Plots To Kill Hitler

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This is an incomplete list of documented attempts to assassinate Adolf Hitler.[1]

Plots To Kill Hitler

The plot was now fully prepared. On 7 July 1944 General Helmuth Stieff was to kill Hitler at a display of new uniforms at Klessheim castle near Salzburg. However, Stieff felt unable to kill Hitler. Stauffenberg now decided to do both: to assassinate Hitler, wherever he was, and to manage the plot in Berlin. Three days later, an assassin's bomb nearly killed Hitler during a strategy meeting at his headquarters in East Prussia. In the gory reprisals that followed, some suspects implicated Rommel in the plot. Although he may not have been aware of the attempt on Hitler's life, his. 1990 Press Photo Actress Brad Davis in 'The Plot to Kill Hitler' on CBS This is an original press photo. Brad Davis stars as Colonel Claus Von Stauffenberg, a high-ranking Nazi who heads a daring underground movement to eliminate the Feuhrer, in the new fact-based motion picture-for-television, 'The Plot to Kill Hitler,' to be broadcast on the 'CBS Tuesday Movie' on the CBS Television Network. This is a story of all the plots against Hitler, of secret meetings in freezing fields, of bombs in briefcases, of conspiracies against the life of the Fuhrer, with a cast-list of soldiers, senior politicians, members of the resistance, schoolteachers, theologians, and even a humble carpenter.

All attempts occurred in the German Reich, except where noted. All attempts involved citizens of the German Reich, except where noted. No fewer than 42 plots have been uncovered by historians.[2] However, the true number cannot be accurately determined due to an unknown number of undocumented cases.

German diplomat and resistance fighter Erich Kordt hatched an assassination plot along with officer Hasso von Etzdorf to plant explosives, but the plan was abandoned after the security restrictions following Georg Elser's attempt to kill Hitler made the acquisition and concealment of the necessary explosives too dangerous. 1941–1943 (several).

DateLocationAttempted bySummary
1932Hotel Kaiserhof (Berlin)UnknownHitler and several members of his staff fell ill after dining at the revered Kaiserhof hotel in Berlin. Poisoning was suspected, but no arrests were made. Hitler himself seemed least affected by the alleged poisoning, possibly due to his vegetarian diet.[3]
February 9, 1932BerlinLudwig AssnerLudwig Assner, a German politician and member of the Bavarian State Parliament, sent a poisoned letter to Hitler from France. An acquaintance of Assner warned Hitler and the letter was intercepted.[3]
1934BerlinBeppo RömerFreikorps member Beppo Römer vowed to assassinate Hitler as revenge for the Night of the Long Knives but was turned over to the Gestapo before any concrete plan could be made. Romer was imprisoned at Dachau until 1939.
1934BerlinHelmut MyliusDr. Helmut Mylius, head of the right-wing Radical small class Party (Radikale Mittelstandspartei), had 160 men infiltrate the SS and begin gathering information on Hitler's movements. The conspiracy was uncovered by the Gestapo and the conspirators arrested. Mylius escaped arrest through the aid of influential friends, including Field Marshall Erich von Manstein.[4]
1935BerlinMarwitz groupSeveral officials in the German Foreign Office attempted to instigate an army coup against Hitler; they distributed a letter asserting that 'The oath of allegiance to Hitler has lost its meaning since he is ready to sacrifice Germany', and that 'now was the time to act.'[5]
1935BerlinPaul Josef StuermerDr. Paul Joseph Stuermer led a resistance group composed of several officers, university professors, businessmen, and government workers. The group assisted in several assassination attempts including Beppo Römer's attempt.[6]
December 20, 1936NurembergHelmut HirschHelmut Hirsch, a German Jew and a member of the StrasseristBlack Front, was tasked with planting two suitcases filled with explosives at the Nazi party headquarters in Nuremberg. The plot was revealed to the Gestapo by a double agent and Hirsch was executed by decapitation.
1937BerlinJosef ThomasOn 26 November, mental patient Josef Thomas, who traveled from Elberfeld to Berlin to shoot Hitler and air force commander Hermann Göring, was arrested by the Gestapo after he confessed his intent.[7]
1937BerlinUnknown man in SS uniformAn unidentified man in SS uniform reportedly tried to kill Hitler during a rally at the Berlin SportPalast.[7]
September 28, 1938BerlinHans Oster, Helmuth GroscurthGeneralmajorHans Oster and other high-ranking conservatives in the Wehrmacht formed a plan to overthrow Hitler if he declared war on Czechoslovakia. Forces controlled by the plotters would storm the Reich Chancellery, arrest or assassinate Hitler, take control of the government, and restore the exiled Wilhelm II as Emperor. The plan was abandoned after Britain and France agreed to German annexation of Sudetenland in the Munich Agreement, neutralizing the immediate risk of war. Many of the conspirators later took part in the 1944 20 July Plot.
November 9, 1938MunichMaurice BavaudSwiss theology student Maurice Bavaud posed as a reporter and planned to shoot Hitler from the reviewing stand as he passed through the parade. His view of Hitler was blocked by the unwitting crowd and he was forced to abandon the plan. He then attempted to follow Hitler but failed. On his way back to Paris he was discovered by a train conductor and turned over to the Gestapo. Bavaud was executed by guillotine at Berlin's Plötzensee Prison on the morning of 14 May 1941.
October 5, 1939WarsawMichał Karaszewicz-Tokarzewski, Service for Poland's VictoryGeneral Michał Karaszewicz-Tokarzewski and other members of the Polish Army attempted to detonate hidden explosives during Hitler's victory parade in Warsaw. 500 kg of TNT were concealed in a ditch, ready to be detonated by Polish sappers. However, at the last moment, the parade was diverted and the saboteurs missed their target.[8]
November 8, 1939MunichJohann Georg ElserGerman carpenter Georg Elser placed a time-bomb at the Bürgerbräukeller in Munich, where Hitler was due to give his annual speech in commemoration of the Beer Hall Putsch. Hitler left earlier than expected and the bomb detonated, killing eight and injuring sixty-two others. Following the attempt, Elser was held as a prisoner for over five years until he was executed at the Dachau concentration camp less than a month before the surrender of Nazi Germany.
1939BerlinErich KordtGerman diplomat and resistance fighter Erich Kordt hatched an assassination plot along with officer Hasso von Etzdorf to plant explosives, but the plan was abandoned after the security restrictions following Georg Elser's attempt to kill Hitler made the acquisition and concealment of the necessary explosives too dangerous.[9]
1941–1943 (several)BerlinBeppo RömerBeppo Römer, along with several co-conspirators of the resistance group Solf Circle, plotted once again to assassinate Hitler. He obtained funds from co-conspirator Nikolaus von Halem and kept track of the Hitler's movements through a contact at the Berlin City Commandment. However, before an opportunity presented itself, the plot was unraveled by the Gestapo. Römer was sentenced to death on 16 June 1944 and executed on 25 September of that year at Brandenburg-Görden Prison in Brandenburg an der Havel.[10]
1943Walki, UkraineHubert Lanz, Hans Speidel, Hyazinth Graf StrachwitzGeneral der GebirgstruppeHubert Lanz and Generals Hans Speidel, Hyacinth Graf Strachwitz, and Paul Loehning planned to arrest or kill Hitler during his visit to Army Detachment Kempf in Ukraine. Strachwitz was to surround Hitler and his escorts with his tanks. Lanz stated that he would have then arrested Hitler, and in the event of resistance, Strachwitz's tanks would have killed the entire group. Hitler cancelled the visit and the plan was dropped.[11] Lanz told of this plot after the war. However Strachwitz's cousin, Rudolf Christoph Freiherr von Gersdorff, who attempted to assassinate Hitler in 1943, said Strachwitz had expressed the belief to him several times that killing Hitler would have constituted murder. That is, Strachwitz was too much a Prussian officer to consider assassinating Hitler, which suggests that the plot never existed.[12]
March 13, 1943Flight to SmolenskHenning von Tresckow, Fabian von SchlabrendorffOn the return flight from a front visit, Hitler visited the headquarters of the Army Group Center in Smolensk. During the visit there were several attempts on his life:
  • Under the direction of Major Georg von Boeselager, several officers were to intercept and assassinate Hitler in a grove on his way from the airport to the headquarters. Hitler was guarded by an armed SS escort; the plan was then dropped.
  • During lunchtime, Tresckow, Boeselager, and others planned to get up at a sign and fire pistols at Hitler. The commander-in-chief of the Army Group, Field Marshal Günther von Kluge, knew about the plan but decided not to intervene. However, the plan was abandoned when it became clear that Himmler would not be present. Kluge forbade the attack, citing his fear of a possible civil war erupting between the SS and the army.
  • In a last-ditch attempt, Fabian von Schlabrendorff gave a time bomb camouflaged as a package of two liqueur bottles to an officer in Hitler's entourage, as a supposed gift to a friend in Germany. The bomb was supposed to explode on the return flight over Poland. The package was placed in the hold of the aircraft, where it iced up, causing the detonator to fail. Realizing the failure, Schlabrendorff immediately flew to Germany and recovered the package before it was discovered.
March 21, 1943BerlinRudolf Christoph Freiherr von GersdorffAfter becoming close friends with leading Army Group Center conspirator Colonel (later Major-General) Henning von Tresckow, Generalmajor Gersdorff agreed to join the conspiracy to kill Hitler in order to save Germany. After Tresckow's elaborate plan to assassinate Hitler on 13 March 1943 failed, Gersdorff declared himself ready to participate in an assassination attempt that would entail his own death.

On 21 March 1943, Hitler visited the Zeughaus Berlin, the old armory on Unter den Linden, to inspect captured Soviet weapons. A group of top Nazi and leading military officials — among them Hermann Göring, Heinrich Himmler, Field MarshalWilhelm Keitel, and Grand AdmiralKarl Dönitz — were present as well. As an expert, Gersdorff was to guide Hitler on a tour of the exhibition. Moments after Hitler entered the museum, Gersdorff set off two ten-minute delayed fuses on explosive devices hidden in his coat pockets. His plan was to throw himself around Hitler in a death embrace that would blow them both up. A detailed plan for a coup d'état had been worked out and was ready to go but, contrary to expectations, Hitler raced through the museum in less than ten minutes. After Hitler had left the building, Gersdorff was able to defuse the devices in a public bathroom “at the last second.” After the attempt, he was transferred back to the Eastern Front, where he managed to evade suspicion.[13]

November 16, 1943Wolf's LairAxel Freiherr von dem Bussche-StreithorstEncouraged by Claus Stauffenberg, MajorAxel von dem Bussche agreed to carry out a suicide bombing in order to kill Hitler. Bussche, who was over two meters tall, blonde and blue-eyed, exemplified the Nazi 'Nordic ideal' and was thus chosen to personally model the Army's new winter uniform in front of Hitler. In his backpack, Bussche concealed a landmine, which he planned to detonate while embracing Hitler. However, the viewing was canceled after the rail car containing the new uniforms was destroyed in an Allied air raid on Berlin.
January 1944Wolf's LairEwald-Heinrich von Kleist-SchmenzinEwald von Kleist attempted a scheme similar to Von dem Bussche's. However, the uniform inspection was once again postponed, and eventually cancelled by Hitler.
March 11, 1944BerghofEberhard von BreitenbuchOn 9 March 1944, covert German resistance member Busch and his aides were summoned to brief Hitler at the Berghof in Bavaria on 11 March. In discussion with Tresckow, Breitenbuch declined to make a suicide bomb attempt attack. Instead he would try to shoot Hitler in the head with a 7.65mm Browning pistol concealed in his trouser pocket.[14] Busch and Breitenbuch travelled on a Condor aircraft to Bavaria, and were allowed into the Berghof. But SS guards had been ordered – earlier that day – not to permit aides into the conference room with Hitler, preventing Breitenbuch's attempt.[15]
July 20, 1944Wolf's LairClaus von Stauffenberg

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^Christian Zentner, Friedemann Bedürftig (1991). The Encyclopedia of the Third Reich, pp. 47–48. Macmillan, New York. ISBN0-02-897502-2
  2. ^Killing Hitler: The Plots, the Assassins, and the Dictator Who Cheated Death, pp 3
  3. ^ abT. D. Conner, Demolition Man: Hitler: from Braunau to the Bunker, pp 769
  4. ^The German Opposition to Hitler: The Resistance, the Underground, and Assassination Plots (1938-1945), pp 87
  5. ^Disobedience and Conspiracy in the German Army, 1918-1945, pp 180
  6. ^History of the German Resistance, 1933-1945, pp 34
  7. ^ abFamous Assassinations in World History: An Encyclopedia, pp 227
  8. ^'Warszawski zamach na Hitlera: Hitler przemknął im koło nosa' (in Polish). October 5, 2011.
  9. ^German Resistance against Hitler: The Search for Allies Abroad 1938-1945, pp 73
  10. ^History of the German Resistance, 1933-1945, pp 253
  11. ^Röll 2011, pp. 182–183.
  12. ^Röll 2011, pp. 184–186.
  13. ^Roger Moorhouse, Killing Hitler (2006), pp.192-193.
  14. ^Ian Kershaw (2000). Hitler 1936-1945: Nemesis. Penguin Press. ISBN0-393-32252-1.
  15. ^Michael C Thomsett (1997). The German Opposition to Hitler: The Resistance, the Underground, and Assassination Plots, 1938-1945. McFarland. ISBN0-78-6403721.

Further reading[edit]

  • Moorhouse, Roger (2006). Killing Hitler: The Plots, the Assassins, and the Dictator Who Cheated Death. New York: Bantam Books. ISBN9780553803693. OCLC61687925.

Plots To Kill Hitler Wikipedia

Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_assassination_attempts_on_Adolf_Hitler&oldid=1003499811'

WWII brought tremendous technological breakthroughs many of which – like the jet engine – revolutionized our everyday lives. Medicine was also a vast field for new discoveries during the war, as research was conducted to enhance the chances of survival of soldiers fighting on the frontlines. Innovations in medical science were applied in civilian life, improving the general quality of health care and prolonging life expectancy around the world.

What remains less well known are the experiments which led to a dead end. Many of them were intended for use in warfare, but due to their sheer silliness were abandoned. The Allies were open to all sorts of ridiculous suggestions, such as dropping glue from aircraft, thus gluing Nazi troops to the ground; or importing booby-trapped cans into Germany, disguised as conserved fruit; or dropping crates of poisonous snakes or forming squadrons of suicidal bats strapped with explosives.

Better yet, prototypes of war machines were made but never entered service. The Great Panjandrum, for example, was a large rocket-propelled cart, designed to cause havoc among the enemy during the D-Day landings.

Perhaps one of the craziest ideas considered by the Allies involved smuggling estrogen – the primary female hormone – into Hitler’s food! The idea was to disrupt his hormonal balance and influence his wartime decisions.

The plan was spearheaded by the OSS and was to be put into action by British agents who would infiltrate Hitler’s staff and remain undetected. It was based on extensive analysis into Hitler’s character, as well as the nature of his younger sister, Paula, who was considered quite the opposite of the war-driven dictator ― docile, calm and reserved.

Paula worked as a secretary in Vienna for most of her life and was supported financially by her brother, once he seized power. After the war, she was imprisoned by the Americans but was soon released, as it was concluded that she had held no role in the Reich. Paula Hitler spent the rest of her life in seclusion, until her death in 1960.

According to Professor Brian Ford, a writer and a fellow of Cardiff University, who discovered this ludicrous plot, the intention was to engineer Hitler’s way of thinking by bringing him closer to his feminine side:

“There was an Allied plan that they would smuggle estrogen into Hitler’s food and change his sex so he would become more feminine and less aggressive.”

In his book, entitled “Secret Weapons: Technology, Science And The Race To Win World War II,” Professor Ford outlined the estrogen plot while considering the scientific breakthrough which came after it was first discovered in 1929.

Other theories propose that the plan was for the estrogen to cause physical changes to Hitler, such as the development of breasts or the loss of facial hair. Such effects would then cause him to retreat and avoid public display, allowing his rivals to thrive.

The Plots To Kill Hitler

Either way, the conditions for achieving the plan were possible, according to Ford:

Plots To Kill Hitler

“There were agents who would be able to get it into his food – it would have been entirely possible. “

One of the reasons for developing the idea was that Hitler was surrounded by food tasters, whose every bite could have been their last. The German dictator was known for his paranoia and fear of being poisoned, so any direct attempt to eliminate him via food was out of the question. Sex hormones, on the other hand, had a much more subtle effect and would not have been noticed by food tasters.

Plots

How Many Plots To Kill Hitler

The outlandish plot was abandoned, possibly because the Allies changed their attitude towards Hitler. After 1943 he became more and more dismissive of expert advice, stringing one military disaster after another.

German Plots To Kill Hitler

All assassination plots were canceled. It turned out that, to win the war, all the Allies had to do was keep the madman as head of the Third Reich.