Assassination attempt on Hitler!

The Wehrmacht’s most significant attempt to overthrow the Third Reich

Seeking to prevent another world war, members of the Wehrmacht drew up a number of plans between 1938 and 1940 which sought either to overthrow or assassinate Adolf Hitler. His mass popularity, the reluctance of many soldiers to break their oath to the Führer, and the reluctance of the British to believe the messages sent to them deterred the military resistance from implementing these plans. It took the realization of impending defeat in 1944 to galvanize a group of nobles, senior officers and civil servants into action. Major General von Tresckow, one of the leading conspirators, spoke for many when he expressed the need to “risk our lives in a decisive move to [demonstrate our resolve] to the world and posterity”.

As the chief of staff of an army unit, Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg had direct access to Hitler during the regular briefings held at his “Wolf’s Lair” headquarters in East Prussia. During one of these meetings held on 20 July 1944, he placed a briefcase filled with explosives under the table next to Hitler, made an excuse and left early. Unfortunately, Stauffenberg had been able to prime only half the explosives, and the case was moved behind a concrete table support that shielded Hitler from the blast. Stauffenberg reached his flight to Berlin, but Hitler’s survival stymied the coup d’état that was to be launched after the assassination under the code name “Operation Valkyrie”. Numerous arrests were made, and Stauffenberg and several other conspirators were shot. More than 300 people connected with the resistance movement were subsequently either executed or driven to suicide.