Joachim Fest - Plotting Hitler's Death

March 21 Colonel Rudolph-Christoph von Gersdorff s assassination attempt in the Berlin Zeughaus fails

April 5 Arrest of Hans von Dohnanyi, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Josef Müller, and other members of the resistance group within Military Intelligence. Hans Oster’s activ­ities are curtailed

July 12-13 Establishment of the National Committee for a Free Germany in Krasnogorsk, near Moscow

Summer Friedrich Olbricht, Tresckow, and Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg begin to rework the Valkyrie plans for a coup

Oct. 1 Stauffenberg assumes his position as chief of staff in the General Army Office under General Olbricht

Nov. 28- Teheran Conference. Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill

Dec. 12 agree in principle on the division of Germany

1944

Jan. 19 Helmuth von Moltke and members of the Solf Circle arrested

Jan.-March Captain Axel von dem Bussche, Lieutenant Ewald von Kleist-Schmenzin, and Cavalry Captain Eberhard von Breitenbuch all fail in various plans to assassinate Hitler

Feb. 12 Admiral Wilhelm Canaris relieved of his duties. Hitler orders the creation of a “unified German secret information service” under Himmler

June 6 Allied invasion of Normandy commences

June 22 Julius Leber and Adolf Reichwein meet in Berlin with members of the outlawed central committee of the German Communist Party. Beginning of the Soviet offensive on the eastern front in the area of Army Group Center

July 4-5 Adolf Reichwein and Julius Leber arrested

July 11 Stauffenberg plans to assassinate Hitler at Führer headquarters on the Obersalzberg

July 15 Stauffenberg plans to assassinate Hitler at the Wolf’s Lair, Führer headquarters in Rastenburg

July 20 Stauffenberg sets off a bomb in the conference barracks at Rastenburg. Hitler survives. Coup attempt in Paris canceled when plans fail at army headquarters in Berlin. Late that night Stauffenberg, Olbricht, Albrecht Mertz von Quirnheim, and Werner von Haeften are executed in the army courtyard on Bendlerstrasse. A wave of arrests begins

Aug. Beginning of trials before the People’s Court and the first executions

1945

Feb. 4-11 Yalta Conference

April 25 American and Soviet troops meet near Torgau on the Elbe

April 30 Hitler commits suicide

May 8 Germany surrenders unconditionally

Beck, Ludwig (1880-1944)

Career officer. In October 1933 named chief of the troop office in the Ministry of Defense and in 1935 army chief of general staff. Attempted in vain in the summer of 1938 to persuade the generals to resign en masse in order to prevent war. Resigned thereafter himself for reasons of conscience and became a central figure in the military-civilian resistance. After some initial reluctance, participated in planning assassination attempts and was supposed to become regent after Hitler’s death. After the failure of the coup attempt on July 20, 1944, General Friedrich Fromm demanded that he commit suicide in army headquarters on Bendlerstrasse. He botched the attempt, succeeding only in severely wounding himself, and a sergeant fin­ished the job.

Blaskowitz, Johannes (1883-1948)

Career officer of the old school. Commander in chief of the German occupa­tion forces in Poland. Wrote two memoranda to Walther von Brauchitsch about the atrocities in Poland and the horrified reaction of the troops. Re­lieved of his command on several occasions during the battle of France. Later, however, took other commands, no longer calling Hitler’s policies into question. In January 1945 assigned command of an army group in Holland, where he capitulated to the British on May 5, 1945. Committed suicide on February 5, 1948, by jumping out a window of Nuremberg prison.

Blomberg, Werner von (1878-1946)

Appointed minister of defense in 1933. From 1935 until 1938 minister of war and commander in chief of the Wehrmacht. Became a field marshal in 1936. Nicknamed “the rubber lion” by fellow officers for his ability to adapt. Believed that the Night of the Long Knives was justified because public order was threatened by insurgents; issued a “muzzle edict” forbidding all criticism within the army. Following the death of President Hindenburg on August 2, 1934, facilitated a virtual putsch by ordering all soldiers to swear allegiance to the “Führer Adolf Hitler.” Discredited by the Nazis in January 1938, and forced to resign within a few weeks. Died in American custody.

Blumentritt, Günther (1892-1967)

Appointed colonel on the army general staff in 1938. On the general staff of Army Group South during the Polish and French campaigns and appointed chief of staff to the Fourth Army in 1940. Posted to Army Group Center during the Soviet campaign. Became quartermaster general on the army general staff in July 1942. Appointed chief of general staff to the commander in chief in the West. Thanks to his diplomatic skill, the Wehrmacht, the SS, and the SD were able to agree on how to word an official version of events in Paris on the night of July 20-21, 1944. In 1945 was named commander in chief of the Twenty-Fifth Army and then of the First Parachute Army. On April 10, 1945, became commander in chief of the army named after him.

Bock, Fedor von (1880-1945)

Career officer. Promoted to field marshal in 1940. Commander in chief of army groups in Poland, France, and the Soviet Union (Army Group Center). After the attack on Moscow ground to a halt, was posted to Army Group South in January 1942. Dismissed on July 15, 1942, for lack of success. At war’s end, placed himself at the disposal of the Dönitz government. Killed during an air raid in early May 1945.

Despite his outrage at the anti-Semitic violence of November 9, 1938, later refused to participate actively in the resistance.

Bonhoeffer, Dietrich (1906-45)

A prominent Protestant theologian, son of the well-known psychiatrist and neurologist Karl Bonhoeffer. Pastor in London between 1933 and 1935. For a time, private lecturer at the university in Berlin. A leading representative of the Confessional Church. In 1940 drafted into the OKW Military Intelli­gence Office. Helped draft memoranda on the future democratic govern­ment of Germany and compiled files on crimes committed by the SS. Important foreign contacts with A. W. Visser ’t Hooft–the secretary-general of the provisional World Council of Churches in Geneva-and Bishop George Bell. Arrested on April 5, 1943, for undermining the war effort. Hanged on April 9, 1945, after a summary trial in the Flossenbürg concen­tration camp.

Brauchitsch, Walther von (1881-1948)

Appointed field marshal in 1940. In 1938 succeeded Werner von Fritsch as commander in chief of the army. Attempted in vain to have Fritsch rehabili­tated. Dismissed after the first setbacks on the eastern front in December 1941. Knew about the opposition to Hitler and was critical of his policy of aggression but nevertheless went along with the Führer, largely out of per­sonal weakness. Described the attempted assassination of July 20 as “the mad act of a small number of men who have forgotten all about honor.”

Bussche-Streithorst, Baron Axel von dem (1919-93)

Career officer with the rank of major. Witnessed the mass shooting of Jews in Dubno in 1942. Declared thereafter that there were only three ways for an officer to preserve his honor: die in battle, desert, or rebel. Planned in early 1944 to kill both Hitler and himself by detonating a bomb at a public ceremony. Failed when chance events prevented Hitler from coming. Avoided arrest in July 1944. Studied law after 1945. Counselor at the Ger­man embassy in Washington from 1954 to 1958.

Canaris, Wilhelm (1887-1945)

Career officer with the rank of admiral. Sympathized with Hitler’s resentment of the conditions imposed at Versailles and his anti-Communism but after 1933 came to despise the brutality of the Nazis. Was chief of OKW Military Intelligence from 1935 to 1944. Began to oppose the Nazis actively after the Fritsch affair. Grew resigned, though, after the Munich agreement. In 1939 he and Hans Oster asked Josef Müller, a lawyer, to attempt through the Vatican to sound out the possibilities for maintaining peace.