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00:00In a world gripped by tyranny, where power knows no bounds and liberty is seemingly beyond grasp, defiant freedom fighters emerge from the shadows to challenge the status quo.
00:12With unwavering determination, risking all and defying the odds, these are the stories of those who plotted the downfall of some of the world's most notorious regimes.
00:22Can a group of unlikely heroes change the course of history and successfully kill a dictator?
00:30To be continued...
01:00A military officer, locked inside a bathroom of a remote bunker, struggles with a briefcase.
01:07Inside is a one kilogram block of plastic explosive and a slim pencil detonator.
01:13He tries desperately to stay quiet as he crushes the end of the detonator.
01:19All that's left to do is repeat the process with a second bomb.
01:22There's a sudden knock at the door.
01:27A guard tells him to hurry up.
01:30He is expected at a meeting and it's about to begin.
01:33In a split-second decision, the man abandons the second bomb and makes his way to the conference room.
01:39He slides his briefcase under an enormous oak table and takes a seat alongside 20 other high-ranking Nazi officials.
01:51He has just armed the bomb that will kill Adolf Hitler.
01:54Hitler distrusts everyone.
01:57He's paranoid.
01:58He's surrounded by bodyguards.
01:59Not many people can get close enough to Hitler to do that.
02:01If they were to fail this attempt, they know that they're going to be hunted down and purged in the worst possible way.
02:10The Fuhrer dead, Germany could finally put an end to the bloodiest war in history.
02:15As far as the plotters were concerned, one man was responsible for the Second World War.
02:20If this plot works, Hitler's removed and the war could end, saving millions of lives.
02:27The orchestrators of the infamous 20th of July plot are not affiliated with the Western Allies or the Soviet Union, Hitler's sworn enemies.
02:37Rather, they hail from the ranks of some of the most influential military leaders within Nazi Germany.
02:43Ultimately, the people that Hitler trusts the most are the ones in the position to betray him the easiest.
02:50The biggest threat to Hitler at that moment is his own army.
02:54But this attempt on the Fuhrer's life is far from the first.
03:05Although Adolf Hitler had failed in his bid to seize power a decade earlier,
03:12when he ultimately rose to power in 1933, he appeared to be universally adored by the German population.
03:19After World War I, the victors punished Germany, de-industrialization, de-militarization, paying very steep war reparations.
03:29Currency was worthless in Germany.
03:31The unemployment rates are through the ceiling.
03:33Germany is on its knees.
03:34He is the one who has all of the solutions.
03:38He is the one who can tame the chaos.
03:40His promises to rebuild the German economy, create a strong government, and reclaim the country's former status as a world power lead to a devoted support base.
03:51As Hitler's popularity swells, his Nazi party takes extreme measures to stamp out any opposition,
03:58using their notorious paramilitary wing, the Ström of Teilung, the SA,
04:03a group that provided muscle and support during Hitler's early political campaigns.
04:09They relied on street violence as an instrument of politics.
04:14This involved terrorizing Jews, terrorizing political opponents,
04:18and creating an atmosphere of intimidation for voters.
04:23The SA's ruthless behavior brings them into conflict with another organization,
04:27the former German army known as the Reichswehr.
04:31And then you have the old Reichswehr, where you have the traditional officers.
04:36They regard themselves as professionals, while the SA are just a bunch of rabble.
04:43Between 1932 and 1933, the SA grows from 400,000 members to 2 million, 20 times larger than the army.
04:52They are led by a close friend of Adolf Hitler's, Ernst Röhm.
04:58Ernst Röhm was one of the original Nazis,
05:01and he belonged to the wing that emphasized social revolution that was closest to the working class.
05:09With Hitler's appointment as chancellor, head of the German government,
05:14Röhm had his own plans to absorb existing troops into the SA
05:18and build a new, more powerful, and ruthless armed force.
05:22This alarmed Hitler, as he was consolidating power
05:26and seeking support from conservative elements in Germany, including the military.
05:31An aristocracy is military, business-based power
05:35that Hitler is trying to woo and is wooing successfully.
05:42Hitler must choose between his allegiance to Röhm
05:45and his relationship with the conservative army generals.
05:48Röhm and the senior members of the SA with a 4 million and larger coming army at their command.
05:57This is a real threat.
05:59Adolf Hitler, fearing a political challenge to his leadership by Röhm,
06:04starts to orchestrate a series of targeted political murders.
06:07On the morning of June 30th, 1934, Hitler arrives at the Bavarian Interior Ministry in Munich.
06:15He confronts the leaders of an SA group that had rampaged through the city the night before.
06:21He shouts furiously at the group before ripping the epaulettes from the chief of the police's shirt.
06:27The men are hurried away to prison.
06:29The chief of police is sentenced to death.
06:32Hitler's purge of the SA has officially begun.
06:37In 1934, there is the infamous Night of the Long Knives.
06:42And Hitler, like many other dictators, turns against his own allies.
06:47Röhm is going to be accused of attempting to overthrow Hitler with partners from other factions
06:54in the German political system as well who are going to be killed that night.
06:57It consolidates power.
07:00It scares a lot of people.
07:02But it also brings the German army behind Hitler.
07:07In just three days, Hitler has decimated the SA,
07:12eliminating any threat they might pose to the Nazi regime.
07:16Röhm himself was arrested and subsequently executed.
07:19While the SA continued to exist, its role was greatly diminished.
07:24But Hitler's growing influence soon starts to worry his would-be allies in the German military.
07:31The Night of the Long Knives is only the beginning of Hitler's brutal reign of terror.
07:36In a few short years, the Nazi's violence reaches new heights,
07:40this time aimed at their own citizens.
07:42Hitler begins to formulate the early plans for what would be the final solution, the Holocaust.
07:51The Nazis' rise to power fuels a rampant increase in anti-Semitism across Germany.
07:57On November 9, 1938, the Nazis' minister of propaganda, Joseph Goebbels,
08:02announces that any outburst of violence towards Jewish individuals and or businesses
08:07would not be stopped by the Nazi government.
08:10Almost instantly, remaining SA units across the country begin a campaign of terror.
08:17It was to become known as Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass,
08:22an organized nationwide attack on Jews.
08:25By the following day, approximately 30,000 Jewish men are rounded up and taken to concentration camps.
08:32Despite the widespread anti-Jewish prejudice in Germany,
08:35the sheer brutality of the attacks leaves a bad taste in the mouths of some officials.
08:42Kristallnacht raised questions for many German elites about the reliability of their Nazi partner.
08:49They had thought that Hitler was more disciplined by this time.
08:52To those in the upper ranks of the German army, all signs point to an escalation.
08:57As conflict looms over Germany, top military leaders initiate a plan to stop Hitler in his tracks.
09:05The Night of the Long Knives, Kristallnacht, they build insurgency.
09:10They build resistance.
09:11And the future of Germany is at stake.
09:13By 1938, a military commander, Hans Oster, resolves to take down the Nazi government, starting with its leader.
09:22Oster was a general in the Wehrmacht, the German army, who decided that enough was enough.
09:27He's one of the first to try to assassinate Hitler.
09:31Determined to neutralize Adolf Hitler, Oster reaches out to fellow army officials, keen to garner support for a brand new resistance movement.
09:41They will call themselves Schwarze Cappella, the Black Orchestra.
09:47In 1938, German conspirators begin reaching out to British officials, keen to strike a deal, overthrow Hitler, and avoid a war.
09:56But the British have their doubts.
09:58The British are still trying to figure out how to deal with Hitler.
10:03And this outreach from the Black Orchestra, they don't know what to do with that either.
10:08They don't want to be seen as middling in German affairs.
10:13Without Britain's support, Oster and his collaborators decide to take matters into their own hands.
10:19And there's no time to waste.
10:21Hitler is on the verge of launching Germany into a full-scale war.
10:25One the Black Orchestra are certain it will lose.
10:28Among Hitler's early ambitions, one revolves around gaining control of the Sudetenland, a Czechoslovakian region housing a significant ethnic German population.
10:42Hitler has this idea of Lebensraum, which basically means breathing room or elbow room.
10:48He needs a buffer around Germany.
10:50He believes all this properly belongs in a German empire.
10:55Members of the Black Orchestra are convinced that Britain and France will deny Hitler's permission to occupy the Sudetenland.
11:03They are equally convinced Hitler will invade regardless.
11:06This illegal maneuver will give the resistance leaders the perfect opportunity to target the Nazi leader.
11:13It was important that the conspirators have an alibi, that there be some legalistic pretext for his assassination.
11:21Their plan is, as soon as Hitler tries to take the Sudetenland by force, they will storm the Chancellery, overthrow the SS bodyguards, and go through the motions of arresting Adolf Hitler.
11:34Imprisoning Hitler would have only raised his profile, and this would have created the opportunity for his supporters to mobilize against whoever overthrew him.
11:46Once Hitler is in their sights, the assassins will claim he resisted arrest and shoot him dead.
11:54The troops then, led by complicit military officers, will march into Berlin and support the coup, signaling a new dawn for Germany.
12:04It's probably no greater what-if moment than if the coup had succeeded.
12:09Imagine the feelings. If we can stop him now, potentially you prevent World War II.
12:13Just as the group prepares to strike, the unthinkable happens.
12:18Hitler announces that he has agreed to a four-party conference to discuss the Sudeten crisis.
12:26On the 30th of September, British and French Prime Ministers Neville Chamberlain,
12:31Edouard Deladier, and Italian leader Benito Mussolini meet with Adolf Hitler in Munich.
12:37The consequences of this meeting would soon reverberate around the world.
12:41The question that is facing European leaders outside of Germany is whether or not they need to accommodate and appease Hitler,
12:50or whether they need to take on a more antagonistic stance and oppose Hitler.
12:56During the conference, Mussolini produces a written plan to the group,
13:00proposing the annexation of the Sudetenland into Germany.
13:03Hitler claims that Germans there were being mistreated and that he sought to protect them.
13:10Not wanting another European conflict, Britain and France quickly agree to the terms
13:16and inform Czechoslovakia that it can either resist alone or submit to the German occupation of the Sudetenland.
13:23The Czechoslovak government submits.
13:26The Western powers assumed that that would quench Hitler's thirst for conquest.
13:33The British public reacted with tremendous relief.
13:37Chamberlain literally promised peace in our time and had a piece of paper to prove it.
13:42Hitler's diplomatic victory during the Munich Agreement is a devastating blow to Hans Oster and the Black Orchestra.
13:52With the Fuhrer's success, he is now more popular than ever in Germany.
13:57The resistance group watches any hopes of a coup fade before their eyes.
14:01It will be years before they attempt to kill Hitler again.
14:05Within six months, Hitler's ruthless ambitions become clear.
14:11Violating the Munich Agreement, in March of 1939, he launches an all-out invasion of Czechoslovakia.
14:18Britain and France's efforts to appease their enemy have failed.
14:22Germany is on the warpath.
14:24As Hitler grew ever more determined to mount a full-scale invasion of Europe,
14:30he faced not only unrest in his military, but also a more direct threat from one German who was literally carving out his demise.
14:40On the 2nd of November 1939, 36-year-old Georg Elser sneaks into the Munich Bürgerbräukeller Hall.
14:48He kneels behind an enormous column, directly behind a large podium.
14:58For months now, he has been carefully chipping out a hollow in the column's brickwork,
15:03complete with a secret wood-paneled door.
15:09He lifts a homemade bomb into the space and shuts the door.
15:12In just six days, Hitler will stand at this podium to address a swarm of adoring fans.
15:24Georg Elser is determined this speech will be his last.
15:29Elser is a committed communist, consistently voting for the KPD, the Communist Party of Germany.
15:35By this point, all other political parties had been dissolved and banned.
15:42Opportunities for opposition were extremely limited.
15:45Elser despises the Nazi regime, refusing to listen to Hitler's speeches on the radio and rejecting the Nazi salute.
15:53He is also worried about the prospect of war.
15:57In order to protect the rights of workers in his country and avoid a bloody conflict,
16:02Elser resolves to do the unthinkable.
16:05By this point, Hitler's being elevated to a godlike status,
16:10assassinating him would shatter the entire mythology that the Nazi Party had built.
16:18Aware of Hitler's annual tradition of delivering a speech at Munich's Bürgerbräuhr Keller,
16:23commemorating the anniversary of November 8th and his unsuccessful coup attempt in 1923,
16:29Elser makes his first trip to the city.
16:31He enters the beer hall at 10.30 p.m., following Hitler's address,
16:36and scans the interior, making mental notes of the layout of the space,
16:41and also begins an assassination attempt years in the making.
16:46Elser is meticulous in his planning.
16:48He knows what his base skill of woodworking is,
16:51but he knows that he needs various materials, and he plans different jobs to get access.
16:55During this time, Elser is employed at the Waldenmaier Armament Factory in Heidenheim.
17:01He begins slowly stealing supplies, stashing packets of explosives away in his bedroom.
17:07It isn't long before he has built up a small but deadly arsenal.
17:11The following spring, Elser finds work at a quarry in Königsbronn.
17:17He begins to steal from work, collecting over 100 blasting cartridges and detonators.
17:23At a time when Germany's military capacities are built up,
17:29Elser is in his basement concocting his own weapons.
17:33After months of tinkering, sketching, and assembly,
17:38Elser finally builds a fail-safe bomb, complete with a six-day timer.
17:43In August of 1939, Elser moves to Munich.
17:48He rents a room from an unsuspecting couple and becomes a regular at the Berger Breuekeller.
17:54In September, he begins sneaking into the hall at night.
17:58His first mission?
17:59To install a secret door in the all-important column just behind the podium.
18:04Hitler's scheduled to give a speech in Munich, and Elser's going to kill him there.
18:09He plans it thoroughly.
18:11He starts about 30 days beforehand casing the hall where Hitler's going to speak.
18:15He digs a hole into a column.
18:18He knows the time of Hitler's speech.
18:20He knows Hitler will be standing near it.
18:23On the night of November 1st, Elser installs the bomb.
18:29Three nights later, he returns to add the mechanism that will trigger the detonator.
18:36With its 144-hour timer, everything is set.
18:41The bomb will detonate at 9.20 p.m. on the 8th of November, halfway through Hitler's speech.
18:47But Elser has failed to account for one crucial development.
18:51Elser is meticulous in his planning.
18:56Everything is in his control, except the things that aren't, which is his target and his target's schedule.
19:02One of the ways for a dictator to stay alive is to keep changing your schedule and be paranoid.
19:07Hitler's speech is moved up by an hour.
19:11Elser's bomb detonates exactly as scheduled.
19:14At 9.20, an explosion rocks the beer hall.
19:19The blast goes off.
19:22Tragically, it kills eight, injures about 60, doing a lot of damage.
19:26But one of those individuals who was not injured or killed was Hitler.
19:32Preoccupied with the ongoing war on Germany's Western Front,
19:35Hitler has left the Burger Breukeller 13 minutes earlier.
19:39The fact that Hitler survives the assassination attempt by Elser feeds into his fantasy of being invincible,
19:47being a savior for the German people,
19:50and instills a kind of confidence in Hitler that he was on the right track
19:54and that his objectives were going to be met.
19:58Just a week later, behaving suspiciously,
20:01Elser is caught trying to escape into Switzerland.
20:03Following his arrest and extensive interrogation,
20:07the Gestapo, the secret police of the Nazis,
20:10descend on the quarry at Königsbrunn,
20:12declaring it a hotbed of treason and dubbing it Assassinville.
20:17He cracks down even more brutally on any opposition and any disloyalty.
20:22Leaders of the SS, the elite guard of the Nazi regime,
20:26even use Elser's attempts to incriminate other countries.
20:29Joseph Goebbels and his other propaganda agents say that this was an international plot.
20:35It was an international plot by the British and the French and others,
20:38and internally in Germany, it solidifies their support of Hitler.
20:43So he actually comes out stronger and more ensconced in power after this failed plot.
20:49Following his attempt on Hitler's life,
20:52Georg Elser is sent to Dachau concentration camp,
20:55where he will spend more than five brutal years before facing execution in 1945.
21:02And yet the threats to Adolf Hitler's life are far from over.
21:07As Elser faces certain doom,
21:10resistance to the Fuhrer's regime grows among the top ranks of his own army.
21:15Von Tresco is very interesting.
21:17He's an aristocrat.
21:18He comes from a long line of distinguished generals, but he turns on Hitler.
21:24He sees aristocrats like himself marginalized or assassinated,
21:28so he decides he's going to do something about it.
21:31Unlike many of his forefathers, Tresco isn't a typical soldier.
21:36He dislikes the regimented nature of army life
21:39and grows increasingly disillusioned with the Nazi party.
21:42Nevertheless, he proves instrumental in the invasion of France
21:46by bringing a unique invasion strategy to Hitler's attention.
21:51The French had expended considerable resources
21:54to fortify their border with Germany.
21:58They were not expecting an invasion through the Ardennes Forest,
22:03which was extremely difficult terrain to navigate.
22:05This represented a knockout blow
22:09and a stunning military success for Hitler.
22:13And yet, Tresco is pessimistic
22:15about the German military's apparent success.
22:18He is convinced that should the United States join the war,
22:21Germany will be doomed.
22:24Hitler is convinced of his military prowess
22:27and is consistently making decisions
22:31without taking heed of his general's advice.
22:34Hitler's next military move
22:37only reinforces Tresco's growing skepticism.
22:41In 1941, Hitler launches an invasion of the Soviet Union.
22:46This is Operation Barbarossa.
22:48Operation Barbarossa represents the final showdown
22:52with all of the forces that Hitler and the Nazis
22:55saw as representing evil in the world.
22:58The Soviet Union stood for communism
23:00and also was the final confrontation
23:04with the other great dictator of the era, Stalin.
23:08Shortly after the invasion of the Soviet Union,
23:11Trescu begins working as chief of operations
23:13in the Army Group Center for Operation Barbarossa.
23:17Here, he witnesses some of Germany's
23:19most disastrous military maneuvers
23:22as Nazi forces struggle to overcome their Soviet rivals
23:25under the looming threat of a bitter winter.
23:29Fueled by Trescu's own opposition to the Nazis,
23:32the Army Group Center becomes a hub of military resistance
23:35and they reach out to a group of dissidents
23:37who have remained dormant for a number of years.
23:40The opposition to Hitler is growing.
23:44They see that Hitler is ultimately going to doom Germany
23:46and they start organizing with members of the Black Orchestra
23:50and others to remove Hitler.
23:53At the end of September 1941,
23:56Trescu makes contact with other resistance troops in Berlin,
23:59promising that he and his colleagues
24:01are prepared to do anything to overthrow Hitler.
24:04After his aborted 1938 coup,
24:08Deputy Head of Military Intelligence Hans Oster
24:11quickly shows interest in Trescu's plan.
24:15In 1942, Trescu is put in contact
24:18with General Friedrich Ulbricht,
24:20the chief of the General Army Office.
24:24Von Trescu and other generals who are opposing Hitler
24:27need the support of Ulbricht.
24:29The Army functions through his office,
24:31whether it's supply, logistics, communications.
24:34So if you're not trying to just kill Hitler,
24:36but overthrow the Nazis and seize control,
24:39you need to control communications.
24:41And Ulbricht can do that.
24:43So he becomes very important
24:45for this insurrectionist, this resistance movement.
24:48After more than a year of covert correspondence,
24:51the network of military resistance
24:52is ready to revolt with Operation Spark.
24:56Eliminating Hitler would have been the spark
24:58to undo the Nazi regime.
25:02But the Nazi regime was an entire structure,
25:06and that had to be dismantled through a coup.
25:10Operation Spark will target both Hitler
25:13and SS leader Heinrich Himmler
25:15during a planned visit to the German-occupied city
25:18of Smolensk in Western Russia.
25:21After a string of cancellations,
25:23Hitler makes his first trip to Smolensk
25:25on March 13, 1943.
25:27He is initially supposed to be accompanied
25:30by Heinrich Himmler,
25:31but Himmler backs out at the last minute.
25:35That throws a monkey wrench into the entire plot.
25:37You can't just kill Hitler.
25:38You've got to remove those
25:40who could step into power after him.
25:42But Trescu and his colleagues
25:43have worked too hard to give up now.
25:46Von Trescu initially plans to shoot Hitler point blank.
25:49Others around in the Black Orchestra
25:51and other generals say that
25:52the German public won't go for that.
25:54What will not lose public support
25:56is bombing his plane,
25:57and they don't know why the plane was destroyed.
26:00Blowing Hitler out of the sky
26:01offers some plausible deniability
26:04that this explosion was potentially caused
26:09by an Allied plane or a technical malfunction.
26:15It absolves plotters from blame.
26:19Trescu settles on this alternate plan.
26:22He approaches Lieutenant Colonel Heinz Brandt,
26:25a personal assistant to a high-ranking officer
26:27who would be traveling with Hitler.
26:29He asks him whether he would transport
26:31a bottle of Cointreau back to Berlin
26:33as a special favor.
26:36This plan relied on an element of chance.
26:39Trescu was entrusting the bomb
26:41to someone who was unaware of the plot.
26:45If it makes you nervous or anxious,
26:46other people can pick up on those signals
26:48and wonder what's going on,
26:49and this is what security's looking for.
26:51So the individual who you pass the bomb onto
26:54doesn't know it's a bomb,
26:55isn't going to act out of the ordinary,
26:56and that is providing a level of cover or control.
27:01Brandt agrees and happily takes the package with him.
27:05Little does he realize that he has just carried
27:07an armed bomb onto Hitler's private plane.
27:13In just half an hour,
27:14the spring timer will dissolve,
27:16detonating the plastic explosive.
27:18The countdown to Hitler's certain death has begun.
27:24Yet, despite weeks of testing,
27:27the bomb fails to detonate.
27:28It's put in the cargo hold,
27:30which is freezing,
27:31and the device is supposed to melt down,
27:34which would trigger the detonation,
27:36but it apparently doesn't melt down
27:37because of the freezing cold in the cargo hold,
27:40and Hitler survives another assassination attempt.
27:43Word of the bomb's failure is quickly sent out,
27:47and the package swiftly retrieved
27:48before any incriminating evidence could be found.
27:53Hitler may have survived Operation Spark,
27:56but the attempt has only served to spur on
27:58an even more daring mission.
28:00Now they're going to double down.
28:02They've got to remove Hitler.
28:04On March 21st, 1943,
28:08Colonel Rudolf Christoph von Gerstorff,
28:11a close friend of Trescu,
28:13prepares to welcome Nazi Germany's most powerful leaders
28:15to the Zeughaus Museum Armory in Berlin.
28:20Officers like Gerstorff and others,
28:24while they wanted to eliminate Hitler,
28:26this doesn't mean that their hands were clean.
28:30Many were responsible for war crimes
28:33and atrocities committed on the Eastern Front,
28:37especially in Poland.
28:38He is scheduled to give Hitler, Himmler, Göring,
28:42and two top field marshals
28:43a tour of captured Soviet ammunition.
28:47There's a commemoration in March
28:49of the Heroes of the Fallen,
28:51a hallowed, sacred day.
28:53What a day to remove Hitler.
28:55Gerstorff waits anxiously for the group's arrival.
28:59He's nervous.
29:00After Trescu's failed operation,
29:02all hopes of eliminating Hitler
29:04now rest on his shoulders.
29:08Hitler and his entourage arrive as scheduled.
29:11As they gather inside the museum,
29:13Gerstorff slips a hand into his pocket.
29:16He does the same on the other side.
29:19He has just armed two hidden explosives,
29:23setting off their twin 10-minute delay fuses.
29:25The plan is this simple.
29:29He's going to walk up to Hitler
29:30and then hug Hitler,
29:32and they'll both be blown up.
29:33He's going to die,
29:34but he'll remove the Fuhrer.
29:37But it isn't long before Gerstorff realizes
29:40that his plan is in jeopardy.
29:42Instead of taking his time in the museum,
29:44Hitler rushes through the museum
29:45and leaves quickly.
29:46Maybe he sensed something,
29:48maybe he was tipped off.
29:49We don't know why.
29:50Gerstorff is left with two explosives in his pocket.
29:53Gerstorff watches his plan collapse in horror
29:56as he realizes that his life
29:58is now the only one on the line.
30:00He rushes to the bathroom
30:02and begins desperately trying to defuse the bomb.
30:05I cannot even comprehend
30:07what is going through his mind
30:08at that particular moment.
30:10His plan has not worked.
30:12Hitler left.
30:13And he has two live explosives in his pockets.
30:17Somehow, he stays focused
30:19and with just seconds to spare,
30:21manages to disarm both explosives.
30:26Gerstorff is able to hide the evidence of his plan.
30:30Shortly after the failed assassination,
30:32he is sent back to the Eastern Front,
30:34safe from suspicion,
30:35as those in command had no inclination
30:38that he came so close to killing Hitler,
30:40even though the plan was full of flaws.
30:43As Hitler unbelievably walks away uninjured
30:47from yet another attempt on his life,
30:49the Black Orchestra resolved to try once more.
30:52Their next plot to overthrow the Fuhrer
30:55would be their most ambitious yet.
30:57After these failed assassination plots,
31:00in two in a week,
31:01people begin to lay low to regroup.
31:04Germany's military conspirators
31:06take their time to come up with a new strategy.
31:08In August of 1943,
31:10Henning von Trescu meets with 36-year-old
31:13Lieutenant Colonel Klaus von Stauffenberg.
31:16He's an aristocrat,
31:17born into great affluence and money.
31:19He's handsome,
31:21he's strong,
31:21he's smart.
31:23Stauffenberg fights passionately
31:24during the occupation of Poland
31:26and in the Battle of France.
31:28But even in the heat of battle,
31:29he is surrounded by dissenting voices.
31:32One of the challenges of assassinating Hitler
31:35is getting close enough to do the job.
31:37One of the people in Germany that can
31:39is Klaus von Stauffenberg.
31:43In April of 1943,
31:46Stauffenberg is stationed in Tunisia,
31:48where he's caught in a strafing attack
31:50by British fighter bombers.
31:52He suffers grievous injuries,
31:55losing his left eye,
31:56left hand,
31:57and two digits on his right hand.
31:59Stauffenberg is promptly flown back
32:01to Germany to heal,
32:03where he is quickly recruited
32:04to join the ranks of Hitler's opposition.
32:07People approaching him
32:09are counting on the fact
32:10that he's got a lot less to lose,
32:13and at the same time,
32:14the shock,
32:15physical shock,
32:16and the mental shock
32:17puts him in a place
32:19where he's more friable
32:20and maybe more easily manipulated
32:22into agreeing to join the group.
32:25After a slow recovery,
32:28Stauffenberg is sent to work
32:29at the Ersatzier,
32:31the reserve army headquarters.
32:33It is here that he meets
32:34Henning Bontrescu
32:35and his collaborator,
32:36Friedrich Albrecht,
32:38still chief of the general army office.
32:40Here, they discuss the most audacious
32:43assassination attempt to date,
32:45followed by a coup d'etat,
32:46using an existing plan codenamed
32:48Operation Valkyrie.
32:52Operation Valkyrie was originally designed
32:55as a plan to restore order
32:58in the event of a breakdown
33:00of the German state,
33:02but the plotters operationalized it
33:04for a possible coup.
33:06The addition of Stauffenberg
33:08to the conspiracy against Hitler
33:10breathes new life
33:11into a flagging movement.
33:13Additionally,
33:14Major General Helmut Steiff,
33:16positioned at Army High Command,
33:18becomes a valuable recruit
33:19whose role could bring him
33:21in close proximity to Hitler
33:22for a potential assassination.
33:25By the summer of 1944,
33:27the German military
33:28knows they are doomed.
33:30The Allies had landed in France.
33:33June 6th is also
33:34Operation Bagration in Russia,
33:37the largest offensive
33:39that the Russians to date
33:41had ever launched.
33:42Both sides together
33:44on D-Day June 6th
33:46start rolling on Germany.
33:49So the German general staff,
33:51as they gather around those maps,
33:54that map, chessboard,
33:55is looking really bad,
33:58and there's only one guy
33:59to blame for it,
34:01and that's the commander-in-chief,
34:03Adolf Hitler.
34:04As Stauffenberg and his colleagues
34:06prepare for one final blow
34:08against their leader,
34:09Helmut Steiff,
34:10the chief of operations
34:11at the Army High Command,
34:13and the man designated
34:14to kill Hitler
34:15withdraws his support.
34:17Without Steiff,
34:18Stauffenberg is left
34:19to carry out the plot alone.
34:22He's now asked
34:23to be the agent
34:24of assassination,
34:26and that's when we see,
34:27time and again,
34:29if somebody is asked
34:30to actually pull the trigger,
34:32it's a different request.
34:34For the first time,
34:37Stauffenberg's resolve falters.
34:39Trescu immediately steps in
34:41with words of encouragement,
34:43telling him that even
34:43if it doesn't succeed,
34:45the assassination attempt
34:46will be worthwhile.
34:48Trescu is encouraging
34:50Stauffenberg that even
34:51if the attempt fails,
34:53it will show the world
34:54that there are still people
34:56in Germany willing to resist
34:58Hitler and the Nazis.
35:00Stauffenberg agrees.
35:01Recommitted to the cause,
35:03he knows time
35:04is of the essence.
35:05As you expand your circle
35:07of people involved
35:08in the plot,
35:09so do you expand
35:10the possibility
35:11of somebody in Hitler,
35:13SS, Gestapo,
35:14learning about it.
35:17By July 1944,
35:19the Black Orchestra
35:20is ready to strike.
35:22The attack will take place
35:23in Hitler's private bunker
35:25in northeast Poland,
35:26known as the Wolf's Lair.
35:28It's where he's spending
35:30most of his time
35:31at this point,
35:31and where he feels
35:32safest and most secure.
35:34The Wolf's Lair
35:36is protected by three
35:37distinct security zones.
35:39Zone 1 is the very center
35:40of the complex,
35:42surrounded by steel fencing
35:43and patrolled by
35:44specially trained armed guards.
35:47Zone 2 surrounds Zone 1
35:48and houses some of Germany's
35:50most prominent ministers
35:51during their visits
35:52to the Fuhrer,
35:53as well as the bunker staff.
35:55The final zone
35:57is purely defensive.
35:59Landmines fortify
36:00the surrounding area
36:01and a watchtower
36:02along with several checkpoints,
36:04closely monitoring
36:05anyone entering
36:06or leaving the premises.
36:07in July,
36:11Stauffenberg travels
36:12to the Wolf's Lair
36:13for a meeting
36:13with several top Nazi officials.
36:16The plan is to set off a bomb
36:18in the concrete bunker
36:19at the very heart of the Lair.
36:21Stauffenberg should have time
36:22to make his escape
36:23and get to the nearest airfield
36:25to travel back to Berlin
36:26and spearhead the coup.
36:29The meeting is set to start
36:31at 12.30,
36:32but immediately,
36:33Stauffenberg's plan
36:34begins to unravel.
36:35Now things start going wrong.
36:38It's a hot day,
36:39and so they move now
36:41the meeting
36:42from the concrete bunker
36:43to a wooden hut
36:45that's cooler,
36:46but now you don't have
36:47that concussive compression
36:49inside a chamber
36:51that would have just turned
36:52everybody inside
36:53that concrete room
36:54into ground meat.
36:55Despite the less-than-ideal
36:57circumstances,
36:58Stauffenberg decides
36:59to use the heat
37:00to his advantage.
37:01He uses the sweat
37:03on a shirt
37:03as a plausible excuse
37:05with the hot day
37:06to need to use the bathroom
37:08so he can change his shirt,
37:09and during that time
37:10is when he arms the bomb.
37:12Stauffenberg is equipped
37:13with two bombs,
37:14each consisting of
37:15a kilogram of plastic explosives
37:17and a pencil detonator.
37:19The detonator
37:20is a thin tube of copper.
37:24Once crushed,
37:25cupric chloride
37:26will eat through the wire
37:27and release the firing pin.
37:29The entire process
37:30will take just 10 minutes.
37:32He has to set the detonator
37:34with two fingers
37:35while he must have been sweating
37:36and his heart must have been racing
37:38and do it all calmly
37:39with Nazi officials
37:41and bodyguards around
37:42in the presence of Hitler.
37:43An extraordinary feat
37:45of courage.
37:49Stauffenberg only manages
37:50to arm a single bomb
37:52before a guard alerts him
37:53to the meeting beginning.
37:55He has run out of time,
37:57but he feels he's done enough.
37:58So he brings
38:08the briefcase
38:09into the map room.
38:14He also asks,
38:15because he has to make
38:16a presentation,
38:17could he be placed
38:18as close to the Fuhrer
38:19as possible?
38:20And so he gets
38:21three seats away
38:22from Hitler.
38:23And now,
38:24Klaus puts the bomb
38:25underneath the table.
38:28And goes something like,
38:32I have an important
38:33staff call coming
38:34from Berlin.
38:35I have to take it.
38:36Get me when my turn comes.
38:38But leaves the briefcase there.
38:40And now,
38:41Klaus takes the run.
38:43At 1242,
38:45Stauffenberg's bomb detonates.
38:48The explosion tears
38:50through the room,
38:51killing the attending
38:52stenographer instantly
38:53and fatally wounding
38:54three officers.
38:56Dozens more
38:57are seriously injured.
38:59Having escaped
39:00the carnage,
39:01Stauffenberg is officially
39:02on the run.
39:03He hurries into
39:04a waiting car
39:05with his aid,
39:06and the two men
39:07manage to get through
39:08the Wolf's Lair's
39:09checkpoints before
39:09word of the explosion
39:11spreads.
39:12All of the checkpoints,
39:13the gates,
39:14everything really
39:15was to prevent
39:16enemies from getting in.
39:17The people who work there
39:18generally aren't thinking
39:19about preventing enemies
39:20from getting out.
39:22And this is what
39:23he exploits.
39:24Stauffenberg leaves
39:25the Wolf's Lair
39:25and is heading towards
39:26the airfield.
39:28He wants to be
39:28in the air
39:29before word of the explosion
39:31gets out
39:32and reaches Berlin.
39:33Approximately three hours later,
39:36Stauffenberg touches down
39:37in Berlin,
39:38primed to whip
39:39his military into action.
39:41Chief of the Army Reserve,
39:42Friedrich Ulbricht,
39:44immediately orders
39:45the start of Operation Valkyrie.
39:47But there's a problem.
39:48No one knows
39:49what's happening.
39:50The plotters
39:51are still awaiting word
39:52of whether they've been successful.
39:54The regime leadership
39:55is wondering
39:56if Hitler is still alive.
39:59And the public
40:00is essentially unaware
40:01of the entire situation.
40:05Uncertainty about
40:05Hitler's condition mounts,
40:07leaving the men
40:08behind the bomb plot,
40:10scrambling for control.
40:11They're trying to win
40:12over the minds
40:13of other people
40:14to have them make decisions
40:16that support the coup.
40:17At the same time,
40:19the loyalists
40:19are trying to win
40:20over the minds
40:21of those non-committed individuals
40:22to make sure
40:23that they stay
40:24with the government
40:24that's in power.
40:25So the battlefield
40:26has gone from the bunker
40:28to the minds of men.
40:30As chaos descends
40:31over the German leadership,
40:33Stauffenberg and his collaborators
40:35are left with
40:35one baffling question,
40:37as news comes in
40:38that the Fuhrer
40:39is still very much alive.
40:41How could Hitler
40:42ever have survived
40:43such a powerful blast?
40:45Klaus puts the bomb
40:47underneath the table.
40:48In the meantime,
40:50as people are making
40:51a presentation to Hitler,
40:53they keep tripping
40:53over the damn briefcase.
40:55One officer
40:56picks up the briefcase
40:57and moves it.
41:00The table
41:01doesn't have table legs.
41:03It has bulkheads,
41:04three bulkheads
41:05that cross the entire table
41:07and the guy
41:08takes the briefcase
41:10and moves it
41:11behind
41:11the second bulkhead.
41:15When that bomb goes,
41:16Hitler at the head
41:17of the table
41:18is protected
41:18by two bulkheads.
41:21At 7 o'clock,
41:23just three hours
41:24after Stauffenberg's escape,
41:26Joseph Goebbels
41:26receives a telephone call
41:28at the propaganda ministry.
41:30He lifts the phone
41:32to his ear,
41:33relieved to hear
41:34Adolf Hitler's
41:35unmistakable voice.
41:38But even as news
41:39of Hitler's survival spreads,
41:41Stauffenberg
41:42and his collaborators
41:43remain determined
41:44to follow through
41:45with their attempted coup.
41:46Tensions rise rapidly
41:48among the men
41:49trapped in the
41:50Berlin Army Office
41:51headquarters.
41:52There's tensions
41:53between the Wehrmacht,
41:54the Army,
41:54and the SS.
41:55There's tensions
41:56between Ulbricht
41:57and Heinrich Himmler.
41:58The problem is
41:59you have to pick sides.
42:00And if you pick
42:01the wrong side,
42:02you'll be executed.
42:03As night falls
42:04on Berlin,
42:05the coup
42:06shutters to a halt,
42:07failing to gain support
42:09among the ranks
42:09of loyal Nazi leaders.
42:11Any remaining optimism
42:13among the conspirators
42:14vanishes.
42:15Stauffenberg and his
42:16collaborators are left
42:17with the undeniable fact
42:19that their mission
42:20has failed.
42:21The aftermath
42:21of the July 20th plot
42:23is a bloodletting.
42:25They're rounding up
42:26anyone and everyone.
42:27And leaders like
42:28Klaus von Stauffenberg
42:29are caught
42:30and rounded up.
42:31They're all sentenced
42:32to death
42:33and a very particularly
42:34gruesome death.
42:36News of the plot's failure
42:37quickly reaches
42:39Henning Von Trescu
42:39on the eastern front.
42:41He takes a hand grenade
42:42and walks into the woods.
42:44Within 24 hours,
42:46Friedrich Albrecht,
42:47Henning Von Trescu
42:48and Klaus von Stauffenberg,
42:50three pillars
42:51of the Black Orchestra
42:52movement,
42:53are all dead.
42:54Trescu's last recorded words
42:56are all that remain
42:57from the failed efforts
42:58to assassinate Hitler.
42:59When, in a few hours' time,
43:02I go before God
43:04to account for what
43:05I have done
43:05and left undone,
43:07I know I will be able
43:08to justify what I did
43:10in the struggle
43:10against Hitler.
43:12God promised Abraham
43:13that he would not
43:14destroy Sodom
43:15if only ten righteous men
43:17could be found
43:18in the city.
43:19And so I hope
43:20for our sake
43:20that God will not
43:22destroy Germany.
43:24While Trescu's last words
43:26may have been comforting
43:28to him,
43:28he had fought
43:30for the Nazi war machine,
43:32he was responsible
43:33for crimes
43:35against civilians,
43:37and this was his way
43:38of assuaging his conscience.
43:40In the weeks
43:41following the explosion,
43:42Hitler orders the Gestapo
43:43to go on a ruthless hunt
43:45for anyone remotely connected
43:47to the conspiracy.
43:48The Gestapo
43:48is doing mass arrests.
43:51Not only the perpetrators,
43:53but their family members too.
43:55Over 7,000 Germans
43:56are arrested
43:57in connection
43:57with the 20th of July
43:58plot.
43:59Many of them
44:00are completely innocent.
44:02The regime
44:02introduces the rule
44:04of Sippenhaft
44:05or kin liability
44:07so that relatives
44:09can themselves
44:10be targeted.
44:12Trescu commits suicide,
44:14but the ordeal's
44:14not over for his family.
44:16Hitler orders
44:17that the family's arrested.
44:18What an effective way
44:19of instilling terror
44:21in everyone.
44:21Of the 7,000 Germans
44:23arrested for the plot
44:24against Hitler,
44:25nearly 5,000
44:26are executed.
44:28A lot of people
44:30are accused
44:31of being in the plot
44:32when they're not.
44:33A lot of old scores
44:34are settled.
44:35While the explosion
44:36fails to kill Hitler,
44:38it succeeds
44:39in sparking
44:40a tide of paranoia
44:41that persists
44:42until the end
44:42of the war.
44:44He is seeing
44:44internal enemies
44:46everywhere,
44:47and so there is
44:48a wave of violence
44:49directed towards
44:51those within the regime.
44:54As Hitler
44:55obsessively pursues
44:56those who conspired
44:57against him,
44:58the Allies set their sights
44:59on the German capital.
45:01By April of 1945,
45:03Soviet troops
45:04have circled Berlin,
45:06trapping Hitler
45:06and his newlywed wife,
45:08Eva Braun,
45:09in the Führerbunker
45:10hidden beneath
45:10the Reich Chancellery
45:12in Berlin.
45:13Hitler knows
45:14that Mussolini's body
45:15was desecrated
45:17in public.
45:18Hitler will not
45:18have the same thing
45:19happen to him.
45:21On April 30, 1945,
45:24shortly after 3.15
45:25in the afternoon,
45:26Hitler's valet,
45:28Heinz Linge,
45:29smells gunpowder.
45:30He turns to the door
45:32of Hitler's private quarters
45:33and hesitates.
45:34He knows what he is
45:35about to find.
45:37He knows it will
45:38change the world forever.
45:40Hitler's got to
45:41take his life now,
45:43and so he marries
45:45his mistress,
45:46Eva Braun,
45:47in the bunker,
45:49and then for their honeymoon,
45:50they retire
45:51into their bunker office
45:52and they're going to
45:53commit mutual suicide.
45:55They say Hitler
45:57shoots himself
45:58and Eva Braun
46:00shoots herself,
46:00that they shoot
46:01themselves together.
46:03They find glass
46:04in Hitler's mouth,
46:05suggesting that
46:06Hitler did both,
46:07bit down
46:08on a Sinai capsule
46:10and shot himself
46:12in the head.
46:13Hitler and Braun's bodies
46:15are burned
46:16according to his wishes.
46:17Less than a year
46:18after the July 20 plot,
46:20the Nazi regime
46:21and its leader
46:22lie in ashes.
46:25Hitler's suicide
46:26and Germany's surrender
46:28ushers in the beginning
46:29of the end
46:30of the Second World War.
46:32But one question
46:32still lingers.
46:34What would have happened
46:35if the efforts
46:36to kill Hitler
46:37had worked?
46:38The failure of that plot
46:39may be the salvation
46:41of us all
46:42because if somebody
46:44competent started running
46:45that German army,
46:46who knows
46:47what would have happened?
46:48Had one of these
46:49assassination plots
46:51in the 30s
46:51been successful,
46:53arguably World War II
46:54would not have started,
46:56saving tens of millions
46:57of lives
46:58and the suffering
46:59of hundreds of millions
47:00of others.
47:01It would have truly been
47:02a touchstone movement
47:04in human history.
47:06During his time in power,
47:07Adolf Hitler survived
47:09dozens of attempted,
47:10aborted,
47:11and foiled
47:11assassination attempts.
47:13And yet,
47:14Hitler's ultimate death
47:15by his own hand
47:16leaves us to wonder
47:18whether his ruthlessly
47:19violent fascist regime
47:21was fated to turn
47:22on itself all along.
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