July Plot

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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

July Plot (20 July 1944) A plot to assassinate Adolf HITLER. Disenchanted by the NAZI REGIME in Germany, an increasing number of senior army officers believed that Hitler had to be assassinated and an alternative government, prepared to negotiate peace terms with the Allies, established. Plans were made in late 1943 and there were a number of unsuccessful attempts before that of July 1944. The plot was carried out by Count Berthold von Stauffenberg, who left a bomb at Hitler's headquarters at Rastenburg. The bomb exploded, killing four people, but not Hitler. Stauffenberg, believing he had succeeded, flew to Berlin, where the plotters aimed to seize the Supreme Command headquarters. Before this was done, however, news came that Hitler had survived. A counter-move resulted in the arrest of some 200 plotters, including Stauffenberg himself, Generals Beck, Olbricht, von Tresckow, and later Friedrich Fromm. They were shot, hanged, or in some cases strangled. Field-Marshal ROMMEL was implicated and obliged to commit suicide. The regime used the occasion to execute several prominent protesters such as Dietrich BONHOEFFER.