7. Bodo Scheurig, Henning von Tresckow: Eine Biographie (Dusseldorf, 1970), 70.
8. Scheurig, Tresckow, 84.
9. Rudolph-Christoph von Gersdorff, Soldat im Untergang: Lebensbilder (Frankfurt and Berlin, 1979), 87.
10. Gersdorff, Soldat, 87ff. Gersdorff records many further vivid details. The inkwell scene was probably meant figuratively.
11. See Hans-Adolf Jacobsen, “Kommissarbefehl,” 153, and Heinrich Uhlig, “Der verbrecherische Befehl,” Die Vollmacht des Gewissens (Berlin and Frankfurt, I960), vol. 2, 320ff. Christian Streit takes a more critical view of the generals in Keine Kameraden: Die Wehrmacht und die sowjetischen Kriegsgefangenen, 1941-1945 (Stuttgart, 1978), 83ff. Gersdorff wrote in the army group war diary: “In all longer conversations with officers, I was eventually asked about the shooting of Jews, without my having mentioned them in any way. I got the impression that virtually the entire officer corps opposed the shooting of Jews, prisoners, and commissars. They opposed the shooting of commissars especially because it strengthened the enemy’s will to fight. The shootings are seen as a blot on the honor of the German army and especially of the German officer corps” (qtd. in Peter Hoffmann, Widerstand, Staatsstreich, Attentat: Der Kampf der Opposition gegen Hitler, 3rd. ed. [Munich, 1979], 334). For Arthur Nebe, see Hermann Graml, “Die deutsche Militäropposition vom Sommer 1940 bis zum Frühjahr 1943,” Vollmacht des Gewissens, vol. 2, 442. Gersdorff said he noticed that Nebe carried out the ordered mass executions much more often than he admitted to the army group.
12. Hassell, Hassell-Tagebücher, 256 (entry of May 29, 1941).
13. The staff officer was Friedrich Olbricht (Süddeutsche Zeitung, Aug. 7, 1986). See Heinz Boberach, ed., Meldungen aus dem Reich: Auswahl aus den geheimen Lageberichten des Sicherheitssdienstes der SS, 1939-1944 (Neuwied and Berlin, 1965), 155ff. See also Marlis G. Steinert, Hitlers Krieg und die Deutschen: Stimmungen und Haltung der deutschen Bevölkerung im Zweiten Weltkrieg (Dusseldorf and Vienna, 1970), 206ff, which cites the observation of the chief public prosecutor of Bamberg that “much of the population was still incapable of understanding that Germany would assume the role in the world as the leading country in Europe through the direct absorption of the eastern territories.”
14. Horst Mühleisen, ed., Helmuth Stieff: Briefe (Berlin, 1991), 127 (Sept. 5, 1941) and 138 (Nov. 24, 1941); Hans Meier-Welcker, Aufzeichnungen eines Generalstabsoffiziers, 1939-1942 (Freiburg, 1982), 121. The pogrom in Kovno, ordered by Heydrich, took place between June 25 and June 29, 1941.
15. See the extensive description in Gersdorff, Soldat, 96ff. Gersdorff, too, reported the incident to the OKH. A notation on the original document indicates that it was shown to Brauchitsch, although after the war he claimed he could “not remember anymore.”
16. Hitler’s Table Talk, 1941-1944 (London, 1953), 44.
17. See Gersdorff, Soldat, 84 and 99; for Stauffenberg, see Christian Müller, Oberst i.G. Stauffenberg: Eine Biographie (Dusseldorf, 1970), 203-04. For the importance of the mass murders in the East as a motivation for the resistance, see also the so-called Kaltenbrunner reports, Spiegelbild, 424ff.
18. Mühleisen, Stieff, 123 (Aug. 23, 1941): “This bloody amateurism, which is still supported by such glorious representatives as Keitel and Jodl, may well, God knows, cost us the war.”
19. Hassell, Hassell-Tagebücher, 278 (entry of Oct. 4, 1941).
20. Hassell, Hassell-Tagebücher, 280 (entry of Nov. 1, 1941).
21. Peter Bor, Gespräche mit Halder (Wiesbaden, 1950), 214.
22. See Gersdorff, Soldat, 93; Henry Pickler, Hitlers Tischgesprache im Führerhauptquartier, 1941-1942 (Stuttgart, 1965), passim; and Werner Jochmann, ed., Adolf Hitler: Monologe im Führerhauptquartier, 1941-1944 (Hamburg, 1980), passim.
23. Mühleisen, Stieff, 150 (Jan. 10, 1942); Hassell, Hassell-Tagebücher, 283 (entry of Nov. 30, 1941).
24. Karl Silex, cited in Scheurig, Tresckow, 125-26.
25. Hassell, Hassell-Tagebücher, 307 (entry of March 28, 1942). Gerhard Ritter already speaks in the winter of 1941-2 of a troika consisting of Beck, Goerdeler, and Witzleben that will form the provisional government after a coup (Goerdeler, 348).
26. It was Olbricht’s widow who called attention to this maxim. She set herself the admirable task of filling in the blanks in research on the resistance and correcting the neglect from which Olbricht has always suffered and the errors that studies of July 20 have made in assigning credit. See Helena P. Page, General Friedrich Olbricht: Ein Mann des 20 Juli (Bonn and Berlin, 1992).
27. Fabian von Schlabrendorff, Offiziere gegen Hitler (Frankfurt and Hamburg, 1959), 55-56. See also Gersdorff, Soldat, 124-25.
28. Schlabrendorff, Offiziere, 55.
29. Hans Bernd Gisevius, Bis zum Bittern Ende (Zurich, 1954), 389.
30. Gisevius, Ende, 508. Goerdeler informed Gerhard Ritter in late 1942 of the various views on arresting Hitler (Goerdeler, 535, n. 14).
31. Hoffmann, Widerstand, 338.
32. Qtd. in Scheurig, Tresckow, 133.
33. H. Kaiser, qtd. in Count Romedio Galeazzo von Thun-Hohenstein, Der Verschwörer: General Oster und die Militäropposition (Cologne and Berlin, 1969), 224.
34. Count Detlef von Schwerin, Dann sind’s die besten Köpfe, die man henkt: Die junge Generation im deutschen Widerstand (Munich, 1991), 289.
35. The available information about why the Boeselager plan was not carried out is contradictory, and it is probably impossible now to clarify the course of events. See Hoffmann, Widerstand, 351, and his Die Sicherheit des Diktators: Hitlers Leibwachen, Schutzmassnahmen, Residenzen, Hauptquartiere (Munich, 1975), 165-66. Scheurig does not discuss the plan. For the course of the visit to Smolensk, see in addition to the works cited above Schlabrendorff, Offiziere, 71ff. After the war Schlabrendorff said that Kluge could not be persuaded to agree to an assassination attempt by the Boeselager unit; see Thun-Hohenstein, Verschwörer, 230.
36. See Hoffmann, Widerstand, 353 and 760, n. 93, and Schlabrendorff, Offiziere, 74-75.
37. Gersdorff, Soldat, 128-29.
38. Gersdorff, Soldat, 132-33.
39. Hassell, Hassell-Tagebücher, 347 (entry of Feb. 14, 1943).
40. Qtd. in Hoffmann, Widerstand, 370. For Groscurth’s message from encircled Stalingrad, see his Tagebücher eines Abwehroffiziers, 1938-1940 (Stuttgart, 1970), 93. Groscurth was taken prisoner along with the remnants of the Sixth Army, soon contracted typhus, and died on April 7, 1943, in the Frolov camp.
41. Christian Petry, Studenten aufs Schafott: Die Weisse Rose und ihr Scheitern (Munich, 1968), 122.
42. Gersdorff, Soldat, 133.
43. Gersdorff, Soldat, 134ff.
44. Müller, Stauffenberg, 279-80.
7. Stauffenberg
1. Ulrich von Hassell, Die Hassell-Tagebücher, 1938-1944: Aufzeichnungen vom anderen Deutschland, ed. Friedrich Hiller von Gaertingen, rev. and exp. ed. (Berlin, 1988), 362 (entry of April 20, 1943) and 331 (entry of Sept. 26, 1942).
2. Fabian von Schlabrendorff, Offiziere gegen Hitler (Frankfurt and Hamburg, 1959), 107. For the reasons why Jäger and Schulenburg were suspected, see Peter Hoffmann, Widerstand, Staatsstreich, Attentat: Der Kampf der Opposition gegen Hitler, 3rd ed. (Munich, 1979), 363. Jäger was released after just a few days and Schulenburg managed to assuage his interrogators in the very first interview.
3. Hoffmann, Widerstand, 363ff.; Count Romedio Galeazzo von Thun-Hohenstein, Der Verschwörer: General Oster und die Militäropposition (Berlin, 1982), 236ff; and Heinz Höhne, Canaris: Patriot in Zwielicht (Munich, 1976), 472ff.
4. Höhne, Canaris, 495.
5. See the numerous references in Hassell’s diaries. For “the crux of the matter,” see 405 (entry of Nov. 13, 1943).
6. Hassell, Hassell-Tagebücher, 291 (entry of Dec. 21, 1941), and 345 (entry of Jan. 22, J943).
7. Hans Rothfels, Deutsche Opposition gegen Hitler: Eine Würdigung, exp. ed. (Tübingen, 1969), 163.
8. Cited in Patricia Meehan, The Unnecessary War:
White Hall and the German Resistance to Hitler (London, 1992), 337. For a balanced study reflecting the recent tendency in British historiography to do justice to the German resistance and its attempts to win over the Western Allies, see Richard Lamb, The Ghosts of Peace, 1935-1945 (London, 1987).
9. Qtd. in Ger van Roon, Neuordnung und Widerstand: Der Kreisauer Kreis innerhalb der deutschen Widerstandsbewegung (Munich, 1967), 316.
10. Rothfels, Opposition, 187.
11. Alfred Vagts, “Unconditional Surrender-vor und nach 1943,” Vierteljahrshefte fur Zeitgeschichte (1959), 298-99.
12. Rothfels, Opposition, 161-62. For the larger context, see also Klemens von Klemperer, Die verlassenen Verschwörer: Der deutsche Widerstand auf der Suche nach Verbündeten, 1938-1945 (Berlin, 1994), 209ff.
13. Bodo Scheurig, Ewald von Kleist-Schmenzin: Ein Kotiservativer gegen Hitler (Oldenburg and Hamburg, 1968), 183. For Trott’s comment, see Rothfels, Opposition, 158.
14. Van Roon, Neuordnung, 317.
15. Thun-Hohenstein, Verschwörer, 228. For Manstein and Röhricht, see Bodo Scheurig, Henning von Tresckow: Eine Biographie (Frankfurt and Berlin, 1980), 182 and 185. For Fritsch, see Hassell, Hassell-Tagebücher, 71 (entry of Dec. 18, 1938). For Canaris and his “profound fatalism,” see Harold C. Deutsch, Verschwörung gegen den Krieg: Der Widerstand in den Jahren 1939-1940 (Munich, 1969), 386; see also Margret Boveri, Fur und gegen die Nation, vol. 2 of Der Verrat im XX. Jahrhundert (Hamburg, 1956), 51.
16. Hassell, Hassell-Tagebücher, 350 (entry of March 6, 1943).
17. Scheurig, Tresckow, 243, n. 83.
18. Archiv Peter, ed., Spiegelbildeiner Verschwörung: Die Kaltenbrunner-Berichte über das Attentat vom 20. Juli 1944 (Stuttgart, 1961), 412; for the message to J. Wallenberg, see Gerhard Ritter, Carl Goerdeler und die deutsche Widerstandsbewegung (Stuttgart, 1984).
19. Joachim Kramarz, Claus Graf Stauffenberg, 15. November 1907-20 Juli 1944: Das Leben eines Offiziers (Frankfurt, 1965), 131.
20. Eberhard Zeller, Geist der Freiheit: Der zwanzigste Juli (Munich, 1963), 242; Christian Muller, Oberst i.G. Stauffenberg: Eine Biographie (Dusseldorf, 1970), 239.
21. Müller, Stauffenberg, 235; Zeller, Freiheit, 244.
22. Ritter, Goerdeler, 367.
23. Kramarz, Stauffenberg, 113.
24. Zeller, Freiheit, 246-47.
25. See Müller, Stauffenberg, 14ff., which describes briefly but thoroughly the emergence and step-by-step transformation of a few doubtful memories, later recanted, and a few prejudices into a historical legend of considerable influence. The Soviet version was well known in the Federal Republic and was enthusiastically embraced as a contribution to détente by Daniel Melnikov, 20. Juli 1944: Legende und Wirklichkeit (Hamburg, 1968). See also Hoffmann, Widerstand, 304ff. and 744, n. 139.
26. Kramarz, Stauffenberg, 147-48.
27. Helena P. Page, General Friedrich Olbricht: Ein Mann des 20 Juli (Bonn and Berlin, 1992), 246.
28. Hans Bernd Gisevius, Bis zum bittern Ende (Zurich, 1954), 582.
29. Schlabrendorff, Offiziere, 99-100.
30. Zeller, Freiheit, 334.
31. Hoffmann, Widerstand, 405.
32. Prozess gegen die Hauptkriegsverbrecher vor dem Internationalen Militärgerichishof Nürnberg, 14. November 1945-1. Oktober 1946 (Nuremberg, 1949), vol. 33, 330ff.
33. Scheurig, Kleist, 187. Ewald Heinrich von Kleist described these events on a television program produced by Hava K. Beller entitled “The Restless Conscience,” London, 1992. See also Zeller, Freiheit, 190 and 337 (for the conversation between Stauffenberg and Kleist).
34. Baron Rudolph-Christoph von Gersdorff, Soldat im Untergang: Lebensbilder (Frankfurt and Berlin, 1979), 143.
35. Hoffmann, Widerstand, 410.
36. Schlabrendorff, Offiziere, 105.
37. Van Roon, Neuordnung, 131.
38. Hassell, Hassell-Tagebücher, 421 (entry of Feb. 23, 1944). See also 400 (entry of Nov. 13, 1943) and 411 (entry of Dec. 27, 1943). It was Hassell who described Popitz’s initiative as an “act of desperation” (333 [entry of Oct. 10, 1942]). See also Ritter, Goerdeler, 362 and 370. For a succinct, accurate summary of the entire Popitz affair, see Karl Dietrich Bracher, Die deutsche Diktatur: Entstehung, Struktur, Folgen des Nationalsozialismus (Cologne and Berlin, 1969), 485-86.
39. Ulrich von Hassell spoke of a “band of brothers” in melancholy recollections recorded in December 1943 (Hassell-Tagebücher 408). For Goerdeler’s request to Zeitzler, see Spiegelbild, 56, 112, and 178. Kunrat von Hammerstein writes in Spähtrupp (Stuttgart, 1963) that Zeitzler told him in 1956 that he was never informed about Goerdeler’s suggestion (243-44).
40. Elfriede Nebgen, qtd. in Müller, Stauffenberg, 385.
41. Müller, Stauffenberg, 393.
42. Müller, Stauffenberg, 374.
43. Spiegelbild, 502.
44. Hoffmann, Widerstand, 305.
45. Van Roon, Neuordnung, 288-89. For Stauffenberg’s view, see Hoffmann, Widerstand, 308. For doubts about Stauffenberg’s agreement on making contact, see Müller, Stauffenberg, 419.
46. Schlabrendorff, Offiziere, 109. The version in the older paperback edition is somewhat different.
8. The Eleventh Hour
1. Eberhard Zeller, Geist der Freiheit: Der zwanzigste Juli (Munich, 1963), 346.
2. Albert Speer, Inside the Third Reich, trans. Richard and Clara Winston (New York: Collier), 378. At first Mertz von Quirnheim was unhappy about being transferred from the front, but soon he felt “liberated” because he was close to Stauffenberg and the conspiracy; see Peter Hoffmann, Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg und seine Brüder (Stuttgart, 1992), 386-87.
3. Peter Hoffmann, Widerstand, Staatsstreich, Attentat: Der Kampf der Opposition gegen Hitler, 3rd ed. (Munich, 1979), 468.
4. Ferdinand Sauerbruch, Das war mein Leben (Munich, 1976), 432-33.
5. Zeller, Freiheit, 506, n. 9.
6. Dorothee von Meding, Mit dem Mut des Herzens: Die Frauen des 20. Juli (Berlin, 1992), 255-56. A report quoted in Hoffmann’s Widerstand shows that Werner von Haeften himself “suffered” from the idea of assassinating someone (777, n. 67).
7. Joachim Kramarz, Claus Graf Stauffenberg, 15. November 1907-20. Juli 1944: Das Leben eines Offiziers (Munich, 1963), 201; see also Hoffmann, Stauffenberg, 338.
8. Gerhard Ritter, Carl Goerdeler und die deutsche Widerstandsbewegung (Stuttgart, 1984), 408.
9. Harald Poelchau, Die letzten Stunden: Erinnerungen eines Gefängnispfarrers (Cologne, 1987), 117. See also Hoffmann, Widerstand, 465. For Captain Gehre, see Helena P. Page, General Friedrich Olbricht: Ein Mann des 20 Juli (Bonn and Berlin, 1992), 261. For the current rumors, see Marie Wassiltschikow, Die Berliner Tagebücher der “Missie” Wassiltschikow, 1940-1945 (Berlin, 1987), 229-30 and 232.
10. Kunrat von Hammerstein, Spähtrupp (Stuttgart, 1963), 262. For Stauffenberg’s comments about Stieff, see Archiv Peter, ed., Spiegelbild einer Verschwörung: Die Kaltenbrunner-Berichte über das Attentat vom 20 Juli 1944 (Stuttgart, 1961).
11. Zeller, Freiheit, 327ff.
12. Hans Speidel, Invasion 1944 (Stuttgart, 1949), 138-39. Christian Müller also points out the distance between Rommel and the resistance, legends to the contrary. The field marshal was actually only identified with the resistance as a result of his forced suicide (Oberst i.G. Stauffenberg: Eine Biographie [Dusseldorf, 1970], 422).
13. Berthold von Stauffenberg was interrogated on July 22, 1944; see Spiegelbild, 21. For the statement to Klausing, see Spiegelbild, 131. For another version of events and Stauffenberg’s reasons for holding off, see Hoffmann, Widerstand, 473, and Stauffenberg, 417ff. Hoffmann emphasizes the “unbelievable” action of Stieff, Fellgiebel, and Wagner, whom he sees as effectively withdrawing their support for the entire uprising by insisting on Himmler’s presence. He seems to go too far, however, in view of the fact that all three generals were without doubt strongly opposed to the regime and that they supported the assassination attempt on July 20 even though Himmler was agai
n absent
14. The source of the quotation is Captain Eberhard Siebeck, whom Mertz von Quirnheim had summoned to Berlin for a few days to support the coup. He is also the source of the comment that follows about the relaxed atmosphere on Bendlerstrasse after the assassination attempt was canceled. When Stauffenberg asked Mertz von Quirnheim what he personally thought about an assassination attempt if Himmler was not present, the reply was terse: “Do it!” See Hoffmann, Widerstand, 474-75. See also Page (Olbricht), who casts doubt, not without good reason, on the thesis advanced mainly by Hoffmann that Stauffenberg hesitated at the last moment. That thesis is based on accounts by Hans Bernd Gisevius, who was of course biased, and Mertz von Quirnheim’s wife. In Page’s view, it may be just a matter of confusing the events of July 15 with those of July 11. Although her view seems plausible, the intervention of Fellgiebel, Stieff, and Wagner is not mentioned.
15. According to Gisevius, it was Helldorf who reported the “euphoric mood,” commenting that “a stone seemed to have been lifted from Olbricht’s heart” (Bis urn bittern Ende [Zurich, 1954], 589). Page (Olbricht) expresses well-founded doubts about the “euphoria” as well.
16. See Zeller, Freiheit, 373, although there is no indication of source.
17. Count Romedio Galeazzo von Thun-Hohenstein, Der Verschwörer: General Oster und die Militäropposition (Berlin, 1982), 256.
18. Spiegelbild, 217. It may be that at the time he spoke to Goerdeler Stauffenberg still did not know for sure that he would be making a presentation at Führer headquarters on July 20.
19. Ursula von Kardoff, Berliner Aufzeichnungen, 1942-1945 (Munich, 1992), 209 (entry of July 18, 1944).
20. Spiegelbild, 117.
21. Spiegelbild, 146.
22. Cäsar von Hofacker assessed the chances of the coup attempt as “only ten percent”; see Walter Bargatzky, Hotel Majestic: Ein Deutscher im besetzten Frankreich (Freiburg, 1987), 131. For Schulenburg and Berthold von Stauffenberg, see Hoffmann, Widerstand, 479; for Beck, see 462. For Stauffenberg, see Müller, Stauffenberg, 460.
Plotting Hitler's Death Page 37