Updated 22/04/24
A cat has nine lives, Hitler had at least 42 lives.
According to an expression from ancient Egypt, a cat has nine lives. For the Egyptians, cats were sacred animals. Sun god Ra took the form of a cat during his travels to the underworld and Ra would have given life to eight other gods, nine lives in total.
The suituation around Adolf Hitler was different. A total of 42 assassinations were committed on Adolf, but no attack succeeded in killing the German leader.
Why is it so hard to kill a dictator? Hitler: “I can always be killed by a criminal or an idiot”. An attack on Hitler, who was always surrounded by the necessary SS, quickly resulted in a suicide attack and lots of courage was needed for that. Many conspirators were unwilling to take this ultimate despairing step. Thus, the planning of Hitler’s assassination became a mishmash of courage, despair, fear and death contempt.
The attacks began at an early stage of Hitler’s career, on 9 February 1933. Hitler receives a letter with poison from Ludwig Assner. A received telegram warns Hitler of the letter and the letter is intercepted. In 1934, an opposition group around Helmuth Mylius launched an attack in Berlin. Those involved will be arrested before the execution. September 30, 1938, the Munich Accords for the conflict around the Sudetenland prevents a planned attack. November 9, 1938, the Swiss Maurice Bavaud wants to shoot Hitler. However, he does not come close enough to Hitler to carry out the plan. He is later arrested by chance and eventually confesses his intended attack. He is sentenced to death and beheaded.
Georg Elser
Elser soon had a hunch that Hitler meant war and he wanted to prevent that war. Elser acted out of his instincts and that distinguished him from the military who had much more resources, but attached too complicated conditions to it. Elser did not fear the consequences of his actions, but the military did. And Elser’s attack had alomost succeeded. Elser carried out the attack on the Führer alone. A fact that the Nazis later, when Elser was arrested, could hardly believe. Elser invented a homemade bomb to execute the attack. He stole powder and stuff for the ignition here and there and made the ignition mechanism himself with the basis of a precision movement that had to detonate the bomb. The functioning of the system was tried a number of times and worked excellently.
Elser sought out the Burgbräukeller location in Munich, where Hitler would visit on 8 November 1939 to commemorate the failed putch attempt from 1923. Elser had yet to install the bomb in the right place and chose a pillar right next to the place where Hitler would give his speech. He locked himself up in that room for more than 30 nights and worked on the pillar to install the bomb as invisible as possible. The disadvantage was that the staff of the Burgbräukeller got to know him well through his frequent visits, which later helped to be able to identify Elser. Elser set the bomb at 21:20 on November 8 and he was sure Hitler would speak then.
Because the weather is bad, Hitler decides to return to Berlin by train instead of the plane. Hitler leaves 13 minutes earlier than usual and when the bomb explodes, Hitler has already left. If Hitler had still been speaking, the bombing would certainly have succeeded. The damage was significant and also in the right place. But unfortunately, Hitler was no longer present.
Elser is arrested when he tries to cross the Swiss border. Elser has an expired pass and is still in possession of a number of batting pins and a postcard of the Bürgerbräukeller. As mentioned earlier, the Nazis find it hard to believe that the attack was the work of only one man. Even after heavy torture, Elser persists. Elser is not directly executed, but exiled to Sachsenhausen and later Dachau. There he is treated remarkably mildly, which raises questions with his fellow prisoners. Just a few days before the Allies liberate Dachau, Hitler has a number of political opponents and also Georg Elser liquidated out of pure resentment. On April 9, 1945, he was executed by a neck shot. Elser almost survived the war.
November 11, 1939, Erich Kordt wants to blow himself up in the presence of Hitler in the Reichs Kanzlei. However, the security measures have been tightened to the extent that Kordt cannot have the necessary materials. 27 June 1940, during a military parade in Paris Hitler would be shot when driving by. The parade is cancelled because Hitler had already visited Paris on June 23. 21 May 1941, General Field Marshal Erwin von Witzleben can convince Hitler to come to Paris. The intention is to shoot Hitler during the visit. Hitler, however, cancels the visit at the last minute. 13 March 1943, Major General Henning von Tresckow has devised a plan to kill Hitler during a visit to the headquarters of Heeresgruppe Mitte in Smolensk. Initially, the plan is to intercept and kill Hitler on the way from the airport to the headquarters. But Hitler is strictly guarded by the SS and the action is cancelled. Then Von Tresckow wants to shoot Hitler during dinner. General Field Marshal Von Kluge learns about the plan and forbids his officers from carrying out this plan. Tresckow obeys. Plan number three is an attempt to let Hitler’s plane crash by a bomb. The bomb is smuggled on board, but the detonator becomes frozen and the bomb does not go off. The bomb package can be barely intercepted afterwards. March 21, 1943, Rudolph-Christoph Freiherr von Gersdorff is prepared to blow himself up in the presence of Hitler. Hitler leaves Berlin far too early, Gersdorff could just defuse the bomb. 16 December 1943, Axel von dem Bussche wants to blow up himself in Hitler’s presence at a presentation of the new army uniforms. The presentation is cancelled because the uniforms were destroyed in an airstrike. 11 March 1944, Eberhard von Breitenbuch plans to shoot Hitler when visiting the Berghof. However, the SS only allows the generals to the meeting. 7 July 1944, again at the presentation of the army uniforms at Salzburg, Hellmuth Stieff will carry out an attack. At the moment supreme, he feels unable to carry out the attack.
Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg
As a forerunner of the operation Walküre, on 11 July 1944, Von Stauffenberg (colonel at the Wehrmacht), the chief of staff of the reserve army was summoned to the Berghof. In his briefcase there is a bomb that can only go off when Hitler, Göring and Himmler are present. Himmler is not present and the attack is cancelled.
Four days later, Von Stauffenberg gets the chance again. In the Wolfsschanze in East Prussia. Himmler is not there again. General Ludwig Beck wants to postpone the attack again, but Von Stauffenberg wants to make an attempt. In the meeting room, Von Stauffenberg notices that the briefcase has been removed, perhaps to protect Von Stauffenberg. The attack will be cancelled again.
July 20, 1944. Operation Walküre. The attack is carried out by Von Stauffenberg at the Führer headquarters. Himmler and Göring are not present this time when the bomb goes off. Because of pure luck, Hitler is only slightly wounded. The consequences for the fairly large group of attackers are disastrous. Hitler after the attack: “I am alive, the attack has failed. A little clique of officers wanted to get me out of the way. But now we know exactly who the saboteurs are. We will wipe them out. I want to have the peace and security in the capital immediately restored, if necessary by force, until the Reichsführer SS arrives in the capital”. Despite attempts by Von Stauffenberg, the putsch in Berlin failed definitively. Meanwhile, the battalion “Grossdeutschland” had arrived to protect the Führer. Military vehicles drove onto the site and illuminated the execution site. The convicted men were taken to the courtyard. General Friedrich Olbricht was the first to die from the ten-member firing squad. Von Haeften (lawyer and Wehrmacht officer) , Von Stauffenberg and lastly Mertz von Quirnheim (Wehrmacht officer) were the following. Von Stülpnagel (General of the Wehrmacht), who was summoned from Paris in Berlin, committed suicide along the way.
There followed a huge wave of arrests. SS-Gruppenführer Heinrich Müller immediately started an investigation. Between 600 and 800 people were arrested, two hundred were murdered. The main persons involved in Walküre, Field Marshal Erwin von Witzleben (General Field Marshal at the Wehrmacht), after the attack the planned new commander of the Wehrmacht, Hans Oster (Officer at the Wehrmacht), Wilhelm Canaris (Admiral), Johannes Popitz (Politician), Ewald von Kleist-Scmenzin (General Field Marshal at the Wehrmacht), Adam von Trott zu Stolz (Lawyer and diplomat) were arrested. Henning von Tresckow committed suicide. Carl Friedrich Goerdeler (Politician and mayor of Leipzig), destined as the new premier fled but was caught and died on 2 February 1945. Fabian von Schlabrendorff (Officer at the Wehrmacht), Ulrich von Hassell (Politician and diplomat), Graf Schwerin von Schwanenfeld (Officer at the Wehrmacht), Fritz-Dietlof von der Schulenburg (Government official), Eugen Gerstenmaier (Theologian), Peter York Graf von Wartenburg (Lawyer), Ulrich-Wilhelm Graf Schwerin (Officer at the Wehrmacht), Ewald Heinrich von Kleist (General Field Marshal at the Wehrmacht, Berthold von Stauffenberg (Lawyer), Erich Fellgiebel (General at the Wehrmacht, Wilhelm Leuschner (Politician), Cäsar von Hofacker (Lieutenant Colonel at the Luftwaffe), Erich Hoepner (General superior at the Wehrmacht) were the next in line. Heavy torture by the Gestapo followed to enforce confessions about even more people involved.
Most of the arrestees were military personnel and should have been brought to court-martial. Hitler did not trust it and on 2 August 1944 created the “Ehrenhof“. Keitel was chairman, Ernst Kaltenbrunner and Heinrich Müller were the prosecutors. President was appointed Roland Freisler, a fiery supporter of Hitler. Hitler’s mission: “I want them hung like cattle.” And the verdict had to be carried out within two hours. Freisler wanted to set a deterrent and bloody example with the men of the July 20th. So there was no fair trial at all. Goebbels in his diary: “Freisler does find the right tone to humiliate them”. Behind Freisler’s seat, hidden film cameras had been set up to record the macabre spectacle. Due to Freisler’s screams, the recordings were not suitable for propaganda purposes. Even Ernst Kaltenbrunner was appalled at the way Freisler behaved and called him a third-rate actor. All those charged were sentenced to hanging. Freisler: “the people have freed themselves from them. We will continue with all the strength that is within us until the total victory is achieved”. Hitler had the brutal death struggle of his opponents filmed in detail. It later emerged that Hitler repeatedly had the film running at his headquarters.
Hitler, in his radio speech to the German people, assumed a small clique of ambitious noble officers, but it eventually became clear that forces in the bourgeoisie were also involved in the resistance. The July 20th of 1944 was not just a conspiracy of the nobility. On 22 September 1944, highly explosive factual material surfaced. It included address lists of the conspirators, minutes and plans who would do what. The data showed that the conspirators had already wanted to prevent the war in 1938 and criticized how Hitler dealt with the question of the Jews. It began to dawn on Hitler what extent the plot against him really had. None of the documents were allowed to go public. A few thousand people were arrested who had hardly anything to do with the July e20th.
The German people had long since moved on to the order of the day. The Führer had survived everything, a sign of divine providence. In the background, Freisler’s killing machine was running at full speed. He continued to adjudicate the death sentence one after another.
Sippenhaft
Sippenhaft includes the (legalized) idea that a family shares the responsibility for a committed crime by one of the family members and that the family can be collectively punished. Himmler and Hitler made eager use of this and the families of the convicted men were also punished. The women disappeared in a concentration camp or prison, the children were placed in a special facility to be raised again according to national socialist standards. The verdicts came about in the same way as with the men. Only the family members were not murdered. All of the family’s possessions were also forfeited, including those of the married family. So Nina, the wife of Von Stauffenberg, was spared nothing. She ended up with her mother-in-law in Ravensbrück concentration camp. Her four children Berthold, Heimeran, Valerie and Franz Ludwig were taken away on 17 August. After five months of solitary confinement, Nina gave birth to her fifth child, Konstanze. Nina’s mother died in a punishment camp of the SS in February 1945.
Erwin Rommel
Also Erwin Rommel, Commander of the troops during the Polish campaign, Commander of the 7th armoured division during the Blitzkrieg in Belgium (fall Rot and fall Gelb), was nicknamed by the French “the ghost division” by the super-fast advance of the division), Commander-in-chief of the Afrikakorps, nicknamed “The Desert Fox” and later in Normandy by Heeresgruppe B, responsible for the Atlantikwall, also became a suspect for the Gestapo. Cäsar von Hofacker was one of the conspirators who had approached Rommel to choose the side of the resistance. In the torture of Van Hofacker, the name of Erwin Rommel was mentioned. General Heinrich Kirchheim, Wilhelm Keitel and Martin Bormann, certainly not friends of Rommel, insisted on a death sentence of Rommel. On October 14, Rommel received a visit from two generals who persuaded him to commit suicide on Hitler’s orders. So he could save himself a show process and the Sippenhaftung. He would also be buried with military honor and his family would receive living money. This could also prevent a scandal for Hitler. After several minutes, Rommel decided to end his life through a poison pill, but he has never confessed to having been involved in the conspiracy. The German people were told that the popular Rommel had died from the injuries he sustained in the July 17 airstrike.
Operation Foxley
The British Special Operations Executive (SOE) discovers in the summer of 1944 to their great surprise that Hitler takes a walk every morning on the Berghof near Berchtesgaden. The British come up with the idea of carrying out an attack on the Führer during his walk. Hitler makes the walk alone, the SS who accompanies him must remain at a distance. The SOE sees an opportunity to get rid of Hitler and end the Second World War. Operation Foxley is a fact.
The indication that Hitler is present on the Obersalzberg is the large swastika flag that is hoisted in the parking lot in front of the Berghof when he is there.
The plan: The action must be carried out by 2 snipers and the liquidation must be carried out in the forest during his morning walk. The SS guards are too far away to intervene and the snipers can therefore shoot Hitler and escape. If the attack fails, the snipers can go to the teahouse and kill Hitler with a bazooka.
The plan: The English wanted the attack committed by a German or Austrian prisoner of war with a personal hatred of Hitler. A forced labourer from Poland or the Czech Republic was also eligible. More than 100,000 of them worked very close from the country retreat. A Czech or a Pole would not stand out. Under their long uniform jackets, the 2 snipers could bring a bazooka with grenades, hand grenades, a Mauser rifle with visor and a large pair of pliers. The ammunition contained mercury fulminate, which was so strong that a little bit of it was enough to behead the victim.
The attack is being called off. “The commander-in-chief agrees that because of the many blunders that Hitler commits, it is almost favorable when he continues to determine the German strategy.” The generals were afraid that after the murder of the Führer, more competent strategists would be in control and would fight more severe to avenge the death of the Führer. While the SOE and the generals continued to discuss the attack on Hitler, the Allies invaded Germany in late 1944.
Operation Foxley had become redundant.
Source:
The failed attack on the Führer – Guido Knopp
Historia.net
History.net
Various Wikipedia articles