are also charred, soft tissue is missing in many places, burned and fell off. The bones were burnt and broken. There is a fracture of the right femur and right tibia. The left foot is missing.
B. Internal inspection
The location of the internal organs is correct. The lungs are black on top, dark red when cut, and have a dense consistency. The mucous membrane of the upper respiratory tract is dark red. The cavities of the heart are filled with dried red-brown blood. The heart muscle is dense and has the appearance of boiled meat. The liver is black, burnt on top, of a dense consistency, yellow-gray when cut. The buds are of reduced size - 9x5x5.5 cm. The capsule is easily removed, their surface is smooth; the drawing is blurry. The kidneys have a boiled appearance. The bladder contains 5 cubes of yellowish urine. The mucous membrane of the bladder is gray. The spleen, stomach and intestines are burnt, almost black in places.
Note: 1. The following items recovered from the corpse were transferred to the SMERSH department of the 3rd Shock Army on 8.5.45:
a) yellow-metal bridge of the upper jaw with 9 teeth.
b) burnt lower jaw with 15 teeth.
2. From the protocol of interrogation of citizen Goiserman (83.1) Käthe, it can be assumed that the teeth and bridge described in the report belong to Reich Chancellor Hitler.
3. Gr. Goizerman Kethe, in a conversation with the chief forensic expert of the front, Lieutenant Colonel Shkaravsky, which took place on May 11, 1945 (83.2) in KhPG No. 496, described in detail the condition of Hitler’s teeth. Her description coincides with the anatomical data of the oral cavity of the burnt unknown man we opened.
Appendix: Attached to the report is a test tube with pieces of a glass ampoule found in the mouth of a corpse (83.3).
Conclusion:
Based on the results of a forensic medical examination of the burnt corpse of an unknown man and the results of examination of other corpses of this group (acts No. 1-11), the commission comes to the following conclusions:
1. Anatomical characteristics of the corpse
Due to the significant charring of the body, it is not possible to describe the appearance of the deceased, but the following can still be noted:
a) Height is about 165 centimeters (one hundred and sixty-five).
b) Age (in terms of general development, the size of the organs, the condition of the lower incisors and the right small molar) ranges from 50-60 years (fifty to sixty).
c) The left testicle was not found in the scrotum and along the spermatic canal in the inguinal canal and pelvis.
d) The main anatomical finding that can be used to identify a person is the jaws with a large number of artificial dental bridges, crowns and fillings (see report).
2. Cause of death
There were no visible signs of severe fatal injuries or illnesses on the body, which had been significantly altered by the fire.
The presence of remains of a crushed glass ampoule in the oral cavity, the presence of the same ampoules in the oral cavity of other corpses (see reports No. 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 13), a clear smell of bitter almonds from corpses (reports No. 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11) and the results of a forensic chemical examination of entrails with the detection of cyanide compounds (reports No. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 , 9, 10, 11) allow the commission to come to the conclusion that in this case death occurred as a result of poisoning with cyanide compounds (83.4).”
Of the anatomical characteristics of a male corpse, points “a” and “c” deserve special attention. Here is what Lev Aleksandrovich Bezymensky writes about point “c”:
“When I published the act in 1968, a front of skeptics quickly formed. The most respectable of them was Professor Werner Maser, a famous specialist and author of a biography of Hitler. Mather questioned not so much the act itself as the identification of the autopsy body. His main objection concerned the presence of one testicle (cryptorchidism), established by Shkaravsky. Indeed, doctors often examined Hitler without identifying any abnormalities. But they could, out of reverence for the patient, not record cryptorchidism, since this property did not infringe on normal male function. I am inclined to believe that this argument of the respected Professor Mather most likely boils down to the famous postulate: “This cannot be, since this can never be.”
Lev Alexandrovich’s logic is outstanding: “...doctors often examined Hitler.” The question is – why?! If “out of reverence for the patient” they could not record the presence of cryptorchidism, then they could just as easily not record painful changes in the liver, kidneys, pancreas and other organs - why injure a person? In fact, doctors fill out a medical record for their own needs, and not for the patient to read at night. If Hitler were so worried about the internal contents of his scrotum, he would have been concerned not so that doctors would not write all sorts of nasty things about him, but so that they wouldn’t know about these nasty things - the second is much more important than the first! This is not surprising, what is surprising is that everyone ignored point “a”: the height of the deceased was 165 cm. And the height of Hitler, the real Hitler, was 175 (+ - one centimeter). The difference of 10 centimeters allows you to spit on all other arguments and counter-arguments, both skeptics and supporters - the burned corpse could not belong to Adolf Hitler, if by this name we mean the one who came to power in Germany in 1933! COULD NOT! That's it, period! The question is closed. But not for Lev Alexandrovich!
“Why am I skeptical about all versions excluding the death of Hitler and the discovery of his corpse by Soviet troops? My reasons are:
1. Documentary evidence and the testimony of most serious eyewitnesses speak against the "demonization" of the Nazi regime, supposedly so sinister and inventive that it took all measures in advance to save its leaders. Quite the contrary: the leaders of the regime were so confident in themselves that they did not think that their days were numbered.
2. Personal acquaintance with most of the participants in the Berlin search in the first days of May 1945 (Gorbushin, Miroshnichenko, Aksenov, Rzhevskaya, Klimenko, Shkaravsky, Smolyaninov, Kraevsky, Blashchuk, Tereshchenko, Merzhanov) convinced me that there were no “Smershevskys” here combinations and falsifications. They began at a higher - “Stalinist” - level.
3. Those jaws and dentures that were removed from the remains of Hitler and Braun on May 8 are, although the only, irrefutable evidence of identification. They coincided with the description made long before by Hitler’s dentist, Blaschke, and with the description given by Heusermann and Echtman. It was impossible to make them either in the Lubyanka workshops or in Heydrich’s laboratories.” (Ibid.)
And all this splendor is shattered by the testimony of Käthe Heuserman herself, recorded in the interrogation protocol of May 19, 1945.
"GOIZERMAN
Kette, born in 1909, born. mountains Lignitz (Silesia), German, secondary education, non-partisan, before occupying the mountains. Berlin, as part of the Red Army, she worked in a dentist's office as an assistant to Professor BLASHKE. Lived at the address: Berlin, Pariserstrasse, house No. 39 - 40, apt. 1.
dated May 19, 1945. The interrogation began at 1.15 - "- ended at 6.00.
Translator KAGAN was warned of liability under Article 95 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR.
Question: Do you confirm your testimony given during interrogation on May 10, 1945?
Answer: Yes, I fully confirm my testimony dated May 10, 1945.
Question: Please clarify, since when did you work in the dental office of the Imperial Chancellery and in what capacity?
Answer: I did not graduate from a special dental school, but from April 1937 I did an internship with Professor BLASHKE, in his private office on the street. Kurfürstendamm 213, who since 1932 was Hitler’s personal dentist, and he also had a dental office in the Imperial Chancellery.
From December 1944 to April 20, 1945, I worked as an assistant to Professor BLASHKE in the dental office of the Imperial Chancellery.
Question: Which of the leaders of the German government was served by Professor BLASHKE in the dental office at the Imperial Chancellery?
Answer: Professor BLASHKE in the dental office of the Imperial Chancellery served Reich Chancellor Hitler and his mistress BROWN Eva, Reich Minister Goebbels, his wife Magda (60.2) Goebbels and all six children, Reichsführer SS Himmler, Reichsleiter Dr. LEY, Reichs Press Chief Dr. DIETRICH and other imperial managers.
Question: What exactly was your assistance to Professor BLASHKE when he served the leaders of the German government?
Answer: My assistance to Professor BLASHKE in serving the leaders of the German government consisted in the fact that I gave him instruments and medicines during medical procedures. It was also my responsibility to observe Professor BLASHKE's actions in the oral cavity and, without warning him, to provide the necessary instruments and medications in a timely manner. In connection with this, I knew well the condition of the teeth of each client and especially well of statesmen like Hitler, Goebbels, Himmler and others.
Question: What kind of dental care was provided to Hitler, and especially recently?
Answer: Most of the teeth in Hitler's mouth were artificial, a significant part of which were inserted by Professor BLASHKE in 1932. Since then, Professor BLASHKE constantly monitored and looked after the condition of Hitler's teeth.
From 1944 to January 1945, I had to help Professor BLASHKE six times in examining Hitler’s teeth, while removing tartar and lubricating the gums.
In the fall of 1944, I took part in the removal of Hitler's sixth tooth on the left in the upper jaw (first molar). For this purpose, Professor BLASHKE and I went to Hitler’s headquarters in the mountain area. Rastenburg (East Prussia). To remove this tooth, Professor BLASHKE used a drill to saw through the gold bridge between the 4th and 5th teeth in the upper jaw on the left, while I held a mirror in Hitler’s mouth and carefully watched the entire procedure. Thus, in the upper jaw on the left, the 5th artificial gold tooth and the 6th natural tooth with a gold crown were removed. As a result, the 4th tooth was the last one left in the upper jaw on the left.
Question: Describe the condition of the teeth of Hitler's upper and lower jaws.
Answer: Hitler's upper jaw was a gold bridge that rested on the 1st left tooth with a window crown, on the root of the second left tooth, on the root of the first right tooth and on the third right tooth with a gold crown. The entire upper jaw had 4 teeth to the left and 5 to the right. The artificial teeth were made of gold and covered with porcelain on the front side.
The lower jaw had 14 teeth and consisted of two bridges. The left half of the jaw had 8 teeth, and the right half had 6 teeth. In the right half there were 5 natural teeth: the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th artificial tooth, made of gold, covered with porcelain on the front side, which was connected by a gold bridge to the 3rd -m and 5th.
There were 8 teeth in the left half, of which 5 were natural teeth: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 8th, and the fourth, sixth, seventh teeth were made of gold and were attached with a gold bridge to 3rd, 5th and 8th teeth.
Question: Do you remember the features of Hitler’s teeth and the nature of the structure of Hitler’s bridges?
Answer: Yes, I clearly remember the structure of Hitler’s teeth and golden bridges, as well as all their features.
Question: You are presented with a lower jaw with gold bridges and teeth, as well as a gold bridge with teeth in the upper jaw. Can you tell who they belong to?
Answer: The gold bridges and teeth of the upper and lower jaw presented to me are well known to me, since they belong to the Reich Chancellor of Germany, Hitler.
Question: Based on what data do you claim that the golden bridges and teeth presented to you belong to Hitler?
Answer: I claim that the gold bridges and teeth presented to me belong to Hitler based on the following data: in the upper jaw presented to me, I see a clear mark left from sawing the gold bridge with a drill on the 4th tooth, I clearly remember this mark, since it was carried out in the fall of 1944 by Professor BLASHKE with my participation to remove Hitler’s 6th tooth.
In addition, all those features of Hitler’s bridges and teeth that I showed above are evident here.
Question: So, you continue to claim that the bridges and teeth presented to you belong to Hitler?
Answer: Yes, I affirm and declare again that the gold bridges and teeth presented to me belong specifically to Hitler.
Question: Do you know the peculiarities of the dental condition of Hitler’s mistress, Eva BROWN, and what exactly?
Answer: Yes, I am well aware of the peculiarities of the dental condition of BROWN Eva, since I have repeatedly participated in the treatment of her teeth as an assistant to Professor BLASHKE. BROWN was missing two teeth on the right side of her lower jaw - the 6th and 7th. In the summer of 1944, Professor BLASHKE's technician - ECHTMAN Fritz made a bridge for her from gold and plastic, and with my participation, Professor BLASHKE inserted this bridge for her. The bridge rested on a gold, cemented crown placed on the 8th tooth on the right and on a gold bond on the fifth tooth on the right. In addition, a month ago we removed one tooth in her upper jaw, the sixth from the left.
Question: You are presented with a gold bridge and teeth. Can you determine who they belong to?
Answer: The bridge and teeth presented to me belong to Hitler’s mistress, Eva BROWN.
Question: On the basis of what data do you claim that the golden bridge and teeth presented to you belong specifically to Hitler’s mistress - Eva BROWN?
Answer: The golden bridge with teeth for the right half of the lower jaw from the fifth to the eighth tooth with artificial 6 and 7 teeth impressed me well, since I held this bridge in my hands and washed it with alcohol before it was inserted. If the golden bridge is presented to ECHTMAN, who personally made it, he will certainly recognize it as the same bridge that he made for BROWN Eva.”
Käthe Heuserman worked as an assistant to Professor Blaschke only “from December 1944 to April 20, 1945” and in no way could see the inside of the oral cavity of the real Hitler, who at that time had long been drinking mead in Valhalla... Heuserman was dealing with Sutul. The honest German girl told the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, from which it follows only that the SMERSH group actually discovered the remains of the man who came out of the door of the barracks destroyed by the explosion of von Stauffenberg’s bomb on July 20, 1944. That person who himself did not notice that he was telling a lie; the man who feigned paralysis of his right arm so as not to sign documents with his scribbles; that man whose face was scratched to hide the marks of recent plastic surgery; that man who, with his stoop (in addition to orthopedic shoes), tried to hide the missing centimeters... The “identical” twin of his stepbrother is the consequence of the “bomb exploding” of the SS Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler...
There are still questions regarding Mademoiselle Brown: for sure, she knew Adolf Hitler like a pie! It was impossible to carry it out! And yet, she ascended the sacrificial altar hand in hand with who knows? But she didn’t come up!.. I don’t know anything about the further fate of Frau Hitler, but it wasn’t her who was lying in the same hole with Sutuly... She had poorly healed teeth (remaining after others were knocked out in order to squeeze her chosen one’s dentures into her mouth Fuhrer) and a lifetime wound from buckshot, from which the unfortunate woman died. In the bunker, as you know, the buckshot did not explode... But it exploded on the streets of Berlin, from which the wounded and dying were taken, among others, to the very hospital that was located next to Sutuly’s last refuge. Alas, the romantic story about a faithful dove who flew to share the fate of her chosen one had no place in the harsh reality. It was different... Having been sitting in the Berghof throughout the war, on April 15, 1945, Eva Braun suddenly appeared in Berlin and no longer left the “Fuhrer” a single step. Everything was going to hell and Sutuloy’s nerves began to give out - he could barely hold on, he could have snapped at any minute and then, like a fairy on call, she appeared! Very timely, Fraulein Braun's feelings, which had cooled during the long separation, revived! Her attention and support were very appropriate! But it was all over and the fairy (as fairies should!) disappeared, taking a different surname...
And the last thing: Stooped gave Comrade Stalin a lot of unpleasant moments. Where did that damn Hitler go? Fled to Spain? To Japan? To South America? Soviet intelligence dug its nose into the ground, but there were no traces of a man with bangs and a mustache anywhere... Stalin hurried, urged, pushed, completely losing sight of the corpse taken out of a hole in the garden of the Reich Chancellery...
PS. And Klaus Schenck von Stauffenberg became a hero! He, the blind tool of Heinrich Himmler, a traitor and a murderer, was awarded posthumous glory! He did not allow Hitler and his generals to end the war in 1944 and thus earned himself a place among the best sons of Germany! On his conscience are the destroyed Berlin and Dresden, millions of ruined and maimed German destinies, on his conscience the dismemberment of Germany! But not only: he accounted for millions of Soviet soldiers who died and were wounded in the battle for Europe, from which their children and grandchildren still had to leave! Hitler could have stopped the war and would have done so, because Himmler had no other reason to exchange him for Slouch, behind whose back the Reichsführer was looking for guarantees for himself from the Allies... Everyone lost, but only Claus Schenck von Stauffenberg is basking in the rays of posthumous glory! Grateful humanity will never forget him!

Reviews

In order for nothing to change, they removed it. But a lot had to change - the so-called. The Warsaw Uprising is precisely the key to the plan, albeit unfulfilled. If it had ended successfully (and in fact, it could not have started successfully without the knowledge of the Germans - Warsaw was a front-line city, i.e. completely controlled by the military and counterintelligence), a restored Polish state would arise between the Wehrmacht and the Red Army, with which the USSR broke off diplomatic relations after the discovery by the Germans (with the support of the Poles) of the “Katyn Affair”. Hitler needed to transfer power to the military, who, as we know, remained outside of politics and they could already negotiate with the Poles, and through them with the British, about the start of peace negotiations. After all, the guarantees from Paris and London to Warsaw, given in 1939, did not directly point to Germany as the party against which the guarantees were declared. It was Poland who decided who threatened it - the Third Reich or the Third Rome - the USSR. For Germany, which had already lost the war, this would have been a choice of the lesser of the evils that threatened it. But if the military came to power in Germany, there would be no place left for Himmler and his falcons. At all. In other words, the AG drove his rat (Himmler and the SS) into a corner where he absolutely did not want to go...

What does it have to do with what kind of Poles are warriors? If the “uprising” was successful, Polish statehood, guaranteed by Britain and France, would be re-established. Could the USSR advance through Poland against the will of its government? Theoretically - yes. In practice, everything depended on the position of Great Britain. Not from Stalin's wishes. The USSR has long relied on Western supplies of military materials and food. And if Britain had decided that it did not need the USSR in Europe, but needed a regime in Germany that would support British interests, then it could have stopped these supplies... Moreover, it was in its power to lift the naval blockade from Europe and stop a landing operation on the continent, provided that the Reich withdraws its troops from France, Holland and Belgium and transfers them to the Eastern Front.
AG's idea was correct - he had already managed to come to an agreement with Churchill once (Hess's flight), so why couldn't he come to an agreement with him a second time?

I will repeat to you once again - the United States did not envisage any agreements with Germany or take into account the opinion of England on this issue... especially since no one would have allowed fucked-out Poland to conduct any kind of independent policy.... so the lords tried - they raised an uprising in Warsaw ... and Stalin kept his troops near Warsaw until January and the lords got stuck :-)))

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Groups of conspirators planning an anti-Nazi coup existed in the Wehrmacht and military intelligence (Abwehr) since 1938 and had as their goal the abandonment of Germany's aggressive foreign policy and the prevention of a future war, for which most of the conspirators believed Germany was not ready. In addition, many military personnel perceived the strengthening of the SS and the Fritsch-Blomberg affair that happened in 1938 as a humiliation of the Wehrmacht. The conspirators planned to remove Hitler after he ordered an attack on Czechoslovakia, create a provisional government, and subsequently hold democratic elections. The dissatisfied included Colonel General Ludwig Beck, who resigned from the post of Chief of Staff of the Army on August 18, 1938 as a sign of disagreement with Hitler's policies, the new Chief of Staff Franz Halder, future Field Marshals Erwin von Witzleben and Walter von Brauchitsch, Generals Erich Hoepner and Walter von Brockdorff-Alefeld, Abwehr head Wilhelm Franz Canaris, Abwehr Lieutenant Colonel Hans Oster, as well as Prussian Finance Minister Johannes Popitz, banker Hjalmar Schacht, former Leipzig mayor Karl Goerdeler and diplomat Ulrich von Hassell. Goerdeler regularly traveled throughout Europe, meeting with prominent politicians. On behalf of Oster, one of the conspirators, Ewald von Kleist-Schmentzin, flew to London on August 18, at the height of the crisis, to warn British politicians of Hitler's aggressive intentions. The coup was planned for the last days of September 1938, but on the morning of September 28, the plans of the conspirators were confused by the message that British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain had agreed to come to Germany and negotiate with Hitler, and Great Britain would not declare war on Germany. The subsequent signing of the Munich Agreement made the main goal of the coup - preventing an armed conflict - fulfilled.

Plans to remove Hitler continued to exist, but due to the indecisiveness of the conspirators (primarily Brauchitsch and Halder), none of them were implemented. With the outbreak of the war, the military, especially on the eastern front, were also forced to turn a blind eye to atrocities against civilians and prisoners of war (the activities of the Einsatzgruppen, the “Commissar Decree”, etc.), and in some cases, to independently carry out certain measures . Since 1941, a group of conspirators led by Colonel Henning von Treskow, nephew of Field Marshal Fedor von Bock, operated at the headquarters of Army Group Center on the Eastern Front. Treskov was a staunch opponent of the Nazi regime and consistently appointed people to his headquarters who shared his views. Among them were Colonel Baron Rudolf-Christoph von Gersdorff, reserve lieutenant Fabian von Schlabrendorff, who became Treskow's adjutant, and brothers Georg and Philipp von Boeselager. Von Bock was also dissatisfied with Hitler's policies, but refused to support the conspiracy in any form. After the defeat in the Battle of Moscow, Brauchitsch and von Bock were dismissed, and Hans Gunther von Kluge was appointed commander of the Center. The Resistance group created by Treskov was preserved at the headquarters of the “Center” in Smolensk. Through Schlabrendorff she maintained contacts with Beck, Goerdeler and Oster. Goerdeler and Treskow also tried to bring von Kluge into the conspiracy and believed that he was on their side.

In the fall of 1942, Halder was removed from his post, which deprived the conspirators of contact with the Supreme Command of the Ground Forces. However, Oster was soon able to attract the head of the Combined Arms Directorate of the High Command of the Ground Forces and the deputy commander of the reserve army, General Friedrich Olbricht. The Reserve Army was a combat-ready unit intended, in particular, to suppress unrest within Germany. During 1942, the plot evolved into a two-stage operation, including the assassination of Hitler by the conspirators and the capture of main communications and suppression of SS resistance by the reserve army.

Numerous attempts by the Treskow group to kill Hitler were unsuccessful. On March 13, 1943, during Hitler's visit to Smolensk, Treskov and his adjutant, von Schlabrendorff, planted a bomb on his plane, in which the explosive device did not go off. Eight days later, von Gersdorff wanted to blow himself up along with Hitler at an exhibition of captured Soviet equipment in a workshop in Berlin, but he left the exhibition prematurely, and von Gersdorff barely managed to deactivate the detonator.

Valkyrie Plan

Since the winter of 1941-1942, Olbricht had been working on the Valkyrie plan, designed to deal with emergencies and internal unrest. According to this plan, the reserve army was subject to mobilization in the event of mass acts of sabotage, uprising of prisoners of war and in similar situations. The plan was approved by Hitler. Later, Olbricht secretly changed the Valkyrie plan with the expectation that in the event of a coup attempt, the reserve army would become a tool in the hands of the conspirators. After the assassination of Hitler, she was supposed to occupy key targets in Berlin, disarm the SS and arrest other Nazi leadership. It was assumed that the commander of the reserve army, Colonel General Friedrich Fromm, would join the conspiracy or be removed, in which case Hoepner would take command. Fromm was aware of the existence of the conspiracy, but took a wait-and-see approach. Simultaneously with the deployment of the reserve army, the head of the Wehrmacht communications service, Erich Felgiebel, who was part of the conspiracy, together with some trusted subordinates, had to ensure the blocking of a number of government communication lines, while simultaneously supporting those that were used by the conspirators.

Goerdeler advocated saving Hitler's life. Various options for such a scenario were discussed (in particular, taking Hitler hostage or cutting off communication lines and isolating Hitler from the outside world for the duration of the coup), but in the spring of 1943 the conspirators came to the conclusion that all of them were impractical. After the assassination of Hitler, it was planned to form a provisional government: Beck was to become the head of state (president or monarch), Goerdeler - the chancellor, Witzleben - the supreme commander. The tasks of the new government were to conclude peace with the Western powers and continue the war against the USSR, as well as to hold democratic elections within Germany. Goerdeler and Beck developed a more detailed project for the structure of post-Nazi Germany, based on their conservative monarchical views. In particular, they believed that popular representation should be limited (the lower house of parliament would be formed as a result of indirect elections, and the upper house, which would include representatives of the lands, would not have elections at all), and the head of state should be the monarch.

In August 1943, Treskov met Lieutenant Colonel Count Claus von Stauffenberg, who was destined to become the most famous participant in the conspiracy (and the direct perpetrator of the assassination attempt on Hitler). Stauffenberg served in North Africa in Rommel's troops, was seriously wounded there, and had nationalist-conservative views. By 1942, Stauffenberg had become disillusioned with Nazism and was convinced that Hitler was leading Germany to disaster. However, due to religious convictions, he initially did not believe that the Fuhrer should be killed. After the Battle of Stalingrad, he changed his mind and decided that leaving Hitler alive would be a greater evil. Treskov wrote to Stauffenberg: “The assassination attempt must take place at any cost (fr. cote que cote); even if we fail, we must act. After all, the practical side of the matter no longer means anything; the only thing is that the German resistance took a decisive step before the eyes of the world and history. Compared to this, nothing else matters.”

Assassination attempts in the first half of July

In June 1944, Stauffenberg was appointed chief of staff of the Army Reserve, which was located on Bendlerstrasse in Berlin (the so-called Bendlerblock; now the street is named Stauffenbergstrasse). In this capacity, he could attend military meetings both at Hitler's Wolfschanze headquarters in East Prussia and at the Berghof residence near Berchtesgaden. On July 1, he was also awarded the rank of colonel. At the same time, the conspirators came into contact with the commander of the occupation forces in France, General Stülpnagel, who was supposed to take power in France into his own hands after the assassination of Hitler and begin negotiations with the allies. On July 3, Generals Wagner, Lindemann, Stiff and Felgiebel held a meeting at the Berchtesgadener Hof Hotel. In particular, the procedure for shutting down government communication lines by Felgibel after the explosion was discussed.

On July 6, Stauffenberg delivered a bomb to the Berghof, but the assassination attempt did not take place. Stiff later testified during interrogation that he dissuaded Stauffenberg from attempting to kill Hitler at that time. According to other sources, Stiff was supposed to detonate the bomb himself the next day at an arms exhibition at Klessheim Castle near Salzburg. On July 11, Stauffenberg attended a meeting at the Berghof with a British-made bomb, but did not activate it. Previously, the conspirators had decided that, together with Hitler, it was necessary to eliminate Goering, Hitler's official successor, and Himmler, the head of the SS, and both of them were not present at the meeting. In the evening, Stauffenberg met with Beck and Olbricht and convinced them that the next time the assassination attempt should be carried out regardless of whether Goering and Himmler were present.

On July 15, Stauffenberg gave a report on the state of reserves at a meeting at Wolfschanz. Two hours before the start of the meeting, Olbricht gave the order to launch Operation Valkyrie and move the reserve army towards the government quarter on Wilhelmstrasse. Stauffenberg made a report and went out to talk on the phone with Olbricht. When he returned, Hitler had already left the meeting. Stauffenberg notified Olbricht of the failure, who canceled the order and returned the troops to the barracks.

Events of July 20

Assassination

On July 20, at about 7:00, Stauffenberg, together with his adjutant Oberleutnant Werner von Heften and Major General Helmut Stiff, flew from the airfield in Rangsdorf to Hitler's headquarters on a Junkers Ju 52 courier plane. In one briefcase they had papers for a report on the creation of two new divisions of reservists that were needed on the Eastern Front, and in the other - two packages of explosives and three chemical detonators. In order for the bomb to explode, it was necessary to break the glass ampoule, then the acid in it would corrode the wire that released the firing pin within ten minutes. After this, the detonator went off.

The plane landed at 10:15 at the airfield in Rastenburg (East Prussia). Stiff, Stauffenberg and von Heften went by car to the Fuhrer's headquarters. Upon arrival, Stauffenberg had breakfast with staff officers and spoke with several military personnel. At the beginning of the first, Keitel announced that, due to Mussolini's visit, the meeting was postponed from 13:00 to 12:30, and Stauffenberg's report was shortened. In addition, the meeting was moved from an underground bunker, where the destructive force of the explosion would have been much greater, to a wooden barracks room. Before the meeting, Stauffenberg, together with Heften, asked to go to the reception room and crushed the ampoule with pliers, activating the detonator. One of the officers hurried Stauffenberg, so he did not have time to activate the second bomb and von Heften took its components with him.

When Stauffenberg entered, he asked Adjutant Keitel von Freyend to give him a seat at the table closer to Hitler. He stood next to Colonel Brandt and placed the briefcase under the table a couple of meters from Hitler, leaning it against the massive wooden cabinet that supported the table. After this, under the pretext of a telephone conversation, Stauffenberg left. Brandt moved closer to Hitler and moved the briefcase that was in his way to the other side of the cabinet, which now protected Hitler. Before leaving, while Stauffenberg was looking for the car, he went to Felgiebel and they watched the explosion together. Then Stauffenberg, confident that Hitler was dead, left. He managed to leave the cordoned off area before it was completely closed. At the last checkpoint, Stauffenberg was detained by an officer, but after receiving confirmation from the commandant’s adjutant, he was allowed to go.

The explosion occurred at 12:42. Of the 24 people present at the meeting, four - Generals Schmundt and Korten, Colonel Brandt and stenographer Berger - died, and the rest were injured of varying degrees of severity. Hitler received numerous shrapnel wounds, burns to his legs and damaged eardrums, was shell-shocked and temporarily deaf, and his right arm was temporarily paralyzed. His hair was singed and his trousers were torn to shreds.

At about 13:00 Stauffenberg and Heften left the Wolfschanze. On the way to the airfield, Heften threw out a second package of explosives, which was later discovered by the Gestapo. At 13:15 the plane took off for Rangsdorf. Felgiebel sent a message to his chief of staff, Lieutenant General Fritz Tille in Berlin: “Something terrible has happened. The Fuhrer is alive." Presumably, the message was composed in such a way that the role of Felgiebel and the recipients of the message was not revealed: the communication lines could be tapped. At the same time, another conspirator, General Eduard Wagner, notified Paris of the assassination attempt. Then an information blockade of Wolfschanze was organized. However, the communication lines reserved for the SS remained intact, and already at this time the Minister of Propaganda Goebbels became aware of the attempt to assassinate Hitler.

At about 15:00, Tille informed the conspirators in Bendlerblock about conflicting information from the Fuhrer's headquarters. Meanwhile, having flown to Rangsdorf, Stauffenberg called Olbricht and Colonel Hofacker from Stülpnagel's headquarters and told them that he had killed Hitler. Olbricht did not know who to believe. At that moment, the information blockade was lifted from the Wolfschanze, and the investigation into the assassination attempt on Hitler was already in full swing.

At 16:00, Olbricht, having overcome doubts, nevertheless gave the order to mobilize in accordance with the Valkyrie plan. However, Colonel General Fromm called Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel at headquarters, who assured him that everything was fine with Hitler and asked where Stauffenberg was. Fromm realized that Wolfschanz already knew where the tracks led, and he would have to answer for the actions of his subordinates.

Conspiracy failure

At 16:30 Stauffenberg and Heften finally arrived at Bendlerblock. Olbricht, Quirnheim and Stauffenberg immediately went to Colonel General Fromm, who was to sign the orders issued under the Valkyrie plan. Fromm already knew that Hitler was alive, he tried to arrest them and was himself put under arrest. At this moment, the first orders were sent to the troops, which Hitler’s Wolfschanze headquarters also received by mistake. At the Berlin city commandant's office, the city commandant, Lieutenant General Paul von Hase, held an operational meeting.

At 17:00 the commander of the security battalion "Großdeutschland" Major Otto-Ernst Roemer, returning from the commandant's office, set the task for the personnel, who, in accordance with the Valkyrie plan, were to cordon off the government quarter. Shortly after 17:00, the first message about the unsuccessful assassination attempt on Hitler was broadcast on the radio (the next message went around the world at 18:28).

Units of the infantry school in Döberitz near Berlin were put on full combat readiness, and tactics teacher Major Jacob was ordered to occupy the Radio House with his company.

At 17:30, Goebbels announced the alarm in the training unit of the 1st Leibstandarte-SS Division "Adolf Hitler", which was put on high alert. However, the Minister of Propaganda wanted to avoid an armed conflict between the SS and Wehrmacht units at all costs.

Then at 17:30, SS Oberführer, Police Colonel Humbert Ahamer-Pifrader, appeared at the headquarters of the conspirators, accompanied by four SS men. He stated that, on the personal instructions of the head of the Main Directorate of Reich Security, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, he should find out from Stauffenberg the reasons for his hasty return to Berlin from Hitler’s headquarters. Instead of explanations, Stauffenberg arrested Achamer-Pifrader along with those accompanying him and put him under lock and key in the same room with Colonel General Fromm and General Kortsfleisch, who had already been arrested by the conspirators.

At about 18:00, Major Jacob's company occupied the Radio House, which nevertheless continued to broadcast.

Between 18:35 and 19:00, after cordoning off the government quarter, Major Roemer went to the Propaganda Ministry to see Goebbels, whom he was supposed to arrest. But he had doubts. At about 19:00, Goebbels asked to be put in touch with Hitler and handed the phone to Major Roemer so that he could make sure that the Fuhrer was alive. Hitler ordered Roemer to take control of the situation in Berlin. After a conversation with Hitler, Roemer set up a command post in Goebbels’s office apartment and attracted additional units to his side. The training tank units that left Krampnitz to support the conspirators were ordered to suppress the rebellion of the generals. At 19:30, Field Marshal Witzleben arrived from Zossen to Bendlerblock and reprimanded Olbricht and Stauffenberg for their uncertain actions and missed opportunities.

Fromm, transferred to his private office, was allowed to receive three officers from his headquarters in the absence of security. Fromm led the officers through the back exit and ordered them to bring backup. Meanwhile, units under the command of Remer began to gain the upper hand over the reserve army units loyal to the conspirators. When Olbricht began preparing Bendleblock for defense, several officers led by Colonel Franz Gerber demanded an explanation from Olbricht. After Olbricht's evasive answer, they returned armed and arrested him. Olbricht's assistant called Stauffenberg and Heften to understand the situation, a shootout began and Stauffenberg was wounded in the left arm. Within ten minutes, Gerber detained all the conspirators and released Fromm from custody.

At about 23:30 (according to other sources, at the beginning of ten) Fromm announced that the conspirators were under arrest. Beck, with Fromm's permission, tried to shoot himself, but only inflicted a slight wound on himself. Fromm announced that he had sentenced Stauffenberg, Olbricht, Quirnheim and Heften to death by a military tribunal. At the beginning of the first hour, all four were shot in the Bedlerblock yard. At the same time, Beck fired a second shot, remained alive again and, on Fromm’s orders, was shot by one of the guards. At 00:21 Fromm sent a telegram to Hitler informing him that he had suppressed the putsch. By shooting the conspirators, Fromm allegedly sought to demonstrate loyalty to Hitler and at the same time destroy witnesses. Skorzeny, who arrived later, ordered a halt to further executions.

At the same time in the evening, the commander of the troops in occupied France, General Stülpnagel, ordered the arrest of representatives of the SS, SD and Gestapo in Paris. It turned out to be the most successful operation of July 20: by 10:30 p.m., 1,200 people had been arrested without firing a shot, including the head of the SS in Paris, SS Major General Karl Oberg. The conspirators gathered at headquarters at the Raphael Hotel, and Stülpnagel went to the suburb of La Roche-Guion, where von Kluge was, and unsuccessfully tried to convince him to come over to their side. At the eleventh hour, Stauffenberg called Paris and reported that the uprising in Berlin had ended in failure. At night, Stülpnagel received notification that he had been removed from command, and Admiral Kranke, loyal to Hitler, was ready to send sailors to suppress the putsch, and gave the order to release the SS men. Soon, the military and SS men began to fraternize together at Rafael, drinking champagne.

The decisive role in the failure was played not only by the incident that saved Hitler, but also by a number of serious miscalculations and half-hearted measures of the conspirators, as well as the wait-and-see attitude of many of them.

Repressions, executions

The night after the plot, Hitler addressed the nation on the radio, promising to severely punish all participants in the rebellion. In the coming weeks, the Gestapo conducted a detailed investigation into the case. Everyone who had even the slightest connection with the main participants in the events of July 20 was arrested or interrogated. During the searches, diaries and correspondence of the participants in the conspiracy were discovered, previous plans for a coup and the assassination of the Fuhrer were revealed; new arrests of the persons mentioned there began. However, not everyone was involved in the case of July 20 - the Gestapo often settled old scores. Hitler personally instructed the chairman of the People's Court, Roland Freisler, that the trial should be speedy and the defendants should be hanged "like cattle in a slaughterhouse."

By order of Hitler, most of the convicts were executed not by guillotine, like civilian criminals, and not by firing squad, like military ones - they were hanged from piano wires attached to a butcher's hook on the ceiling in Plötzensee prison. Unlike ordinary hanging, death did not occur from a broken neck during a fall or from relatively rapid suffocation, but from stretching of the neck and slow suffocation. Hitler ordered that the trial of the conspirators and execution be turned into humiliating torture, filmed and photographed. These executions were filmed under spotlights. Subsequently, he personally watched this film, and also ordered it to be shown to soldiers to raise morale. According to Hitler's Luftwaffe adjutant von Below, Hitler did not give the order to film and looked at the photographs of the executed, which were brought to him by the SS adjutant Fegelein, with reluctance. Unlike film footage of show trials, footage of executions has not survived.

On July 21, Treskov committed suicide by simulating death in battle: he blew himself up with a grenade on the Polish front near Bialystok and was buried as a dead officer in his homeland (then his body was dug out of the grave and burned). The first trial of Witzleben, Hoepner and six other participants in the conspiracy took place on August 7-8. On August 8, everyone was hanged. In total, up to 200 people were sentenced to death by the verdict of the People's Chamber. William Shirer gives total figures of 4,980 executed and 7,000 arrested. In accordance with the “ancient German” blood guilt laws (Sippenhaft), relatives of the conspirators were also subjected to repression: many were arrested and sent to concentration camps, and the Nazis placed children under new names in an orphanage (most of the repressed family members of the conspirators survived the war and were able to reunite with selected children).

Colonel General Franz Halder was arrested, one of the few who were lucky enough to survive (albeit in a concentration camp) the end of the war and be released. Field Marshal von Kluge poisoned himself on 19 August near Metz, fearing the fate of Witzleben after Hitler recalled him from the front. In October, Erwin Rommel, Stauffenberg's commander in Africa, on whom the conspirators were counting, but whose actual connection with them is unclear, committed suicide and was solemnly buried. Another field marshal indirectly involved in the conspiracy, Fedor von Bock, escaped prosecution, but survived Hitler by only four days: he died on May 4, 1945, after his car came under fire from an English attack aircraft. On August 30, Stülpnagel, who tried to shoot himself, was hanged, and on September 4, Lehndorff-Steinort and Felgiebel. On September 9, Goerdeler, who tried to escape and was betrayed by the hotel owner, was sentenced to death, but his execution was postponed, presumably because his political weight and authority in the eyes of the West could be useful to Himmler in the event of peace negotiations. On February 2 he was hanged, on the same day Popitz was hanged in Plötzensee prison.

The consequence of the discovery of the plot was the increased vigilance of the Nazis towards the Wehrmacht: the armed forces were deprived of the relative autonomy from the party and the SS that they had previously enjoyed. On July 24, the army made the Nazi salute mandatory instead of the traditional military salute. Among the 200 executed were 1 field marshal (Witzleben), 19 generals, 26 colonels, 2 ambassadors, 7 diplomats at other levels, 1 minister, 3 secretaries of state and the head of the Reich criminal police (SS Gruppenführer and Police Lieutenant General Arthur Nebe). More and more trials and executions took place almost non-stop from August 1944 to February 1945. On February 3, 1945, the day after the execution of Goerdeler and Popitz, an American bomb hit the People's Court building during a meeting, and a beam that fell from the ceiling killed Freisler. After the death of the judge, the processes were suspended (on March 12, Friedrich Fromm was executed, whose treason only delayed the execution). However, the discovery in March of Canaris's diaries with details of the Abwehr plot led him, Oster and their several comrades, against whom there had previously been no direct evidence, to the gallows; On April 8 they were executed in the Flossenbürg concentration camp, just 22 days before Hitler's death.

Grade

The participants in the July 20th conspiracy are considered in modern Germany to be national heroes who gave their lives in the name of freedom; Streets are named after them, monuments erected to them. On memorable dates associated with the assassination attempt, ceremonies are held with the participation of senior officials of the state. In modern German historiography, the July 20th plot is considered the most important event of the German Resistance.

At the same time, many participants in the conspiracy did not share modern ideals of democracy, but represented traditional Prussian nationalist conservatism and were critical of the Weimar Republic. Thus, Stauffenberg supported Hitler in 1933 and even in his family was considered a staunch National Socialist, Beck and Goerdeler were monarchists, and the latter also advocated the preservation of pre-war territorial acquisitions.

Every year on July 20, wreaths are laid in Berlin in honor of the participants in the conspiracy against Hitler executed by the Nazis. On this day in 1944, an explosion occurred at Hitler's headquarters in East Prussia. This was not the first, but the most serious attempt on the life of the “Führer”, the result of a conspiracy against him and his accomplices. But Hitler survived. Hundreds of participants in the conspiracy (primarily military personnel from noble German families) were executed.

Context

The memory of these people, who, like other heroes of the Resistance, saved the honor of the Germans, is highly revered in today's Germany. The most famous of the participants in the July 20 conspiracy, in fact its leader, who carried the explosive device into Hitler's headquarters, is Colonel, Count Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg.

Officers and aristocrats

He was 36 years old. An officer and an aristocrat, after the Kristallnacht of the Jewish pogroms of 1938 and the mockery of the civilian population of occupied Poland a year later, he became convinced that the Nazis were bringing misfortune to his homeland. But the war was going on, and the career military man hesitated: the murder or removal of the charismatic leader of the nation would weaken Germany. Many future conspirators from the officer corps thought so then. Military officers despised the “butchers” from the SS and considered it shameful to wage war against the civilian population and shoot prisoners, no matter who they were.

Nevertheless, Stauffenberg, like many of his like-minded officers, believed that the war must first be won, and only then, as he then told his brother Berthold, “get rid of the brown evil spirits.” But in 1942-1943, the mood in opposition circles changed. One of the reasons is the turn in the course of the war, large losses in people and equipment. After Stalingrad, there was no doubt left for Stauffenberg: the war was lost. It was at this time that a positive response came to the report he had submitted long ago about his transfer from the General Staff, where he was then serving, to the front. Not to the Eastern Front, but to Africa.

But here, too, things were bad for the Germans. Just three months after Stalingrad, the Western Allies captured about 200 thousand Wehrmacht soldiers and officers in North Africa. Stauffenberg was not among them: a few days before the defeat he was seriously wounded and was transported to Germany. He lost an eye, his right hand and two fingers on his left hand.

Failed assassination attempts

Meanwhile, the conspirators tried to organize more and more attempts on Hitler's life. On March 13, 1943, they managed to smuggle an explosive device disguised as a bottle of cognac into the plane on which the Fuhrer was flying, but it did not go off. Other attempts, for example, by Hauptmann Axel von dem Bussche, also failed. The "Fuhrer" expressed a desire to get acquainted with the new uniforms for officers and non-commissioned officers of the Wehrmacht. He wished that an experienced front-line commander be present at this “presentation” as an expert. The conspirators managed to arrange for Hauptmann Bussche to become this commander. He had to blow himself up along with Hitler. But the train, which contained samples of the new uniforms, was bombed on the way to East Prussia, and the “presentation” did not take place.

However, the perseverance of the conspirators was eventually rewarded: in May 1944, the commander of the Wehrmacht reserve, who sympathized with the conspirators, appointed Stauffenberg as his chief of staff. Thus, the colonel was among those who were invited to meetings at headquarters. The assassination attempt on Hitler became a reality. Moreover, it was necessary to hurry: clouds began to gather over the conspirators. Too many people already knew about the coup plans, and information about the plot began to flow to the Gestapo. It was decided not to wait for any more major meetings at headquarters, at which Himmler and Goering would also be present along with Hitler, but to send the Fuhrer to the next world alone, at the first opportunity. She introduced herself on July 20th.

A rebellion cannot end in success...

The night before, Claus von Stauffenberg had placed plastic explosives in his briefcase and tested the fuse. Both bags of explosives weighed about two kilograms: too heavy for Stauffenberg's only crippled hand. Maybe that’s why he was already at headquarters, having gone through all the cordons, left one of the packages with explosives with the adjutant and took only one with him to the hall where the meeting was taking place. However, this amount would have been quite enough: as it turned out later, the ceiling collapsed from the explosion and the hall turned into a pile of ruins, 17 people were injured, four died.

Hitler survived due to chance. The briefcase should have been placed closer to the place where the “Führer” was sitting, but one of the meeting participants mechanically pushed the briefcase containing the explosives further under the table: it was in his way. This saved Hitler.

When the explosion was heard, Stauffenberg, who had left the hall under a plausible pretext, was already leaving the headquarters. He hurried to the airfield. He had no doubt that the “Führer” was dead, so he hurried to Berlin: now everything was decided there.

But the conspirators acted too slowly, unforgivably slowly. The military failed to isolate SS units and the Gestapo headquarters during Operation Valkyrie. Military units received orders both from the conspirators and directly opposite orders from Himmler. When Colonel Stauffenberg arrived at the War Ministry, he began to act more decisively, but it was too late. In the end, several people, along with Stauffenberg, were arrested right in the War Ministry building. They were shot that same day.

Later, the Nazis dealt with everyone who even knew about the conspiracy with terrible cruelty. Hundreds of people were executed. The Gestapo also arrested all of Claus von Stauffenberg's close relatives, including his wife and mother. The children had their last names changed and were sent to a special orphanage, forbidden to tell who they were. Fortunately, there were only a few months left until the end of the war...

See also:

• Places of memory in Germany

  Memorials and monuments

  On January 27, 1945, Soviet troops liberated the Auschwitz concentration camp. This day is now celebrated as the International Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the Holocaust - the six million murdered Jews, and in Germany also the Day of Remembrance for all victims of National Socialism who died in concentration and labor camps, prisons, forced labor and killing centers.



Places of memory in Germany

Berlin

The central memorial to the Jews of Europe killed during National Socialism is located in Berlin near the Reichstag and the Brandenburg Gate. It was opened in 2005. A documentation center is located in its underground part. Some of the documents on display are in Russian - materials collected after the war during investigations into crimes committed in the "Third Reich".



Places of memory in Germany

"Kristallnacht"

During the pogroms of Jews on the so-called Kristallnacht of November 9-10, 1938, more than 1,400 synagogues and houses of worship were destroyed in Nazi Germany and parts of Austria. One of the synagogues was located on Kasernenstraße in Düsseldorf. After the war, monuments or plaques were erected here and in many other such places.



Places of memory in Germany

Dachau

41,500 people died at the Dachau concentration camp. It was created in 1933 near Munich for political prisoners. Later, Jews, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, and other groups persecuted by the Nazis were sent to Dachau. All other concentration camps of the "Third Reich" were organized according to his model.



Places of memory in Germany

Buchenwald

One of the largest camps was in Thuringia near Weimar. From 1937 to 1945, about 250 thousand people were imprisoned in Buchenwald. 56 thousand prisoners died. Among them there were also several hundred deserters and those who refused to serve in the Wehrmacht. After the war, they continued to be considered “traitors” and “cowards” in Germany for a long time, and the first memorial stone was installed in Buchenwald only in 2001.



Places of memory in Germany

Roma genocide

This monument, erected in Buchenwald in 1995 on the territory of the former block No. 14, is dedicated to the Gypsies - European Roma and Sinti - who died here. The names of all the camps of the “Third Reich” to which they were sent are carved on the stones. The total number of victims of the Roma genocide in Europe is still unknown. According to various sources, it can range from 150 thousand to 500 thousand people.



Places of memory in Germany

Langenstein-Zwieberge death camp

Buchenwald had more than 60 so-called outer camps. One of them is "Malachite" in Langenstein-Zwieberg near Halberstadt. Its prisoners built an underground plant for Junkers. Two thousand prisoners died from disease and exhaustion, and became victims of torture and execution. Another 2,500 died or were killed during the death march as the camp was evacuated as the front approached.



Places of memory in Germany

Dora-Mittelbau

Another external Buchenwald camp was established in 1943 near the city of Nordhausen in Thuringia to organize production at the underground Mittelwerk plant, where V-2 missiles and other weapons were assembled. In a year and a half, 60 thousand people passed through the Dora-Mittelbau camp. The majority were prisoners from the Soviet Union, Poland and France. Every third of them died.



Places of memory in Germany

Bergen-Belsen

Memorial on the site of the former Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Lower Saxony. In total, about 50 thousand people died in this camp, including 20 thousand prisoners of war. In April 1945, 15-year-old Anne Frank, the author of the famous diary denouncing Nazism and translated into many languages ​​of the world, died here.



Places of memory in Germany

Sachsenhausen

“Work makes you free” - this sign in German above the gates of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp in Brandenburg has become a household name. In total, over 100 thousand people were killed or died in this camp, including from 13 to 18 thousand Soviet prisoners of war. Among them is Stalin's eldest son Yakov Dzhugashvili. The national memorial, established by the GDR government, was opened here in 1961.



Places of memory in Germany

Flossenbürg

“I have heard of Dachau and Auschwitz, but never of Flossenbürg,” is the quote that greets visitors to the former concentration camp in Bavaria. 30 thousand people died in this camp. Its prisoner was the famous German pastor, theologian and participant in the conspiracy against Hitler, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and among the Soviet prisoners of war was the father of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, Andrei.



Places of memory in Germany

Barrack No. 13

In the Berlin district of Schöneweide there was one of the many camps for forced laborers driven from other countries for forced labor in Germany. Their total number during the years of the “Third Reich” amounted to several million people. The exposition of the documentation center in one of the surviving barracks of this camp is dedicated to the fate of forced laborers.



Places of memory in Germany

Ravensbrück

A sculpture of a mother and child on the shore of a lake in Ravensbrück, the largest women's concentration camp of the Third Reich. It was created in 1939, 90 kilometers north of Berlin. The number of prisoners during its existence was more than 130 thousand people - about 40 nationalities. 28 thousand prisoners died. Medical experiments were also conducted at the camp.



Places of memory in Germany

"Siemens barracks" in Ravensbrück

Prisoners from Ravensbrück and its many subcamps were used for forced labor. In 1940, textile production was established here, and in 1942, the electrical engineering concern Siemens & Halske AG built 20 industrial barracks. According to the testimony of surviving prisoners, at the end of 1944, up to 3,000 women and children worked here every day for this company.



Places of memory in Germany

Ovens for Auschwitz

Former Topf & Söhne factory in Erfurt. Here, by order of the National Socialists, furnaces were produced in which people who died in Auschwitz and other concentration camps were burned. On International Holocaust Remembrance Day, January 27, 2011, a documentation center was opened in a former factory building.



Places of memory in Germany

"Stumbling blocks"

Such metal signs mounted on sidewalks can be seen in many cities in Germany. "Stumbling blocks" - Stolpersteine. The first of them was installed by German artist Gunter Demnig in Cologne in 1995. The stones remind of the victims of National Socialism near the houses in which they lived. There are already more than 45 thousand of them in 800 German settlements and 200 outside Germany.



Places of memory in Germany

Gestapo

Numerous documentation centers are also studying the crimes of Nazism in Germany. In Cologne, such a center and museum are located in the former Gestapo building - EL-DE-Haus. In its basement there were cells for prisoners, on the walls of which inscriptions were preserved, including in Russian.



Places of memory in Germany

Homosexuals

From 1935, the Nazis also began to persecute homosexuals. In total, more than 50 thousand of them were convicted in the “Third Reich”. About 7 thousand died in concentration camps. In 1995, a monument was erected on the embankment in Cologne - the Pink Triangle. The memorial shown in the photo was opened in 2008 in Berlin's Gross Tiergarten park. Another one is in Frankfurt - Frankfurt Angel (1994).



Places of memory in Germany

Opponents of the regime

Plötzensee Prison Museum in Berlin. Between 1933 and 1945, the National Socialists executed more than 3,000 opponents of the regime here, many by guillotine. Among the victims are participants in the failed assassination attempt on Hitler on July 20, 1944, and those who knew about its preparation.



Places of memory in Germany

Gray buses

"Gray Bus" is a monument created in 2006 in memory of more than 70 thousand victims of the T-4 eugenics program - people with mental disorders, the mentally retarded, hereditary patients and disabled people. These buses took them to killing centers. The monument is transported, temporarily installed in places associated with the program. A copy is permanently located in Cologne.



Places of memory in Germany

Grafeneck Castle

One of the six centers where people were killed as part of the T-4 euthanasia program was located at Grafeneck Castle in Baden-Württemberg. From January to December 1940, 10,654 people died here in carbon monoxide chambers. In 2005, a documentation center was opened here, which receives up to 20 thousand visitors annually.



Places of memory in Germany

Sonnenstein

Another death center was located in the Saxon city of Pirna at Sonnenstein Castle. In 1940-1941, 13,720 people suffering from mental illnesses and mentally retarded people, as well as more than a thousand concentration camp prisoners, were killed in his gas chamber. Ashes from the crematorium were dumped into the Elbe. Relatives were sent a falsified death certificate as a result of illness.



Places of memory in Germany

Criminals

This photograph was taken in 1946 during the trial of doctors and other employees of another Nazi killing center, located in the Hessian city of Hadamar. They killed approximately 14,500 patients in gas chambers, by injection, and by deliberately stopping necessary therapies. A permanent exhibition depicting these crimes has been on display in Hadamar since 1991.



Places of memory in Germany

Logistics of the Holocaust

In conclusion - about the traveling exhibition of the German railway concern Deutsche Bahn "Special Trains of Death" ("Sonderzüge in den Tod"). Since 2008, more than 350 thousand visitors have visited the various locations in Germany where it has been shown. A special section of the permanent exhibition of the German Railways Museum in Nuremberg is also dedicated to this topic.

After the explosion at Hitler's headquarters, Wolfschanze, July 20, 1944.

There are such fateful moments that can change the entire course of history. This is exactly what happened 70 years ago. Let's remember the conspiracy of German officers, a bomb that ended up in the wrong place, the Fuhrer's torn pants and an alternative outcome of the Second World War.

On Thursday, July 20, 1944, at about 6 a.m., Colonel Count von Stauffenberg, accompanied by his brother, left his apartment in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee...

The conspiracy against Hitler, which culminated in the assassination attempt on July 20, 1944, was a large-scale phenomenon. It was attended by people of different political and religious beliefs, officials, military men, industrialists and scientists. The conspiracy matured in the depths of the Wehrmacht and came from the highest levels of the German command and those circles of generals who were recruited from the old German aristocracy. The soul of the conspiracy was the “Kaiser’s circle” of Count Helmuth von Moltke, a consistent opponent of fascism in Germany. The ideology of the circle was determined by the main requirement - the overthrow of the fascist regime and the establishment of a legitimate system in Germany, the liberation of all of Eastern Europe from the oppression of fascism, including Russia, where the Stalinist dictatorship was also regarded as a pan-European evil.

The participants of the “Kaiser’s circle” imagined the future Germany as a democratic parliamentary state. To implement the plan, the East-West plan was developed, where a decisive place was given to the attempt on Hitler's life, which, if successful, would serve as atonement for the monstrous atrocities that the Nazis committed on Russian soil. This would be a "gesture of goodwill" of the German people towards the Russian people. Many participants in the conspiracy had deep sympathy for the Russians, their mentality, their traditions and culture. Klaus Staufenberg himself was married to Countess Nina Lerhelfeld, who has Russian roots, like many other participants in the conspiracy.

According to another version, most of the military conspirators were supporters of orientation to the East and the resumption of peaceful and mutually beneficial German-Soviet relations. They did not consider the Stalinist regime to be an obstacle to post-war German democracy: after all, the Weimar Republic successfully cooperated with the USSR, in particular in the military sphere.
At the same time, the so-called “civilian sector” of the organization, whose political leader was the former mayor of Leipzig, Karl Friedrich Goerdeler, was oriented towards England. Goerdeler's pro-Western position was shared by Reichsbank President Hjalmar Schacht, Reich Commissioner of the Prussian Ministry of Finance Johannes Popitz and many others. The exception was the former German ambassador to Moscow, Count Friedrich Werner von der Schulenburg, a supporter of cooperation with the USSR.

Back in 1938-1939, the opposition among the conservative elite of the Reich began to transform into a Resistance movement, in which military circles played a prominent role. It was among them that the anti-Hitler conspiracy matured. The conspirators were led by Colonel Generals Ludwig Beck, Kurt von Hammerstein, Franz Halder, as well as the chief of military intelligence (Abwehr) Admiral Wilhelm Canaris and his deputy Colonel (since 1941 - Major General) Hans Oster. The youth group of conspirators included officers Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Fabian von Schlabrendorff, Hans von Dohnanyi, Otto John and many others.

W. Churchill confirms in his memoirs that already in 1938, before the attack on Czechoslovakia, there was a conspiracy against Hitler, in which “Generals Halder, Beck, Stülpnagel, Witzleben (commander of the Berlin garrison), Thomas (chief of armaments), Brockdorff (commander of the Potsdam garrison) and Count Gelldorf, who headed the Berlin police. The Commander-in-Chief, General von Brauchitsch, was aware and approved.".
1938 Beck left his post as Chief of the General Staff of the Ground Forces in protest against Hitler's aggressive plans against Czechoslovakia, and Halder became Beck's successor in this post; General Stülpnagel was Oberquartiermeister (deputy chief) of the General Staff.

The conspirators planned to overthrow Hitler on September 14, 1938 at 8 pm. General Gepner's tank division was to enter Berlin and occupy the city's key points. It was planned to capture Hitler alive, try him at the People's Tribunal, and then, having been declared mentally ill, send him to an insane asylum. The conspirators tried to enlist the support of London. However, then British Prime Minister N. Chamberlain flew to Germany for negotiations with Hitler, which violated the plans of the conspirators. Therefore, the implementation of the “Berlin Putsch” was first postponed and then completely cancelled.

After the outbreak of World War II, people around Halder wanted to stage a “hidden” assassination attempt, simulating an enemy air raid or a train accident. In the summer of 1940, the commander of the German forces in France, Field Marshal Erwin von Witzleben, and three officers of his staff were going to shoot Hitler while in Paris in connection with the celebration of the victory over France.

A new attempt at a military coup, scheduled for December 1941, was associated with the defeat of the Wehrmacht near Moscow. It was led by Chief of the General Staff Halder. It was planned to use tank and airborne divisions to capture or destroy Hitler. But these military units, by order of Hitler, were urgently transferred to the Eastern Front, where they were soon defeated. The putsch did not take place. Attempts to overthrow Hitler in 1942 also failed.

On March 13, 1943, Hitler’s personal plane, on which the dictator arrived for an operational meeting at the headquarters of Army Group Center in Smolensk and was supposed to return to Berlin a few hours later, was planted by General Hennig von Treskow with a delayed-action explosive disguised as two bottles cognac One of the officers accompanying the Fuhrer agreed to take these bottles to Berlin and give them as a gift to General Friedrich Olbricht. But the explosive mechanism did not work.

On March 21, 1943, Army Group Center staff officer Baron Rudolf-Christoph von Gersdorff was supposed to blow himself up along with Hitler during the latter's visit to an exhibition of captured Soviet weapons, which Army Group Center staged in the Berlin Zeichhaus. But the explosive mechanism in the pocket of Gersdorf's overcoat was set for 10 minutes, and Hitler spent only 2 minutes at the exhibition.

In September 1943, Major General Helmut Stief with a group of OKW headquarters officers tried to assassinate Hitler in Rastenburg. But the bomb planted by the conspirators in the water tower exploded prematurely. The culprits were not found: the investigation into this case was conducted by Abwehr officers, themselves associated with the conspirators.

The oppositionists understood perfectly well that the overthrow of the Hitler regime would require great effort and the concentration of all possible forces. Together with the German Resistance forces, they intended to use all reserves, to include in the struggle all elements of the “third force”: Vlasov’s army, Cossacks and Tatars from among prisoners of war and eastern workers - the core, representatives of the Russian emigration and the peoples of the occupied territories.

The assassination attempt on Hitler was carried out by Colonel Stauffenberg, who joined the conspiracy only in July 1943. In his youth he believed in Hitler, but became disillusioned with him...

Claus Philipp Maria Schenck Count von Stauffenberg was born into one of the oldest aristocratic families in Southern Germany, closely connected with the royal house of Württemberg - the count's father held a high position at the court of the last king of Württemberg. Klaus was the third son in the family. His older brothers, Berthold and Alexander, later also took part in the conspiracy.

Klaus was brought up in the spirit of Catholic piety, German patriotism and monarchical conservatism. He received an excellent education and had literary inclinations. In 1923, together with his brother Berthold, he entered the circle of Stefan George (where Joseph Goebbels was not allowed) and until the end of his days he worshiped this poet.

On April 1, 1926, Stauffenberg was enlisted in the 17th Cavalry Regiment in Bamberg. In 1927-1928 studied at the infantry school in Dresden. In April 1932, on the occasion of the presidential elections, he spoke out against Hindenburg in support of Hitler.

In May 1933 he received the rank of lieutenant. Stauffenberg took part in the military training of stormtroopers and organized the transfer of an illegal arsenal of weapons to the Reichswehr. On September 26, 1933 he married Baroness Nina von Lerchenfeld.

Nina von Stauffenberg

In 1934 he was appointed to the cavalry school in Hanover. At this time, the cavalry was gradually reorganized into motorized troops.

On October 6, 1936, he began his studies at the Military Academy of the General Staff in Berlin. In 1938, after graduating from the academy, he was appointed second officer of the general staff under the command of Lieutenant General Erich Gepner. Participated in the occupation of the Sudetenland.

The Second World War
At the outbreak of World War II in 1939, Stauffenberg took part in the Polish campaign as a lieutenant in a tank division.

From Poland he wrote to his wife:
The population is an incredible rabble. There are many Jews and half-breeds. These people feel good when you control them with a whip. Thousands of prisoners will be useful for German agriculture. They are hardworking, obedient and undemanding.

Peter Count York von Wartenburg and Ulrich Count Schwerin von Schwanenfeld approached Stauffenberg with a request to accept an appointment as aide-de-camp to Army Commander Walter von Brauchitsch to participate in the coup attempt. But Stauffenberg refused.

In 1940, as an officer of the General Staff, he participated in the French campaign. Received an appointment to the organizational department of the ground forces command. In December 1941, he supported the concentration of command power in the hands of Hitler. So, it would seem that Stauffenberg was a supporter of Hitler...

But in 1942, having learned about the massacres of Jews, Poles and Russians, and also disillusioned with the inept conduct of military operations, Stauffenberg joined the Resistance.
In 1943, he was assigned to the 10th Panzer Division, which was supposed to ensure the retreat of General Erwin Rommel in North Africa. During the raid he was seriously wounded, losing his left eye, right hand and two fingers on his left hand.
After recovery he returned to duty. By this time, he had already finally realized that Hitler was leading Germany to disaster...

Initially, Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg was against Hitler's death. " I cannot do this, because as a Christian, the Lord will condemn me for murder.", he told von Treskow. However, the colonel’s opinion subsequently changed.

As early as 1943, the Army Headquarters developed the Valkyrie plan in case of emergencies, such as internal unrest or sabotage of millions of foreign workers in Germany. The main role was given to the Reserve Army, where Olbricht and Stuaffenberg served. The plan was approved by Hitler himself. However, the developers of the Valkyrie plan, Olbricht and Stauffenberg, accompanied it with a secret part, providing for the overthrow of the Nazi regime, the assassination of Hitler and the immediate organization of a military government in Berlin, which was supposed to, with the help of the Wehrmacht, neutralize the most dangerous organs of the Nazi regime: the SS, Gestapo and SD.

On December 26, 1943, Stauffenberg was invited to Hitler's headquarters in Rastenburg for a report. He brought there a time-delayed explosive device in his briefcase. However, Hitler, as usual, canceled the meeting at the last moment.

In June 1944, Stauffenberg was appointed chief of staff of the Army Reserve, in which the old anti-fascist Colonel General Friedrich Olbricht was second-in-command. Stauffenberg, according to his position, was obliged to systematically report to Hitler.

The main assassination attempt was preceded by two first attempts - July 11 and 15. They were canceled at the last minute. Arrests in the army multiplied. The Gestapo was approaching the conspirators.
On July 20, Stauffenberg was summoned to see Hitler. This meeting of his became fatal...

The assassination attempt was planned to take place in Rastenburg, Hitler's headquarters in East Prussia. Usually meetings took place in an underground bunker. But on July 20 there was intense heat and the meeting was moved to an above-ground wooden room. Unforeseen accident. But if a bomb had exploded in a closed room in a bunker, where the blast wave had nowhere to go, everyone would have been smeared against the walls.

On Thursday, July 20, 1944, at about 6 a.m., Colonel Count von Stauffenberg, accompanied by his brother, left his apartment in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee.
The car took both of them to the city, where Chief Lieutenant von Heften joined them. Then they went further - to the Rangsdorf airfield, where Major General Stiff was already waiting to go together to the Fuhrer's headquarters. The Heinkel 111 aircraft, which was at the disposal of General Wagner, took off at about 7 o'clock in the morning. The briefcases contained two bombs with silent chemical fuses. Stauffenberg put one in his briefcase, Heften took the other. Meanwhile, Berthold von Stauffenberg went to the OKH buildings on Bendlerstrasse.

Having flown approximately 560 kilometers, the plane landed in Rustenburg at about 10:15 a.m. Stauffenberg instructed the aircraft commander to be ready for the return flight to Berlin from noon. In an official car, Stauffenberg and his companions went to the Fuhrer's headquarters.

The conspirators prepared two bombs - one factory-made, British-made, the other homemade - according to rumors, it was assembled from Soviet explosives. On July 20, the “English” worked - von Gersdorff subsequently noted: “It would have been better if Stauffenberg had blown up the Russian shell.”

When Stauffenberg was summoned to the Fuhrer for a report, he carried a bomb in his briefcase: guests at headquarters were required to hand over their weapons, but personal belongings were not searched. Having left for a minute, he with difficulty (one of Stauffenberg’s hands could barely function after being wounded) activated the fuse - he crushed the ampoule with pliers so that the acid would corrode the wire that released the firing pin. Since he was one-armed, he barely managed to launch only one bomb.

The room for operational meetings was located at the end of the barracks and had an area of ​​​​approximately 5 x 10 m. It was almost entirely occupied by a huge table with cards, around which, after the arrival of Stauffenberg and Keitel, 25 people gathered. Opposite the door there were three windows - due to the heat they were wide open (another accident!), Hitler stood in the middle of the table, facing the windows and his back to the door. The table was a heavy oak slab placed on two massive wooden stands.

Stauffenberg placed the briefcase with the bomb at the stand that was in close proximity to Hitler. Soon after that, he reported to Keitel that he needed to talk on the phone, left the room and went straight to General Felgiebel, where Werner von Heften was already waiting for him with a car. “Not a single specialist doubted that in a room with thick or thin walls, the explosives intended for this purpose ... would do their job to the end.”

Meanwhile, Heusinger continued his report. Colonel Brandt, Heusinger's deputy, wanting to get closer to the map, touched Stauffenberg's briefcase, which was in the way, with his foot and moved it to the other side of the table stand, away from Hitler. Since Stauffenberg was supposed to report immediately after Heusinger, but had not yet returned, Boulet left the room to call him. However, the telephone operator told him that the colonel had left. Amazed, Boulet returned to the room.

At 12 hours 42 minutes - Heusinger was just saying his final words - the bomb exploded. Stauffenberg, Heften and Felgiebel saw the flames of the explosion and were firmly convinced that Hitler had been killed. The explosion was as powerful as if a 150-millimeter shell had exploded, Stauffenberg later said in Berlin.

Stauffenberg and Heften jumped into the car, which two minutes later stopped at the officer's guard. Security initially refused to let them through, but Stauffenberg referred to a fictitious telephone call and stated that he had permission to leave. At the outer post on the south side, both officers were stopped again. However, Stauffenberg was not at a loss and immediately called Captain von Möllendorff, who over the phone confirmed to the SS Scharführer on duty that he had permission to leave. A little after 1 p.m., Stauffenberg reached the airfield. On the way, Heften dismantled the spare bomb and threw it away. At 13:15 the plane took off and headed back to Berlin, where it was supposed to land at about 16:00.
For almost three hours, Stauffenberg was doomed to do nothing, and these three hours turned out to be fatal for the work he had undertaken...

The explosion in the meeting room caused great destruction: a table was shattered into pieces, the ceiling partially collapsed, window panes were shattered, and frames were torn out. One of those present was thrown out the window by the blast wave. And yet, General Felgiebel, who was supposed to report by telephone on Bendlerstrasse about the success of the assassination attempt, to his horror, saw: covered in smoke, in a burnt and torn uniform, leaning on Keitel and hobbling, Hitler emerges from the smoking barracks!
Four people present in the room died, but Hitler... Having received only a concussion and slight shrapnel wounds, he rose from the floor with the historical words: “Oh, my new trousers - I just put them on yesterday!”

Hitler's trousers

Keitel brought Hitler to his bunker and ordered doctors to be called immediately. Hitler received burns to his right leg, his hair was burned, his eardrums burst, his right arm was partially paralyzed, but overall the injuries were minor.

Of the meeting participants, one - stenographer Berger - was killed on the spot; three others - Colonel Brandt (Heusinger's deputy), General Korten, chief of staff of the Air Force operational leadership, Lieutenant General Schmundt, chief adjutant of the Wehrmacht under Hitler and head of the personnel department of the ground forces - soon died from their injuries. General Bodenschatz, liaison officer of the Air Force Commander-in-Chief at the Fuehrer's headquarters, and Colonel Borgmann, Hitler's aide-de-camp, were seriously wounded. All the others escaped with minor injuries or were not injured.

Familiarization with the location of the people in the room shows that almost exclusively those who stood to the right of the table stand were killed or seriously wounded. It is absolutely clear that as a result of the fact that Colonel Brandt moved the briefcase with the bomb to the right side of the table stand, the direction of the explosion changed significantly. This is the only way to explain why Hitler, who also leaned so far over the table at the time of the explosion that he was almost lying on it (he was nearsighted), survived: Having recovered from the outflow, Hitler and his entourage began to prepare for what was scheduled for the afternoon time for Mussolini's visit to the headquarters of the Supreme Command.

Of all the plans of the conspirators, two key conditions remained unfulfilled: the death of Hitler and the control of the conspirators over communications with Rastenburg.

The identity of the attacker became immediately obvious. Information about Stauffenberg's arrest began to be transmitted through all channels.

At 15:50 the plane with the conspirators landed in Berlin. On Bendlerstrasse, at the headquarters of the Ground Forces, the main participants in the conspiracy gathered: Ludwig Beck (chief of the General Staff of the Wehrmacht and candidate for the post of head of the new state of Germany), Field Marshal Erwin von Witzleben (he was planned to be the commander of all armed forces in the future Germany), General Erich Hepner, Gottfried Bismarck, Count Helldorf and others.

General Olbricht and Colonel Stauffenberg arrived and began rattling out orders for the Valkyrie. Tanks entered Berlin, the main radio station was taken under guard, and a guards battalion rushed to occupy the main government offices.
Many senior officers were involved in the conspiracy. On the Western Front: Commander-in-Chief Field Marshal Hans von Kluge and the military governor of France, General Heinrich von Stülpnagel, took a direct part in carrying out the orders of the leaders of the anti-Hitler conspiracy.

Ludwig Beck

Early in the morning on the day of the assassination attempt, July 20 at 6 a.m. 30m. General Beck called Paris from Bendlerstrasse, from the General Headquarters of the Ground Forces - the central point of the conspirators. He asked only one question: "Are you with us?"
And Field Marshal Kluge replied: “Of course!”

Hans Gunther Adolf Ferdinand von Kluge

And a few hours later, while events were unfolding at Hitler’s headquarters in Rastenburg, one thousand two hundred of the most important leaders of the SS and Gestapo, led by Himmler’s representative in France, SS Gruppenführer Karl-Albrecht Oberg, were taken into custody in France.
But by midnight on July 20, the coup in Paris was over. The governor of France, General Stülpnagel, was summoned to Berlin. He knew perfectly well what awaited him there. On the way there, near Verdun, he got out of the car to “stretch his legs” and... shot himself. But the suicide attempt was unsuccessful. He injured his eyes, but survived...
On August 30, 1944, he was hanged along with other members of the “Western group” of anti-fascists.

Meanwhile, events in Berlin were not developing at all favorably for the conspirators. The first successes were quickly swept away by the efforts of Goebbels. Within hours, SS officers loyal to Hitler seized the building on Bendlerstrasse and crushed the putsch. The leader of the conspiracy shot himself before his arrest. Olbricht and Staufenberg, his young adjutant and friend of Maria Vasilchikova - Haften were immediately arrested. At first, everyone involved in the assassination attempt on Hitler was kept in the basements of the Gestapo headquarters on Prinz Albrechtstrasse. Then they were transferred to the Maobit prison on Lehrterstrasse, two and a half kilometers from there. They were brought for interrogation to the main Gestapo headquarters.

As was customary in Gestapo prisons, those arrested were mercilessly beaten and brutally tortured. Techniques of screwing fingers, using leggings with spikes, and even the medieval “rack” were used. From sunset to dawn the lights were on in the cells. In the event of a raid, the guards took refuge in shelters, the prisoners remained in their cells and many of them died. Christian solidarity, which the Gestapo was powerless to break, is the only consolation and hope of the prisoners.

As for the fate of the conspirators, it was terrible. Already on the evening of July 20, 1944, Stauffenberg was captured at his workplace - at the General Staff of the Ground Forces on Bendlerstrasse in Berlin. Immediate execution awaited him. Together with him, Infantry General Friedrich Olbricht, Colonel Merz von Quirnheim and Chief Lieutenant Werner von Heften were executed.
Stauffenberg and his adjutant were taken into the courtyard and shot by headlights. Before the execution, Staufenberg managed to shout: "Long live our holy Germany!"

This is how the Russian princess Maria Vasilchikova wrote about it in her diary:
"Friday. July 21, 1944... We were not yet fully aware of the scale of the disaster and the danger of our own situation... Having been at work very briefly... I was told that Count Stauffenberg had been shot at the headquarters of the Ground Forces Command on Bendlerstrasse along with his adjutant, the young Wagner von Haften. General Beck, who was about to be made head of state, committed suicide. General Olbricht, who replaced the hesitant General Fromm as commander of the Reserve Army, was shot along with the rest."

The courtyard of the headquarters of the ground forces reserve, where, on the orders of Friedrich Fromm, Stauffenberg, Olbricht, Heften and von Quirnheim were shot

Repressions, executions

Having discovered the plot, the Gestapo launched a brutal punitive campaign. The exact number of those arrested in connection with the conspiracy has not yet been established. The number of those arrested ranges from seven to eight thousand. In 1944 alone, 5,764 people were executed, and in the remaining five months of 1945, 5,684 were executed.
It was established that 160-200 of them were directly involved in the conspiracy. Among them: 21 generals, 33 colonels and lieutenant colonels, 2 ambassadors, 7 senior diplomats, one minister, three secretaries of state, the chief of the criminal police and a number of senior police officials, provincial governors and major civil officials.

Gate of Plötzensee prison (the street now bears the name of Olbricht)

The night after the plot, Hitler addressed the nation on the radio, promising to severely punish all participants in the rebellion. In the coming weeks, the Gestapo conducted a detailed investigation into the case. Everyone who had even the slightest connection with the main characters in the events of July 20 was arrested or interrogated. During the searches, diaries and correspondence of the participants in the conspiracy were discovered, previous plans for a coup and the assassination of the Fuhrer were revealed; new arrests of the persons mentioned there began. However, not everyone was involved in the case of July 20 - the Gestapo often settled old scores. Hitler personally instructed the President of the People's Court, Roland Freisler, that the trial should be speedy and the defendants should be hanged, “like cattle in a slaughterhouse.”

By order of Hitler, most of the convicts were executed not by guillotine, like civilian criminals, and not by firing squad, like military ones - they were hanged from piano wires attached to a butcher's hook on the ceiling in Plötzensee prison. Unlike ordinary hanging, death did not occur from a broken neck during a fall or from relatively rapid asphyxia, but from stretching of the neck and slow suffocation. It is alleged that Hitler ordered the trial of the conspirators and execution to be turned into humiliating torture, filmed and photographed. These executions were filmed under spotlights. Subsequently, he personally watched this film, and also ordered it to be shown to soldiers to raise morale.
According to Hitler's Luftwaffe adjutant von Below, Hitler did not give the order to film and looked at the photographs of the executed, which were brought to him by the SS adjutant Fegelein, with reluctance. Unlike film footage of show trials, footage of executions has not survived.

On July 21, Treskov committed suicide by simulating death in battle: he blew himself up with a grenade on the Polish front near Bialystok and was buried as a dead officer in his homeland (then his body was dug out of the grave and burned).

Henning von Treskow

The first trial of Witzleben, Hoepner and 6 other participants in the conspiracy took place on August 7-8. On August 8, everyone was hanged. In total, up to 200 people were sentenced to death by the verdict of the People's Chamber. William Shirer gives total figures of 4,980 executed and 7,000 arrested.

Colonel General Franz Halder was arrested, one of the few who were lucky enough to survive (albeit in a concentration camp) the end of the war and be released. Field Marshal von Kluge poisoned himself on 19 August near Metz, fearing the fate of Witzleben after Hitler recalled him from the front. In October, Erwin Rommel, Stauffenberg's commander in Africa, on whom the conspirators were counting, but whose actual connection with them is unclear, committed suicide and was solemnly buried. Another field marshal indirectly involved in the conspiracy, Fedor von Bock, escaped prosecution, but survived Hitler by only four days: he died on May 4, 1945, after his car came under fire from an English attack aircraft. On August 30, Stülpnagel, who tried to shoot himself, was hanged, and on September 4, Lehndorff-Steinort and Felgiebel. On September 9, Goerdeler, who tried to escape and was betrayed by the hotel owner, was sentenced to death, but his execution was postponed, presumably because his political weight and authority in the eyes of the West could be useful to Himmler in the event of peace negotiations. On February 2 he was hanged, on the same day Popitz was hanged in Plötzensee prison.

Trials and executions went on almost non-stop from August 1944 to February 1945. On February 3, 1945, the day after the execution of Goerdeler and Popitz, an American bomb hit the People's Court building during a meeting, and a beam that fell from the ceiling killed Freisler. After the death of the judge, the proceedings were suspended. However, the discovery in March of Canaris's diaries with details of the Abwehr plot led him, Oster and their several comrades, against whom there had previously been no direct evidence, to the gallows; On April 8 they were executed in the Flossenbürg concentration camp, just 22 days before Hitler's death.

Among the 200 executed were 1 field marshal (Witzleben), 19 generals, 26 colonels, 2 ambassadors, 7 diplomats at other levels, 1 minister, 3 secretaries of state and the head of the Reich criminal police (SS Gruppenführer and Police Lieutenant General Arthur Nebe).

In accordance with the "ancient Germanic" blood guilt laws ( Sippenhaft) the relatives of the conspirators were also subjected to repression: many were arrested and sent to concentration camps, and the Nazis placed the children under new names in a special orphanage, forbidding them to tell who they were. Fortunately, there were only a few months left until the end of the war... Most of the repressed family members of the conspirators survived the war and were able to reunite with the selected children.

The consequence of the discovery of the plot was the increased vigilance of the Nazis towards the Wehrmacht: the armed forces were deprived of the relative autonomy from the party and the SS that they had previously enjoyed. On July 24, the army made the Nazi salute mandatory instead of the traditional military salute.

Much has been written about the anti-fascist movement within Germany, but not everything is clarified in this complex and multi-layered structure. Since Stalin's times, stereotypical assessments of the plot of July 20, 1944 have been preserved as “the result of the activities of Western intelligence services,” “a militaristic conspiracy not only against the USSR, but also against the German people,” “the opposition of a complete reaction,” and “an attempt to save German imperialism from complete defeat.”

Of the Russian researchers, the most thoughtful author Elena Rzhevskaya regards the conspiracy of July 20, 1944 as an action pursuing the goal "... remove Hitler and thereby clear the way for peace negotiations with the allies, end the war, save for Germany what can still be saved from complete defeat, catastrophe."
She also considers the main participants in the conspiracy to be July 20 "German officers, generals, and field marshals and noble civilians."

History does not tolerate the subjunctive mood. But still, what if Hitler had died on July 20? Probably, the war would have ended earlier, and the fate of post-war Europe would have been different, and Soviet influence would not have been so great...
Stalin needed Hitler alive as a symbol of Nazi Germany. Former head of the intelligence and sabotage department of the NKVD-NKGB of the USSR, Lieutenant General P.A. Sudoplatov noted: “In 1943, Stalin abandoned his original plan to assassinate Hitler because he feared that once Hitler was eliminated, Nazi circles and the military would try to conclude a separate peace treaty with the Allies without the participation of the Soviet Union.”

Memorial plaque at the site of Stauffenberg's execution with flowers

The participants in the July 20th conspiracy are considered in modern Germany to be national heroes who gave their lives in the name of freedom; Streets are named after them, monuments erected to them. On memorable dates associated with the assassination attempt, ceremonies are held with the participation of senior officials of the state. In modern German historiography, the July 20th plot is considered the most important event of the German Resistance.

German President Joachim Gauck called the assassination attempt on Hitler 70 years ago by a group of Wehrmacht officers a significant day in German history. He spoke today at a gala event at the Bendlerblock memorial complex in Berlin, where four members of the Resistance movement who were preparing an assassination attempt on the Fuhrer were executed, including the perpetrator of the action, Count Claus Schenck von Stauffenberg.

“Today we remember a significant day in German history,- said Joachim Gauck. - At a time when our country has wreaked war and suffering on Europe, a light of hope and decency has shone on. This light appeared when, 70 years ago, men dared to take a bold step that they themselves considered impossible just a few years ago: they resolutely opposed their own rulers, against the leadership of the National Socialist state. They acted with the clear goal of killing the dictator and ending the reign of violence and tyranny.”

The head of the German state recalled that this year Germany and the whole of Europe also remembers another assassination attempt committed 100 years ago. Then in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914, the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand was killed, which served as the reason for the outbreak of the First World War. “When we think about the events of 1914 that followed the assassination attempt in Sarajevo, about the imaginary logic of the actions of hypertrophied nationalism, fueled by an obsession with threats, the blind euphoria of war in the capitals of the continent, then it becomes clear to us what we did not want.”, he noted.
“In comparison, July 20th reminds us of what we are willing and able to do: courageously stand up for our values.”, emphasized Joachim Gauck.