The Plots Against Hitler

by Danny Orbach

  After briefing Fellgiebel one last time,4 Stauffenberg daringly showed some of the documents in his briefcase to a member of Hitler’s entourage. The senior commander did not see the bomb, which was (according to one account) wrapped up in a shirt. Stauffenberg believed that the meeting with Hitler would start at 1:00 p.m., as had been scheduled in advance. However, because of Mussolini’s planned visit on the same day, the Führer ordered Keitel to reschedule the meeting for 12:30, half an hour earlier. Stauffenberg, met by the field marshal near his office, was notified accordingly.5 While they were on their way to the briefing hut, Stauffenberg suddenly asked for permission to change into a fresh shirt. Keitel reluctantly agreed, and directed the colonel to a changing room near his office. Stauffenberg was disabled, and therefore it was only natural that his adjutant, Haeften, should accompany him and help him inside.6

  While Stauffenberg was “changing,” the meeting at the briefing hut got under way. Hitler was not known for his patience, so Keitel ordered one of the sergeants to hurry Stauffenberg up. Peeping through the half-opened door, the sergeant saw Stauffenberg and Haeften putting a wrapped object inside the briefcase, but he did not suspect foul play.7 The two conspirators, however, were probably panicked by the event. They couldn’t order the sergeant to leave. Sheer luck alone had kept them from being caught red-handed.

  Then, Stauffenberg made a crucial decision. He took his briefcase, where the first bomb was already ticking, and left the room. He and Haeften were running out of time. They decided to neither trigger the second bomb nor bring it to the briefing hut. It’s possible they knew that if they used two kilograms of explosives instead of just one, everyone in the room would perish. The decision not to use the extra kilogram was wrong: the two officers did not know, or forgot in the heat of the moment, that there was no need to trigger the second bomb, as the first would activate it automatically in its explosion. Now, the whole operation depended on a single device. Stauffenberg joined Keitel in the briefing hut, knowing that nothing could prevent the detonation of the bomb in ten minutes’ time.

  When he entered the meeting, General Heusinger, head of operations and acting chief of the General Staff, was reporting on the eastern front. He stood to the right of Hitler. All officers present, representing the Wehrmacht, Luftwaffe, and Waffen SS, were studying maps set upon a thick oak table. In front of the Führer, at the other side of the table, stenographer Heinrich Berger was typing the minutes of the meeting. At Heusinger’s right side stood General Korten, chief of the General Staff of the Luftwaffe, and next to him Colonel Brandt, the unsuspecting officer who had carried Tresckow’s bomb in 1943. Göring and Himmler were not present.

  Hitler nodded in response to Stauffenberg’s salute, warmly shaking the colonel’s hand. Keitel cut Heusinger short, took his usual spot to the left of the boss, and presented Stauffenberg’s report in brief.8 Standing between Brandt and Korten, the colonel put his briefcase under the table, all the while trying to push it as close as possible to Hitler’s feet. The clock showed 12:35, and Heusinger went on speaking.

  Stauffenberg left the room quietly, leaving behind his briefcase, hat, and belt. That was not uncommon, as all those present at the meeting were used to seeing officers going out to contact their units. The colonel lit a cigarette, passed through the corridor, and left the briefing hut. One of the guards spotted him, walking and smoking without his black briefcase. Stauffenberg turned to Fellgiebel’s office to await the explosion. Haeften was waiting near one of the staff cars, ready to speed his commander out of the camp. A few minutes later, Keitel left the conference to summon Stauffenberg, who was scheduled to be the next speaker, failed to find him, and turned back to the meeting. Colonel Brandt, keen to take a better look at the map, leaned over the table and unwittingly kicked Stauffenberg’s briefcase away from the Führer.

  Heusinger was still speaking. “The Russian,” he said, “is strongly advancing to the northwest of the river Duna. His spearheads are already southwest of Dunaburg . . .” Hitler listened and leaned on the map to take a better look. “If the army group around Lake Peipus does not withdraw immediately, a catastrophe—”9

  Stauffenberg’s briefcase exploded in a deafening blast. Those present were hurled to the walls, their vision blurred. Everything went up in green and yellow flames. From Fellgiebel’s office, Stauffenberg witnessed the explosion and saw the hut burning “as if it was hit by a shell.” He was sure that Hitler and the others were dead or dying. Soon after, he nodded to Fellgiebel and entered his staff car. The operation had finally begun.

  Stauffenberg ordered the driver to head to the airport. Quickly, they reached the camp gate, only to be blocked by armed, nervous guards. The alarm had not yet been raised, but they had seen the blast and blocked the entrance and exit. Stauffenberg, using his trademark authoritative tone, told them to open the gate immediately, and was obeyed. “Forward!” the colonel urged the driver. “Show us your skills! Every minute is decisive!” En route, Haeften tossed the briefcase with the second bomb out of the window.10 It was imperative to get rid of such “smoking guns” as quickly as possible.

  The second checkpoint proved to be a greater challenge. Now, alarms were ringing throughout the compound, and the guards refused to let the officers through. This time, they had explicit orders, and Stauffenberg’s commanding voice was not enough to impress them. Keeping his composure—in a way he had not managed to in the changing room before the assassination attempt—the colonel left his car, picked up the phone at the checkpoint, and promptly called the commandant of the camp. On the other end of the line, he was greeted by the commandant’s adjutant, with whom he had had breakfast that morning. Stauffenberg complained that he had been summoned on urgent business in Berlin but was now being detained by the guards. The adjutant, stepping beyond the bounds of his authority, ordered the guards to let the colonel through. A few minutes later, he and Haeften reached the airport. “Thank you very much, and wish us luck,” Stauffenberg told the driver before taking off to Berlin.11

  Inside the Third Ring, in Hitler’s briefing hut, chaos reigned. The legs of the stenographer had been blown off, and his dying body was gushing blood beneath the table. Korten, Schmundt, and Brandt were severely injured, and many others had suffered bruises, burns, and other light injuries. The chandelier fell on General Jodl’s head. “Where is the Führer? Where is the Führer?” rang the panicked voice of Keitel, who was miraculously unharmed.12

  Hitler was certainly shocked. A heavy beam had fallen on his back, his right arm was wounded and temporarily paralyzed, his right ear was deafened for good, and his trousers were torn. But he remained stubbornly alive. Trembling with excitement, he praised “Providence” for saving his life. “I always knew,” he murmured while being examined by his physicians, “that I am surrounded by traitors. Now is the time to uproot this conspiracy once and for all.”13

  General Fellgiebel, the conspirators’ agent in headquarters, observed the mayhem from his office. A few minutes later, he saw to his horror that Hitler was alive and walking. Still, he decided to proceed with the plan, understanding that all the bridges had now been burned and that there was no way back. He entered his office and called the two chiefs of staff subordinate to him, General Thiele and Colonel Hahn. The former was the commander of the Signals Corps in Berlin; the latter was responsible for “Anna” switchboard, the center of communications in East Prussia. Both were members of the conspiracy. Thiele received the call while sitting with Olbricht in the Bendlerstrasse, Berlin. The line was bad, and Fellgiebel’s voice was unclear. Probably, he tried to tell him that the bomb had exploded but the assassination attempt had failed. Immediately afterward, he called Colonel Hahn. “Something terrible happened,” he said. “The Führer is alive. Block everything.”14 Fellgiebel hung up, blocked a large part of the communication between Wolf’s Lair and the outside world for two hours, and gave his friends in Berlin time to act.

  Thiele, who heard the news from Fellgiebel, informed Olbricht about
the ambiguous situation. The two men were dumbfounded. During the long months of preparation, the conspirators had made themselves ready for only two scenarios. Either the bomb would not explode (as had happened many times before) or Hitler would be killed. That the bomb would explode and Hitler survive never seemed to cross their minds. Accordingly, Olbricht did not activate Valkyrie, having learned his lesson from the blunder of July 15. It was difficult for him to begin the coup in this new, uncertain situation he was not prepared for. This time, there was no chance of covering everyone’s back if there was a misunderstanding.

  In Hitler’s headquarters, there was still great confusion, as no one yet knew who was responsible for the assassination attempt. Members of Hitler’s entourage raised several possibilities, with the main suspicion falling on laborers working in an adjacent construction site. The pit that opened in the floor of the hut led some to believe that a bomb had been hidden beneath the floorboards. Then, the guard who noticed Stauffenberg leaving without his briefcase reported to Martin Bormann, head of the chancellery of the Nazi Party. From there, it wasn’t hard to put two and two together and identify the assassin. Subsequently, Keitel called Berlin and ordered Stauffenberg’s immediate arrest. Himmler, who had been appointed by the Führer to lead the Home Army, was sent to Berlin to take countermeasures against a possible insurgency.15

  Two and a half hours later, Mussolini arrived as planned, and Hitler took him to see the shattered briefing hut. Dr. Paul Schmidt, Hitler’s personal interpreter, testified:

  Mussolini was absolutely horrified. He could not understand how such a thing could happen at Headquarters; his face expressed utter dismay . . . some time elapsed before he pulled himself together enough to congratulate Hitler on his escape. Hitler’s reaction was completely indifferent. “I was standing here by the table. The bomb went off just in front of my feet. Over there in the corner of the room colleagues of mine were severely injured; just opposite me an officer was literally blown through the window . . . Look at my uniform! Look at my burns! When I reflect on all this I must say that to me it is obvious that nothing is going to happen to me. Undoubtedly it is my fate to continue on my way and to bring my task to completion.”16

  During dinner, the Nazi leaders were still busy with internal fights. Dönitz, the grand admiral of the navy, was outraged by the “army’s betrayal” and criticized Göring over the “failure of the Luftwaffe.” Göring ignored him and attacked instead his usual nemesis, Foreign Minister Ribbentrop, over the “bankruptcy of German foreign policy,” calling him a “dirty Champagne seller” and almost attacking him with his marshal staff. Ribbentrop defended himself noisily, while Hitler sucked a sedative candy and stared at the table. When someone mentioned the so-called Röhm Putsch, the rumors of which had triggered the Night of the Long Knives in 1934, the Führer angrily broke his silence. “Röhm and his fellow traitors were treated gently!” he yelled, hinting that the current conspirators should receive crueler treatment. He seethed with even more fury when informed about an insurgency in Berlin and perhaps in some provincial towns. “I will uproot and destroy them! I will throw their wives and children into a concentration camp! No mercy will be shown.”17

  The conspirators were still waiting for an order to activate Valkyrie. Until 4:00 p.m., more and more of them were assembling at the main hub, the war ministry complex at the Bendlerstrasse, Berlin. Among those present were the veteran Kreisauer Peter Yorck von Wartenburg and Pastor Eugen Gerstenmaier (who carried with him both gun and Bible), Count Schwerin von Schwanenfeld, Stauffenberg’s brother Berthold, and his adjutant Capt. Friedrich von Klausing. In the second anti-Nazi hub, the Berlin police headquarters, Berlin police commandant Helldorff was waiting for orders with his friend and confidant Hans Bernd Gisevius. At noon, a short time before the assassination attempt, an emissary from Olbricht had called in and told Helldorff that the coup was about to begin and that he must be prepared. His job was to arrest the Nazi leaders in Berlin when orders from the Bendlerstrasse arrived. In response, Helldorff demanded soldiers be posted all around the government buildings, and was answered positively. Seconds afterward, he burst into the room where Gisevius waited. “It begins!” he announced. “I have heard from Olbricht . . . An important message should come from the Bendlerstrasse in half an hour.” At the third hub, Berlin city headquarters, Lieutenant General Hase was waiting as well.18 At 4:30 p.m. he appointed a conspirator, Major Hayessen, as his chief of staff.

  The rumors about the blast in Wolf’s Lair had quickly reached the center of the conspiracy in Paris, too. In Zossen, the home of the Wehrmacht’s supreme headquarters, the news reached another conspirator, Qm. Gen. Eduard Wagner. He accordingly informed his contact in Paris, Col. Eberhard Finckh, that time was up and that the Western conspirators had to be on high alert.19 Ludwig Beck and Erwin von Witzleben, prospective head of state and commander in chief, were also notified, but they failed to hurry to take control of the Bendlerstrasse, just at the moment when the conspirators needed an authoritative figure to push them on.

  At 3:45 p.m., Stauffenberg disembarked at Rangsdorf, Berlin, and Haeften updated the Bendlerstrasse that he had arrived. A few minutes later, he called Olbricht and was astounded when asked what had happened to Hitler. Stauffenberg said explicitly that the Führer was dead, and he was furious that Valkyrie was not yet activated. “The orders have to be sent right away!” he said, and raced through empty streets with Haeften to the Bendlerstrasse. Stauffenberg hoped to see tanks and troop trucks, but by 4:00 p.m., they were still far away in their respective camps.20

  After the conversation with Stauffenberg, the Bendlerstrasse came to life. Olbricht believed Stauffenberg and expressed his readiness to act without further delay. General Hoepner reached the Bendlerstrasse to take over the Home Army in case Fromm refused to collaborate. He wore the uniform of a general, violating Hitler’s prohibition. The conspirators also called Witzleben in Zossen and told him that his presence was required in Berlin. Olbricht, meanwhile, stepped into Fromm’s office to convince him to cooperate with the coup. For the cautious commander of the Home Army, the moment of truth had finally come.

  Fromm was meeting another officer at the time, but Olbricht insisted that the matter could not be delayed. Hitler had perished in an explosion, according to Fellgiebel’s update from East Prussia, and therefore Valkyrie must be activated immediately to counter impending disturbances. Fromm, however, demanded concrete proof before approving Valkyrie. Olbricht, encouraged by Stauffenberg’s telephone call from the airport, advised his commander to verify the rumors. Fromm picked up the phone and asked to be put through urgently to Keitel in East Prussia.

  Keitel was almost immediately on the line. To Fromm’s question he responded that the rumors about Hitler’s death were nonsense. “There was an assassination attempt,” he said, “but fortunately it failed. The Führer is alive and was only slightly injured. By the way, where exactly is your chief of staff, Colonel von Stauffenberg?” Fromm replied, “Stauffenberg still hasn’t reported for duty.” For Fromm, the matter was closed.21 Keitel’s last question indicated that the Nazi leaders still did not know where (or even whether) the coup was taking place.

  Olbricht was confused by Keitel’s confidence, but the coup was already under way. In fact, Col. Albrecht Mertz von Quirnheim, Olbricht’s chief of staff and Stauffenberg’s confidant, had already sent the Valkyrie orders to the commanders of the Wehrkreise (military districts). In the Berlin Wehrkreis, the conspirators’ man, Major Oertzen, bypassed his Nazi commander, Gen. Joachim Kortzfleisch, and dispatched the order to the units through a reliable courier. Oertzen, as was mentioned in chapter 17, was one of four key players in Berlin known for their unconditional loyalty to Beck and Stauffenberg. Following Mertz’s request, Lieutenant General Hase ordered the guard battalion Grossdeutschland to mobilize with haste to the city center.22 The battalion commander, Maj. Otto Remer, was to report to Hase as soon as possible for detailed orders. Meanwhile, Helldorff, the commandant of the Berl
in police, and Kortzfleisch, chief of the military district, were summoned to the Bendlerstrasse. The former was called to be briefed, and the latter—a dyed-in-the-wool Nazi—to be neutralized.

  Olbricht was hardly out of Fromm’s office when Beck and Stauffenberg finally arrived at the Bendlerstrasse. The former chief of the General Staff was dressed in a dark civilian suit to mark his intention to lead a civil government rather than a military dictatorship. Stauffenberg ran up the stairs, panting heavily and wet with perspiration. Everything he had seen in Wolf’s Lair was quickly related to Beck and the others: the flames, the enormous explosion, the doctors hurrying to help the wounded. The others told him that, according to Keitel, Hitler was alive. “Field Marshal Keitel is lying, as usual,” said Stauffenberg. “Hitler is dead. I saw him being taken out.”23

  Here, the conspirators entered a dangerous mental loop. They were unable to contemplate a scenario in which the bomb exploded but Hitler survived. During that afternoon of July 20, the conspirators, Stauffenberg in particular, did not consciously mislead their fellow officers; they really believed that Hitler had perished.24

  Beck, however, was doubtful. His cautious words since his arrival at the Bendlerstrasse indicate that he understood, much earlier than the others, that something terrible had happened and that the Führer was alive. Still, he was determined to go on with the coup, fully realizing that this was perhaps the last chance to overthrow the regime. Even if Hitler spoke over the radio, Beck must speak before him. In that case, he said, it would be “a trial of strength.”25