The colonel who took on Hitler's regime

[Ian David]

"Since the generals have failed to do anything, it is now up to the colonels." - Colonel Count


Colonel Count Claus von Stauffenberg's portrait as it is in the German Resistance Memorial Center exhibit. (Jack Ziegler/photo.)

Last September I flew to Berlin, Germany, to see my daughter. Other reasons drew me as well. Since I was a teenager in the 1950s, I had been fascinated by the July 20 bomb plot to kill Adolf Hitler. The plot's mainspring was the dashing, maimed Count Claus von Stauffenberg, a highly decorated 37-year-old Wehrmacht colonel.

My visit would allow me to make a pilgrimage of sorts to the seven-story Bendlerbiock, in 1944 German Home Army Headquarters and today the German Resistance Memorial Center. There von Staufferberg had come within an ace of toppling the Nazi regime, only to be shot by a firing squad late on July 20, 1944.

Though there had been numerous attempts on Hitler's life, faulty timing switches, potential assassins' loss of nerve, and the Fuhrer's sudden schedule changes all caused them to fail.

By early 1944, Colonel von Stauffenberg's assignment to Home Army Headquarters would provide Wehrmacht officers with their last, best chance of ridding the world of what the profoundly religious von Stauffenberg called the Antichrist. Von Stauffenberg - dynamic, forceful, energetic - volunteered to fly to Hitler's headquarters (the Wolf's Lair) in Rastenburg, East Prussia and plant a bomb-laden briefcase as close as possible to the Fuhrer. Von Stauffenberg had been terribly wounded in Tunisia, losing his left eye, his right hand, and two fingers of his left hand. Therefore, he was prepared to use specially designed pliers, or even his teeth, to arm the bomb.

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When the news of Hitler's survival became known, most of the conspirators lost heart, while fence-sitting commanders declared their loyalty to the Fuhrer. By 9 p.m. the Berlin guard battalion had switched sides and stormed the Bendlerblock. Von Stauffenberg resisted to the last, firing his pistol at loyalist officers. Colonel General Fromm, reasserting control, gave Colonel General Ludwig Beck, one of the highest ranking conspirators, the option of committing suicide. Fromm ordered four other plotters, including von Stauffenberg who had been wounded in the arm in the shootout, to be executed immediately in the Bendlerblock courtyard. Before dying, von Stauffenberg readily admitted his desire to kill Hitler. His final words to the hastily assembled firing squad were, "Long live sacred Germany."

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