July Plot

July Plot (20 July 1944) An assassination attempt against Hitler. It was planned by conservative army officers and bureaucrats who had become increasingly disillusioned with Hitler's arbitrary rule, wanted to put an end to the Nazi regime, looked forward to a ‘just’ peace (instead of unconditional surrender), and planned a return to the rule of law (though not necessarily to democracy). It was carried out by Claus Count Schenk von Stauffenberg (b. 1907, d. 1944), a young officer who had witnessed a mass execution of women and children by the SS. He was the only one to have direct access to Hitler in his headquarters in East Prussia. Unfortunately, he was not able to prepare enough explosives before he carried them hidden in a briefcase to a conference attended by Hitler. He left the briefcase next to Hitler, but an attendant at the meeting unwittingly put the briefcase under the heavy oak table, which protected Hitler from the explosion, so that he received only a few minor wounds. The immediate culprits, including Stauffenberg, were executed that same night, while by the end of the year 5,200 people who were linked to the resistance group, or who were considered to be opposed to the regime, were sentenced to death and executed.

Resistance, Germany