by Donald Hunt
At 12:07, Stauffenberg entered the office of General Keitel, the Chief of the OKW (High Command of the Armed Forces). He hung up his cap and belt. Keitel informed him that the meeting had been moved up to begin at 12:30. Stauffenberg briefed Keitel on the report and they began the short walk to the Lagebaracke (compound barracks). After taking only a few steps Stauffenberg suddenly wheeled around and said, “I left my cap and belt in the ante room.”
He did it so quickly that Keitel did not have time to remark that the adjutant could get them. Once in the ante room, Stauffenberg quickly opened his briefcase and using a pair of tongs, he crushed the glass canister holding the acid and checked his watch. The wire thickness required ten minutes before explosion. He awkwardly put on his belt and cap. It took a one-armed man a bit longer to do anything. As he walked out of the ante room, he spoke to the desk sergeant.
“I am expecting an important call from Berlin. I’ll be back.’ When he returned Keitel was aggravated. “Hurry! You’re going to make us late.”
As Keitel feared, they were late. He muttered a profanity under his breath as they entered the room. The conference had begun in the relatively small room which had a rectangular shape, some 15’ X 30.’ In the center of the room was a heavy oak table 18’ in length. Hitler sat with his back to the door. By the time the two men entered the room, about four minutes had elapsed. Detonation of the devise was six minutes away.
General Heusiger, Chief of Operations of the Army was speaking. Keitel took his usual seat to Hitler’s left. There were eighteen other officers from the service branches and the SS. General Heusinger was in the midst of a comprehensive report on the central Russian front. Keitel broke in to announce the presence of Stauffenberg. Hitler glanced up at the one-armed officer and curtly nodded. For one brief moment they made eye contact. Heusiger continued.
The massive oak table had an unusual construction in that it did not have legs. Instead, it had two large vertical supports the same thickness as the table top. They were placed six feet from either end, leaving a six-foot center section. Stauffenberg took his place two seats to the right of Hitler, placing his briefcase just inside the large oak vertical support only three feet from Hitler. He glanced at his watch. Five minutes to go.
At the four minute mark, Stauffenberg leaned over to Colonel Bo Brandt, seated to his right. “I’m expecting a call from Berlin.”
With that, he stood to leave the room. No one other than Brandt seemed to notice. Brandt was absorbed in looking at the map and stood to get a better view. As he stood, Stauffenberg’s briefcase was in his way and he reached down and placed it on the outside of the large oak vertical table support. General Heusiger was finishing his report. His last sentence was, “If our army group around Lake Peipus is not immediately withdrawn, a catastrophe…..”
The sentence was never finished. At precisely 12:42 pm the bomb exploded.
At that moment, Stauffenberg was standing with General Fellgiebel in front of his office, some 150 meters away. The blast was deafening. The percussion blew out all of the windows in the meeting room with smoke and flames pouring out as well. The explosion had such force that both men believed there would be no survivors. Stauffenberg immediately rushed to his waiting car and Fellgiebel hurried to call Berlin. The next task was to get out of the Rastenburg headquarters camp. Since the guards heard the explosion, all exits were closed. At the first check point, Stauffenberg jumped from the car and demanded to speak to the duty officer. He then phoned someone, or possibly no one, and turned to the officer.
“Herr Lieutenant, I am authorized to pass!”
The gate was opened then word was sent to the next check point to allow him to exit. The final check point was a different story. A master sergeant refused to let them pass. He was a career soldier and veteran of WW I. He could not be bluffed. Stauffenberg then called Captain von Moellendorff with whom he had had breakfast, and got permission to pass. His car raced to the airport. On the journey, his adjuvant dismantled a second back-up bomb, tossing the detonation mechanism onto the roadside. The airfield control had not yet received word of the explosion, perhaps because of the communication blackout.
The pilot was sitting with the engines running. In two to three minutes they were in the air. As they lifted off they noticed someone running out of the air control office. Possibly the call about the explosion had just gotten through. The Heinkel plane was relatively slow and droned through the air.
Stauffenberg and his adjuvant were in high spirits. Since the plane had no long-distance radio, they were unable to confirm the success of the mission. Stauffenberg turned to von Haeften. “It looked like an artillery shell had hit the conference room. There might be no survivors.” They touched down after a grueling three hour ride. Stauffenberg raced to a phone in the airport command center and placed a call to General Olbricht, Chief of Staff of the Home Army. When he heard Olbricht’s voice, Stauffenberg immediately realized something was wrong. He was having a difficult time understanding the message.
“General, you’ll have to speak up!”
“He survived the blast! Hitler is still alive.”
OriginalSketch of Claus von Stauffenberg By Delia Hunt
* * *
Heidi Brendler and Sarah Engel were diligent in their efforts to stay the course of the resistance work and survive the war. They were encouraged that the allies were making steady progress in the West, and by mid-August, the Red Army was on the border of East Prussia on the Baltic Sea. The capture and execution of Max had not resulted in further arrests which was prima facie evidence that this brave man had withstood the torture of the Gestapo. Heidi had been pleased to learn that the U.S. airman they had helped had in fact made it to France. But there were at least two others who had been caught and hanged. A day did not go by that she did not think of the life and death struggles of the war. Late on the night of the ill-fated plot to kill Hitler, a brief nation-wide radio broadcast was made by the Fuehrer himself. He assured the nation that his injuries were minor and his survival was confirmation that he was to continue the role ‘providence’ intended for him.
Several weeks later, details of the failed coup began to leak out. It was then that Heidi learned that the man at the center of the plot was none other than Klaus von Stauffenberg, the one-eyed war hero she had met and admired the previous year. She recalled his nobility and the words of his wife, Countess Nina, that he felt he must do something to ‘save Germany’. Heidi also learned that he and some of the other conspirators had been executed the night of the attempt. There were times she felt like a small boat being tossed about on the ocean by a raging storm. But storms had a limited time of destruction. This war seemed to have no end.
Because of schedule conflicts, Sarah and Heidi had missed their last two weekly dinners together. It had also been several months since Heidi had heard from Landis Koller. Then one evening as Heidi was returning to her flat, she stopped by the corner market to pick-up milk and coffee. When she entered the apartment, she noticed an envelope that had been slipped under her door. She anticipated a communication from Landis, but upon opening it she recognized Sarah’s handwriting. The note was brief and read, “I need to see you tonight! Urgent!” It was unsigned.
Heidi set the milk and coffee on the kitchen table. The August night was warm and there was at least another hour of daylight. She quietly closed and locked the door to her flat. The three-block walk to Sarah’s apartment would take only five minutes. A number of thoughts flooded her mind. She anticipated an urgent mission for the resistance. As she walked, she began to feel an excitement. She welcomed another opportunity to actively oppose the Nazi Reich. For some reason Landis had decided to communicate with her through Sarah.
Heidi reached Sarah’s door and knocked softly. As it opened, one glance at Sarah answered all of Heidi’s questions. Sarah was in her housecoat, her eyes red from crying. Her hair was not combed. “Christian has been killed,�
�� she said quietly, her voice monotone. “His apartment was hit three nights ago by an R.A.F. bomb. I received a call from his office early this morning.”
Heidi closed the door and wrapped her arms around Sarah. They stood for several minutes embracing. “Sarah, I’m so sorry….I’m so sorry.” Heidi was stunned and tried to hold back her tears but could not. It had been eight months since they had seen Christian. Heidi had gradually begun to sever her emotional ties to him believing that the circumstances of the war would keep them apart. Now it would be forever.
The two young women had become best of friends and felt more like sisters to each other. Heidi went to the kitchen to heat water for tea. When it was ready, they sat at the table and did not speak. The previous months had left Heidi emotionally drained. The death of Christian increased the darkness around her. But she knew this hour was even darker for Sarah.
“I remember him from when I was about five,” Sarah finally said. “He was always teasing me and hiding my toys. He would put them in places where I could easily find them and then he’d act so surprised.”
Sarah smiled, her bottom lip trembling. “Over time it became a game. When we got older the teasing stopped. He became protective of me. He kept an eye on any boys that came around me until he went to University. We made a pact, Heidi. We made a pact not to be involved with Nazi Youth clubs. He was always the shining light in my life.”
Heidi nodded and looked away. After a few moments of silence, she remembered her own games with Christian and the times he played tricks on her in med school and surgical training. She recalled these moments for Sarah and the hours passed quickly. Finally, Heidi glanced at the clock. She wanted to explore one more subject before she left.
“What are your feelings about Christian’s death? I suppose what I mean is…what do you feel has happened to him?”Sarah gave a soft smile. “He is with God. We are, all of us, created in God’s image….with an eternal soul or spirit. He is in Paradise, the place where God resides. That is what scripture says and what I know to be true. It is a matter of faith.”
“I hope you are right,” Heidi responded. “He was a wonderful man.” Heidi stood to leave and put her arms tightly around Sarah. “We loved him well, didn’t we Sarah…and he will always be in our hearts.”
Over the next few weeks Heidi spent many hours reflecting on her life. She felt blessed to have known and loved Christian and knew that she and Sarah would remain close. She was aware that the constant danger and hostility surrounding her was beginning to take its toll. She had not confided to Sarah that she was beginning to feel a longing for a homeland away from Germany, that she dreamed of a place she had never seen, a place she could only imagine, a place that had been promised.
I will go there some day!
* * *
Shortly after the execution of Colonel Stauffenberg, the Nazis’ brutality toward their fellow Germans reached its zenith. Hitler had become fanatical in his determination to payback a thousand-fold, the renegades and their families. His thirst for revenge was unquenchable. He determined that the criminals would be hauled before the People’s Court and tried with lightning speed. The sentences were carried out with haste and without mercy.
The first trial took place on August 7th. Multiple defendants were in the dock including Field Marshal von Witzlaben and Generals Hoepner, Stieff, and von Hase. Before trial the men were beaten and made to look as shabby as possible. The chief judge of the court was the ardent Nazi Ronald Freisler, who had tried the White Rose participants two years earlier. Freisler was a vile man prone to mawkish outbursts. He had been a P.O.W. in Russia in WWI. While there, he learned lessons in cruelty and was now anxious to inflict that same cruelty on others.
The trials continued non-stop, in the People’s Court and other venues. The death toll was extensive - eventually numbering almost 5,000. Executions were carried out until the last two weeks of the war. Hitler had demanded that all those directly involved be “hanged like cattle”.
Most were taken to Ploetzensee Prison and hanged with piano wire from meat hooks. Each man was stripped to the waist, their hands bound and belts removed. The executions were filmed for Hitler’s viewing. As each man dangled by the wire, the weight of his body caused him to strangle and he began to have seizures as he suffocated. Their belt-less pants eventually fell to their feet leaving them naked as they died, a final humiliation.
The People’s Court remained in session through the fall and winter, grinding out death sentences until the morning of February 3, 1945, when the court took a direct hit by an American bomb. Judge Freisler was killed in the devastation that also destroyed the records of most of those awaiting trial. The bombing held the fate of one conspirator, Fabian von Schlabrendorff, a lawyer who had opposed Hitler from the start. His trial was in session, but he was not badly injured and eventually was liberated by Allied forces.
Most of the others were not as fortunate. Carl Goerdeler, the former Mayor of Leipzig, had gone into hiding three days before the assassination attempt. He was scheduled to be made Chancellor in the new post-Nazi regime. Now he was wandering between Berlin, Potsdam and East Prussia, never spending more than two nights in the same place. Hitler had put a price of one million marks on his head. One morning while waiting to be served breakfast, he recognized a woman in uniform eying him. He left without eating as she notified authorities. His attempt to escape into near-by woods was futile and he was apprehended after only a brief chase. He was sentenced to death in September 1944, and finally executed in February the following year.
Some of the most distinguished and high-profile field officers did not face trial. General Henning von Tresckow had been a consistent inspiration communicating from the Eastern front. His letter to the conspirators in the summer of 1944 gave them a reason to move forward. He had urged these men to put their lives on the line and he was doing the same. On the morning of July 21st, this distinguished general made a portentous decision not to give Hitler the satisfaction of executing him. He bid farewell to his friend and adjuvant, Captain Fabian von Schlabrendorff, who recalled his last words:
“Everybody will now turn upon us and cover us with abuse. But my conviction remains unshaken…..we have done the right thing. Hitler is not only the archenemy of Germany: he is the archenemy of the world. In a few hours I shall stand before God, answering for my actions and for my omissions. I think I shall be able to uphold with a clear conscience all that I have done in the fight against Hitler… Whoever joined the resistance movement put on the shirt of Nessus. The worth of a man is certain only if he is prepared to sacrifice his life for his convictions.”
Tresckew then drove to a nearby military rifle range and walked into ‘no man’s land ’. He pulled the pin on a hand grenade and held it in front of his face. The explosion literally took his head off.
Lieutenant Colonel Caesar von Hofacker, a cousin of Stauffenberg, was present at the dinner at the conspiracy leader’s home on the night of July 16th. He was the plotter’s liaison with the generals on the Western front, and was in complete agreement that Germans should be the ones to free their country of Hitler’s tyranny. That night he reported two highly significant pieces of information. He claimed that Germany’s western defenses were collapsing. He also predicted that Rommel would back the conspiracy despite his opposition to killing Hitler. When arrested, von Hofacker was taken to a Gestapo dungeon in the Prinz Albrechtstrasse, in Berlin. Under intense torture he told of Rommel’s agreement with the conspiracy. When Hitler read the transcript of Hofacker’s ‘confession’ he determined that the famous ‘Desert Fox’, loved by the people, must die.
In the fall of 1944, Rommel was still recovering from the injuries he suffered in the July strafing. He was at his home near Ulm, due east of the Black Forrest. On September 6th, he was visited by General Speidel, his former chief of staff. The talk turned to Hitler.
“That pathological liar has now gone completely
mad,” said Rommel. “He is venting his sadism on the conspirators of July 20th, and this won’t be the end of it.”
The following day Speidel was arrested and Rommel realized his house was being watched.
Hitler wanted to avoid the scandal of arresting Germany’s most popular general. So, on October 14th, two ranking officers from Hitler’s staff drove to Rommel’s home and presented the evidence against him. They explained that he would have a state funeral and full military honors if he took his own life. The distinguished field marshal then met with his wife. Afterward, he met with his son Manfred. “I have just had to tell your mother that I shall be dead in a quarter of an hour,” he told his son. “Hitler is charging me with high treason. In view of my service in Africa, I am to have the chance of dying by poison. The two generals have brought it with them. It’s fatal in a matter of seconds. If I accept, none of the usual steps will be taken against my family. I’m to be given a state funeral. It’s all been prepared to the last detail. In a quarter of an hour you will receive a call from the hospital in Ulm to say that I’ve had a brain seizure on the way to a conference.”
Rommel donned his old Afrika Korps leather jacket and with his field marshal’s baton, got into the car with the two generals. A mile down the road he took their poison and was dead in less than a minute.
Hitler wired Frau Rommel:
“Accept my sincerest sympathy for the heavy loss you have suffered with the death of your husband. The name of Field Marshal Rommel will be forever linked with the heroic battles in North Africa.”