74 Halder, War Diary, vol I, p 80.
75 Groscurth diaries, p 208, entry 22 September 1939 (private diary).
76 Lahousen, personal list of Abw. Abt. I (1938-mid 1943), NA, KV 2/173, Lahousen file.
77 Report by Generalmajor Lahousen on Canaris secret organisation, part II, p 2, PRO KV 2/173, Lahousen file.
78 Groscurth diaries, p 206, entry 18 September 1939 (private diary).
79 DRZW, vol 2, p 130f; Kershaw, Hitler 1936–1945, p 328.
80 Groscurth diaries, p 272, n 771. See also Browning, Entfesselung, p 55. On 15 September 1939 a corresponding order was issued by the chief of the Sicherheitspolizei to the Army chief of police OKW (Abwehr). On 20 September 1939 Heeresgruppe Süd sent a corresponding telex to AOK’s 8, 10 and 14; see Krausnick and Wilhelm, Truppe, p 46, n 82.
81 Figures from Browning, Entfesselung, p 633, n 66. Browning refers to Madajczyk, Czeslaw, Die Okkupationspolitik Nazideutschlands in Polen 1939–1945, Berlin, 1987, p 28.
82 Groscurth diaries, p 209, n 509. See also Müller, Heer und Hitler, p 427, n 21; Krausnick and Wilhelm, Truppe, p 54b Browning (Entfesselung, p 39) makes Groscurth incorrectly Ic of 14.Armee and even has him reporting to Canaris.
83 Browning, Entfesselung, p 39.
84 Note, Groscurth, ‘Mündliche Orientierung am 22. 9. 1939 durch Major Radke’, BA-MA N 104/3. Reproduced in Groscurth diaries, p 361, document 14.
85 Ibid.
86 See Wildt, Generation, p 453.
87 Note, Groscurth, ‘Mündliche Orientierung am 22.9. 1939’, reproduced in Groscurth diaries, document 14, pp 361–3.
88 Ibid; cf Müller, Heer und Hitler, p 432f; Krausnick and Wilhelm, Truppe, p 69f and Browning, Entfesselung, p 39f.
89 Groscurth diaries, p 277, entry 23 September 1939 (service diary); Krausnick and Wilhelm, Truppe, p 54, with n 130.
90 Groscurth diaries, p 282, entry 27 September 1939 (service diary).
91 Cf the recent results of research in Wildt, Generation, p 452f; Browning, Entfesselung, p 41f.
92 Janssen and Tobias, Sturz, p 239.
93 ‘Bericht des Leutnants Rosenhagen über den Tod des Generaloberst Frhr. v. Fritsch vom 26. 9. 1939’, reproduced in Groscurth diaries, Appendix i, document 16, p 365^ cfJanssen and Tobias, Sturz, p 248f.
94 Cf Ludwig Beck’s letter to his brother Wilhelm, 22 September 1939: ‘I knew that he was looking for the opportunity to die nobly.’ Reproduced in Müller, Beck, p 589, Document 58.
95 Hassell diaries, p 127, entry ii October 1939. Also see the anonymous letter to OKH dated 27 September 1939 from NCOs and men returning to Berlin repeating the rumours surrounding the death of Fritsch and making undisguised threats to Himmler. Reproduced in Groscurth diaries, document 17, p 367. For the falsity of these rumours see Rosenhagen’s statement. Also Brausch, Gerd, ‘Der Tod des Generalobersten Werner Freiherr von Fritsch’, Militärgeschichtliche Mitteilungen 5, pp 95–112.
96 Groscurth diaries, p 210, entry 29 September 1939 (private diary).
97 Cf Janssen and Tobias, Sturz, p 251, according to whom Hitler’s participation was prevented by bad flying weather; for the same reason Keitel did not arrive until the last minute. Groscurth remarked in his diary that there were hardly any SS to be seen: ‘only Goebbels, Ley, Frick, Lutze were there.’ Groscurth diaries, p 210, entry 29 September 1939 (private diary).
98 From DRZW, vol 2, p 131.
99 Kershaw, Hitler 1936–1945, p 331f; DRZW, vol 2, p 137.
100 According to former Abwehr officer Reile, Oscar, Geheime Ostfront – Die deutsche Abwehr im Osten 1921–1945, Munich, 1963, p 309f; cf Höhne, Canaris, p 346. For Horatzek see: article in Die Nachhut, 11/12 and 15 February 1971, p 4, BA-MA, Msg 3/22–1.
101 On 3 October, von Rundstedt took over the entire military command in the newly erected Grenzabschnitten Nord, Mitte und Süd (3., 8. and 14.Armee) and also became military commander of Posen and Danzig-West-Prussia, DRZW, vol 2, p 132.
102 Groscurth diaries, p 216, entry 9 October 1939 (private diary).
103 Field letter from Groscurth to his wife, 10 October 1939, from Groscurth diaries, p 2l6, n 546.
104 Graml, Hermann, ‘Die Wehrmacht im Dritten Reich’, Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte 45, 1997, p 373.
105 Cf Ueberschär, ‘Widerstand’, p 35.
106 Hassell diaries, p 127, entry ii October 1939.
107 Halder, letter to Canaris, 12 October 1939, BA-MA, MSg i/1186.
20 The Spirit of Zossen
1 See also Krausnick and Wilhelm, Truppe, pp 85–7.
2 Graml, ‘Wehrmacht im Dritten Reich’, p 373.
3 From Krausnick and Wilhelm, Truppe, p 86.
4 Graml, ‘Wehrmacht im Dritten Reich’, p 325.
5 Meyer, Unternehmen Sieben, pp 128–39.
6 Buchheit, Geheimdienst, p 73f; Reile, Geheime Ostfront, p 310f.
7 Meyer, Unternehmen Sieben, p 128.
8 Basset, Hitler’s Spy Chief, pp 219, 230, 262 insinuates that Halina Szymanska was the intermediary for messages between Canaris and the British Secret Service head Stewart Menzies. The sources are not complete.
9 Here et seq Smid, Dohnanyi – Bonhoeffer, pp 227–30; Meyer, Unternehmen Sieben, pp 14–21.
10 Cf note of Christina Dohnanyi, IFZ, ZS 603 folio 35.
11 Smid, Dohnanyi – Bonhoeffer, p 228.
12 Ibid, p. 229; Thielenhaus, Zwischen Anpassung und Widerstand, p 154.
13 Umbreit, Hans, ‘Der Kampf um die Vormachtstellung in West europa’, DRZW, vol II, p 238f; Kershaw, Hitler 1936–1945, p 364f; Halder, War Diary, vol I, p 101, entry 10 October 1939.
14 Umbreit, ‘Kampf um die Vormachtstellung’, pp 237 and 242f.
15 Groscurth diaries, p 216, n 546.
16 Müller, Heer und Hitler, p 481; Deutsch, Harold C, Verschwörung gegen den Krieg Der Widerstand in den Jahren 1939–1940, Munich 1969, p 76. Groscurth stated in his entry of 5 October 1939 that Canaris did not want ‘to have anything more to do with the skinny generals. They are all talking already about the attack in the West against Holland and Belgium that is in preparation.’ That Canaris had these conversations at the Western Front, as the literature asserts, mostly based on a report by Lahousen, is out of the question since the named conversational partners were in the East at the time, as was Groscurth. Groscurth diaries, p 201f, entries 9 and 11 October 1939 (private diary).
17 Halder, War Diary, vol I, p 105, entry 14 October 1939.
18 Müller, Heer und Hitler, p 280, with n 59; Kershaw, Hitler 1936–1945, p 367; Weizsäcker, Erinnerungen, p 269f.
19 Groscurth diaries, p 218, entry 16 October 1939 (private diary).
20 Müller, Heer und Hitler, p 490.
21 Kershaw, Hitler 1936–1945, p 368.
22 Smid, Dohnanyi – Bonhoeffer, p 232.
23 Kordt, Nicht aus den Akten, p 358.
24 Groscurth diaries, p 219, entry 19 October 1939, with n 566; memorandum reproduced in ibid, document 70, pp 498–503 and Kordt, Nicht aus dem Akten, pp 359–65; Ueberschär, Gerd R, ‘Militäropposition gegen Hitlers Kriegspolitik 1939 bis 1941. Motive, Struktur und Alternativvorstellungen des entstehenden militärischen Widerstandes’, in Schmädecke, Jürgen, and Steinbach, Peter (eds), Der Widerstand gegen den Nationalsozialismus – Die deutsche Gesellschaft und der Widerstand gegen Hitler, Munich and Zürich, 1985, p 349.
25 Müller, Heer und Hitler, pp 494ff and p 502b.
26 Groscurth diaries, p 220, entries 22–5 October 1939 (private diary).
27 Müller, Heer und Hitler, p 495, indicates the error of some references to Canaris’s activities during this phase.
28 Ueberschär, ‘Militäropposition’, p 350; Ueberschär, Gerd R, Generaloberst Franz Halder. Generalstabschef, Gegner und Gefangener Hitlers, Göttingen and Zürich, 1991, p 40f; Müller, Heer und Hitler, p 508f.
29 Groscurth diaries, p 222, entry 1 November 1939 (private diary), with n 578; cf Müller, Heer und Hitler, p 511, n 249.
30 Groscurth diaries, p 222, entry 1 November 193
9 (private diary); for the interpretation of this entry see Müller, Heer und Hitler, p 51iff, with which I concur. From the entry it is not completely clear whether the objection regarding the ‘missing man’ came from Halder or Groscurth.
31 Groscurth diaries, p 222, entry i November 1939 (private diary).
32 Thus Vogel, Thomas, ‘Die Militäropposition gegen das NS-Regime am Vorabend des Zweiten Weltkriegs und während der ersten Kriegsjahre (1939–1941), in Aufstand des Gewissens. Militärischer Widerstand gegen Hitler und das NS-Regime 1933 bis 1945, a companion volume to the open exhibition of the Militärgeschichtlichen Forschungsamtes, Hamburg, Berlin and Bonn, 2001, p 199.
33 Halder, letter to Walter Baum, 3 June 1957, IfZ, ZS 240, vol V, here from Höhne, Canaris, p 367.
34 Note, Lahousen, ‘Zur Vorgeschichte des Anschlags vom 20. Juli 44’, IfZ, ZS 658, folio 8.
35 Kordt, Nicht aus den Akten, p 371.
36 As it was also misunderstood, when Halder let Oster and other civilian conspirators such as Goerdeler, Schacht and Beck know, they should hold themselves in readiness from 5 November, not on the 5th. Halder had no specific action to set the coup in motion; for him it all depended on Hitler’s reaction and was linked to the clarification of several open questions such as the troop units to be involved. Cf Müller, Heer und Hitler, p 520.
37 Cf statement of Brauchitsch, IMG, vol XX, p 628; Kershaw, Hitler 1936–1945, p 370; Müller, Heer und Hitler, p 520; according to Müller the talks were longer and Keitel was summoned after half an hour.
38 Ibid, cf Groscurth diaries, p 224, n 589.
39 Ibid, p 224, entry 5 November 1939 (private diary).
40 Ibid, p 225.
41 Ibid, and n 590.
42 Copy note, Inga Haag, 4 April 1948, IfZ, ZS 2093, p 2f.
43 Gisevius, Bis zum bitteren Ende, vol II, p 159.
44 According to Müller, Heer und Hitler, p 527.
45 Ibid, pp 527–9 for the comprehensive talk by Müller.
46 Deutsch, Verschwörung, p 251; in research the discussion is either avoided or it is accepted that Halder wanted to transfer the responsibility to Canaris and the Abwehr. See Kershaw, Hitler 1936–1945, p 370; Ueberschär, ‘Militäropposition’, p 350; also Halder, War Diary, p 42; Fest, Staatsstreich, p 130; Thun-Hohenstein, Verschwörer, p 168; Hoffmann, Widerstand, p 179; Höhne, Canaris, p 375, presumes an ‘act of desperation’ on Groscurth’s part.
47 Müller, Heer und Hitler, p 530.
48 Groscurth diaries, p 225, entry 6 November 1939 (private diary).
49 Gisevius, Bis zum bitteren Ende, vol II, p 161.
50 Ibid, p 162.
51 Ibid, p 162ff; Groscurth diaries, p 225, entry 6 Novemer 1939 (private diary); Müller, Heer und Hitler, p 531f; Hoffmann, Widerstand, p 179f; Thun-Hohenstein, Verschwörer, p 170.
52 Deutsch, Verschwörung, p 259. The Oster-Gisevius trip is described in detail ibid, p 256ff; Müller, Heer und Hitler, p 532ff; Thun-Hohenstein, Verschwörer, p 170k The accounts differ because of the confusion between Gisevius’s and Vincenz Müller’s versions as to whether they visited Witzleben or Müller first.
53 Deutsch, Verschwörung, p 259ff; Thun-Hohenstein, Verschwörer, p 171.
54 Gisevius, Bis zum bitteren Ende, vol II, p 165.
55 Kershaw, Hitler 1936–1945, p 371. Agents of the Abwehr posing as opponents of the Nazi regime succeeded in making contact with two senior MI6 officers in Holland. When Heydrich found out, he sent Schellenberg to meet them. The operation was run from Berlin by SS-Sturmbannführer Helmut Knochen. Canaris stated that he knew nothing of the Venlo affair. Undoubtedly it signalled the intention of the SD to pursue its own ambitions in foreign espionage. Among the more recent accounts are Doerries, Reinhard R, Hitler’s Last Chief of Foreign Intelligence. Allied Interrogations of Walter Schellenberg, London and Portland, 2003, pp 11–14; Cave Brown, Bodyguard ofLies, pp 186–92; Cave Brown, Anthony, The Secret Servant. The Life of Sir Stewart Menzies, Churchill’s Spymaster, London, 1988, pp 208–23. Accounts of those involved are Best, S Payne, The Venlo Incident, London, 1950; Schellenberg, Walter, Memoiren, London, 1956, pp 79–89; Schulze-Bernett, Walter, ‘Der Grenzzwischenfall bei Venlo/ Holland’, DieNachhut, 2, 1973, pp 1–9, BA-MA, MSg 3–22/1.
56 Gisevius, Bis zum bitteren Ende, vol II, p 169; Müller, Heer und Hitler, p 536.
57 Groscurth diaries, p 228f, entries 10 and ii November 1939 (private diary).
58 Gisevius, Bis zum bitteren Ende, vol II, p 171.
59 Müller, Heer und Hitler, p 542Í; Vogel, ‘Militäropposition’, p 204.
60 Groscurth diary, p 230, entry 13 November 1939 (private diary).
61 Ibid, p 231, entry 14 November 1939 (private diary); differs over the content of the conversation with Gisevius, Bis zum bitteren Ende, vol II, p 172f.
21 ‘Now There is No Going Back’
1 Gisevius, Bis zum bitteren Ende, vol II, p 173 f.
2 Vogel, ‘Militäropposition’, p 205.
3 See Groscurth diaries, p 234, entry 10 December 1939 (whole entry in private diary). Groscurth was also present for this address. See also Müller, Heer und Hitler, p 548f, with n 463. A version of the speech probably taken down by Groscurth is reproduced in Groscurth diaries, Appendix I, document 40, pp 414–18; cf Kershaw, Hitler 1936– 1945, p 377ff.
4 Kershaw, Hitler 1936–1945, pp 377–80 and Groscurth diaries, p 234, n 638.
5 Groscurth diaries, p 234, entry 10 December 1939 (whole entry in private diary).
6 Halder, War Diary, vol I, p 132, entry 23 November 1939; Müller, Heer und Hitler, p 550; Kershaw, Hitler 1936–1945, p 380.
7 Graml, ‘Wehrmacht im Dritten Reich’, p 372.
8 From Groscurth diaries, p 426f, document 43: ‘Blaskowitz ans OKH, 27 November 1939’. Cf Graml, ‘Wehrmacht im Dritten Reich’, p 374 and principally Browning, Entfesselung, p I20f.
9 Engel, Gerhard, Heersadjutant bei Hitler 1938–1943. Aufzeichnungen des Majors Engel, edited and with commentary by Hildegard von Kotze, Schriftenreihe der Vierteljahrshefte filr Zeitgeschichte 29, Stuttgart, 1974, p 68, entry 18 November 1939. The date may be erroneous, as suspected by the IfZ editor. Engel did not date his notes until after the war (see ibid, p 67, n 196), or possibly there was another, earlier note (see Groscurth diaries, p 80; Müller, Heer und Hitler, p 437f; Müller, Vorgeschichte, p 100, n 37, and p 101, n 43a). See also Browning, Entfesselung, p 121 and p 647, n 138.
10 Browning, Entfesselung, p 128.
11 Kershaw, Hitler 1936–1945, p 380.
12 Hassell diaries, p 147, item subsequent to entry 30 November 1939.
13 Groscurth diaries, p 238, entry 19 December 1939 (private diary).
14 Ibid, entry 21 December 1939.
15 Ibid, p 241, entry 13 January 1940.
16 Ibid, p 242, entry 16 January 1940; Halder, War Diary, vol I, p 159, entry 16 January 1939.
17 Halder, War Diary, vol I, p 160, entry 18 January 1940.
18 Vogel, ‘Militäropposition’, p 206.
19 Groscurth, letter to his wife Charlotte, i February 1940, BA-MA, N 104/8.
20 Krausnick, Deutsch and Kotze, Einführung, pp 85–95.
21 Groscurth diaries, p 246, entry 14 February 1940 (private diary).
22 Ibid.
23 Ibid, p 247, entry as above.
24 Ibid.
25 Ibid, n 688.
26 See Draft, Christine v. Dohnanyi, IfZ, ZS 60, folio 56fMeyer, Unternehmen Sieben, p 21; Smid, Dohnanyi – Bonhoeffer, p 235 with reference to the Dohnanyi documentation.
27 Smid, Dohnanyi – Bonhoeffer, p 235.
28 Deutsch, Verschwörung, p 117, quoting conversations with Josef Müller.
29 Ibid; see also Graml, ‘Fall Oster’, p 34ff.
30 Meyer, Winfried, ‘Nachrichtendienst, Staatsstreichvorbereitung und Widerstand – Hans von Dohnanyi im Amt Ausland/Abwehr 1939–43’, in Meyer, Verschwörer im KZ, p 90.
31 Ibid.
32 Deutsch, Verschwörung, p 117, quoting conversations with Josef Müller.
34 Lahousen, ‘Geheimorganisation Canaris’, Part II, p. 41, BA-MA, MSg 1/2812.
35 Groscurth diaries, p 299, entry 20 October 1939 (private diary), with n 862; at the conclusion of the Müller journey, per a file note by Dohnanyi found amongst the Zossen material, according to Huppenkothen. See also ‘Protokoll der Besprechung mit Frau v. Dohnanyi am 1. Dezember 1952’, p 7, IfZ, ZS 603, folio 17, in the ‘Europäischen Publikation’ publishing project, in which Müller and Lahousen took part.
36 See Müller, Josef, ‘Report on Conversation at the Vatican and in Rome between November 6th and 12th, 1939’, copy, IfZ, ZS 659, folios 1–130.
37 Ueberschär, ‘Militäropposition’, p 353. For the negotiations and strategies developed by Müller and Kaas see Müller’s above-mentioned report, which should be accepted with due caution, also Ludlow, Peter, ‘Papst Pius XII., die britische Regierung und die deutsche Opposition im Winter 1939/40’, Vierteljahrshefte fir Zeitgeschichte 22, 1974, pp 299–341, containing also Osborne’s reports to Lord Halifax on the audiences granted on 12 January and 7 February 1940.
38 Höhne, Canaris, p 380.
39 See Meyer, ‘Nachrichtendienst’, p 92.
40 Meyer, Unternehmen Sieben, p 21; Meyer, ‘Nachrichtendienst’, p 92; Smid, Dohnanyi – Bonhoeffer, p 237.
41 Thomas, Georg, ‘Gedanken und Ereignisse’, Schweizer Monatshefte, 25, 1945, p 548, who used this as a part of his defensive strategy under interrogation, not knowing that the Vatican talks had been set up by Oster and Dohnanyi. Meyer, ‘Nachrichtendienst’, p 92.
42 See the margin entries in Halder, War Diary, vol I, p 245ff., entries of 4 and 5 April 1940.
43 Dohnanyi, Christine von, ‘Aufzeichnung über das Schicksal der Dokumenten-sammlung meines Mannes’, IfZ, ZS 603, folios 27–30, copy folio 30a–!; printed in Bethge, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, pp 1047–52; for the complicated underlying history and Halder’s manoeuvres see Smid, Dohnanyi – Bonhoeffer, pp 238–41.
44 Hoffmann, Widerstand, p 212, which gives the reaction of Brauchitsch in detail.
45 Interview with Franz Liedig by Helmut Krausnick and Harold C Deutsch, IfZ, ZS 2125, folio 5f.
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