Posted on 04/22/2007 7:56:23 PM PDT by aculeus
DER Führer Adolf Hitler ist tot. These six words, announcing the death of the Nazi leader, should have brought the Second World War to an end in November 1943.
The sentence was part of a press release drafted by disaffected German officers who hatched an audacious plot to kill Hitler and then use a secret army to seize control of key sites before suing for peace with the Allies.
The full story - which surpasses any Hollywood war movie for drama, farce and ironic twists - has been uncovered by a German academic who closely examined detailed records left behind by the plotters.
Major General Henning von Tresckow created a new force of around 20,000 troops based in German-controlled territory in the east, telling High Command it was needed to protect against a potential revolt by slave labourers.
Tresckow then organised a 'fashion parade' at which Hitler was to inspect new uniforms, little suspecting one of the models was a suicide bomber. Once the Führer was dead, Tresckow planned to blame the killing on rogue SS elements, use his secret army to take command, and end the war.
But the putsch was foiled days before it was due to be launched, thanks to the RAF. The uniforms were among the casualties from two nights of bombing raids on Berlin, so the plot was abandoned.
Documents minutely detailing every moment of the overthrow of Nazi Germany and its aftermath were immediately buried by the panicked plotters. They were uncovered by the victorious Soviets in 1945 and lay in Moscow archives until a recent study by Professor Peter Hoffmann of the McGill University, Montreal.
Hoffman, a world authority on wartime resistance to Hitler within the German army, believes another of the plotters was Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, the man who earned his place in history by almost killing the Führer with a briefcase bomb in 1944.
Interest in the subject of anti-Hitler plotting is likely to reach new heights later this year when Hollywood actor Tom Cruise begins shooting a major movie in which he plays Stauffenberg.
The new research shows Tresckow was an equal, if not greater, threat to Hitler. Among a close-knit group of conspirators, he worked on the demise of a man he called "the enemy of the world" and a "dancing dervish".
At least two earlier plots have been uncovered, both involving cognac bottles packed with explosives. After they failed, Tresckow began work, in the summer of 1943, on a far more ambitious scheme.
Trescow's plan was to kill Hitler at his war HQ, dubbed the 'Wolf's Lair', in East Prussia, now part of the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad. Hitler would be shown new German army winter uniforms, one of them modelled by Axel von dem Bussche, a decorated war hero who had vowed to kill the Führer after witnessing a massacre of Soviet Jews. Bussche would pose in the new uniform while holding two hand grenades, fully aware he too would die.
Meanwhile, Tresckow and his colleagues used their power to assign divisions to a new internal security force. The cover story for creating the army was to put down any attempts to rebel by enemies of the Reich such as slave workers.
It was planned that the army would begin an exercise 12 hours before the assassination and move in on Hitler's East Prussian HQ, with other troops deploying near government offices in Berlin.
Seven hours before the assassination, commanders would establish the exact location of SS troops and two hours after that be fully prepared for combat against them.
Within 10 minutes of Hitler's death, the code-words for a successful operation would be given, and the next phase of the plan would begin.
At "X plus 25 minutes" Tresckow's army would occupy the Wolf's Lair, along with the East Prussian HQs of Hermann Göring, Heinrich Himmler, and Nazi foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop.
After 30 minutes, a news statement was to be read on German radio, saying that Hitler was dead and accusing a "a traitorous clique" of SS and party leaders for trying to take personal advantage of the dismal situation on the Eastern Front. The statement would reassure the nation that a group of army officers had taken control and would bring stability.
But then disaster struck. On the nights of November 22 and 23, a series of bombing raids destroyed the trains containing the fashion show uniforms.
Hoffmann told Scotland on Sunday: "The plans demonstrate, and give details of, a thorough and promising preparation of a coup to seize control of Germany that was to accompany the assassination. This would have been followed by immediate armistice talks, or surrender. The plans show that the preparations of autumn 1943 were more thorough and promising of success than any other plans."
He added: "The plans demonstrate Tresckow's central role in these preparations, and his role as the driving force and leader of the movement to remove Hitler and his regime."
Professor David Stafford, of Edinburgh University's Centre for Second World War Studies, said: "The timing is very significant. It was after the great defeats of 1943 and the German Army knew the writing was on the wall. It is fascinating that we are still learning new things about the Second World War."
Stauffenberg was executed for his role in the July 1944 attempt to kill Hitler, and Tresckow killed himself with a grenade because he feared being tracked down. Bussche - the only one of the three who was meant to die in the plots - survived the war and died in 1993.
But bombs in suitcases are sexier though (Cue 1940s music playing in phonograph)
Have you read this vanity?
Cheers!
After he left, another officer moved the brief case containing the bomb to the other side of the support. Hitler may also have moved further away from it while studying the maps. That was when the bomb went off.
Unfortunately, a good deal of the blast went out of the building [in the originally scheduled conference room, the concrete would have forced the blast waves inward, likely killing everyone]. Hitler suffered a perforated eardrum, a slight injury to one of his legs, and had his uniform ripped to shreds. Several officers on the other side of the table support died immediately. At least one other officer died later from his wounds.
Olga is a sweet but misguided member of the Hitler Youth (Gwyneth is perfect. I’m sleeping with her agent’s secretary’s sister’s friend’s ex-roommate. I’ll take a lunch with the agent.)
She is beautiful and looks very Germanic, but alas, she was rejected for a Wermacht recruiting poster because of her too-small chest (Like I said, Gwyneth will be perfect.)
She wanted to have this new surgical procedure call Big Bratwurst Breast whereby silicone is inserted into her chest by the kindly old doctor, but at the last minute, the silicone is needed to reduce the friction in the gyroscopes guiding the V1 missiles and the poor old kindly doctor is murdered on Hitler’s orders by Joseph Mengle, who looks a lot like Karl Rove.
Can we get Mel Brooks to play Hitler?
So Helga, Olga, what the hell is her name is recruited by General Wunderbar, who looks a lot like John Kerry to kill Hitler... but at the last moment, an RAF bomber piloted by a sleazy guy who looks like a rabid young Ronald Reagan screws up the whole thing.
In the end, we see Brunhilda/Olga/Helga, whatever we call her confessing her sorrow but not her sins for the ecological damaged caused by the Normandy invasion to a kindly priest who looks a lot like former VP Al whats-his-name.
Can we get $500 million to make this picture? We'll make Patton gay. They'll love it!
From the article it sounds like they were Wehrmacht, not rebels.
I case you didn’t get it, I was kidding.
I thought it also created severe wounds to Hitler’s arm.
?
There's a plausible theory in some circles that the 1944 bomb *did* kill Hitler, which explains why Hitler's remains were never recovered/displayed after the war (and many decades later verified via DNA tests).
That theory also explains why the Wehrmacht was given ridiculous orders to fight to the last man to hold ground in Russia rather than retreat back into Germany to fight from behind pre-built fortifications...as a "Hitler double" could be made to look the part, but wouldn't be expected to have much grasp of military tactics.
You’re comparing Bill Clinton to Hitler? I’m sorry, but that’s a bit much.
“They weren’t really ‘losing’ in November 1943 yet.”
Uh, yes they were. North Africa and Sicily were already lost, and the allies had invaded Italy. We were bombing Germany nightly, and the U-boat fleet was under very heavy pressure. On the Eastern Front, Stalingrad had been lost completely in January of ‘43, and Kursk’s massive loss was the prior summer. If that’s not losing, what is?
Thanks for the refresher, you are right, that is as I was told it 39 years ago. The site has an eerie, sinister, feel to it that I remember to this day.
That trip was my first experience of Eastern Europe, and I was not unduly alarmed by the amount of military vehicles and troops that I saw in that area, assuming it to normal for the Eastern bloc.
Little did I know that what I was witnessing at the time was the Russian Army moving through Poland to invade Czechoslovakia and depose Alexander Dubcek.
Heck, what did I know, I was only 17 at the time.
That’s not what the article says. It says the plotters planned to sue for peace, hence, why the first sentence says the war would end. I think you are getting confused, because they were initially going to blame the plot on a traitorous SS group. Read the article again.
The German General Staff knew they were losing when the 1941 drive on Moscow failed. They knew they didn’t have the manpower or industry for a prolonged total war.
How were they supposed to achieve this "peace" once Hitler was dead? Just ask Stalin nicely? The Eastern Front had already crumbled and the tide of war had turned. Furthermore, the US and UK were committed to Germany's unconditional surrender. The plotters may have hoped for a separate peace with the US and UK was Hitler was gone, but such a deal was unlikely, and they'd have to keep fighting the Soviets regardless. The writer of this article would probably blame the Allies' unreasonable unconditional surrender demand for prolonging the war unnecessarily.
I get really tired of hearing about how these German resistance plotters were a bunch of great heroes. Von Tresckow was connected to Stauffenberg and the circle around Admiral Canaris. They were all loyal, patriotic German soldiers who knew that Hitler was flushing Germany down the crapper. They weren't on our side. They were on Germany's side.
There was a bomb in a centerpiece at a dinner... oh wait. That was an episode of Hogan’s Heroes.
Read the article. The Allies did not intentionally “foil” the plot. They just happened to bomb something that was integral to the plot.
You are referring to the 1944 von Stauffenberg attempt (briefcase). This story (suicide) is about a newly-discovered plot from 1943.
The wild card there was the SS. Particularly, the Waffen SS. On the day he was wounded in Normandy, Rommel had been inspecting the 1st SS Panzerkorps, and sounding out Sepp Dietrich about seeking an armistice in the West without - and against - Hitler’s wishes. Purportedly, Dietrich told Rommel the SS under his command would support Rommel.
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