HISTORKA--The Other Stories: People, Places, and Events Behind the Headlines in History

The Oster Conspiracy Plan in 1939 and 1940

Hand-written plans for the Oster coup conspiracy (see previous posts) were destroyed or locked away in September, 1938, after the Munich accord appeared to prevent war over Germany’s moves against Czechoslovakia. But they were dusted off in 1939-40. With Britain and France now at war with Germany following the invasion of Poland, even reluctant members of the British government were willing to give coup plotters what they had been looking for—clear and forceful opposition to Hitler as head of the German state and his saber-rattling threats in Eastern and Western Europe and permission to depose him.

On March 11, 1940, the British government said it would discuss terms of peace with Germany if Hitler was removed from power and the rule of law was reinstated. (John Grehan: The Hitler Assassination Attempts, p 85) The problem for the conspirators this time? Getting their own military leaders to give the order that would set in motions the coup that would oust Adolf Hitler.

Start of the Phony War

Despite the Munich accord, Allied governments as well as German military leaders could do little to stop Hitler from pursuing his plan for a new German empire. Hitler defied the Munich agreement’s protections of Czech independence months after it was signed—under the threat that Prague would be leveled by German bombers, Czech troops surrendered to the German Army and the country was absorbed by Germany as the Protektorate of Bohemia and Moravia on March 16, 1939.

Soon after, German troops occupied Memelland in Lithuania, a trade treaty brought Romania under German control, and Hitler signed non-aggression agreements with Latvia, Estonia, and Denmark. He allied himself with Mussolini through the Pact of Steel in May, 1939, and Stalin in August, then ordered troops to invade Poland on September 1.

https://defenceredefined.com.cy/1st-of-september-1939-germany-invades-poland-the-biggest-war-in-history-begins-video/

  Although both France and Britain immediately declared war against Germany, neither country was firing shots. French forces quickly withdrew after a minor assault on German territory soon after the Polish invasion, and Britain only went so far as to mobilize the Royal Navy to block German ports. (James P. Duffy and Vincent L. Ricci: Target Hitler)

Franz Halder. https://www.vle.lt/straipsnis/franz-halder/

 The German military argued futilely against preparations for aggression against the west or further action in the east. In November, 1939, General Franz Halder noted that the army was not prepared for an offensive—there were not enough officers to lead troop movements, personnel in some units had not been adequately trained, materiel was in short supply and took days to resupply, and some divisions were understaffed by at least a third. Though none of the members of army headquarters believed an offensive had “any prospect of success,” Halder wrote, “any sober discussion of these things is impossible with [Hitler].” (Charles Burdick and Hans-Adolf Jacobsen: The Halder War Diary)

 The German Resistance

 Though Oster conspirators had torn and set fire to their coup plan notes and maps days after the Munich accord, they had not fully given up. Members of the German Resistance became liaisons between groups opposed to Hitler within various branches of the civilian government and the military, got union leaders to promise they would strike against the government in support of a coup, and encouraged individuals who considered quick hits against Hitler—eg, invitations for Hitler to inspect fortifications where a grenade would be detonated or where other measures would be taken to “render him harmless once and for all.” (Target, p 89)

Coup planners decided to resurrect the hand-written plans Oster had secreted in his safe in 1938 and once again approach the British government for support. Coup planners had hoped in vain for Britain to make clear to the German people that a coup was necessary to stop Hitler from triggering a shooting war in 1938. This time, they wanted to be sure neither Britain nor France would take advantage of any turmoil following a coup and invade Germany. 

Emissaries to Great Britain, including Pope Pius XII, eventually convinced Lord Halifax, and Prime Minister Chamberlain acceded to plotters’ demand that the country would not invade if they succeeded in their attempt to assassinate the head of the German government. Specifically, the British government on March 11, 1940, agreed it would discuss peace with Germany as long as Hitler was no longer head of state, the country adhered to the rule of law, Poland would be liberated, the territories that had recently come under German rule could decide their fate for themselves, Germany would not wage war in western Europe, and an armistice would be negotiated via the pope. (The Hitler Assassination Attempts)

Britain’s acquiescence with the coup planners did not come without complaint. As Francis D’Arcy Osborne, British ambassador to the Holy See, noted: “If they wanted a change of government, why didn’t they get on with it.” (The Hitler Assassination Attempts, p 84)  

 A New Coup

Two leaders of the German Army were critical for setting a coup attempt in motion. Army Chief of Staff Franz Halder was needed to sign off on operational details that would lead to the assassination of Adolf Hitler and the creation of an interim government. His superior, Army Commander in Chief Walther von Brauchitsch, was the man who could issue the order to move against the Nazi leader.  

 In September, 1939, while Hitler was pushing for an invasion of western countries, Halder and Brauchitsch felt they had only three options—to follow Hitler’s orders for what they considered to be a disastrous military assault, do whatever they could to delay the mission, or work for “fundamental change.”  (Joachim Fest: Plotting Hitler’s Death, p 121)

Hitler’s insistence on a military campaign with an aggressive timeline—a full-blown attack within months—led members of the general staff, military intelligence, a Resistance cell within the high command called Action Group Zossen, and the foreign office to push Halder and Brauchitsch for coup marching orders. Yet the men hesitated. Halder worried that no one was prepared to take Hitler’s place as head of the government and that younger officers were not ready for a putsch. An offhand remark from Hitler about “the spirit of Zossen” made Halder believe coup plotters may have been betrayed or the plan uncovered, and there was infighting among the plotters. “If they’re so sure at Military Intelligence that they want an assassination, let [them] take care of it…,” Halder complained.  (Plotting Hitler’s Death, p 134)

The Oster conspirators nevertheless regrouped in early 1940 after Britain’s peace proposal in March. In a repeat of the 1938 coup plan, key locations within Berlin were identified, operatives were prepared to occupy the locations and seize resisters to the coup, impose martial law, and notify the public that elections would be held soon and peace talks would begin with Allies. (The Hitler Assassination Attempts, p 85)

 Franz Halder and Walther von Brauchitsch

https://www.welt.de/geschichte/zweiter-weltkrieg/article234116336/Unternehmen-Taifun-1941-78-Divisionen-sollten-Moskau-nehmen.html

 But Halder and Brauchitsch stood down. Halder no longer felt Hitler’s plans for aggression were doomed for failure. He had reviewed troop strength on the west and in Poland and found they had been expanded and refitted and troop divisions could triple in size in months, factories were producing aircraft, guns, and tanks, and the recalcitrance of the British and the French was giving Hitler the time he needed to mount a superior force. (Herbert Malloy Mason, Jr: To Kill the Devil, p 93) A humiliating and costly military defeat was no longer assured.

And Brauchitsch faced reality: Action taken against the head of government while the country was at war would not only would be treasonous, a coup was bound to fail. As Brauchitsch said after the war: “Of course, I could have had Hitler arrested and even imprisoned him. Easily. I had enough officers loyal to me who would have carried out even that order if given by me. But that was not the problem. Why should I have initiated action against Hitler…? It would have been action against the German people. The German people were pro-Hitler.” (The Hitler Assassination Attempts, p 86.

Sources:

John Grehan: The Hitler Assassination Attempts, Frontline Books, 2022.

Joachim Fest: Plotting Hitler’s Death, Henry Holt and Company, 1997.

Herbert Molloy Mason, Jr. To Kill the Devil, W. W. Norton and Company, 1978.

James P. Duffy and Vincent L. Ricci: Target Hitler, Praeger, 1992.

Charles Burdick and Hans –Adolf Jacobsen, eds: The Halder War Diary, Presidio, 1988.

HISTORKA--The Other Stories: People, Places, and Events Behind the Headlines in History

The Oster Conspiracy Plan and the British Connection

In the summer of 1938, German military intelligence had detailed plans for a coup that would remove Adolf Hitler from power (see the last Historka post). An attack force was armed and ready to take over the Reichs Chancellery, arrest Hitler, and prevent Gestapo and SS from interfering while the military took control of government until new civilian leadership could be put in place.

The operation flamed out, however, as leaders tossed “their lovely plans and projects into the fire” at the end of September. (John Grehan: The Hitler Assassination Attempts, p 69). The so-called Oster Conspiracy failed because emissaries could not convince Britain to stand up to and stop Hitler from actions that could lead to war. Instead, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain negotiated what he believed to be “peace with honour…peace for our time.”  (The Hitler Assassination Attempts, p 69)

 The Spring of 1938

In the summer of 1938, German military intelligence had detailed plans for a coup that would remove Adolf Hitler from power (see the last Historka post). An attack force was armed and ready to take over the Reichs Chancellery, arrest Hitler, and prevent Gestapo and SS from interfering while the military took control of government until new civilian leadership could be put in place.

https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205193838 

On the morning of March 12, two mechanized divisions of German troops crossed the border with Austria and traveled to Vienna. Without a shot being fired, the Third Reich completed Anschluss, full annexation of the country. Though a violation of the Versailles Treaty, the move was not viewed by European countries as serious enough to warrant a strong military response or war. The vast majority of Austrians after all approved of unification with Germany (99.7 percent voted in favor of it in an April referendum), and while France and Britain may have fretted, they did nothing to oppose the action. In-country military and political situations kept the two countries on the sidelines. Both France and Britain had weak military forces in the Rhineland; France did not have a fully seated parliament; and many in Britain believed the “Germans were only going into their own back garden.” (https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/znxdnrd/revision/3)

The threat of war was far greater a little over a month later when German military units amassed along the border with Czechoslovakia, and in response, the Czech government mobilized military reservists and strengthened fortifications.

Czechoslovakia’s principal ally, France, as well as Britain issued a warning. Both countries vowed to support Czechoslovakia against aggression, stating that any move by Germany could lead to “European conflagration.” (The Hitler Assassination Attempts, p 62)

Members of the Oster group felt vindicated. To their way of thinking, their plan to remove Hitler from power was the only way to prevent another war on the continent. All they had to do to initiate their coup was get a firm commitment that Britain would take up arms in support of an independent Czechoslovakia.

 Secret Missions

 From July to early September, the Oster group sent German diplomat Erich Kordt and landowner Ewald von Kleist-Schmenzin to meet with leaders of the British government--chief advisor to the British Foreign Office Sir Robert Vansittart, backbencher at the time Winston Churchill, and foreign secretary Lord Halifax.

A primary objective: to impress upon British officials the gravity of the situation. On April 21, Hitler had ordered the army General Staff to prepare for a full-scale invasion of Czechoslovakia no later than October 1. A preemptive strike, code named Case Green, was in keeping with Hitler’s “unalterable decision to smash Czechoslovakia in the near future…and then … tackle the situation in the west” in three or four years. (Herbert Malloy Mason: To Kill the Devil, p 37) Hitler was determined to create a German Empire encompassing Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Burgundy, Alsace-Lorraine, and Switzerland before moving on to Poland, Ukraine, the Baltics, and Scandinavia.

Equally important for Oster conspirators was ensuring that Britain would take aggressive steps to intercede when Hitler moved ahead with the invasion of Czechoslovakia and the promise that the Oster Conspiracy would then proceed with a coup. “Bring me certain proof that England will fight if Czechoslovakia is attacked,” Kleist told Vansittart, “and I will make an end to this regime.” (To Kill the Devil, p 38)

British Reactions

https://www.amazon.com/Oster-Conspiracy-1938-Military-Hitler/dp/0060955252

 Ignoring Clear Signs

But British officials turned a blind eye toward threats of German aggression against Czechoslovakia. On July 18, Wehrmacht Cpt. Fritz Wiedemann carried Hitler’s direct message to Lord Halifax that he would not wait much longer. Czechoslovakia was stopping Sudeten Germans from returning to their Homeland. “If no satisfactory solution has been achieved soon, I will solve this question with violence,” Hitler told the foreign secretary through Wiedemann. (Terry Parssinen: The Oster Conspiracy of 1938, p 55)

Lord Halifax nevertheless pushed for a binding declaration that Germany would not resort to armed conflict. When Wiedemann reiterated Hitler’s resolve and impatience, Halifax asked for a timetable: “How long do we have to solve the problem peacefully?” he asked. “Approximately until March 1939,” he was told.

Halifax either misunderstood or misrepresented the entire interchange when he reported that the German government was “planning no kind of forcible action” and “until [March, 1939] we can achieve a lot.”  (The Oster Conspiracy of 1938, p 55)

 Mediation

On July 16, Chamberlain announced he was sending an intermediary to push for peaceful resolution of the differences between the Czechoslovak government and Sudeten Germans-- Lord Runciman, shipping magnate and former president of the UK Board of Trade. Despite claims that he would act independently as an “investigator and mediator” in keeping with Czechoslovakia’s wishes, the Czech government had not asked for assistance. 

To the contrary, Runciman was speaking for the British government and his mission was to push Czechs to accede to Sudeten demands. (Runciman’s efforts soon failed. Sudeten Germans rejected every offer made by the Czech government. (The Oster Conspiracy of 1938, p 88)

 Traitors

Chamberlain and others in the British cabinet considered Oster operatives not as protectors of peace but outright traitors to their country. Von Kleist reminded Chamberlain of Jacobites [British traitors at the Court of France during the reign of King William] and “we must discount a good deal of what he [Kleist] says,” Chamberlain said. (The Oster Conspiracy of 1938, p 74)

Sir Robert Vansittart likewise viewed Oster men with suspicion, seeing little difference between them and Nazis. “The same sort of ambitions are sponsored by a different body of men, and that is about all.” (The Oster Conspiracy of 1938, p 75.)

 Nothing To Do about It Anyway

At an emergency meeting August 30, Halifax acknowledged the only possibly effective deterrent to German aggression would be a declaration that Britain would declare war if the Nazis invaded Czechoslovakia. But then what? It wasn’t clear whether the country could actually take action and win a war against Germany.

And what would even come of it anyway? “There was nothing which would prevent Czechoslovakia from being overrun by Germany,” and it was “unlikely” that “any peace reached at the end of such a war would recreate Czechoslovakia as it existed today.”  (The Oster Conspiracy of 1938, p 90)

In the end, few among the British government, other than Winston Churchill, saw the need to listen to the Oster conspirators and make clear to Germany that it would counter any aggression toward Czechoslovakia. Churchill in mid-August proposed forming a grand alliance involving Britain, France, the Soviet Union, and even the US to assure that Czechoslovakia remained independent. He also hoped the British government would support Oster and others’ anti-war efforts within Germany as well as Oster’s planned coup to create a new German government “that could guarantee stability and end the fear of war.” (The Oster Conspiracy of 1938, p 72, 76)

In September even Lord Halifax had come to agree with the Oster conspirators. As requested by Kordt, Halifax drafted a speech that explicitly warned Hitler about the likelihood of war if he took the steps he had planned against Czechoslovakia. After Chamberlain and others vetoed that idea, Halifax sent a strongly worded message to Hitler via the British ambassador in Germany. The ambassador refused to deliver it, however, believing the message could push Hitler “over the edge…if not of actual madness, of mad action.” (The Oster Conspiracy of 1938, p 106)

The Rest Is History  

Neville Chamberlain flew to Germany to meet one-on-one with Adolf Hitler on September 15, thus beginning shuttle diplomacy that led to the international meeting in Munich and the Munch Agreement ceding Sudetenland to Germany, creating an international commission to determine the fate of the rest of Czechoslovakia, and finalizing a short-lived peace treaty between Germany and Britain.

The Oster Conspiracy of 1938 had come to an end. One operative recalled how Oster and two others spent the evening on the day German troops occupied Sudetenland: “meditating, not on Hitler’s triumph, but on the calamity that had befallen Europe.” (To Kill the Devil, p 50)

Others put the blame at the feet of Neville Chamberlain: “Chamberlain has made war inevitable.”(The Hitler Assassinations, p 69) “Chamberlain has saved Hitler.” (Target Hitler, p 80)

As for Oster? He kept the handwritten pages of his coup plan locked in his office safe. They lay untouched until 1939. (See the next Historka post)

 Sources:

 Herbert Molloy Mason, Jr: To Kill the Devil, W W Norton & Co., 1978.

John Grehan: The Hitler Assassination Attempts, Frontline Books, 2022.

Roger Moorhouse: Killing Hitler, Bantam Books, 2006.

Terry Parssinen: The Oster Conspiracy of 1938, Harper Collins Publishers, 2003.

James P. Duffy and Vincent L. Ricci: Target Hitler, Praeger, 1992.  

HISTORKA: The Other Stories People, Places, and Events Behind the Headlines in History

The Oster Conspiracy Plan

In April, 1938, Adolf Hitler was firming up plans to create a new German Empire, one that would include Poland, the Ukraine, Baltic states, Scandinavia, Holland, Flemish Belgium, Luxembourg, Burgundy, Alsace-Lorraine, and Switzerland. But that meant war, pitting Germany against France and its ally Russia as well as Great Britain and the United States. A disastrous war instigated by an insular nation ill prepared militarily and economically to engage in what would trigger assaults on all of its sides—land, sea, and air.

 Hitler magnanimously gave the military three to four years to prepare for the beginning of that war—an assault on the west. Meantime, he told leaders of the German armed forces what he expected as the first step: begin mobilizing troops to neutralize the nearby seat of manufacturing and arms production—Czechoslovakia—“to smash Czechoslovakia in the near future by military action.” (Herbert Molloy Mason: To Kill the Devil, p 39.)

 Top-level members of the German army and military intelligence along with former government ministers immediately began preparing to act audaciously—to engineer and execute a coup that would remove Hitler from power, forestall retaliation from the Gestapo and SS, and impose military rule until a new civilian government could be formed.  (James P. Duffy and Vincent L. Ricci: Target Hitler, John Grehan: The Hitler Assassination Attempts)

 The Plan

What eventually became known as the Oster Conspiracy called for a squad from the Berlin Defense Distract III Military District and intelligence agents from Abwehr to march on and occupy the Reichs Chancellery in Berlin, take Hitler into custody and force him to resign on the spot or take him to a secret location until he did so.

https://ww2db.com/image.php?image_id=26284 (Photo of the Reich Chancellery in 1938 before reconstruction completed in 1939.)

The plan took shape after Hitler was rebuked by French and British diplomats in May, 1938. Czech intelligence first noticed German troop buildups near the border on May 19. Two days later, Czech armed forces were sent to the border, and the following day both France and Britain delivered messages of warning. British Foreign Minister Halifax noted that Germany should “not count on this country being able to stand aside…” (Terry Parssinen: The Oster Conspiracy of 1938, p 36) Infuriated that the world press believed he might appear to have backed down and yielded to the west, Hitler on May 28 told his military high command of his “unshakable will”—“that Czechoslovakia shall be wiped off the map”--and called for invasion no later than October 1. (The Oster Conspiracy, p 38)

The first step for the prime mover of the conspiracy, Lt. Col. Hans Oster, second in command of Abwehr military intelligence, was to get the German Army’s General Staff on board.

Col Ludwig Beck, chief of the General Staff, was already wary. He called the “theoretical” plan to attack Czechoslovakia he was asked by Hitler to prepare in 1935 “an act of desperation.”(Mason: To Kill the Devil, p 35) When Hitler reiterated his demands for invasion in 1938, Beck intensified efforts to dissuade the Führer and push military leaders to resist. He sent memos to Hitler detailing the international ramifications of a Czech invasion and showed the likelihood of German defeat to army leaders in a hypothetical war game exercise in June, only to be met with derision. Junior officers dismissed Beck’s concerns, believing he did not “understand the dynamism of the new regime.” Hitler himself accused Beck of cowardice: “What kind of generals are those that I have to drive to war!” (The Oster Conspiracy of 1938, p 47)

Beck nevertheless worked to convince his superior, Walter von Brauchitsch, arguing forcefully against invasion and pushing for generals to resign in protest. Brauchitsch eventually held a meeting of senior commanders and agreed to meet with Hitler directly to voice their objections when none of the men was “convinced of the Führer’s genius,” only to be slapped down by the chancellor in August. (To Kill the Devil, p 39)

Beck then began meeting with Oster regularly, putting the final pieces together for a coup d’ etát.

Lightning Strike

Members of a Strosstrupp or raiding party were recruited from the ranks of active military and the Abwehr, former members of the Stahlen WW I veterans group, student and labor leaders. By mid-September, 1938, 56 hardline anti-Nazis had signed on, were given arms and explosives, and installed in safe houses throughout Berlin. Their assignment: to lead a direct attack on the chancellery, blow off entry doors if need be, remove the 12 to 15 SS who guarded the main entrance to the building and the entrance to Hitler’s quarters and patrolled the corridors and grounds as directed by Gen. Erwin von Witzleben, the commander of the military district of Berlin, Wehrkreis III, and Maj. Friedrich Wilhelm Heinz.

More than men and materiel were needed. The coup plan also called for the coordinated movement of troops and police to tamp down the expected violent response from the Gestapo and SS by rounding up Nazi leaders ahead of or at the time of the attack and securing the city of Berlin.

Key locations were identified: The war ministry and other ministries, the main radio transmitter and radio stations, Gestapo headquarters, police and SS installations. As soon as the raiding party made its move, two senior military commanders would direct their divisions to target and occupy each location, arrest and detain all SS and Gestapo: Walter von Brockdorff-Ahlefeldt of the 23rd Infantry Division and Paul von Hase of the 50th Infantry Division.

A third, Erich Hoepner, would position the 1st Light Division across the road leading to Berlin from Munich to stop Hitler’s bodyguards in the SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte from entering the city.

Police units also had to be restrained from taking action against the army divisions once the coup became operational or, perhaps, encouraged to join the conspirators. The liaison to the police was Hans Gisevius, a former officer in the Gestapo and employee of the Ministry of the Interior.  With the help of Arthur Nebe, a police officer who had access to some of the Gestapo’s secret files and reports, and Wolf von Helldorf, Berlin chief of police, Gisevius obtained the addresses of police stations in Berlin, some of which were housed in private homes. (To Kill the Devil)  

More than Wishful Thinking

The conspirators gradually put meat on the bare bones of the coup plot. Gisevius and Brockdorff scoped out the targeted locations, careful not to catch the eyes or ears of the Gestapo. Posing as tourists, they rode up and down streets of Berlin driven by a woman whose husband was director of an insurance company and no friend of Hitler.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fotothek_df_ktgrf_0001538_Blick_von_der_Wohnung_Karl_Theodor_Gremmlers_am_Kurf%C3%BCrstendamm.jpg

While Elizabeth Strünck circled individual sites, Brockdorff sketched entrances and exits and flagged possible escape routes into back gardens and over walls, prioritized particularly dangerous areas, such as the SS barracks at Lichterfelde, and flagged the concentration camp at    Sachsenhausen, which could serve as a propaganda point, showing that the coup would be returning Germany to a country that valued human rights and dignity over the iron boot when the military regime released all 5000 inmates. (To Kill the Devil)

From a private office next to that of commander Witzleben in the Wehrkreis III military compound, Gisevius scanned intelligence reports without having to worry about wire taps or SS spies.

Plotters even came up with a cover story for the early days of the coup. Operatives would announce that they had to take drastic action because the SS was rising up against Hitler and the armed forces, thereby assuring that Wehrmacht units across the country would not interfere with their actions until they could tell the full story.

What To Do about Hitler

Plotters agreed initially that Abwehr chief Friedrich Heinz and his troops should breach the chancellery battlements and arrest Hitler. Opinions differed markedly after that. Some hoped for a trial that would conclude Hitler was unfit to continue serving as chancellor because of insanity. The trial would dredge up a report from the hospital where Hitler had recovered from a mustard gas attack in Flanders during WW I and cite the conclusion of medical experts at the time that he was psychopathic and exhibited symptoms of hysteria. (To Kill the Devil)

Others worried a trial and incarceration in a mental facility would feed Hitler’s myth and popularity but refrained from calling for an outright assassination or murder. But Beck and Heinz and others conceded that an altercation with Hitler could be arranged and lead to a gun battle that left Hitler dead from a gunshot would. (Roger Moorhouse: Killing Hitler)

 Though all its elements were in place, the Oster plan never fully materialized. So what went wrong? See next month’s Historka post.

Sources:

John Grehan: The Hitler Assassination Attempts, Frontline Books, 2022.

James P. Duffy and Vincent L. Ricci: Target Hitler, Praeger Publishers, 1992.

Herbert Molloy Mason, Jr.: To Kill the Devil, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1978.

Roger Moorhouse: Killing Hitler, Bantam Books, 2006.

Terry Parssinen: The Oster Conspiracy of 1938, Harper Collins, 2003 

HISTORKA: The Other Stories People, Places, and Events Behind the Headlines in History

Inside Men

As early as 1938, high-ranking members of the German military intelligence apparatus planned a coup that would remove Adolf Hitler from power. Driven initially by Nazi-generated scandals that forced out two top generals and actions that brought the military under Hitler’s direct control, the coup plan gained support and momentum when Hitler’s moves against Austria and Czechoslovakia threatened all-out war.

https://www.amazon.com/Oster-Conspiracy-1938-Military-Hitler/dp/0060955252

The Purge

On January 27, 1938, 59-year-old Werner von Blomberg resigned from his position as War Minister and Commander-in-Chief of the German Armed Forces because of allegations about his new wife. Little more than two weeks before, Blomberg had married Margarethe Gruhn in a civil ceremony attended by Hitler himself and Luftwaffe Chief Hermann Göring. Under pressure from Hitler, Blomberg claimed he was retiring for “reasons of health” when in fact he sought to quash revelations about his wife’s criminal record for prostitution and a file of pornographic photographs, information obtained and passed along by Göring.

Army Commander-in-Chief General Barron Werner Freiherr von Fritsch was next. Hitler resurrected evidence of Fritsch’s homosexuality, evidence he had seen and rejected as wholly fabricated in 1936, and asked Göring to preside over a special court to investigate the charges. Fritsch resigned his post four days later on January 30, 1938.

On February 4, Hitler decided to “exercise personally the immediate command over the whole armed forces,” assuming Blomberg’s position as war minister, handpicking the successor to Fritsch’s position as commander-in-chief of the army, relieving 16 senior generals of their commands, and transferring 45 high-ranking officers, thereby replacing generals who were loath to go to war and reluctant to adhere to his will with “men of brutality,” men who thought the same way he did. (Roger Moorhouse: Killing Hitler) 

 Military Unrest

These sudden and shocking upper echelon changes built on disturbing undercurrents that were raising alarm among many of the German military.

Hitler had steadily enhanced the status of the armed forces by pointedly ignoring precepts of the Versailles Treaty that held the German military in check. Beginning in 1935, he enabled army expansion by allowing the reinstitution of conscription, remilitarized the Rhineland, blew past the limits that had been imposed by the treaty on the size of the military, increased funding and personnel, and modernized equipment. (Killing Hitler)

While many military leaders as well as the rank and file welcomed these moves, some were becoming concerned about the shift in the seat of their power.

Beginning on August 20, 1934, members of the armed services and civil servants were no longer required to take an oath to serve their country or its constitution. They now had to swear allegiance to a single man: to “render unconditional obedience to the Führer of the German Reich and people, Adolf Hitler…and be ready at any time to stake my life for this oath.” (Killing Hitler)

Military leaders who did not toe the line were put at risk. The Night of the Long Knives, which eliminated Ernst Röhm and most of the other Brownshirts (see the previous Historka post), also targeted General Kurt von Schleicher, chancellor of the Weimar Republic, who was gunned down in his villa near Potsdam, and his associate, head of the Abwehr military intelligence unit Ferdinand von Bredow for criticizing Hitler and his cabinet.

Most disturbing was Hitler’s push for war.

 Run-up to War

On March 12, 1938, Hitler rode in one of a cavalcade of Mercedes automobiles across the German border into Austria as a “liberator,” making his homeland a province within the German Reich and absorbing its military into the Wehrmacht, thus violating one of the most uniformly despised clauses of the Versailles Treaty by Germans—Anschluss, unification of Austria and Germany.

A month later, Hitler ordered the Wehrmacht’s General Staff to formulate a plan for a preemptive attack on neighboring Czechoslovakia, the first step in his vision for a “German Empire which would include Poland, Ukraine, Baltic States, Scandinavia, Holland, Flemish Belgium, Luxembourg, Burgundy, Alsace-Lorraine, and Switzerland.” (Herbert Molloy Mason, Jr., To Kill the Devil)

The plan was considered to be disastrous for the country because of the status of Germany’s war machine—the military and defense industry were relatively weak and unprepared—the central location of the country, which opened it up to attacks on land, sea, and in the air, and the likelihood of provoking formidable enemies--Russia, France, Britain, and eventually the US.

Hitler nonetheless insisted: “It is my unalterable decision to smash Czechoslovakia in the near future.” (To Kill the Devil)

In the summer months, propaganda reported on the so-called atrocities committed by Czechs on Germans living in Sudetenland. The Sudeten Nazi Party led demonstrations and other actions in Sudetenland to disrupt the Czech government’s operations. Maneuvers were held in Franconia, near the Czech border, the infantry trained soldiers in methods of storming the type of fortifications maintained by Czechoslovakia, and throughout the country citizens were learning civil defense. (James P. Duffy and Vincent L. Ricci , Target Hitler)

Preparations accelerated in September: tanks and infantry divisions practiced firing on concrete bunkers similar to the ones Czechoslovakia maintained on its border. Concrete “dragon’s teeth” were being constructed, tank traps were being dug, and machine guns were being mounted along German’s West Wall or the Siegfried Line.  

Hitler set the deadline for an attack on Czechoslovakia—no later than October 2. (John Grehan, Assassination Attempts)

The Men

Key Plotters

Abwehr’s organized effort to remove Adolf Hitler from leadership was called The Oster Plan or the Oster Conspiracy. (See the next Historka for details.) Several men in- and outside the military were instrumental:

https://alchetron.com/Hans-Oster

 Colonel Hans Oster, Abwehr officer, was openly contemptuous of the Nazi Party, telling an Austrian officer who began to raise his arm: “Oh, no, no Hitler salute here.” (To Kill the Devil, p 34). He was the linchpin, the man who fostered communications among the conspirators.

https://www.swr.de/swrkultur/wissen/ludwig-beck-vom-generalstabschef-zum-widersacher-hitlers-100.html

 General Ludwig Beck, chief of the General Staff, who considered the time he had to take the new oath of allegiance to Hitler the blackest day of his life. (To Kill the Devil, p 35). He was the link to high-ranking members of the Wehrmacht.

https://alchetron.com/Wilhelm-Canaris

 Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, head of Abwehr, viewed Nazis as no more than a gang of criminals. He began looking for ways to use the intelligence agency to bring Hitler down soon after he was appointed its chief of operations.

https://www.gdw-berlin.de/en/recess/biographies/index_of_persons/biographie/view-bio/hans-bernd-gisevius/?no_cache=1

 Hans Bernd Gisevius, police liaison to the Abwehr and former member of the Gestapo. He was central to the success of any action taken against Hitler by gaining the support of local police.

https://alchetron.com/Franz-Halder

 General Franz Halder, head of the General Staff, believed Hitler was not only a criminal but a “sexual psychopath” and “bloodsucker.” He replaced Beck after his resignation from the General Staff in September, 1938, and communicated regularly with plotters within the ranks of the military as well as civilians, including Giesvius.

Others

General Erwin von Witzleben, commander of Berlin’s military district, supported Gisevius, providing a private office next to his own at headquarters as well as false identity papers, and spearheaded the recruitment of commandos who would storm the Reich Chancellery, arrest Hitler, and transport him to a castle in Bavaria.

Lieutenant Friedrich Wilhelm Heinz, Abwehr staff, recruited and trained 60 men to act as commandos, as per Witzleben’s order.

General Walter von Brockdorff-Ahlefeldt, commander of the Potsdam garrison, mapped out locations within Berlin that needed to be quickly taken over by troops at the outset of the coup: the radio transmitter, Gestapo headquarters, and the Chancellery itself as well as escape routes.

Carl Friedrich Goerdler, mayor of Leipzig, obtained funds from industrialist Robert Bosch to finance travels to Britain and France where he met with government leaders and tried to get their support for regime change within Germany.

General Erich Hoepner, commander of the Wuppertal Panzer Division, planned to have tanks and armored vehicles on alert and ready to contain any armed response to the coup.

Theodore Kordt, counselor from the German embassy in London, and landowner Ewald von Kleist-Schmenzin warned the British government about Hitler’s plans for war and sought support for the Oster coup.

Hjalmar Schact, director of the Reichsbank, provided economic and other data warning against Hitler’s plan to invade Czechoslovakia and supporting the coup attempt and communicated regularly with fellow conspirators Goerdler and Gisevius.     

 Sources:

John Grehan: The Hitler Assassination Attempts, Frontline Books, 2022.

James P. Duffy and Vincent L. Ricci: Target Hitler, Praeger Publishers, 1992.

Herbert Molloy Mason, Jr.: To Kill the Devil, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1978.r

Roger Moorhouse: Killing Hitler, Bantam Books, 2006.

HISTORKA: The Other Stories People, Places, and Events Behind the Headlines in History

SA Brownshirts

The SA (Sturmabteilung, Storm Detachment or Storm Troopers) was formed in 1921 to serve as bodyguards for Adolf Hitler and other Nazi Party leaders. Twelve years later, its leadership was purged, men killed in what’s known as the Night of the Long Knives, because of a supposed plot to overthrow the Nazi Party and eliminate Hitler and others. Except for a testy standoff between Hitler and an SA group in 1934, the organization posed no real threat to Hitler. Details of the plot were fabricated by Reinhard Heydrich, Heinrich Himmler, and Hermann Göring and fed to an increasingly frenzied Adolf Hitler.

Sturmabteilung (en-academic.com)

The SA

 The SA grew from the ranks of unemployed WW I veterans or Freikorps (Free Corps), independent and volunteer paramilitary units, who were attracted to the Nazi movement because of their opposition to the groups they believed were responsible for Germany’s defeat—government officials who had capitulated by signing the Versailles Treaty, the so-called November Criminals, as well as Communists, Jews and Social Democrats who profited from the war, betrayed the German Army, and as a result “stabbed the country in the back.” (Christopher Ailsby, The Third Reich Day by Day), p 14).  

 Their purpose: to maintain order during meetings of the Nazi Party and disrupt those held by other political parties, thereby, as Hitler said, “ruthlessly prevent—if necessary by force—all meetings or lectures that are likely to distract the minds of our fellow countrymen.” (William Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, p 43.)

The SA played prominent roles in a number of high-profile events in the early days of the Nazi movement:

·      The German Day folk festival on October 14 and 15, 1922. Hitler and 800 SA marched through Coburg and for the first time gained active support for the Nazi movement from people in attendance. (The Rise and Fall of Third Reich)

·      The First Nazi Party Day from January 27 to 29, 1923.  Members of SA for the first time publicly unveiled and flew the swastika flag in Munich. (Christopher Ailsby, The Third Reich Day by Day)  

Munich Putsch on November 8 and 9, 1923. Hundreds of SA surrounded the beer hall while Hitler and 20 of their men rushed inside and overtook a meeting of Bavarian government officials while Hitler announced “The National Revolution has begun.” After holding Bavarian government officials overnight, Hitler and nearly 3000 Stormtroopers marched toward the center of town, where they were stopped by police and arrested.

(Because of the failed putsch, Hitler was tried and convicted of high treason, and the Nazi Party and its enforcers, the SA, were disbanded, at least temporarily.)

 Membership in the SA increased markedly after the Great Depression threw many men out of work. From meager beginnings (SA membership totaled about 3000 in 1923), the organization grew steadily. Even though it was still considered to be illegal and called by another name—Frontbann—SA had 30,000 members in 1924. By 1930-31, 50,000 men were members, and in 1933-34, SA had between 2 and 4 million in its ranks. (The Third Reich Day by Day)

Falling Out

 One man was responsible for the early growth and militarization of the SA: Ernest Röhm. After fighting for the Imperial German Army in WW I and receiving the Iron Cross for his wartime service, Röhm remained in the military and rose to the rank of captain. He joined the German Workers’ Party in 1919 and transformed Hitler’s so-called Ordnertrupe strong-arm guards into Brownshirts who were known not only for disrupting political meetings and speeches but for street violence against Jews and opponents of the Nazi party in the early 1920s. Because of his participation in the Munich Beer Hall Putsch, Röhm was tried and found guilty of treason. After receiving a suspended sentence for the crime, he was dismissed from the army and served as a Reichstag deputy. (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_R%C3%B6hm#:~:text=After%20a%20stint%20as%20a,advisor%20to%20the%20Bolivian%20Army, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, The Third Reich Day by Day)

Röhm and Hitler had very different ideas about the role of the SA. From the first, Hitler viewed Stormtroopers as a political organization, one that would stir up enthusiasm for the Nazi Party among its own ranks and strike fear in the minds of those in other political parties. Röhm wanted the SA to be a revolutionary or people’s army that replaced old-guard Prussian generals with now seasoned Brownshirts and coalesced all military leadership—the armed forces, SA, and the elite SS--under his control. (The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich)

 Fake News

 Other Nazis were growing weary of Röhm’s ambitions. Heinrich Himmler, his second-in-command Reinhard Heydrich, and Hermann Goring as well as the German Army pushed for a purge of the SA and the elimination of Röhm himself.  The plan was to convince Hitler that Rohm was planning a putsch against the army and Hitler’s nascent government in 1934. Letters stating that Röhm was ordering the SA to arm itself in preparation for an attack on military headquarters were forged by Heydrich’s men. Telephone calls warning Hitler of an SA uprising in Berlin bombarded his hotel room in Essen. Over a full day and night reports told of an escalating situation: “armed bands of SA are marching through the streets of Berlin…the putsch will erupt all across Germany at 4 p.m. sharp…Rohm has set the machinery in motion for Hitler’s ouster.” (Herbert Molloy Mason, Jr., To Kill the Devil, p 9)

 This “threatening intelligence” was highly exaggerated if not wholly fictional. Urgent messages told that an alarm muster had been ordered for 4:00 pm and a surprise attack leading to full occupation of government buildings in Berlin would follow within the hour, and in Munich SA had already been ordered to assemble in revolt. (The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich)

 In reality, SA was on holiday. Hitler had told the SA to take a month off from its duties, and Rohm took sick leave, moving to a hotel in the resort area of Wiesse outside of Munich. (The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich)

 Yet Hitler and the SS acted precipitously to stop Röhm and his minions.

 The Night of the Long Knives

  Beginning at 4:00 am on Saturday, June 30, 1934, leaders of the SA in Munich were arrested and taken to the Ministry of the Interior. SA in nearby Wiessee were dragged from their hotel rooms, hustled outdoors, and shot to death. Göring and Himmler rounded up 150 SA, stood them against the wall of a school, and executed them by firing squad in Berlin. Röhm himself was escorted to Stadelheim prison in Munich, presented with a pistol so he could take his own life if he chose, and then shot to death when he refused. (To Kill the Devil, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich)

 Only two actual attempts on Hitler’s life were made by the SA. One was half-hearted. A man wearing an SA uniform was arrested at Hitler’s Berghof residence carrying a gun he said would be used for assassination in 1933. The other was in response to Röhm’s arrest during the Night of the Long Knives.  Hitler confronted a band of SA bodyguards as he was returning to Munich from the prison where Röhm was being held and convinced them to shoulder their weapons. Realizing their mistake, the SA bodyguards regrouped, setting up machine guns on both sides of the road to Munich. Hitler and his driver backtracked, however, and took a different route, one that bypassed the Stormtroopers as they lay in wait.

 Mystery surrounds another assassination attempt. One of Hitler’s personal bodyguards, SA member Heinrich Grunow, proposed picking off Adolf Hitler with a rifle shot as he traveled to his weekend retreat at the Berghof in 1936. Grunow even reported that he had fired off two shots, saw Hitler “screaming and clawing in the air” in the passenger seat, then fired again before turning the gun on himself and pulling the trigger. While Grunow did threaten Hitler’s life in 1939, he was arrested, imprisoned, and died in Sachenhausen concentration camp in 1945. (John Grehan, The Hitler Assassination Attempts)

 There are conflicting reports about Hitler’s travels to the Berghof in 1936, however.  Reichsführer-SS Julius Schreck, Hitler’s chauffeur, died suddenly in May of that year. Two days after his death, officials listed the cause of death as an infected tooth. Another report claimed his death was caused by meningitis. Later reports, including those from Humanitas International and the University of North Carolina’s D. H. Ramsey Library, state that Schreck was involved in an auto accident and died from his injuries. A Chicago newspaper article stated that Schreck and Hitler were traveling by car to the town of Bernau when shots were fired, and the man in the passenger seat was killed. That man was thought to be Julius Schreck, and Hitler, as the driver, escaped death. (The Hitler Assassination Attempts)

 Sources:

 Christopher Ailsby: The Third Reich Day by Day, Chartwell Books, 2011.

 John Grehan: The Hitler Assassination Attempts, Frontline Books, 2022.

 Herbert Molloy Mason, Jr.: To Kill the Devil, George J. McLeod Ltd., 1978.

 William Shirer: The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, MJF Books, 1960.    

HISTORKA: The Other Stories

People, Places, and Events Behind the Headlines in History

Britain’s Special Operations Executive

Formed at the outset of World War II, the Special Operations Executive (SOE) in the UK fostered and supported behind-the-scenes Resistance abroad in many ways. SOE mounted undercover and surprise offensives to thwart enemy action, engaged in sabotage, promoted labor unrest, prepared and distributed propaganda, trained and supplied operatives for quick in-and-out missions, stole weapons, bombed vehicles, disrupted power supplies and linkages and communications networks. The backbone for Resistance groups in Nazi-Occupied countries, SOE can take credit for some of the most critical actions that delayed the progression of the war and at least once put a stop to dangerous escalation.

SOE was only tangentially involved in planning or executing assassination attempts on the life of Adolf Hitler until the latter days of the war. And even then, its full-fledged, intricate assassination plan—code named FOXLEY—was never carried out.

https://alchetron.com/Special-Operations-Executive

SOE

Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), created in 1909, was split into its two well-known divisions in 1921—MI 6, which focuses on obtaining, tracking, analyzing intelligence from other countries, and MI 5, which preserves intelligence at home. (M.R.D. Foot: S.O.E. The Special Operations Executive 1940-46). SOE itself was created in March, 1939, just after armed forces from the Third Reich occupied Czechoslovakia, specifically for undercover work and propaganda. From that time until it was dissolved at war’s end in 1946, SOE worked with Resistance fighters from Albania to Turkey and in the Far East, helping coolies, farmers, peasants, railway men and rubber workers, policemen, printers, and smugglers become informers, saboteurs, and secret agents. (The Special Operations Executive).

Among its successes, SOE was instrumental in:

·         Supplying intelligence that led to a pin-point attack on Gestapo headquarters in Aarhus, Denmark, October, 1944, and another in Copenhagen in March, 1945, that allowed imprisoned members of the Danish Freedom Council to escape and carry with them a card index that identified Danes who were cooperating with the Nazis. (The Special Operations Executive, p 296)

·         Securing and protecting a 25-mile stretch of docks and gates from destruction in Antwerp in September, 1944, which accelerated the end of the war by several months. (The Special Operations Executive, p 300)

·         Running telephone lines across Ponte Vecchio in Florence, thereby allowing operatives to learn about enemy actions and smuggle in patrols to thwart them in August, 1944. (The Special Operations Executive, p 330)

·         Blowing up bridges and a viaduct in November, 1942, and June, 1943, that closed rail lines in Greece for months, interfering with Rommel’s retreat from Allied forces in Egypt (The Special Operations Executive, p 337-8)

One SOE operation, in particular, changed the entire course of the war. An SOE raiding party in March, 1942, slipped into and destroyed the Norsk Hydro Plant in Norway, the only place in the world ablable to generate heavy water on an industrial scale, and totally disrupted German scientists’ work on heavy water that was destined for an eventual atomic bomb. (https://www.businessinsider.com/how-daring-norwegian-wwii-raid-kept-nazis-from-nuclear-bomb-2021-2, The Special Operations Executive, p 298-99)

PLASTIC EXPLOSIVES AND WOLSSCHANZE

The widely known July, 1944, assassination attempt by Oberst Claus von Stauffenberg (dramatized in the film Valkyrie starring Tom Cruise) relied on SOE explosives that had been dropped into France in 1943. As part of the highly detailed plan for a coup by high-ranking German military men that would eliminate Hitler as well as other Nazi leaders, Stauffenberg placed a kilogram of plastic explosive in a briefcase that he stowed under the briefing table at the Wolfsschanze (Wolf’s Lair) Nazi headquarters in East Prussia. (Valkyrie will be the subject of a full Historka blog post in coming months.) The plastic explosive and the time pencil detonator used by Stauffenberg had been sent by SOE to a Resistance network in France and confiscated by the German military the year before.

Plastic explosives were developed by the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich before the start of World War II. The explosives mixed cyclonite with plastic material that could be molded into any number of shapes. It could be handled safely—the explosive would not detonate on its own or even if struck—requiring an embedded detonator, such as a time pencil, to set it off. The so-called Switch No. 10 Delay was made of brass with a section of copper at one end that housed a glass vial of copper chloride and a spring-loaded striker. A delay switch, which timed the device to explode ten minutes to 24 hours later, was triggered by crushing the copper section of the device to break the vial and release the chemical which would eat away at the striker and hit the percussion cap. (https://military-history.fandom.com/wiki/Pencil_detonator)

FOXLEY

An SOE plan to assassinate Hitler and other high-ranking members of the Nazi Party emerged in November, 1944, as Hitler’s support across Germany declined. Authored by Major H. B. Court, Operation FOXLEY detailed ways to eliminate Hitler including drawings, maps, and photographs of the most likely target area—Hitler’s retreat at Obersaltzberg, the Berghof.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/hitlers/3226959811/

Hitler’s retreat since 1926, the Berghof was in the Austrian mountains 70 miles from Munich and 16 miles from Salzburg. The estate grew steadily to encompass barracks and an SS guardroom, residences for Nazi leaders such as Martin Bormann, Hermann Göring, and Albert Speer, a small farm, hotel, and theater plus an underground system of bunkers. It was surrounded by chain-link fences and barbed wire as well as gates manned by Reichssichrheitsdienst (RSD) and SS escorts, but overall security was questionable. The large numbers of guards and workers increased the chances for an enemy agent or assassin to gain access disguised as one of them. (Peter Hoffman, Hitler’s Personal Security).

A 19-man team of RSD guards was installed in 1942-3, with the men making regular patrols in front of the main building and surrounding area. Another 16-man RSD unit served as guards at outer checkpoints and allowed access only to those with official visitors’ passes. (Hitler’s Personal Security, p 189). The property had anti-aircraft batteries, and regular five-minute readiness checks were conducted beginning in 1944 (Hitler’s Personal Security, p 196).

The Berghof nevertheless was the chosen site for FOXLEY. For one thing, Hitler maintained a fairly regular schedule at the retreat. He routinely took a walk between 10 and 11 from his residence through the woods to a teahouse on the grounds, and he walked alone or with a friend or colleague rather than a guard. While SS monitored him, their patrols followed only at a distance. Sentries also tracked his movements, but from 500 yards or more away from his path. (John Grehan, The Hitler Assassination Attempts).

As its first line of attack, FOXLEY proposed a sniper attack from a vantage point 100 to 200 yards away from Hitler as he took his daily walk. However, the perimeter of the grounds was not only enclosed by chain link and barbed wire, it was patrolled by guards and guard dogs minutes before the start of Hitler’s walk. If the sniper was not able to get into position in time or otherwise not able to carry out the mission, FOXLEY envisioned a two-man team firing on the Führer when he returned from the teahouse to the Berghof by car.

An aerial attack on the property itself was another option. FOXLEY envisioned an RAF sortie that bombed the residence and other buildings, especially those housing SS, followed by landing a parachute battalion of 800 men to overcome the approximately 300 SS and other German troops on site.

Attention shifted to Hitler’s travels between the Berghof and Berlin where trains were under less surveillance than they were in the occupied countries. According to FOXLEY planners, “signal boxes are not guarded as a rule… Guards at bridges and tunnels are said to consist of only two men and to be very slack in performing their duties.” (The Hitler Assassination Attempts, p 214). FOXLEY therefore surmised that a “sabotage party” could be disguised as train guards so as not to arouse suspicion. The sabotage party could then plant explosives in one of the tunnels near Salzburg or Stuttgart. Hitler’s train might also be derailed by diverting his train onto a siding where it would crash off the rails, or an operative might be able to toss a suitcase full of explosives under the train as it rolled by. The inability to get reliable advance information on Hitler’s movements ahead of time sidelined these FOXLEY options.

Other FOXLEY thoughts explored the possibility of a sniper attack as Hitler stepped out of his auto and poisoning the water supply to his train. (The Hitler Assassination Attempts, p 218-220).

In the end, FOXLEY was abandoned. In 1944 and -45, Hitler’s misguided decisions involving the war effort and willingness to overrule sound advice from his own military leaders were “help[ing] the Allied cause enormously.” The focus therefore shifted to full defeat of the German military machine, Hitler’s eventual loss of power, and the perception of him as an object of ridicule. (The Hitler Assassination Attempts, p 221).

 Sources

 M. R. D. Foot: S.O.E. The Special Operations Executive 1940-46, Arrow Books, 1984.

Peter Hoffman: Hitler’s Personal Security, Da Capo Press, 2000.

John Grehan, The Hitler Assassination Attempts, Frontline Books, 2022.

https://www.businessinsider.com/how-daring-norwegian-wwii-raid-kept-nazis-from-nuclear-bomb-2021-2

https://www.history.com/news/july-plot-hitler-assassination-attempt-operation-valkyrie

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Valkyrie

https://www.warhistoryonline.com/world-war-ii/operation-valkyrie.html

https:/encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-july-20-1944-plot-to-assassinate-adolf-hitler       

HISTORKA: The Other Stories People, Places, and Events Behind the Headlines in History

Resistance in Poland

In response to the brutality of the Nazi conquest and occupation of Poland in 1938, an extensive and highly effective Polish underground network planned and carried out attacks that just missed their target—Adolf Hitler—in 1939 and 1941-3.

September 1939

 A fake Polish radio news broadcast at 8:00 pm on August 1, 1939, was the excuse that propelled massive numbers of infantry across the German-Polish border and triggered rapid gunfire from the deck of the battleship Schleswig-Holstein on the port city of Westerplatte near Danzig early the next morning.

 German forces quickly overran major cities, leading to the capitulation of Warsaw less than a month later. In intervening days, the SS Death’s Head Division made the Führer’s judgment of Poles clear—“primitive, stupid, and amorphous.” (Roger Moorhouse: Killing Hitler). Death’s Head killed 800 people in one town, including Boy Scouts between the ages of 12 and 16, a parish priest, and a man too ill to stand upright on his own while he was gunned down. (Killing Hitler)

https://www.dw.com/es/polonia-y-alemania-conmemoran-los-75-a%C3%B1os-del-inicio-de-la-ii-guerra-mundial/a-17892696

  After the Soviet Union invaded Eastern Poland on September 17, the government of Poland fled initially to Romania and later to France and the UK and operated in exile. An active Resistance nevertheless remained. (The Soviet Union occupied East Poland until the Third Reich declared war in 1941 and Nazi Germany overtook the entire country.)

.Polish Resistance

Underground Resistance groups sprouted from Polish political parties that formed paramilitary units as well as the military. As many as 40 groups operated in Warsaw from September through the end of 1939, 140 by the end of the following year.

 Służba Zwycięstwu Polski (Service for Poland’s Victory), established on September 27 under the direction of General Michal Tokarzewski-Karaszewicz, was the core of Armia Krajowa or AK (the Polish Home Army), which took shape in 1942(https://www.historyhit.com/polands-underground-state-1939-90/).

 Polish underground groups were highly organized and disciplined, marshalling the work of nearly 200,000 operatives across the country. In addition to maintaining an underground press, members of the Resistance distributed anti-Nazi propaganda and prominently displayed the symbol of the movement—PW for Polska Walcząca or Fighting Poland.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/stillunusual/7761435030/

The Resistance movement also managed informants and couriers. Cichociemni or Polish commandos were trained in the UK and transferred to cities and towns in Poland to guide local Resistance groups and lead intelligence gathering and sabotage. Operatives later provided British intelligence with replicas of the Enigma encryption machine, the location of a German research facility, and a V-2 rocket that had not detonated on impact in Eastern Poland (https://warsawinstitute.org/phenomenon-polish-underground-state/).

Resistance groups sabotaged railways, supply food chains, weapons manufacturing, and fuel dumps, successfully disrupting all rail lines in and around Warsaw for two days in 1942 (Killing Hitler). Estimates indicate that more than 700 trains were blown up and 400 were set on fire between 1941 and 1944, accounting for the destruction of 14,000 train cars and the collapse of 38 bridges. (https://warsawinstitute.org/phenomenon-polish-underground-state/)

Beginning in 1943 Kedyw, the Directorate of Diversion, section of the underground focused on the elimination of traitors through intimidation, observation, underground trials, and sentences of death, and targeted German functionaries for assassination. In 1943 Kedyw members killed one German policeman a day. A year later, they were killing ten policemen a day. In the first six months of 1944, 750 members of the Gestapo were assassinated, and 1000 members of the occupying force were killed or injured each month. (Killing Hitler)

 Attempts on Adolf Hitler’s Life

 The first of several attacks on Adolf Hitler himself occurred in the early days of Occupation. As the Polish military retreated from Germany’s overpowering numbers, it still managed to stop a convoy carrying Hitler to observe the frontlines. The Polish air force dropped bombs only 3 kilometers away from Hitler’s location near the Vistula River on September 4, and a Polish sniper shot the driver of a German supply lorry, causing the truck to crash into the Hitler convoy near the town of Koronowo. (Killing Hitler)

 Former Polish general and leader of the nascent Polish underground, Michal Karaszewicz-Tokarzewski, and Maj. Franciszek Niepokólczycki planted explosives at the intersection of two streets on the victory parade route that celebrated the German 8th Army in defeated Warsaw on October 5. One load of 250 kg of TNT was placed near a bank on the western corner of Nowy Świat, the other in a building on the western corner of Aleje Jerozolimskie. Cables ran from the loads to the basement of a building in the area, and men were in position to detonate the explosives. (Killing Hitler, John Grehan: The Hitler Assassination Attempts)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/photolibrarian/51229327496/

After reviewing the lines of marching troops with his generals for more than two hours, Hitler entered his vehicle and made a tour of the city, moving slowly among throngs of soldiers and passing—safely--over the intersection where the explosives were buried.

Reasons why? Speculation abounds: Niepokólczycki could not reach the site to order detonation because streets had been closed. The officer in charge at the scene did not confirm Hitler was actually in the automobile until it had passed him by. Wiring leading to the explosives was faulty. With 12 high-ranking Polish government officials held hostage in the basement of City Hall, the risk was too great. (Killing Hitler, The Hitler Assassination Attempts)

Train Targets

Perhaps because of the Polish underground’s history of successful disruptions of railways and transportation, assassination attempts involved Hitler’s train travels in 1941, -42 and -43.

This is not to say that train travel precautions were at all lax. So-called Special train cars were built expressly for Hitler’s use in 1937, -38, and -39 and were made entirely of welded steel.  There were two versions of the Führersonderzug (Führer Special Train). The train used during times of peace or in peaceful settings had sleeping cars, a dining compartment, Pullman coach, personnel and press cars. The train used during times of conflict (known as Führerhauptquartier—Fuhrer’s Headquarters—and nicknamed Amerika) had an armored anti-aircraft car manned by a 26-member crew, a car for commandos, and conference car with teletype and communications center with a short-wave transmitter. (Peter Hoffman: Hitler’s Personal Security)

Travel plans were kept secret until a few hours before departure, and advance units were established along the route to close crossing barriers and guard track lines. Onboard railway technicians checked for defects on rail lines as well as the train cars; train stations, platforms on both sides of the tracks, under- and overpasses were heavily guarded. Other trains were sidelined or their departures delayed until the Special train had left the upcoming station, freights or maintenance trains could not run on parallel tracks, and a dummy train typically preceded the Special train that actually transported Hitler. (Hitler’s Personal Security)

 Assassination Attempts

Detachments of the Polish Home Army, AK, placed explosives on railroad tracks in West Prussia 20 to 30 minutes before any fast train was scheduled to pass by. The explosives were set to be detonated by a transmitter approximately 400 meters away. The train carrying Hitler did not arrive at the scheduled place and time in the autumn of 1941. It made an unscheduled stop at a nearby station and sat for 20 minutes while Hitler addressed Danish volunteers en route to the Eastern Front. The train that went ahead of the Führersonderzug did crash as a result of the detonations, and 430 of the German passengers were killed. (The Hitler Assassination Attempts)

 On June 8, 1942, two AK teams learned that Hitler would be traveling across Poland to Berlin to attend the funeral of the head of Nazi-Occupied Czechoslovakia who had been killed by Czech partisans. Under the code name Wiener Blut (Viennese Blood), Lt. Jan Szalewski directed one of the teams to remove railroad tracks between Tczew and Chojnice and the other to secure the wooded area nearby.

 After the apparent dummy train passed by, the team removed the tracks and waited with their compatriots in the woods. When the train they assumed to be Führersonderzug derailed and ran down an embankment, the teams opened fire and killed 200 German soldiers as they fell from the train cars. Hitler was not among them. (Killing Hitler, The Hitler Assassination Attempts)

 The deputy commander of the Zagra Lin arm of AK, Bernard Drzyzga, learned two days ahead of time that Hitler’s train would be passing through Bydgoszcz in May, 1943.  Acting on his own because of the short time frame, he planted two explosive devices along a bend in the tracks and connected them by electric wire to a detonator. He waited along the tracks at the day and time the Führersonderzug was expected to arrive. The only train to pass by was a freight. (The Hitler Assassination Attempts)

Sources:

https://www.historyhit.com/polands-underground-state-1939-90/

https://warsawinstitute.org/phenomenon-polish-underground-state/

 Grehan, John: The Hitler Assassination Attempts, Frontline Books, 2022.

 Moorhouse, Roger: Killing Hitler, Bantam Books, 2006

 Hoffman, Peter: Hitler’s Personal Security, Da Capo Press, 2000

HISTORKA: The Other Stories People, Places, and Events Behind the Headlines in History

The Outsiders

By far, the most attempts on the life of Adolf Hitler were made by Germans who acted alone, in concert with others, or as part of an organized effort.

A few attempts were made by outsiders, men from other countries: A solo actor from Switzerland followed his own erratic path, two Brits at different times in different circumstances proposed what they considered to be fool-proof plans, and a Soviet agent was establishing a cover story as a defector to Germany only to be called back at the last minute.

 Maurice Bavaud

maurice bavaud - dofaq.co

 Like lone wolf Georg Elser (last month’s blog subject), Swiss theology student Maurice Bavaud was attracted to the pomp and circumstance of the annual National Socialist Procession held every year in Munich in early November in the late 1930s. His trip was even suggested by a security aide to the chief of the Reich Chancellery, Major Karl Deckert. (Note: Deckert is identified in various sources as Karl Derkert, a captain who was connected with Hitler’s personal security, and a policeman.)

Bavaud was studying to become a Catholic missionary at a seminary in Brittany when he met Marcel Gerbohay in 1935. Together, the two created the current affairs student discussion group Compagnie du Mystére and over time agreed that Hitler had to be removed because of his persecution of the Catholic Church and tolerance of the atheist Soviet Union. (Roger Moorhouse: Killing Hitler)

In the summer of 1938, Bavaud turned thoughts into action. He left the seminary and for a time lived with his family in Neuchâtel before he began tracking Hitler. He first traveled to Berlin, then, when Hitler was at his mountain retreat in Bavaria, Bavaud journeyed to Berchtesgaden in Obersalzberg, along the way purchasing a small automatic pistol and 6.35 mm ammunition, taking long walks in the hills surrounding Hitler’s house, the Berghof, and testing his marksmanship at a range of 25 feet against the trunks of trees.

Over a meal at an inn, Bavaud was pleased to meet two local teachers of French. Speaking in his native language, he told the teachers he was a fervent admirer of National Socialism and hoped to meet the Führer. Deckert, overhearing the conversation from the next table, told Bavaud it was fruitless to try to see Hitler at the Berghof, but he might be able to secure an audience with the leader of the Third Reich by going through channels in Munich. He could at least see Hitler and his entourage at the National Socialist Procession. (Since 1935, the March through Munich was held every year on the afternoon of November 9. Marchers, including the Führer himself, made their way from the Bürgerbräu Beer Hall down city streets and through plazas to the Feldherrnhalle where wreaths were laid in commemoration of the 16 men who had lost their lives during the 1923 putsch.)

In Munich on November 3 or 4, Bavaud posed as a Swiss journalist and got a ticket for a seat on the Holy Ghost Church reviewing stand, situated at the western end of a street where marchers would turn into a narrow archway. On the day of the March, he arrived early enough to get a seat in the front row. Yet, as marchers passed in front of him, Bavaud realized Hitler would be too far away for a clear shot, his line of sight would be blocked by SA who lined up along the curb, and security men at the edges of the marchers would prevent him from moving any closer.

Undeterred, Bavaud pursued other avenues: He forged letters of introduction from the foreign minister of France and traveled back and forth from Munich to Berchtesgarden, trying to deliver the letters in person, only to find Hitler was elsewhere. Running out of money, he boarded a train bound for Salzburg and snuck onto one of the coaches destined for Paris. Caught without a ticket or the means to purchase one, Bavaud was turned over to civilian authorities for trying to ride free on Reich railways.

On December 6, he was sentenced to 60 days in jail for fraud. A month later, the Gestapo confronted Bavaud in his jail cell with information about his actions and the purchase of the handgun. He confessed after a lengthy interrogation, spent 11 months in prison while awaiting trial and another 17 months after conviction before he was executed.

Noel Mason MacFarlane, Alexander Foote

The perfect spot for an assassination: An open bathroom window across the square from the reviewing stand where Hitler watched big parades in Berlin. Osteria Bavaria, the small lunch spot in Munich where Hitler ate eggs, vegetables, and fruit three times a week.

Colonel Noel Mason-MacFarlane, British military attaché in Berlin in the 1930s, was sure he could “pick the bastard off from here as easy as winking.” (John Grehan, The Hitler Assassination Plots). ‘Here’ was a window in his flat on Sophienstrasse, just under 100 yards from the raised platform from which Hitler would be watching the parade celebrating his birthday on April 20, 1939. 

MacFarlane told Ewen Butler, Berlin news correspondent for The Times from 1937-39, “All that was necessary was a good shot and a high-velocity rifle with telescopic sight and silencer.” (The Hitler Assassination Plots, p 71). “It could have been fired through my open bathroom window from a spot on the landing some 30 feet back from the window.” And the sound of the rifle shot would have been drowned out by the cheering, marching, and music. (Peter Hoffman, Hitler’s Personal Security, p 99)

Sir (Frank) Noel Mason MacFarlane - Person - National Portrait Gallery (npg.org.uk)

 All that would be necessary for Alexander Foote, an MI6 double agent working as a Soviet spy in Munich, was a time bomb in an attaché case placed on the other side of the private room where Hitler often lunched when he was in Munich. Foote believed the prospects of successfully assassinating Hitler at the restaurant were “promising.” Security at the restaurant was surprisingly lax. Hitler’s team did not take extra precautions or intensify surveillance while Hitler was lunching. Foote even tested the idea of an assassination attempt at the Osteria with a colleague named Bill Phillips. (Other sources identify Foote’s colleague as Len Brewer.)

“One day, Bill stationed himself at the table next to the gangway, and as Hitler approached, put his hand rapidly and furtively into his pocket, and drew out a cigarette case.” Nothing happened. None of the members of Hitler’s entourage and guests or Gestapo agents even flinched. (The Hitler Assassination Attempts, p 76)

https://prabook.com/web/alexander.foote/3714455

 Neither plan made it beyond the talking stage. MacFarlane’s idea withered in London. Not yet at war with Germany, the British war ministry balked. As Butler noted, “the murder of the German Chancellor by the British Military Attaché would create a really formidable diplomatic incident.” But, MacFarlane countered, “Nobody in Germany would go to war on that account, whereas while Hitler lived war is certain.” Nonetheless, MacFarlane’s superiors vetoed the plan. One reason: “the act would have been ‘unsportsmanlike.’” (To Kill the Devil, p 48-49)

Although given an initial go-ahead by the Soviets, Foote was ordered to stand down in the summer of 1939. Germany and the Soviet Union had signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Non-aggression Pact on August 23 and become allies. (The Hitler Assassination Plots, p 74)

Lev Knipper

Soviet thinking about assassinating Hitler shifted dramatically, at least for a brief time in 1941-43. In March, 1942, Stalin reportedly was “extremely anxious to see Hitler dead and proposed to use every effort to bring this about.” When Hitler was supposed to be in Minsk, Minsk was bombed. When the German General Staff was in Vilna three days later, Vilna was bombed. Minsk was bombed again when Hitler was reportedly in the city. (The Hitler Assassination Attempts, page 131).

The Soviets also recruited Lev Knipper, the nephew of playwright Anton Chekov and brother of a Russian actress who had immigrated to Germany and become part of the Third Reich’s cultural elite, to be an assassin.  Knipper was a very willing operative, saying “it’s not even so frightening to die” for his country. (Killing Hitler, p 182).

A composer, Knipper was spending a year in Iran researching and eventually completing Two Preludes on Iranian Themes. His objective was to defect to Germany from Iran, hook up with a Soviet agent who was posing as a defector, and use his connections with his sister to bring him and Hitler together.

The project was canceled in the summer of 1943. Getting close to Hitler was nearly impossible. For one thing, he was rarely seen in public. Even when he was, he was surrounded by security. More important, German troops had just been defeated at Stalingrad and the tide of the war was turning.

Sources

Grehan, John: The Hitler Assassination Attempts, Yorkshire, Pen and Sword Books, 2022.

Hoffman, Peter: Hitler’s Personal Security, Da Capo Press, 2000.

Molly Mason, Herbert: To Kill the Devil, New York, W W Norton & Co., 1978.

Roger Moorhouse: Killing Hitler, New York, Bantam Books, 2006

HISTORKA: The Other Stories People, Places, and Events Behind the Headlines in History

The Lone Wolf

Adolf Hitler traveled to Munich on November 8, 1939, to give the speech that commemorated the Beer Hall Putsch. He had been giving a speech on that date for the last six years to remind followers of the Nazis’ audacious attempt to overthrow the Weimar Republic in 1923 and reiterate his declaration at the time that the “National Revolution” had begun.

This year he had to improvise, however. Instead of starting the speech at 8:00 pm and ending two hours later as was customary, he began an hour earlier and ended after 60 minutes. He needed to return to Berlin that same night to finalize plans for a western offensive and heavy fog prevented a quick night flight.

Standing at the podium in front of a pillar bearing the red, black, and white swastika flags in the Bürgerbäukeller, Hitler railed against the British: “When has there ever been a people more vilely lied to and tricked than the German Volk by English statesmen in the past two decades?” And he exhorted his followers to action: “This is a great time. And in it, we shall prove ourselves all the more as fighters.” (Killing Hitler, p 64-5)

He then left the beer hall at 9:07 pm.

Thirteen minutes later, a bright light flashed, a blast roared, and a rush of air toppled tables and chairs, shattered windows, and blew out doors. The podium and pillar exploded, the dais and lectern crumpled, the ceiling crashed to the floor, and more than 50 of the men who had stayed behind were injured or dead. (Killing Hitler, p 66)

 German Resistance Memorial Center - 7 Georg Elser and the Assassination Attempt of November 8, 1939 (gdw-berlin.de)

The target of the attack learned about the incident minutes later when his train stopped in Nuremburg. At about the same time, the perpetrator approached the Swiss border. He was stopped by German guards and turned over to the Gestapo almost immediately when a postcard of the Bürgerbäukeller, sketches of a bomb, and a fuse were found in his pockets.

Five days later, the man confessed. He was Georg Elser, an ordinary German, a member of the working class expected to be a staunch supporter of the Nazi Party. Even more surprising, he had acted alone, meticulously and patiently putting the incendiary device together.

The Plan

Elser decided almost immediately that the beer hall would be the location for his assassination attempt. The speech came off every year at the same location like clockwork. The streets outside the beer hall were routinely barricaded, crowded, and afforded little chance of a good shot. And the beer hall itself was fairly easily accessible. When he visited in November, 1938, Elser noticed that the speaker’s platform was in front of a column supporting the upper gallery of the building and in the middle of the hall. “In the course of the next few weeks,” he reported in his confession, “I slowly worked it out in my head that it would be best to pack explosives into this particular pillar behind the speaker’s platform and then by means of some kind of device cause the explosives to ignite at the right time.” (Bombing Hitler, p 157)

The Bomb

Since the summer of 1937, Elser had been working at the Waldenmaier armaments factory. Because of lax security, he was able to gather 250 compressed pellets of explosive powder, secreting each of the discs in sheets of paper and covering them with clothes in his locker. Realizing he needed more explosives as well as details about fashioning a detonator, he got a job at the Vollmer quarry in Itzelberg. Elser was able to pick up cans of explosives that had been left behind after blasts and “pay a visit” to the hut that served as a supply depot, easily filing down a key to fit the lock on the iron exterior door and yank open the unlocked wooden interior door. (Bombing Hitler, p 161, To Kill the Devil)

Elser trailed explosives experts at the quarry to learn their techniques and tested four devices in his parent’s orchard in the summer of 1939. The devices consisted of three blocks of explosives mounted on a board with a spring stretched across, a rifle shell as a firing cap, and a nail as the firing pin. He placed the materials, including 110 pounds of explosives, 125 high-capacity detonators, and quick-burning fuse, in the false bottom of his wooden suitcase and carried it with him when he moved to Munich in August, 1939.  (To Kill the Devil)

The Placement

Elser began having dinner in the Bürgerbäukeller regularly. He sat at the same table served by the same waitress a little after 8:00 pm. He ate the cheapest meal, had a single beer, and left the table about 10:00 pm. He canvassed the hall by walking through the cloakroom. When he was sure no one was watching, he climbed the stairs to the gallery and hid in a storage space behind a folding screen.

Elser waited for the sound of the key turning in the lock between 10:30 and 11:30 pm, then quietly made his way along the gallery to the column that would be the backstop for Hitler’s speech on November 8. He first created a door close to the bottom of the column, then he chiseled out a chamber for the bomb using a hand drill with a chisel bit. He covered his tools with rags to minimize the noise and stopped making loud actions, such as chipping out portions of brick or masonry, until sounds from outdoors could camouflage them. He worked for several hours each night, then dozed until morning when he walked out of the beer hall soon after it opened between 7:00 and 8:00 am.

He spent three to four hours a night over the course of about a month to hollow out the pillar, insert the bomb, and set the timing device, each time sweeping up dust and debris, hiding the detritus in a storage room on the gallery until he could return with a suitcase to remove any signs of his work. He loaded explosives, made corrections to his ignition device, added wire and started the clock on November 5, setting the timer to detonate the charge 63 hours and 20 minutes later. (Bombing Hitler, To Kill the Devil)

The Man

Elser was born in January, 1903, in a small village in southwest Germany, a region known for the manufacture and sale of cuckoo clocks. After working briefly for his father, he apprenticed as a lathe operator in a smelter at age 14 and soon left because of health issues. He switched to woodworking, graduating at the top of his class from the Heidenheim trade school eight years later. He then worked in a furniture factory, a factory that made aircraft propellers, and as a carpenter building desks. He also worked for a brief time at a clock factory.

 Georg Elser: Seine Bombe gegen Hitler explodierte pünktlich – 13 Minuten zu spät - WELT

Though not part of any organized political movement, Elser was driven to take action against Hitler because of National Socialism’s failure to improve the lot of the ordinary German worker. The German economy had improved with the rise of the Nazis. Workers’ wages had dropped, however, from 1 mark an hour in 1929 to 68 pfennigs in 1938. At the same time, withholding taxes doubled from 10 to 20 percent. (To Kill the Devil) “The workers find themselves under constraint,” he wrote. “Under the new laws, for example, they cannot change the place where they work; they cannot move to another town to look for a better job. No that is forbidden.” (To Kill the Devil, p 91)

Another driving force was the fear of war and the need to take action to avoid it. He stressed that “the dissatisfaction among the workers that I had observed since 1933 and the war that I had seen as inevitable since the fall of 1938 occupied my thoughts constantly… On my own, I began to contemplate how one could improve the conditions of the working class and avoid war.” His conclusion—to remove the leadership of the country, including Hitler, Göring, and Goebbels. “I came to the conclusion that by removing these three men other men would come to power who would not make unacceptable demands of foreign countries, ‘who would not want to involve another country,’ and who would be concerned about improving social conditions for the workers.” (Bombing Hitler, p 151)

After his arrest, Elser was taken to the concentration camp at Sachsenhausen where he was beaten repeatedly and severely and drugged. In early 1945 he was taken to the camp at Dachau. Days after Hitler’s suicide, Elser was killed by a pistol shot to the back of the head.

Conspiracy Theories

Although evidence is clear that Elser acted alone, German leadership and the press believed otherwise. Among those blamed were the Nazi-opposition group organized by Otto Strasser—the Black Front—British SIS, and even Heinrich Himmler himself. Strasser, publisher of the Nationaler Sozialist, wrote in November, 1939, that he had “definite proof from a very reliable party member [that] the plot was the idea of Himmler himself, who told Hitler’s deputy Rudolph Hess that he needed an attempt on Hitler to let loose a hate offensive against the British and in order to have a pretext to attack internal enemies.” (The Hitler Assassination Attempts, p 99)

Essays and articles appearing in the 1960s and ‘70s confirmed Elser’s status as a lone wolf. A film by Klaus Maria Brandauer in 1989 made Elser and his actions well known across Germany. Most recently, the film 13 Minutes brings the man and his actions to life.

13 Minutes (2021) - IMDb

Sources:

Bombing Hitler, Hellmut G. Haasis, Skyhorse Publishing, 2013.

Killing Hitler, Roger Moorhouse, Bantam Books, 2006.

The Hitler Assassination Attempts, John Grehan, Frontline Books, 2022.

To Kill the Devil, Herbert Molloy Mason, Jr., W. W. Norton & Company, 1978.

HISTORKA: The Other Stories People, Places, and Events Behind the Headlines in History

Caught in the Act

Threats against the life of the new German Chancellor, Adolf Hitler, were not unusual. In the months after he became head of parliament, police received tips about possible assassination attempts at least once a week. (Peter Hoffman: Hitler’s Personal Security) Some were fabricated by Heinrich Himmler who was jockeying for position in the new Reich in February and March of 1933. Some were far-fetched: one would-be assassin supposedly planned to squirt poison into Hitler’s face from a bouquet of flowers, another hoped to rig a fountain pen with an explosive that would detonate in Hitler’s hand (Hoffman: Hitler’s Personal Security, page 24-25).

Others were either pranks or mistakes. A telephone call to police on the day before the Prussian State Council was scheduled to meet warned of a time bomb hidden in the coal cellar of the ministry building. A suspicious object on the cellar stairs turned out, however, to be container of packing cord left behind by workers who had maintained the building years before. (Hoffman: Hitler’s Personal Security, page 25)

 Hitler's Personal Security: Protecting the Führer, 1921-1945: Hoffmann, Peter: 9780306809477: Amazon.com: Books

A couple of incidents may have been flat-out bravado or the result of wishful thinking. Two plotters offered information about assassination plans to officials in the United States. One, in exchange for cash. In October, 1933, a man identifying himself as M. X. Kimball approached the German embassies in Chicago and Washington, D.C., and asked for money to reveal the details of a plot by American Jews to send an emissary to Germany who would kill Hitler. According to the plan, a man of Jewish extraction would travel to London where he would get information about how to meet with Hitler in his office where the murder would be committed. (John Grehan: The Hitler Assassination Attempts)

A few months earlier, another man, Daniel Stern, wrote the German Ambassador in Washington, stating he would travel to Europe and assassinate Hitler if President Roosevelt did not demand an end to the persecution of Jews in Germany. A nationwide search could find not find Stern or any links to him. (Grehan: The Hitler Assassination Attempts, page 25-26)

But many of the threats real enough to be investigated were thwarted before they got very far.

The Potsdam Day Bomb Threats

A tip from an unlikely source--a medium who obtained messages via a crystal ball--reported that a tunnel had been dug under the Potsdam Garrison Church where Hitler was scheduled to symbolize the “marriage of the old grandeur with new power” through a formal handshake with the president of the German Reich, Paul von Hindenburg, during the celebration of the reopening of the Reichstag on March 21, 1933. (An arson attack burned the original Reichstag to the ground a month before. This fire was used by Hitler as a pretext to accuse Communists of attempting to overthrow the German government and led to the Reichstag Fire Decree that suspended civil liberties throughout Germany.)

 The church described as a 'symbol of evil' - BBC News

Before the newly elected members of the Reichstag would reconvene in Kroll Opera House, Berlin, Hitler and Joseph Goebbels organized speeches, religious services, parades, and memorials in an event known as Potsdam Day. The city of Potsdam was selected for the ceremony because it had been the seat of Frederick the Great’s Prussian Kingdom as well as Otto von Bismarck’s German Empire. The date was chosen because Imperial Germany’s first Reichstag opened on March 21, 1871. In addition to Hitler and Hindenburg, dignitaries also included Crown Prince Wilhelm of the Hohenzollern dynasty and three of his brothers. (Potsdam Day-- Wikipedia)

Investigators did find that the tunnel “seen” by the medium was, indeed, being dug. But instead of being loaded with explosives, the tunnel was lined with cables so the Potsdam Day proceedings could be broadcast live over the radio. (Hoffmann: Hitler’s Personal Security, page 25)

Police intervened to eliminate two more serious bomb threats associated with Potsdam Day. The day before the event, Himmler reported that three Checkists had driven to the Richard Wagner memorial in Tiergartenstrasse, Munich, carrying bombs that would be set off as Hitler passed by on the way from the Potsdam festivities to the new Reichstag in Berlin. The men were spotted and arrested before they could plant and arm the devices, however. According to Himmler, “The authorities saw in every attempt of this kind the grave danger to public order and security. From his own knowledge of the public mood and from reports of subordinate officials, [Himmler] was convinced that the firing of the very first shot -- whether it hit the mark or not -- might lead to unequalled chaos throughout Germany and to a great programme which no power of the state or the police would be able to prevent.” (Grehan: The Hitler Assassination Attempts, page 25)

Days before Potsdam Day, Kurt Lutter, a ship’s carpenter and member of a small group of Communists, was arrested for planning to detonate the speaker’s platform while Hitler was addressing a political rally in Konigsberg on March 4, 1933. On March 3, a police informer who had infiltrated the group notified authorities, and Lutter and others were rounded up and interrogated. When none of the plotters owned up to the plan, they all were released. (Grehan: The Hitler Assassination Attempts; James P. Duffy and Vincent L. Ricci: Target Hitler)

Tight Security vs. Loose Lips

Routine security measures foiled at least one potential assassin. Hitler regularly strolled up and down the hilly walking paths near his mountain retreat on the slopes of the Obersaltzberg mountain range, talking with compatriots as he crisscrossed over public hiking trails in the open countryside. Hitler’s bodyguards grew suspicious when they spotted a stranger in an SS uniform intently watching Hitler and his entourage. After stopping and searching the man, the security detail found a loaded gun and promptly arrested him. (James P. Duffy and Vincent L. Ricci: Target Hitler; Grehan: The Hitler Assassination Attempts)

Informers sidelined other assassins. A school teacher in early 1933 told police that she had heard about a plan by Ludwig Assner, a member of the Bavarian State Parliament, to send a personal letter laced with poison to Hitler from France. On other occasions, Assner declared that he would not rest until he had shot Hitler or otherwise removed him from office. Assner’s plans were dismissed as extortion when he promised to desist if given a large sum of money. (Duffy and Ricci: Target; Grehan: The Hitler Assassination Attempts).

An elaborate plan to infiltrate the SS and gather information about Hitler’s movements was itself infiltrated by Gestapo in 1935. Led by industrialist Dr. Helmut Mylius, head of the Party of the Radical Middle Class and editor of a right-wing political and economics publication, and the retired Navy Captain Hermann Ehrhardt, 160 Radical Middle Class Party men supporters actually were able to join the SS according to plan. But the size of the group may have been its undoing. According to John Grehan, such a large group made its discovery almost inevitable, as some members of the group most likely fell into the “loose lips” category. As a result, the plan was discovered, and most of the men were arrested. Mylius himself was able to circumvent arrest by joining the army, as arranged by his friend Field Marshall Erich von Manstein. (Duffy and Ricci: Target; Grehan: The Hitler Assassination Attempts)

Plans by another potential assassin were foiled not once, but twice. Josef “Beppo” Römer in 1934 was arrested after gaining entry to the Reich Chancellery. A former member of the Freikorps paramilitary group who sought revenge for Hitler’s purge of the ranks of the SA on the Night of the Long Knives (June and July, 1934 when Nazi Party members purged SA from its ranks) and later a Communist, Römer was imprisoned for his actions at Dachau concentration camp. After his release in 1939, Römer again plotted to eliminate Hitler (or, as he said, “cut off the snake’s head”). He may have flagged his own actions, however, by dropping incriminating information about his analysis of German military action and active resistance into wastebaskets. (Grehan, page 34). Römer was arrested and sentenced to death in 1942 and executed in 1944.

A Cause Célèbre

The Stuttgart born and raised German Jew Helmut Hirsch was not able to enroll in a German university because of the Nuremberg Laws of 1935. He therefore traveled to Prague and entered the German Institute of Technology there. He soon joined the Black Front, an organization of former members of the Nazi Party and German expatriates who opposed Hitler and led underground activities.

Helmut Hirsch Collection, Robert D. Farber University, Brandeis University

In December, 1936, he was sent to Nuremburg to meet a man who would give him two baggage claim tickets for suitcases containing explosives. He traveled to Stuttgart instead to meet a friend he hoped would talk him out of participating in the plan. When his friend did not arrive, he checked into a hotel across from the railway station. There, he was arrested by Gestapo the next morning.

Although he had no explosives in his possession, he was indicted for possessing them and conspiring to commit high treason and held in solitary confinement for nine weeks. At his trial, a Gestapo double agent described the plot in detail. But while Hirsch contended he should be acquitted because he did not travel to Nuremburg or acquire the suitcases containing the explosives, he did acknowledge that he would have, if given the chance, attempted to assassinate Hitler. He consequently was sentenced to death.

Hirsch’s family engaged international organizations in an attempt to commute the sentence to life imprisonment, including the International Red Cross, human rights groups, and Quakers. The case was appealed to the League of Nations and discussed in the British House of Commons. Because Hirsch’s father was an American citizen, Helmut was granted citizenship in the US in April, 1937. Despite efforts by the American ambassador in Berlin and Secretary of State, Hirsch was decapitated on June 4, 1937. (Helmut Hirsch Collection, Robert D. Farber University Archives, Brandeis University) 

Sources

Peter Hoffman: Hitler’s Personal Security, DA Capo Press, 2000.

John Grehan: The Hitler Assassination Attempts, Frontline Books, 2022.

Roger Moorhouse: Killing Hitler, Bantam Books, 2006.

James P. Duffy and Vincent L. Ricci: Target Hitler, Praeger, 1992.

Garrison Church (Potsdam) Wikipedia.

Helmut Hirsch Collection. Robert D. Farber University Archives and Special Collections, Brandeis University.

HISTORKA: The Other Stories

People, Places, and Events Behind the Headlines in History

 Early Assassination Attempts on the Life of Adolf Hitler

The assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, head of Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia and second-in-command of the SS in 1942, was, to put it mildly, shocking, not because it was attempted but because it succeeded. (Heydrich’s assassination and its aftermath are subjects of this author’s historical novel The Pear Tree.)

The attack on Heydrich certainly was not the first attempt to assassinate a high-ranking member of the Third Reich, to be sure. Adolf Hitler had been a target of assassination from the very beginning of his rise to power. Months after he became leader of the then-fledgling Nazi Party in 1921, shots were fired at Hitler as he spoke to a crowd in a Munich beer hall. Several more attempts were made before the formation of the Third Reich with Hitler at its helm in 1933. This Historka post describes assassination attempts in the early 1920s and the historical and political setting in which they occurred.

The First Attack

Adolf Hitler joined the German Workers Party, an organization said at the time to have “no assets except a cigar box in which to put contributions,” in 1919. (Ailsby: The Third Reich Day by Day, page 9) As member of the steering committee for the group, Hitler sought to multiply the party’s membership by adopting military garb and pageantry and the swastika emblem, which he considered to be “something akin to a blazing torch.” (Ailsby, page 10)

Feeling the need to attract more attention, he relished the chance to confront his political enemies when social democrats and communists crashed a Nazi Party meeting in the Munich Hoffbräuhaus on November 4, 1921 (6 Assassination Attempts on Adolf Hitler | HISTORY). “The dance had not yet begun when my Stormtroopers, for so they were called from this day on, attacked like wolves. They flung themselves in packs of eight or 10 again and again on their enemies, and little by little actually began to thrash them out of the hall. After five minutes, I hardly saw one of them who was not covered with blood.” (Ailsby, page 10, Grehan, The Hitler Assassination Attempts, 2022, page 20)

After Hitler had spoken for an hour and a half, a man jumped up on a chair and shouted, “Freedom,” setting off a melee as beer mugs crashed to the floor, chairs were overturned, and fistfights broke out. Twenty minutes later, two pistol shots were fired at the podium where Hitler had been standing. Members of the assembled Nazis and outsiders exchanged more shots while Hitler continued speaking. (Grehan, The Hitler Assassination Attempts, 2022, page 20).

Hitler later wrote that he welcomed the attack.  “Then two pistol shots rang out and now a wild din of shouting broke out from all sides. One’s heart almost rejoiced at this spectacle which recalled memories of the war.” (Ailsby, page 10)

 Hitler Archive | Poster annoucing a speech to the young and workers n Munich's Hofbrauhaus (hitler-archive.com)

1922-1923

As a result of high-profile events, three attempts were made on Hitler’s life in 1923, all by persons unknown. (Grehan, page 20). In Thuringia shots were fired at the man as he was speaking in front of a crowd. In Leipzig and Tübingen, shots were fired at the auto that was transporting him. (Adolf Hitler Assassination Attempts Timeline 1921-1945, Grehan, page 20)

Three major events in 1922 and 1923 kept Hitler in the eye of the public and potential assassins.

The Coburg Folk Festival

The city of Coburg, 120 miles east of Frankfurt, invited Hitler and the Nazi Party to attend a folk festival on 14 October, 1922.  When city officials learned that more than 700 party members, plus a 42-piece band, were arriving on a “special train,” they sent a police captain to stop the Nazis’ planned parade into city center, but the men brushed the policeman aside and marched into town. After a 15-minute fight between Nazis and Marxist members of the crowd, the procession proceeded unimpeded.

Hitler’s fiery speech in the town hall that evening attracted the duke and duchess of Coburg, who later became active Nazi Party supporters. Marxist threats to confront the Nazis and stop the “special train” from leaving the next morning came to naught as only a few hundred Marxists even showed up. ( (hitler-archive.com), Ailsby, page 12-13)

 Deutscher Tag, Coburg, 14./15. Oktober 1922 – Historisches Lexikon Bayerns (historisches-lexikon-bayerns.de)

The First Nazi Party Day

The first Nazi Party Day, the Parteitage, brought 5000 Brownshirts to Munich to hold 12 mass meetings on January 27-29, 1923. An initial ban and declaration of a state of emergency by city officials was lifted after Bavarian General Otto von Lossow declared “suppression of the National Socialist organization [was] unfortunate for security reasons (Ailsby, page 13). At this meeting Hitler declared the swastika would become the symbol of a new Germany and proclaimed that “Germany is awakening, the German freedom movement is on the march” (Ailsby, page 13-14).

 The Beer Hall Putsch

The most prominent and remembered event in 1923 was the so-called Beer Hall Putsch.

Impressed by Benito Mussolini’s ability to seize power in October, 1922, by means of the March on Rome, (see this author’s Time Stamp blog October, 2022), Hitler believed the Nazi Party could take over the German government by force in early 1923.

Deteriorating economic conditions did threaten the stability of the Weimar Republic at the time. The government had defaulted on reparations as required by the Treaty of Versailles, leading French forces to occupy Germany’s industrial center, the Ruhr; hyperinflation and other effects of the Great Depression were rampant.  Blame fell at the feet of government leaders who had signed the treaty as well as groups that had “stabbed the country in the back” during WW I, including Communists, Jews, social democrats, and war profiteers.

Hitler’s plan to overthrow the Bavarian government, set for November 9, 1923, began in Munich’s Bürgerbräukeller the day before while the appointed governor of Upper Bavaria, Gustav von Kahr, was making a speech.  In the audience Adolf Hitler waited for 20 minutes until 25 of his armed Brownshirts burst into the hall. He then climbed onto a chair, first a shot into the ceiling, and claimed the national revolution had begun. “This hall is occupied by 600 armed men…. The Bavarian and Reich Governments have been removed and a provisional National Government formed. The army and police barracks have been occupied, troops and police are marching on the city under the swastika banner.” (Ailsby, page 15)

Kahr and other leaders of the Bavarian government, military and police were taken by gunpoint to a side room where Hitler tried to convince them to accept his leadership. The men refused to accede to the demands but were released when they agreed they would not stand in his way (Grehan, page 34). While fighting outside the building distracted Hitler and other leaders of the rebellion, German Army generals fled the hall and mobilized troops from outlying garrisons, and Kahr denounced the episode.

Nevertheless, on the morning of November 9, Hitler led 2000 men in a march toward the center of the city. By then, Brownshirts at the War Ministry were already surrounded, and police blocked streets. When police began firing, Hitler was pulled to the street and protected by his body guard and others until he could make his escape. Members of the crowd gave up their weapons and identified themselves to the police; coup plotters still on the scene were singled out and arrested; and 14 lay dead on the streets. The wounded included Hitler himself (a wrenched shoulder) and Hermann Göring (bullet wound to the groin). (Beer Hall Putsch | Facts, Summary, & Outcome | Britannica)

The German General State Commissar immediately disbanded the Brownshirts as well as the Nazi Party and imposed heavy fines on anyone working for the party.  Leaders of the coup were arrested for treason, arraigned, and imprisoned. (Ailsby, page 20)

Following the failed putsch, the Nazi Party entered what has been called the Kampfzeit or time of struggle when party members dropped from nearly 70,000 to less than 1,000. Nevertheless, some “old fighters” remained, and their message gained a wide audience. To Hitler, the putsch was major propaganda. “As though by an explosion, our ideas were hurled over the whole of Germany,” he said. (Ailsby, page 19)

1932 Assassination Attempts

In the months leading up to the July, 1932 elections, four attempts were made on Hitler’s life. In January, Hitler and others became ill within an hour after dining at Hotel Kaiserhof in Berlin. Though poisoning was suspected, no arrests were made.

A month later, Ludwig Assner, a member of the Bavarian State Parliament, sent a poisoned letter to Hitler from France. The letter was intercepted before it reached Hitler.

In March, shots were fired at the train that was carrying Hitler, Joseph Goebbels, and Wilhelm Frick (who later became Minister of the Interior in the Third Reich) from Munich to Weimar. No one was hurt.

While traveling to Stralsund, Hitler’s car was nearly ambushed by a group of men waiting at the corner of a sharp turn in the road. (List of assassination attempts on Adolf Hitler, Wikipedia, Adolf Hitler Assassination Attempts Timeline 1921-1945)

Sources:

Christopher Ailsby, The Third Reich Day by Day, Chartwell Books, 2001. This post relies heavily on this book. For more information and purchase, see: The Third Reich Day By Day: Ailsby, Christopher: 9780785826651: Amazon.com: Books.

John Grehan, The Hitler Assassination Attempts. The Plots, Places and People that Almost Changed History, Pen & Sword Books, 2022. https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-hitler-assassination-attempts-john-grehan/1140132976

(6 Assassination Attempts on Adolf Hitler | HISTORY)

  (hitler-archive.com),

 Beer Hall Putsch | Facts, Summary, & Outcome | Britannica

July 1932 German federal election - Wikipedia).

July 1932 German federal election - Wikipedia, Nazi Party - Rise to Power, Ideology, Germany | Britannica