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00:28I'll see you next time
00:30Bye-bye
01:00Bye-bye
01:42Bye-bye
02:02Bye-bye
03:15Bye-bye
03:33During the night of the Long Knives, Hitler not only purged the SA, he also took the opportunity to murder
03:40other governmental, military and civilian opponents.
03:44Two such victims were General Schleicher and his assistant, General Ferdinand von Bredow.
03:50Thanks to a military cover-up in which Schleicher was implicated in a supposed attempted coup, many in the military
03:56turned a blind eye to the murders.
04:00Yet Hitler's actions were not forgotten by all.
04:06The Fritsch affair also created a degree of tension between Hitler and members of the military.
04:13General Fritsch, a well-respected general, was dismissed from his office under fraudulent allegations of homosexuality.
04:21Fritsch's continued outspokenness over Schleicher's and von Bredow's murders was a leading factor in his dismissal.
04:29Most of the other generals realized that the charges were the result of a setup and never forgot Hitler's intimidation
04:35techniques.
04:36The Leks of the Cross
04:42The Leks of the Cross
04:45The Leks of the Cross
04:47The Leks of the Cross
04:48The Leks of the Cross
04:55Gordien, Schweden, Denver, Netherlands, Belgium, Grossbritannien, Irland, Magyar, Portugal, Spanien, Schweiz, Liechtenstein, Luxemburg.
05:10If we are not destroyed, all these countries, ancient countries, many of them, will be rescued
05:20and restored.
05:21It may well be that the final extinction of a baleful domination will pave the way to
05:31a broader solidarity of all the men in all the land than we could ever have planned if
05:41we had not marched together through the fire.
05:52Ladies and gentlemen, all these countries, I greet you in terms of the Reichsparteilages
06:04– the millionen mass of all of our young and young people in the entire Reich.
06:13Zeiten come and come and come.
06:17Generationen wachsen often, without it to them, a great success to experience or even with
06:29our generation.
06:31Our generation has the vision of our generation.
06:37Großes an unserem Volk erleben und größeres noch an ihm zu gestalten.
06:45Ihr seid nun die Zeugen geworden eines großen, geschichtlichen Vorgangs, der sich oft in
06:55Jahrhunderten nicht wiederholt.
06:57Ihr seid selber in diesen Jahren Kämpfer gewesen für dieses neue, größere Deutschland.
07:05Oder messen sich solche Aufgaben, die uns gestellt sind.
07:11Wie immer sind wir nicht erzogen in den alten Generationen, sondern es wird erzogen immer und
07:17immer.
07:28Wenn nicht einmal die Vorsehung von meinem Volk wegnehmen wird,
07:34dann werde ich dem kommenden Führer ein Volk hinterlassen, das eiserfest zusammengefüllt und
07:45zusammengeschlossen ist.
07:47Freiheit!
07:48Freiheit!
07:51Dafür seid ihr mir alle Junge um Junge Kämpfer von Mädchen Garanten.
07:59Und der hat immer noch in Deutschland am besten gebaut, der verdroht auf das deutsche Volk.
08:10Und das bei mir!
08:16Und das bei mir!
08:33Und das bei mir!
08:38Und die vorliegenden Führer europeistischen Volk!
08:40Und der vorliegenden Führer sind es das, was Chỗ immer zu leben.
08:41Ungefähr!
08:41Ungefähr!
08:42Ungefähr!
08:42policies gained the support of many within the military however there were still those like
08:47general ludwig beck who were opposed to his aggressive war policy beck believed that
08:53nazi militarism would eventually lead to germany's ruin others like major general
08:59henning von tresco were appalled by the atrocities that occurred during the reich's eastward expansion
09:34so
10:04Descent also developed within the Abwehr, the military intelligence and the foreign service.
10:10Eventually, dissenters began to seek one another out through a network of resistance cells.
10:28In 1941, a new conspiratorial group formed. It was led by Colonel Hemming from Tresco, a member of his uncle,
10:36Field Marshal Fedder from Boxstaff, who commanded Army Group Center in Operation Barbarossa.
10:42Tresco systematically recruited oppositionists through group staff, making it the nerve center of the Army resistance.
10:50Little could be done against Hitler while his armies advanced triumphantly into the Western Soviet Union through 1941 and 1942.
10:59Even after the setback before Moscow in December 1941 that caused the dismissal of both Braukic and Boch.
11:07During 1942, Oster and Treckel nevertheless succeeded in rebuilding an effective resistance network.
11:17Our most important recruit was General Friedrich Olbrecht, head of the General Army Office Headquarters at the Bentler Block in
11:25central Berlin, who controlled an independent system of communications to reserve units all over Germany.
11:32Linking this asset to Tresco's resistance group in Army Group Center created a viable coup apparatus.
11:39In late 1942, Tresco and Olbrecht formulated a plan to assassinate Hitler and stage a coup during Hitler's visit to
11:48the headquarters of Army Group Center at Smolensk in March 1943 by placing a bomb on his plane.
12:06The bomb did not go off, and a second attempt days later with Hitler at an exhibition of captured Soviet
12:13weaponry in Berlin also failed.
12:17These failures demoralized the conspirators.
12:21During 1943, they tried with that success to recruit senior Army field commanders, such as Field Marshal Erich von Manstein
12:29and Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt, to support a seizure of power.
12:34While General Tresco was planning Hitler's assassination, Ludwig Beck was becoming a principal leader in the civilian resistance back in
12:42Berlin.
12:43Beck, upon his retirement from the military, joined up with other resistors in the civilian sector.
12:49They formed a resistance cell that included members from the churches, foreign service, intelligence agencies, and even members of the
12:57German Social Democratic and Communist parties.
12:59The Berlin resistors spent much of their time theorizing about the type of government that would replace National Socialism once
13:07Hitler's regime was toppled.
13:09Since their political orientations range from the conservative to the left wing, the resistors did not always see eye to
13:16eye.
13:17In general, they seemed to be aiming for a type of Christian Socialism.
13:21There can be little doubt that many of the conspirators desired to save Germany.
13:26However, it would be unjust to interpret their patriotic sensibilities as being equitable with Nazi aims.
13:34The resistance was comprised of individuals with different concerns.
13:38But they did share one common agenda, the destruction of the Nazi regime.
13:46Conspiratorial groups planning a coup of some kind had existed in the German army and the military intelligence organization since
13:521938.
13:54Early leaders of these plots included Brigadier General Hans Oster, head of the military intelligence office,
14:01former Army Chief of Staff General Ludwig Beck, and Field Marshal Erwin von Witzleben.
14:08Plans to stage a coup and prevent Hitler from launching a new world war were developed in 1938 and 1939,
14:15but were aborted because of the vacillations of Army Generals Franz Halder and Walter von Bruchitsch,
14:21and the failure of the Western powers to oppose Hitler's aggressions until 1939.
14:29Today's
14:41We're going to get loose!
14:43Six minutes!
15:01The first military resistance group delayed their plans after Hitler's extreme popularity
15:06following the unexpectedly fast success in the Battle for France.
15:11Here before us, on this table, lie the title deeds of ten nations or states whose soil has been invaded
15:24and polluted
15:26and whose men, women and children lie frustrate or writhing under the Hitler yoke.
15:36A vile race of quizlings use a new word which will carry the scorn of mankind down the centuries.
15:46He is hired to fawn upon the conqueror, to collaborate in his design and to enforce his rule upon their
15:59fellow countrymen while travelling low themselves.
16:04Such is the flight of once glorious Europe and such are the atrocities against which we are in arms.
16:13It is upon this foundation that Hitler, with his tattered lackey Mussolini at his tail and Admiral Dallon frisking at
16:28his side, pretends to build out of hatred, appetite and racial assertions a new order for Europe.
16:39Never did so mocking a fantasy obsess the mind of mortal man.
16:49We cannot tell what the course of this fell war will be as it spreads remorseless to ever wider regions.
17:00We know it will be hard.
17:02We know it will be hard.
17:03We expect it will be long.
17:04We cannot predict or measure its episodes or its tribulation.
17:10But one thing is certain.
17:14One thing is sure.
17:15One thing stands out stark and undeniable, massive and unassailable for all the world to see.
17:24It will not be by German hands that the structure of Europe will be rebuilt or the union of the
17:34European family achieved.
17:37In every country into which the German armies and the Nazi police have broken, there are strung up from the
17:45soil a hatred of the German name and a contempt for the Nazi creed, which the passage of hundreds of
17:52years will not be faced from human memory.
17:55We cannot yet see how deliverance will come or when it will come.
18:02But nothing is more certain than that every trace of Hitler's footsteps, every stain of his infected and corroding fingers
18:13will be sponged and purged and if need be blasted from the surface of the earth.
18:2017 August 1942, Strategic Air Power was born.
18:25At 1526 hours, the first daylight mission from a base in England was launched.
18:37Twelve flying fortresses carrying about 18 tons of bombs destined for railroad marshalling yards at Rouen.
18:45This was the initial test of the air offensive by day against the powerful German Air Force.
18:50Could strategic bombing be maintained?
18:53Would it achieve its objective?
18:56In the first week of March, the American 8th Air Force by day and the RAF by night hammered it
19:01to the doomed city of Cologne.
19:03Third largest in the Reich, gateway to the Ruhr, bridge at the mighty Rhine.
19:08Cologne was Hitler's greatest fortress in the West.
19:11Now that fortress, its factories, its bridges, its rail yards, lies battered and burning.
19:16In some of these scenes, not only the smashed Hohenzollern bridge, but the spires of the cathedral are visible.
19:41One of the German scarecrows meant to look like a plane hit by anti-aircraft.
19:53By mid-1943, the tide of war was turning decisively against Germany.
20:00The army plotters and the civilian allies became convinced that Hitler must be assassinated
20:05so that a government acceptable to the Western allies could be formed
20:09and a separate peace negotiated in time to prevent a Soviet invasion of Germany
20:14and to avoid as much bloodshed as possible.
20:18In August 1943, Tresco met a young staff officer, Colonel Count Klaus Philipp Schenk von Stauffenberg for the first time.
20:28I was born in Griefstein Castle in Upper Franconia on 15 November 1907,
20:34the youngest of three sons in a family in the Bavarian Catholic nobility.
20:39I grew up in a huge Renaissance-era style chateau that had been occupied by counts, dukes and other governing
20:48nobles of the past.
20:52While growing up, von Stauffenberg excelled at both sports and academics.
20:57He was excellent at horse riding and could speak fluently in Greek and Latin.
21:02Prior to joining the military in 1926, von Stauffenberg had considered careers in music and architecture.
21:08In 1930, I met fellow Bavarian noble Nina von Lerkenfeld.
21:14Three years later, we were wed and the next year we had our first son.
21:19In 1936, von Stauffenberg's excellence within the military earned him assignment to a position at the War Academy.
21:26He was advancing quickly through the ranks.
21:36While von Stauffenberg was a dedicated patriot and described by his family as preferring a monarchy to the constitution of
21:43the Weimar Republic,
21:44the German government set up after World War I, largely disliked by the German populace of the time,
21:50he remained largely neutral with regard to politics during Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party's rise to power.
22:13The Nazi Party
22:14Von Stauffenberg wasn't directly opposed to the Nazi Party, yet began to doubt the tactics,
22:19and if they were any good for Germany, after vicious anti-Jewish events in 1938,
22:24such as the relocation of 17,000 Polish Jews into camps near the Polish border,
22:30and the violence of Kristallnacht.
22:33The Nazi Party
22:33The Nazi Party
22:34The Nazi Party
23:02as an officer for his actions in the sixth pencil division during the german campaigns in poland and
23:09france von stauffenberg was transferred to the army high command in june the next year
23:16just prior to the battle of dunkirk and spent 18 months in soviet territory as a part of operation
23:24barbarossa
23:59so
24:31so
25:17it was there in the conquered soviet territory that von stauffenberg saw
25:23firsthand the cruelty and utter disregard for human life that the schutzstaffel was capable of
25:33the events convinced von stauffenberg that the nazis had to be removed from power
25:40in addition the german defeated stalingrad further convinced von stauffenberg that hitler
25:48would lead germany not to victory but to destruction
25:58so
26:20At Stalingrad, Hitler had refused to allow the German troops there to retreat or surrender,
26:26resulting in the loss of almost the entire German 6th Army, approximately 330,000 men.
26:34Their commander, Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus, finally disobeyed Hitler's orders
26:39and surrendered his remaining 90,000 battered, exhausted and starving troops to the USSR's General Georgi Zhukov.
26:51When news of the surrender reached Hitler, the Führer was outraged that his order had been disobeyed.
27:20After the German defeat at Stalingrad, von Stauffenberg requested a transfer to another front.
27:26The request was granted and von Stauffenberg joined the 10th Panzer Division in Tunisia,
27:31just in time for the last few days of the Battle of the Khazarin Pass.
27:36Later, on 7 April 1943, the car I was riding in drove into a minefield.
27:41I was nearly killed, in the process losing my left eye, right hand and two fingers on my left hand.
27:48I also suffered serious damage to my left ear and knee.
27:52Surprisingly, I not only survived the incident, but managed to keep my eyesight in the one remaining eye.
27:58While recovering in a military hospital in Munich for the next few months,
28:02von Stauffenberg had managed to contact several members of the German resistance,
28:06attempting to remove the Nazis from power.
28:08By September of 1943, von Stauffenberg had returned to active duty in Berlin.
28:14He had been promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel
28:17and acted as the chief of staff to General Friedrich Olbricht,
28:21a fellow member of the German resistance.
28:24Von Stauffenberg insisted that the cabinet of the post-Nazi government
28:28he and his fellow conspirators would institute, if they were successful,
28:33would be strictly anti-Nazi.
28:37Had the resistance been successful,
28:39von Stauffenberg would likely have been appointed the state secretary in the war ministry.
28:45Despite this, von Stauffenberg was not popular amongst all the members of the resistance.
28:51Fellow conspirator, Dr. Karl Gerdula,
28:54called von Stauffenberg a cranky, obstinate fellow who wanted to play politics
28:58and who wanted to steer a dubious political course with the left-wing socialists and communists
29:03and gave me a bad time with his overwhelming egotism.
29:07Nevertheless, even Dr. Gerdula still held great respect for von Stauffenberg.
29:13This is not to imply that the entire resistance felt this way.
29:17Resistance sympathizer, Franz Halder,
29:19describes von Stauffenberg as a born leader,
29:22one whose whole outlook on life was rooted in the sense of responsibility towards God,
29:26who was not prepared to be satisfied with theoretical explanations and discussions,
29:30but who was burning to act.
29:48In 1944, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel,
29:52perhaps the most famous member of the German military,
29:55let the resistance know that he had no like of Hitler nor the Nazis,
29:58and would follow the orders of an anti-Nazi government if it were able to seize power.
30:04Von Stauffenberg and others in the resistance had doubts about Rommel's sincerity,
30:09thinking he was likely a Nazi supporter who was merely interested in switching sides
30:14now that the war wasn't going so well for Germany anymore.
30:18Rommel also expressed the opinion that if Hitler were killed,
30:22he would become a martyr for the Nazis to rally behind
30:24and used to convince even more people to follow them.
30:28Instead of Hitler being assassinated,
30:30Rommel proposed he be captured and convicted in a court of his crimes
30:33to weaken his position as a great leader before the German people.
30:37While this was happening, Rommel proposed a peace treaty with the Western allies would be drawn up
30:42and the war would continue against the Soviets.
30:45We disagreed with Rommel on this point,
30:47for we believed that peace with the West could not be achieved so easily,
30:51especially with Hitler still alive,
30:52and that to succeed, Hitler and two other top Nazis who could replace him,
30:57possibly with the same level of madness,
30:59Heinrich Himmler and Hermann Göring would have to be killed.
31:03We also believed that we would be unable to negotiate peace with the allies
31:07whilst Hitler was still alive.
31:09US President Franklin Roosevelt had announced that the allies would accept nothing short
31:14of the unconditional surrender of not merely the Nazis, but Germany altogether.
31:19Earlier in the Nazis' reign, the German resistance and American and British intelligence agents sympathetic to their cause
31:26were unable to convince the American and British governments to take the German resistance seriously.
31:32In fact, two British intelligence agents were captured by the Nazis prior to the start of all-out war between
31:37Germany and Britain,
31:39when they were meeting with Nazi agents in the guise of German resistance.
31:43The British blamed the German resistance, despite that they had never actually been in contact with them.
31:49Eventually, Great Britain established a policy of absolute silence with Germany in regard to communication.
31:56Even after the war, and to this day, the act of the German resistance against the Nazis remains largely unknown.
32:02It was around this time that Ulbricht put forward Tresco and Stauffenberg a new strategy for staging a coup against
32:09Hitler.
32:11The reserve army had an operational plan called Operation Valkyrie, which was to be used in the event that the
32:17disruption caused by the Allied bombing of German cities caused a breakdown in law and order,
32:24horrorizing of the millions of slave laborers from occupied countries now being used in German factories.
32:32Ulbricht had suggested that this plan could be used to mobilize the reserve army to take control of the German
32:39cities,
32:40disarm the SS and arrest the Nazi leadership, once Hitler had been assassinated.
32:47Operation Valkyrie could only be put into effect by General Friedrich Fromm, commander of the reserve army,
32:54so he must either be run over to the conspiracy, or in some way neutralized, if the plan was to
33:01succeed.
33:03Fromm, like many senior officers, knew in general about the military conspiracies against Hitler,
33:08but neither supported them nor reported them to the Gestapo.
33:24During late 1943 and early 1944, there were at least four failed attempts to get one of the military conspirators
33:32near enough to Hitler for long enough to kill him with hand grenades, bombs or a revolver.
33:37But this task was becoming increasingly difficult.
33:50We have victory.
33:54A remarkable and definite victory.
33:59A bright gleam has caught the helmets of our soldiers
34:04and warmed and cheered all our hearts.
34:12The late, the late Mr. Venezuelas observed that in all our wars, England, you ought to have said Britain of
34:25course,
34:26England always wins one battle, the last.
34:30But, we seem to have begun rather earlier this time.
34:36General Alexander, with his brilliant comrade and lieutenant, General Montgomery,
34:54has gained a glorious and decisive victory in what I think should be called the Battle of Egypt.
35:05Rommel's army.
35:06Rommel's army has been defeated.
35:08Rommel's army has been defeated.
35:09It has been routed.
35:11It has been very largely destroyed as a fighting force.
35:17The Italians were left to perish in the waterless desert.
35:22Or surrender, as they are doing by tens of thousands.
35:28Germans have received back again that measure of fire and steel which they have so often meted out to others.
35:40Ah, this is not the end.
35:43It is not even the beginning of the end.
35:48But it is perhaps the end of the beginning.
35:52As the war situation deteriorated, Hitler no longer appeared in public and rarely visited Berlin.
35:58He spent most of his time at his headquarters at the Volkschanze, Wolf's Lair, near Rastenburg and East Prussia,
36:05with occasional breaks at his Bavarian mountain retreat in Berchtesgaden.
36:09In both places, he was heavily guarded and rarely saw people he did not already know and trust.
36:16Himmler and the Gestapo were increasingly suspicious of plots against Hitler
36:19and specifically suspected the officers of the General Staff,
36:23which was indeed the place where most of the young officers willing to sacrifice themselves to kill Hitler were located.
36:30The hour of our greatest effort and action is approaching.
36:34We march with valiant allies who count on us as we count on them.
36:40The flashing eyes of all our soldiers, sailors and airmen must be fixed upon the enemy on their front.
36:48The only homeward road for all of us lies through the arch of victory.
36:54The magnificent armies of the United States are here or are pouring in.
36:59Our own troops, the best trained and best equipped we have ever had,
37:04stand at their side in equal numbers and in true comradeship.
37:09And when the signal is given, the whole circle of avenging nations will hurl themselves upon the foe
37:16and batter out the life of the cruelest tyranny which has ever sought to bar the progress of mankind.
37:24the queen of the destruction of this country is the repentance of the enemy of the empire.
37:55When the Western Allies successfully landed at Normandy and began closing in on Berlin, as were the Soviets from the
38:02east, one of Tresco's aides, Leutnant Heinrich Graf von Lendorf Steinort, wrote to Steifenberg.
38:08The assassination must be attempted, whatever the cost. Even if it fails, we must take action in Berlin, for the
38:16practical purpose no longer matters.
38:19What matters now is that the German resistance movement must take the plunge before the eyes of the world and
38:24of history. Compared to that, nothing else matters.
38:29We decided that action should be taken as soon as possible. Along with my fellow conspirators, we had considered aborting
38:36the coup attempt altogether, as it became clearer and clearer that the end of the war and Germany's defeat was
38:42inevitable.
38:43We came to the conclusion, however, that we must at least try to prevent further senseless loss of life and
38:49show the world that all of Germany did not sit idly by whilst this brutal Nazi regime slaughtered millions.
38:56Plans were accelerated, which caused some fatal slip-ups for the resistance, not only because of the approaching Allied troops,
39:04but also the merger between the SS and Military Intelligence Division, led by and containing a large number of the
39:11resistance.
39:12This had put the entire resistance movement in danger, as the SS was uncovering more and more evidence of a
39:18resistance against the Nazis and who specifically was involved day by day.
39:22Time was running out.
39:26By July of 1944, von Stauffenberg had been promoted to a full colonel, which gave him frequent personal contact with
39:33Hitler.
39:34Von Stauffenberg practiced setting off a time bomb with his only three remaining fingers and decided it would be him
39:41that killed Admiral Hitler.
39:49The problem was that von Stauffenberg, a devout Christian, was religious and he didn't want to kill or injure others
39:56in his assassination of Hitler.
39:58As a result of his injuries, he would be unable to simply shoot Hitler at point back range.
40:04Furthermore, although it would kill Hitler, it would undoubtedly also result in Hitler's personal guard killing von Stauffenberg.
40:11As part of the plan, von Stauffenberg would be needed after the assassination to direct the coup d'etat in
40:18Berlin as resistance control troops seize control of the government.
40:24On the 15th of July 1944, Colonel von Stauffenberg and his time bomb attended a meeting with Hitler at Rastenberg.
40:33Neither Himmler nor Göring were there, but it was agreed that von Stauffenberg would attempt to kill Hitler with the
40:38bomb regardless.
40:40Time was running out and something needed to be done.
40:45Informing his compatriots that he would proceed ahead and blow up Hitler, von Stauffenberg got off the phone and returned
40:51to the conference room only to find that the meeting had ended early and Hitler had already left.
41:00Meanwhile, back in Berlin, General Albrecht, not knowing that the opportunity to kill Hitler had passed unseized, sent into effect
41:08the first phase of Operation Valkyrie, seizing control of government buildings throughout Berlin.
41:15When Stauffenberg had rushed to inform Albrecht to abort Operation Valkyrie, Albrecht immediately shut down the operation before his superiors
41:23discovered what had happened.
41:25To ensure this was done, General Albrecht drove from one building to another in Berlin, giving the order to stand
41:31down personally.
41:33General Albrecht luckily managed to convince his superior officers that the premature execution of Operation Valkyrie was merely a dress
41:41rehearsal in the case of a real uprising against the Nazi regime ever occurring.
41:47While this did prevent the General and others from being revealed as resistance members, Albrecht's explanation also meant that the
41:54next time Operation Valkyrie was executed, it would have to be for real.
42:00On the 18th of July 1944, Dr. Karl Gerdler, a key member of the resistance, was arrested by the Gestapo.
42:09Colonel von Stauffenberg had taken care to shroud the conspiracy in as much secrecy as possible.
42:15Fewer people within the resistance knew about the assassination plots and the truth of Operation Valkyrie.
42:21Fewer still knew the specifics of such things, ensuring that if one member of the resistance were captured, the plans
42:28for the coup could continue.
42:30Also on this day, Colonel von Stauffenberg received orders to meet with Hitler at his Wolfslayer headquarters to brief the
42:37Führer on reports from the Eastern Front.
42:40Von Stauffenberg told his co-conspirators that the 20th of July would be the resistance's last chance and to be
42:48ready.
42:49On the night of 19 July 1944, I stopped to pray at the church, then stayed at my brother's house
42:56for the night, finalizing the details of our plan.
42:59I managed to get four hours sleep.
43:01The next day, myself and Lieutenant Werner von Heften headed for Wolfslayer whilst in Berlin.
43:08General Ludwig Beck was awaiting news of Hitler's death before announcing to the world that Hitler had been killed by
43:14a power-hungry Nazi elite,
43:16and that the army had seized control from the Nazis, instituting martial law and attempting to start talks with the
43:22Allies for a ceasefire.
43:24In order to ensure Hitler's death, I was carrying two time bombs in my briefcase instead of one, and was
43:29planning to activate both to detonate at the same time.
43:33Lieutenant von Heften, because of his lower rank, was not allowed to attend the actual meeting with Hitler, but did
43:39stay with me as much as he could whilst at Wolfslayer.
43:42After meeting with Hitler and briefing him on what was involved in moving troops along the Eastern Front, I excused
43:48myself.
43:50Then, with von Heften, I entered the changing room where we began arming the bombs with special pliers made for
43:56use with my three fingers.
43:58Despite these specially crafted pliers, the bombs were extremely difficult to arm, and an aide sent to bring me back
44:03to the meeting managed to catch a glimpse of myself and von Heften fiddling with this mysterious package.
44:10Fearing Hitler would be alerted, and having time to arm only one of the bombs, I returned to the meeting.
44:16Several minutes before the bomb was to go off, I excused myself to make an emergency phone call.
44:22As soon as no one was watching, I left the building.
44:28Hans von Stauffenberg was making his escape.
44:32Unbeknown to him, and by chance, one of the officers in the meeting with Hitler, moved the briefcase that had
44:38been planted next to Hitler to the other side of the huge table.
44:42a war map was laid out upon in order to get a better view of the map from his
44:47position. Had this not happened or had both bombs been armed Hitler would have
44:53been killed. At 12 42 p.m. the bomb detonated.
45:04Colonel von Stauffenberg witnessed the explosion and several bodies flying out
45:09of the already open windows of the building from a few hundred yards away.
45:13Sure that everyone within the building was dead or dying von Stauffenberg left the
45:17wolf's lair and began a three-hour flight back to Berlin.
45:27Unfortunately back in Berlin the resistance members there had no idea whether or not the
45:32assassination attempt was successful and because launching Operation Valkyrie again in the event
45:37that the bomb had not been detonated would mean the end of them. They awaited word from von Stauffenberg.
45:44Once von Stauffenberg arrived there was a rush to put the plan in motion.
45:48Not all government buildings could be taken control of at that point.
45:52In particular the resistance couldn't take control of the Nazi's communications headquarters.
45:57The propaganda ministry on the Wilhelmstrasse with Joseph Goebbels inside was surrounded by troops
46:02but Goebbels phone was not cut off another fatal error. The decisive moment came at 7 p.m. when
46:10Hitler was sufficient to recover to make phone calls. He was able to phone Goebbels at the propaganda
46:15ministry. Goebbels arranged for Hitler to speak to the commander of the troops surrounding the ministry
46:20Major Otto Rehmer and assure him that he was still alive. Hitler ordered Rehmer to regain control of the
46:27situation in Berlin. At 8 p.m. a furious Witzleben arrived at the Bändler block and had a bitter
46:35argument with the Stauffenberg who was still insisting that the coup could go ahead. Witzleben left shortly
46:41afterwards. At around this time the planned seizure of power in Paris was aborted when Kluger, who had
46:48recently been appointed commander-in-chief in the west, learned that Hitler was alive, changed sides
46:54with alacrity and had Stuhlpnagel arrested. At 9 p.m. there was an announcement that Hitler would deliver
47:01a speech to Germany in a short time. Von Stauffenberg and his associates were shocked. Hitler had obviously
47:10survived the blast. A falling support beam had injured Hitler and his right arm was temporarily
47:16paralyzed. Hitler's eardrums had also been punctured and he suffered some burns but overall had escaped
47:23any serious injury. The group stayed holed up in the war ministry. The less resolute members of the
47:30conspiracy in Berlin also now began to change sides. Fighting broke out in the Bändler block between
47:35officers supporting and opposing the coup and Stauffenberg was wounded. Around 11 p.m. a group of
47:42Nazis had managed to break into the ministry and take the resistance members there captive. General
47:49Friedrich Fromm, who had previously been willing to work for the new post-Nazi government had the
47:54resistance been successful, had regained control hoping by a show of zealous loyalty to save his own skin.
48:00Beck, realizing the game was up, shot himself. The first of many suicides in the coming days.
48:09Fromm declared that he had convened a court-martial consisting of himself
48:13and had sentenced Albrecht, Stauffenberg, Heften and another officer, Albrecht Merz,
48:20from Quirnheim to death. At 10 past midnight on the 21st of July, they were shot in ze courtyard outside,
48:29possibly to prevent them from revealing Fromm's involvement. Just prior to his death,
48:34Klaus von Stauffenberg was said to have shouted, Long live our sacred Germany. Others would have been
48:43executed as well, but at half past midnight the SS, led by Otto Scorzini, arrived on ze scene and further
48:51executions were forbidden. Fromm went off to see Goebbels to claim credit for suppressing the coup.
48:58He was immediately arrested and later he too would be executed.
49:06Some have speculated that if Stauffenberg had placed the briefcase in a slightly different
49:13location, the bomb might have had the intended effect on the primary target,
49:19since the bomb was supposedly placed behind a very thick leg of the heavy oak conference table.
49:28The leg apparently deflected the blast and prevented the force from reaching Hitler.
49:41This thesis is supported by the fact that others seated in less fortunate positions
49:46were killed or more seriously injured than Hitler. There is also a speculation that had Stauffenberg
49:53left the second bomb in his briefcase even without arming it, the detonation of the first bomb could
49:58have triggered the explosion of the second bomb, and the combined force of the two bombs going off
50:03nearly simultaneously might have killed Hitler. An alternate analysis is that the single bomb might
50:11have been effective had the meeting been held as originally planned in Hitler's reinforced and
50:16subterranean bunker instead of the wooden hut that doubled to Speer's barracks and makeshift briefing room.
50:25Over the coming weeks, Himmler's Gestapo, driven by a furious Hitler, rounded up nearly everyone who had
50:32the remotest connection with the July 20 plot. The discovery of letters and diaries in the homes and
50:38officers of those arrested revealed the plots of 1938, 1939 and 1943, and this led to further rounds of arrests,
50:46including that of Franz Halder, who finished the war in a concentration camp.
50:53Under Himmler's new Sippenhaft, blood guilt laws, all the relatives of the principal plotters were also arrested.
51:00Eventually, some 7,000 people were arrested and hundreds were executed. Not all of them connected
51:07with the July 20 plot, since the Gestapo used the occasion to settle scores with many other people
51:12suspected of opposition sympathies. Very few of the plotters tried to escape or to deny their guilt when
51:18arrested. Those who survived interrogation were given perfunctory trial before the People's Court and its
51:25judge, Roland Freisler. The first trials were held on the 7th and 8th of August 1944.
51:35Hitler had ordered that the most prominent conspirators of those found guilty be hung like cattle.
51:40The treatment that had been dealt out to those executed as a result of the rotacappella was that of
51:46slow strangulation, using suspension from a rope attached to a slaughterhouse meat book.
51:53For the July 20 plotters, piano wire was used instead of rope.
51:59Many people took their own lives prior to either their trial or their execution, including Tresco,
52:05Kluger and Erwin Rommel, who was accused of having knowledge of the plot beforehand and not revealing it
52:11to Hitler. He was given the option of suicide via cyanide or a public trial by Freisler's People's Court.
52:18If he committed suicide, his family wouldn't be subjected to a reprisal. However, with the verdict
52:25a foregone conclusion, the People's Court was basically a kangaroo court. If Rommel stood trial,
52:31there would have been no chance of successfully defending himself and his family and staff would have been
52:36executed along with him. Rommel committed suicide on October the 14th, 1944.
52:50Stultnagel also tried to commit suicide, but survived and was subsequently hanged.
52:55Fromm's attempt to win favor by executing Stauffenberg and others on the night of July the 20th,
53:00had merely exposed his own previous lack of action and apparent failure to report the plot.
53:05Having been arrested on July the 21st, Fromm was later convicted and sentenced to death by the
53:11People's Court. Hitler personally commuted his death sentence from hanging to a more honorable
53:17firing squad. Executions continued down to the last days of the war. Hitler took his survival to be a
53:25divine moment in history and as such commissioned a special decoration to be made. The resulting
53:32decoration was the Wund badge of the 20th of July 1944, which Hitler awarded to those who were in the
53:39conference room at the time. This badge was one of the rarest decorations awarded by Nazi Germany.
53:55a
54:06rommel
54:24height
54:25to
54:25ANDERSON
54:25whether
54:25or