The man wearing the same uniform as those thousands had worn at Nürnberg stepped forward. A hard face, a Germanic face of a warrior.
'I am here to take you into custody, Herr Goebbels.'
He looked at Remer. There was no reaction. His shoulders slumped. The Führer was gone, the myth - the Leader from whom all flowed. The irreplaceable Führer. He stood by him in the dark days in the 1920s, had built up the Party in Berlin for him, made Berlin a Nazi city for the Führer. Reichsminister Goebbels, bound to an extinguished myth, surrendered without a word. During the afternoon most key Party leaders in Berlin followed his example. For the moment the SS leadership remained out of site. If there was a counter-move in the making it was running out of time and men.
July 20 23:20hours
War Ministry, Bendlerstrasse
Berlin
In the darkness he could not see them from the first floor window of Olbricht’s office but Stauffenberg knew the Panthers were there. The twelve 45-ton Panthers of the Panzer school in Krampnitz were the last major unit the conspirators could call on. They were in place and they had the firepower. There had been no serious opposition. Despite massive incompetence on the part of the units ordered to seize the radio stations, they had done it. Berlin belonged to the conspirators.
Vienna was with them. The city commander, Lieutenant-General Sintzinger had personally disarmed the local SS hierarchy. Paris was on side and with it the entire Western front. Rommel had called again and so after some dithering had Field Marshal von Kluge. Rommel's call had been more important, for it had brought news of Dietrich's decision for the plotters.
'Dietrich is unhappy that Adolf is dead rather than under arrest, but he is phoning the divisional Waffen-SS commanders on the Eastern front now. He expects no problems. The commanders of Army Groups on the Eastern Front have called or been contacted. They are with us, so is Kesselring in Italy and Loehr of Army Group E in Greece. Army Group Center, I guess was never really in doubt. von Treskow informs me that his cavalry units are already entrained and en route to Berlin at this moment.' Stauffenberg looked at his fellow-plotters, knowing that in their hearts of hearts many still could not believe that they had actually done it. People like von Treskow, Chief of Staff of Army Group Center and himself the instigator of two failed attempts on the Führer's life was a man of different calibre. Unlike most others he had not hedged his bets, the 600 cavalrymen and their horses would form an antiquated but nevertheless effective mobile force for the plotters to deploy against any opposition anywhere in the Reich in the next few days. von Treskow had put them on the train before the bomb had gone off.
Beck forced a tired grin. The strain was telling on all of them. 'You mean, my dear Stauffenberg, that most commanders have bowed to the new reality.' Neither he nor any of the key officers involved in the plot would ever forgive commanders such as Field Marshal von Manstein, arguably the ablest tactician of the Wehrmacht, for refusing their advances with the remark that German soldiers did not make revolution.
They were sitting in Olbricht office. The place looked like the hastily designed crisis management centre it was. Some maps still covered the table, many heavily marked. Beck had made all his phone calls. Using papers that now lay strewn all over the floor, he had given every officer known to him the same arguments in favour of siding with the plotters. Stauffenberg had been in and out getting hold of commanders in the various German cities to assure himself of their loyalty and to reassure them of the success of the coup. For although he had trouble thinking of it in those terms, that was what it was.
Exhausted from the strain of what even English understatement would have described as an eventful day, Stauffenberg sagged into Olbricht’s chair. The bespectacled General had taken up residence in the Communications Room, paranoid that some other communications mishap would dog their efforts. Stauffenberg's body went limp. Beck regarded the younger man and for a moment the hectic comings and goings around him faded. Many years later he would record in his memoirs that at that moment he felt touched by destiny more than ever in his life. Today would be the turning point, the day he rendered the true service to his nation. It superseded the symbolism of his resignation as the Wehrmacht’s Chief of Staff in 1938 over Hitler's plans to go to war. That resignation had achieved nothing except moral self-gratification. And it had removed him from the centre of power. No, Beck felt with an intensity that he would never forget. Today a man of destiny had taken action and given the German people a chance to redeem themselves. Today was the day he, Ludwig Beck, would have to rise to the occasion. An occasion provided to him by a younger man and a junior officer who had done what he and the generals had failed to accomplish for years while the best of Germany, the best of Europe had fought and died.
Out of the side of his eye he saw Colonel Mertz speak with a messenger dressed in a dusty uniform. Mertz oily black hair was dishevelled over his balding head, his uniform loose but he was smiling. Another young Colonel, another activist. Mertz had been an active plotter since the late 1930s. It was time for the Generals to do something.
'Stauffenberg,' Beck reached out to touch the slumped figure. The Colonel came to with a start, the dark eye instantly alert, the eye patch somehow giving the remaining eye's intensity power. Yes Beck thought yes you have what it takes and I salute you, weary warrior.
'Colonel Stauffenberg, I suggest we get to a radio station and tell the German people,' he paused' ... and the world what has been done.'
While a paranoid General Olbricht kept a stern eye on the communications room, both rode to the Deutschlandsender, the Reich's principal broadcaster. Mertz and a detachment of lieutenants carrying Schmeisser submachine guns helped them get instant access to the broadcasting room. Their presence did add an edge to the announcers voice when he introduced them but all in all Mertz thought it went rather well.
'German People, this is Feldmarschall Ludwig Beck speaking to you. Those who remember a time before the war, will know that I was Chief of Staff of the Wehrmacht until I resigned in 1938 in protest over the war policy pursued by the Government of Adolf Hitler. I speak to you tonight to tell you that Adolf Hitler and his murderous and amoral regime are no more. Adolf Hitler is dead and the leaders of the Party and the SS are in custody or in hiding. In order to preserve Germany officers of the Wehrmacht have now assumed executive power throughout the Reich and all occupied territories. Wehrmacht commanders everywhere are instructed to maintain law and order. The policy of the new authority has one central theme - we desire an end to hostilities and peace across Europe.... '
Chapter 2
To argue that right-minded Germans should have risen up en masse against an undisputed evil was hypocrisy on two counts. Moral and physical cowardice is part of the human conditions. Few are able to plead not guilty to one or the other or both. It is hard to believe that other nationalities, held by a barbarous regime, would have acted more bravely than the Germans, yet that is precisely what was suggested by the concept of collective guilt. But also studiously ignored by the Allies was the extent to which they themselves had helped frustrate a civil uprising by failing to support anti-Hitler groups and by bombing out of existence the centres where resistance was likely to emerge.
Barry Turner in Countdown to Victory[27]
Practically every German denies the fact that they surrendered in the last war. But this time, they are going to know it.
Roosevelt on July 29,
in his first public comment on the plot
Hitlerite Germany will be driven to her knees not by insurgent officers, but by ourselves and our Allies!
Soviet press release published in the New York Times July 24th
Early morning
July 20th
San Naval Base, California
Less than an hour after Beck’s speech ended, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt finished a speech of his own. Speaking from a private railroad car at the San Diego naval base from where he planned to sail to Pearl Harbour, the President a
ccepted the 1944 nomination of his party for a third term. The speech was the culmination of a 5 week military inspection trip which Roosevelt had used to stay out of the political manoeuvring surrounding the nomination that he had been desperately seeking to manoeuvre others into making for him.
Roosevelt had been dimly aware that a German Resistance movement existed and that sooner rather than later they planned to move against Hitler. Given his one-dimensional negative view of the German character, this played no real role in the determination of strategy. In fact, America had an excellent source right in the heart of the conspiracy – Hans Bernd Gisevius, a hulking forty-year old Abwehr agent working undercover as a vice consul in the German mission in Zurich. Terribly short-sighted, Gisevius had joined the Gestapo almost at its creation but by 1943 had become so disillusioned that he had off his own initiative approached Allen Dulles, whom he knew to be the senior American spy chief in Switzerland with information about the German war efforts and more importantly about German opposition to Hitler. In March 1943 he had first alerted Dulles to a planned assassination of the Führer but when nothing happened Dulles had gradually convinced himself that no true German opposition could escape the eyes of the Gestapo. This had fitted into the President’s worldview and blindsided him and the administration to the possibilities that a successful putsch might offer. Nevertheless, the American had continued to welcome the nearly six-foot tall Gisevius, whom he called ‘Tiny’ behind his back and passed along the Abwehr man’s increasingly detailed descriptions of the men plotting to end Hitler’s life.
In June 1944 Dulles had passed on a yet another peace plan from Gisevius in which the German opposition asked for assurances that the western allies would assist them in keeping as much of the Reich as possible from falling into the hands of the Russians.” [28] On July 12, Gisevius material had excited Dulles sufficiently for him to send a telegram, relayed to the President, suggesting that a coup was imminent. As someone who shared the belief that a key post-war objective had to be the blocking of Soviet hegemony over Eastern Europe[29], he passed on all of Gisevius’ material to his boss, OSS Chief ‘Wild’ Bill Donovan.
Although Donovan was well aware of the President’s love for the tidbits and trivia of genuine spy reports, he had never passed any of Dulles/ Gisevius material on directly. Instead all the President received were generic comments that ‘those opposed to the Nazis realize … that the next few weeks may be their last chance to show that they are willing to take some risks in making the first move to clean up their own house.’ Gisevius material which indicated that Field Marshall von Rundtstedt and his commanders had been prepared allow D-Day landings to go ahead unopposed and retreat orderly back towards the Reich and if given certain assurances, had died on ‘Wild’ Bill’s desk, as had been approaches from two previous chancellors - von Papen and Bruening – in 1943, and a 1943 version of Valkyrie named the Herman Plan. The President’s views had been made clear time and again – no negotiated peace, only unconditional surrender. Certainly ROOSEVELT wanted nothing on record that showed a different Germany than the one he believed existed: A nation of brutes bred for militarism and thuggery; an eternal challenge to stability in Europe and the world. Germany had to be brought to, and kept on its knees if it was to have a place among post-war nations of FDR’s post-war world. For the moment, Donovan was not about to contradict the official view that there were no good Germans as long as Hitler was in charge.
With the acceptance speech over and reporters shouting questions, this left Roosevelt at a disadvantage. The President who prided himself on generally being able to access more information on any topic than those around him had only the radio broadcast to go on. And this posed a seemingly irresolvable dilemma: If he appeared indifferent to a development that seemed to hold out the hope of ending the war quickly his opponent would score point claiming that he did not care about saving American lives. If he welcomed the coup – whose success he could not judge with confidence – it would mean abandoning his policy of unconditional surrender and possibly raising Stalin’s mistrust. If he opposed it and it really succeeded, Stalin would possibly be tempted into making a deal with the new junta. The first few questions got a cold ‘no comment’. But the reporters scenting a headline stuck to the issue once they realised that it would be controversial for the President. Damn them, if he made positive signs towards the potential new leaders in Berlin who all seemed to be military, he would have to abandon his plan to remould Germany so that it would never threaten peace again. But if these generals sued for peace he would find it difficult to justify continued fighting in the pursuit of unconditional surrender. The loss of more lives would appear unnecessary to his war-weary nation and that would be fatal to his re-election campaign. A few days earlier and everything would have been different. Now the exhausted British would be tempted into a deal, maybe even a partial one in the hope of blocking Russia’s territorial ambitions and possibly preserving the colonial empire that Winston Churchill held so dear. And so ‘no comment’ was all the press got that day. In fact it was all that the President’s inner circle got; without information Roosevelt was not about to commit himself to anything, not even when the request for guidance came from US Chief of Staff George Marshall.
But there was another reason not even the inner circle got any insight into Roosevelt’s views on a post-Hitler Germany. Shortly after the speech, the President’s son found his father lying on the floor clutching his chest. Between clenched teeth Roosevelt hissed ‘Jimmy don’t tell Dr Bruenn’. He had suffered a light stroke and it took nearly an hour before he was fit enough to let anyone see him. But then he blocked the limitations his crippled body imposed on his ambitions from his mind and resumed his schedule.
Sitting in the captain’s quarters of a darkened cruiser zigzagging westward from San Diego towards Pearl Harbour he wrote to Eleanor, ‘ Off to Hawaii in a few minutes, though I might have to hurry back if this German revolt proves successful. I fear though it won’t.’ The next message was for Stalin: ’We have just received news of difficulties in Germany and especially at Hitler’s Headquarters and in Berlin. It will all be to the good.’ [30]
It would be ridiculous to equate the Hitlerclique with the German people and the German state. History teaches that the Hitler’s come and go but the German people and the German state remain.
Josef Stalin in a speech commemorating Red Army Day 23 February 1943
Late Evening , July 20st, 1944
Kuntsevo Datcha outside Moscow
‘Yes Comrade General Secretary,’ MVD Chief Beria, a small, bald, and fleshy man made a scribbled note to summarize Stalin’s lengthy directive on the treatment of the clergy. Stalin nodded to his spymaster. As always it was dark and gloomy in the Soviet dictators dining room which doubled as an impromptu office. As in the Kremlin, the stench of the cheap pipe tobacco that Stalin favoured clung to everything. Outside Moscow remained backed out, a silent brooding city.
‘Now what do you make of this business in Germany, it is the officer class trying to save their skin.’ It was not a question. Stalin settled back and began cleaning his pipe. Dust welled up momentarily clouding his features from Beria’s sight.
The spy chief looked up from some briefing papers he had brought along. They suggested a military putsch but one that carried the implicit support of most of the factions that constituted Germany’s elite. Interestingly even the military SS had sided with the putschists. It was clear that Hitler had died, if not in the bomb blast then shortly thereafter. The afternoon had been filled with uncertainty and rumour. Now a picture seemed to be emerging, one that suggested that the structures of the fascist state were crumbling. A new leader had announced himself to the world just an hour ago - a Field Marshall, a landowner and a reactionary. He had talked about peace and little else. But Beria’s agents in the German Communist Party had been caught off guard as badly as the Hilterites. There was an opening here for one never disagreed with Stalin.
‘It would appe
ar that way Comrade. It was certainly officers as representatives of the elites who led the revolt. No doubt their faith in Hitler was faltering with the advance of our glorious forces across Byelorussia and to the borders of East Prussia. Many of the officer class have their family estates there. No doubt they wish to preserve them and their privilege under a new order. Our comrades in the KPD (German Communist Party) were certainly not privy to the plot. They had heard about rumours. But it seems that just days before the reactionaries moved to spread confusion by arranging a meeting with the party leadership and that of the reactionary plotters. You will remember you authorized such a meeting for the purposes of information gathering. The Gestapo as you know arrested two of our central committee comrades as well as the civilian puppet that the officers have decided to use as leader.’ What Beria did not know was that that meeting had in fact been betrayed by one of those Communist members who also doubled as a Gestapo spy.
‘To keep their man out of harm’s way during the putsch and to give him a cast-iron alibi for when the putsch succeeded. Very clever. Have our comrades from the central committee been freed ?’
Here Beria was on firmer ground. We have no information to that effect Comrade but we do know that Goerdeler, the reactionaries puppet, was released just hours ago. We are also almost certain that most of Hitler’s ministers, are either, dead or arrested. There has no been any mention of any counter-coup.’
‘This is a fluid situation comrade.’ Stalin put down his pipe. ‘We require more information. This could be an opportunity, if in this confusion the working class could allow itself to be co-opted only to later seize power, this could be an opportunity. On the other hand if it is simply a change of militarists then we will maintain course. You will report to me every day on any new views on the new regime. We will need to be prepared. Also assign someone to review the previous approaches from Hitler and alert the most likely points of contact to be alert and vigilant. Let’s hear what they have to say.’ Stalin had put out peace feelers for a separate deal with Hitler in 1942 and 1943. Roosevelt’s unconditional surrender had struck him as a daft, possibly counter-productive policy which he had only given his public backing once the D-Day landings had actually taken place.
The Valkyrie Option Page 10