Posted on 07/22/2002 8:26:46 AM PDT by robowombat
The fight for freedom The story of the German resistance to Hitler by Danny Orbach
The final battle: 20th July, 1944
After the arrest of the socialists the resistance leaders did everything in a hash. Except the fact that Stauffenberg wanted to save Leber and Reichwein from execution, there was the fact that the allies were close to winning the war. The invasion to Normandy had already taken place, and it was a matter of time when the German army in the west front will collapse. In the east the situation was worst. The German army group center had ceased to exist, and the Russians were moving with no one to stop them. Beck and Treskow said that the Red Army's tanks will arrive to Berlin in 10 days. The conspirators knew that they must kill Hitler and overthrow his regime before the German army will collapse. In such situation, the coup will be worthless, Because it has two purposes: To save Germany, and to prove the world that there are moral Germans by stooping the jew's extermination and the nazi terror in the occupied countries. Both of these purposes will not be actual when Germany will collapse, and the conspirators knew that. They knew that they have to act quickly. Time was running out.
While Stuaffenberg was looking for an opportunity to kill Hitler, his friends weren't sleeping. Beck was released from his deep despair and started to plan the new government. Goerdeler never rested. He was traveling across Germany and the fronts, looking for new allies for the movement, writing plans and forming shadow governments.
Somewhere near the end of June, the shadow government was ready. Beck was supposed to be the head of state, and Goerdeler the prime minister. Another duties were given to important resistance members: The interior to Leber, the education to Popitz, the war to General Olbricht, and the posts to General Fellgiebel. Stauffenberg was appointed to the "secretary of state in the the war council", and Yorck was appointed to the secretary of state in the prime minister's office. The socialist Leuchner was appointed to the important duty of vice chancellor. The commander in chief of the army was supposed to be Field Marshal Witzleben, and the command on the home army was given to General Hoeppner. The conspirators hesitated about their foreign minister: would it be Ulrich von Hassel that had connections in the west? Or it would be count von der Schulenburg that had good connections in Soviet Russia? This problem was never solved.
Meanwhile, two disasters hit the resistance movement. One- the gestapo published an immediate arrest command against Dr. Carl Goerdeler (after he sent a letter to Hitler calling him to stop the oppression of the jews and the churches) and the anti-nazi leader was forced to hide. Two- Field Marshal Rommel was wounded in an air raid and he couldn't use his military force for the revolt. In that way, two important men in coup plans were neutralize. How a revolt can take place without the new prime minister and one of the most important army commanders? The conspirators decided to act anyway.
In 11th and 15th July, Stauffenberg was invited to a military meeting with Hitler. He failed to activate the bomb in these meetings: one time because the S.S commander, Himmler, was not there and Stauffenberg thought that he must be killed with Hitler, and one time because the Fuhrer left the meeting before Stauffenberg could activate the bomb. In 20th July, 1944, Stauffenberg was invited to another meeting with Hitler. In 19th July he confessed before the Catholic bishop of Berlin. In that night he trained in activating the bomb. He, and everyone else, were waiting for tomorrow. The fate of Germany was depended in the actions of one man.
Count Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg got up early in the morning of 20th July. In 6:00 he stepped into the command car and drove to the airport of Berlin. Next to him, in the car, set his assistance and his close friend, Lieutenant Werner von Haeften, that was involved deeply in the revolt plans. The 20th July was a beautiful day, the sun shone, and the two officers looked on the ruins of the once beautiful Berlin. They must have thought that if they will succeed, there won't be anymore air raids and battles. Each one of them carried a deadly weapon: a bag that contained a British bomb. This two bombs were supposed to kill Adolf Hitler later that day. In 10:00 the plane landed in the airport of Rastenburg, east prussia. A command car waited to Stuaffenberg and Haeften, ready to take them to Hitler's HQ in the forest.
The officers arrived to the base, and passed the guards and the security points. When they arrived to the inner area, they stepped out of the car and went to the office of the commander in chief of the base. In 12:00, the military meeting was about to begin. Stuaffenberg marched to the meeting with General Keitel, one of the most important nazi leaders. When they arrived to the cabin were the meeting was about to take place, Stuaffenberg told Keitel that he forgot something in the dressing room and ran back to there with Haeften. When they were alone, they started to activate the fuses of the bombs. One minute passed. Stauffenberg broke the fuse of his bomb: now nothing could prevent the blast in ten minutes. But when Haeften was about to activate his bomb, one of the officers called them to harry, because the meeting had already started. Stauffenberg realized that there is no time to activate Haeften's bomb, so he walked to the meeting room with one bomb only. Unfortunately, Stauffenberg didn't knew a simple scientific fact: if one bomb will be blown, the blast will activate the other bomb, and there is no need to activate its fuse. One thing is clear: two bombs would surely killed everyone in the meeting room. If Stauffenberg had only knew that!
When the officers entered the meeting room, they discovered that they are late. Hitler listened to a general named Heusinger that spoke about the military situation in the east. Stauffenberg saluted Hitler, and Keitel stooped Heusinger and explained the nature of Stauffenberg's report. Hitler said that he will listen to this report later, and Keitel entered the room and stood in his usual place near Hitler. Stauffenberg put his "sabotage bag" under the table. The time was 12:35, and Heusinger continued in his report.
Stuaffenberg exited the room, and hurried to the office of General Fellgiebel, the commander in chief of communication, who was an important member in the coup. He stood near the office, smoked a cigarette and waited for the glorious moment.
Meanwhile, in the meeting room, Colonel Brandt, one of the officers, bent to see the map more clearly and kicked Stauffenberg's bag. The bag was pushed behind the table. Now a heavy wooden table was suppurating between Hitler and his death. Keitel, that wasn't interested in Heusinger's report, went out to see where the hell is Stauffenberg. He didn't find him, so he entered the room, stood beside Hitler, and... BOOM! Stauffenberg's bomb exploded in an enormous thunder!
The room disintegrated into a mass of ruins. The clerk Berger, air force general Korten, HQ general Schmundt and poor Colonel Brandt were killed immediately. The lamp fell down and landed on General Jodl's head. Hitler flew in the air and landed in Keitel's arms. His arm was paralyzed temporarily, his hair was burned, his pants were torn and he became depth in one of his ears. He was shocked, but he stayed alive and functioned normally in the next four or five hours.
Meanwhile, near Fellgiebel's office, Stauffenberg saw the blast. He heard shouts from the cabin, saw the roof collapsing and the windows blown up to pieces. He was sure that no one had stayed alive. He ordered Fellgiebel to call the resistance leaders in Berlin and inform them about Hitler's death, and then cut the telephone lines from east prussia to Berlin, and cut the nazi leaders from the world for a few hours, Stauffenberg knew that his job had not finished. Now there must be a political coup in Berlin. The resistance leader there was General Fridrich Olbricht, a religious and very pleasant men, that supported the resistance even in the time of Hitler's great victories. Now he was detriment to save Germany by the removal of the nazi regime. Olbricht was supposed to send the revolt commands to the army units. The units were supposed to arrest the S.S and nazi leaders, to occupy the media facilities, and to stop the activity of the death and concentration camps in the Reich. In second stage, Beck should form his anti-nazi government in Berlin and try to achieve peace with the allies in the most good terms that he will be able to get. This was Olbricht's duty according to the plan. Stauffenberg hurried to catch the first plane to Berlin in order to lead the coup there with Olbricht.
While Stauffenberg was driving to the airport, Fellgieble realized that Hitler is alive. He called Olbricht and Hoeppner in Berlin and told them that the Fuhrer is not dead. The line was bad and they didn't hear well, so that they decided to wait for Stauffenberg. This was the most gravies mistake of the conspirators, because they wasted the precious hours when Hitler was cut from the outer world and can't give commands. It is strange to think about them seating in their offices, in this hot day of 20th July 1944, doing nothing, when the chances of success become smaller and smaller. They just set there and waited for Stauffenberg. Beck was not invited to the resistance HQ (in the building of the home army) to form the new government, and the revolt orders weren't sent to the army units. Just nothing.
Things were changed when Stauffenberg arrived to Berlin at 3:45. When he heard that his comrades did nothing he became furious. "Why didn't you publish the revolt orders?", he shouted to Olbricht on the phone. "You must publish them right now! Hitler is dead!". Olbricht, that was determent now to act, went to the office of the commander in chief of the home army, General Fromm, and asked him to publish the revolt orders, because Hitler is dead. Fromm called Keitel in Hitler's HQ, and were told that Hitler is alive. Olbricht returned confused to his office.
After a few minutes, Stuaffenberg came running to the building, full of sweat and his face flushed. He told Olbricht and the other conspirators that Hitler is dead in hounded percent, and that Keitel is lying to them. He ordered Olbricht's assistance, Colonel Albrecht Ritter Mertz von Quirnheim, that was involved in the coup plans, to publish the orders now, even without Fromm's permission.
He ran with Olbricht to Fromm's office, in hope to convince him to cooperate. Stauffenberg told Fromm that Hitler is dead, and that they had already published the revolt commands. Fromm's reaction was to arrest the conspirators. He shouted on Olbricht and tried to hit Stauffenberg, but Haeften that came to the room with his gun, convinced him that he can't resist. Stauffenberg and Olbricht locked him in one of the offices. General Hoeppner wore his uniforms, occupied Fromm's office, and took command on the home army in the name of the new government. In that hour, most of the conspirators arrived to the coup center: Gizevius, Yorck, Schulenburg, count Helldorf and many others. General Beck entered the building in 4:00, and was appointed to the leader of Germany. Beck was supposed to form the new government, while Stauffenberg was in charge of the military actions.
Meanwhile, the orders arrived to the military units in Germany and the different fronts. the command was to follow:
"Hitler is dead, and a group of nazi traitors tried to take over the government. In this emergency situation, the army is taking control of the Reich. All the organization of the Nazi party, the police, the transportation system, need to be occupied by the army units. The S.S must be disarmed. The military commanders must occupy the communication facilities and destroy the S.D (nazi police). Colonel von Stauffenberg, In the name of Field Marshal Witzleben."
After a while, the conspirators sent another order commanding the generals of the German army to arrest the S.S leaders and soldiers in their districts. The commands were signed in the name of important men in the military, and they were accepted in a great confusion. Generals from all over europe called Stauffenberg for an explanation for the strange commands, and he answered them in his charming voice, causing many of them to surrender and accept his leadership.
In this time the coup was going on fine. The commander of France, General Stulpnagel, was a veteran of the resistance movement. In the moment that he received the orders he called his vice commanders, and ordered them to arrest all the S.S in Paris. After a few hours, all the nazi murderers in Paris set behind bars. Stulpnagel ordered to shoot their leaders immediately, and execution stands were prepared in the HQ 's yard. All the commanders in France were in the resistance, so these area was under full anti-nazi control. Another good news came from Munich and Vienna. The commanders there arrested the S.S men too, and these cities were under the control of Stauffenberg and Beck. The military commanders in Frankfurt and Prague declared loyalty to the new government, but did nothing to help her.
The anti-nazi forces took control of Paris, Vienna and Munich, but what with Berlin? The police, leaded by count von Helldorf, was anti-nazi and loyal to Beck's government. But Helldorf wanted anti-nazi army in Berlin before he will arrest the nazi leaders with his cops. Stauffenberg tried to get army from the armor base and the infantry base near Berlin. When the commander of the armor base heard that Hitler is alive, he refused to cooperate. The commander of the infantry base, that was loyal to Beck and Stauffenberg, was in a funeral in a far place, and his vice was in a training with his unit. When the vice, Colonel Muller, returned, it was too late to send an army to the coup. But there was a light spot: one unit, leaded by a young major named Remer, came to Berlin to help the coup. Remer was loyal to Hitler, but he came to help just because he thought Hitler is dead. The soldiers marched to Berlin and Remer came to the office of General von Haze, the commander of Berlin, to get orders. Haze, that was an anti-nazi and loyal to Beck, ordered Remer to block the government quarter with his unit and to wait orders.
Stauffenberg knew that he must neutralize Hitler's loyals in the area of Berlin. He invited the nazi district commander and arrested him, so there was one man to go: Goebbels, the minister of propaganda. Joseph Goebbels was one of the most important nazi leaders, and he had to be stooped. Stauffenberg ordered an anti-nazi officer, Colonel Jeger, to go and arrest Goebbels. He waited for the army from the infantry base to arrive and occupy radio Berlin, and after that the concentration camps near Berlin. Beck and Gizevius prepared a special announcement to the German people, to be transmitted at the moment that the radio will be occupied. Because Goerdeler was gone, Gizevius was supposed to notify the german people about the revolt and the foundation of the new regime.
.In the same time , Hitler and his underlings started to fight the coup. Hitler called Goebbels in Berlin and after he heard that Remer surrounds the building with his unit, he ordered Goebbels to talk with Remer and tried to convince him to fight against the coup. By mistake, Remer thought he heard that he had to arrest Goebbels, and he entered Goebbels' office.
This was a dramatic moment: Remer told Goebbels he is under arrest, and Goebbels asked him to make a last phone call. He phoned Hitler, and Hitler spoke to Remer on the phone. Now Remer was convinced that Hitler isn't dead, and he turned his forces against the coup. The only unit in Berlin that was loyal to Beck betrayed him, and Colonel Jeger said that he doesn't have enough force to arrest Goebbels without Remer's help. what would have happened if Remer didn't made that fateful mistake? He wasn't ordered to arrest Goebbels, and he went to do it by mistake. What would have happened if the conspirators would have sent an anti-nazi general with him? In that case, Goebbels was not allowed to make the phone call, and he was arrested and probably shot. If so, the chances of success would have been increased sharply. Unfortunately, the luck was against the conspirators, Goebbels was not arrested and the army in Berlin betrayed the revolt. The fate of the coup in Berlin was sealed in that moment.
There was still a small hope to success: the west. Beck called Field Marshal Kluge, the commander in chief in of the western army, and tried to convince him to cooperate. it was for nothing. Kluge, that committed himself to the resistance before, betrayed the coup when he heard that Hitler is alive. Despite the begging of his fellow anti-nazi officers, he refused to use his army to help the coup.
The situation became worse and worse. Nazi forces were taking over everywhere. Most of the cities were loyal to Hitler from the beginning. Now there were just Vienna, Munich and Paris. Vienna and Munich fell to the nazi forces without a fight, and only the forces in Paris, leaded by General Stulpnagel, stayed loyal to the forces of freedom. Paris was the only anti-nazi city in that time. Fromm appeared and arrested all the leaders of the coup. He gave them permission to write. Stauffenberg and Haeften stood still. Olbricht and Hoeppner wrote to their wives. In that moment, general Beck drew his revolver: Beck: I have a gun.
Fromm: Give it to me. Beck: Remember that I was your commander. I will find my way out of this situation. Fromm: Very well, turn your gun to yourself. Beck: Now I remember the old days... Fromm: We have no time for that now! Do what you have to do!
In that moment, a single shot was heard... the leader of the German resistance movement was gone forever.
After Beck's death, Fromm declared that a military court decided to execute four officers at once: Olbricht, Mertz, Stauffenberg and Haeften. The execution is going to take place in the yard immediately. The four officers were dragged out and stood before the guns. One moment before the guns fired, one moment before the bitter end, one voice was heard. Clear and unshaken, Stauffenberg shouted the last call of freedom:
"Long live our eternal Germany!!!"
The guns answered him. The four leaders of 20th july revolt fell dead. In Paris, general Stulpnagel had heard about the elimination of the coup in Berlin. He consider to continue the coup alone, but he was without power, and his commander, Field Marshal Kluge, betrayed him. The S.S forces in France and the nazi air force were closing on the last anti-nazi freedom fighter. Stulpnagel surrendered and released the S.S men before their executions took place. He tried to eliminate his agony with alcohol. When he was really drunk, he was arrested and escorted to a command car, that was supposed to take him to his trail in Germany. In the long way at night, he asked his guard to stop the car near the French city Warden, where he fought in W.W.I. "Wait a moment", he said to the guard. "I want to take a look in a place I know well.". He marched to the field and entered the river. There, completely drunk, general Karl Heinrich von Stulpnagel drew his gun, pointed it to his head, and shot. Because he was drunk, he missed his head and the bullet destroyed his eyes. He was found floating in the river unconscious, bleeding and completely blind. He was taken to Berlin to be executed.
In Russia, Fabian von Schlabrendorff told general Treskow the bad news. Treskow decided to commit a suicide, in order not to be tortured by the hated nazi enemy and betray his friends. He drove to the front in his command car, and said farewell to his close friend and vice. Schlabrendorff remembered his last words:
"Now everyone will turn on us and cover us with abuse. But my mind remains unshaken, we have done the right thing. Hitler is not just the arch enemy of Germany, he is the arch enemy of the world. In a few moments I will stand before god... I think I can stand before him with a clear conscience on my part in the fight against Hitler. God once promised that he will spare Sdom if ten men will be found in the city. I believe he will spare Germany for what we did, and not destroy her. A man's life are worth just if he can sacrifice them for his values and beliefs."
After he finished to speak, he shook Schlabrendorff's hands in the last time, and went to an abounded field near the front line. There, he activated a hand grenade and blew up his head. This was the end of the anti-nazi general. The idealistic freedom fighter fell in his last battle. I
n 12:00 exactly, the citizens of Germany heard Hitler speaking in the radio, speaking about the ill-fated coup. 20th July revolt was over.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.