Claus von Stauffenberg

Though Stauffenberg had supported the German colonization of Poland and had made extremist remarks regarding Polish Jews, he refrained from joining the Nazi Party.[14][15][16] However, during the 1932 German presidential election, he voiced tentative support for Hitler:

The idea of the Führer principle [...] bound together with a Volksgemeinschaft, the principle "The community good before the individual good," and the fight against corruption, the fight against the spirit of the large urban cities, the racial thought (Rassengedanke), and the will towards a new German-formed legal order appears to us healthy and auspicious.[17]

Stauffenberg's views of Hitler were conflicted during this period. He vacillated between a strong dislike of Hitler's policies and a respect for what he perceived to be Hitler's military acumen, before becoming more disassociated with the party after The Night of the Long Knives and Kristallnacht which he saw as proof Hitler had no intentions to pursue justice.[18] As a practicing Catholic, it was noted that the growing systematic ill-treatment of Jews and suppression of religion had offended Stauffenberg's strong sense of Catholic morality and justice.[19][20]

Even though Stauffenberg joined the covert resistance movement within the Wehrmacht, like many members of the Nazi Party, he displayed a tentative opposition to parliamentary democracy.[21]

Following the outbreak of war in 1939, Stauffenberg and his regiment took part in the Invasion of Poland. During this time, he was a strong supporter of Poland's occupation, and the Nazi Party's colonisation, exploitation and use of Pole slave workers to bring about German prosperity.[14] Stauffenberg himself noted, "It is essential that we begin a systemic colonisation in Poland. But I have no fear that this will not occur".[15] After the Invasion, Stauffenberg's unit was reorganised into the 6th Panzer Division, and he served as an officer on its General Staff in the Battle of France, for which he was awarded the Iron Cross First Class.[22]

While his uncle, Nikolaus Graf von Üxküll-Gyllenband, together with Fritz-Dietlof von der Schulenburg, had approached Stauffenberg to join the resistance movement against the Hitler regime, it was only after the Polish campaign that Stauffenberg began to consider the offer. Peter Yorck von Wartenburg and Ulrich Schwerin von Schwanenfeld had urged him to become the adjutant of Walther von Brauchitsch, then Supreme Commander of the Army, to facilitate a coup against Hitler. Though, Stauffenberg declined at the time, reasoning that all German soldiers had pledged allegiance not to the institution of the presidency of the German Reich, but to the person of Adolf Hitler, due to the Führereid introduced in 1934.[23]

During the quieter months of 1940 to 1941, Stauffenberg was transferred to the organisational department of the Oberkommando des Heeres ("Army High Command"; OKH), which was directing the German invasion of the Soviet Union and operations on the Eastern Front. Though Stauffenberg did not engage in any coup plotting at this time, his brothers Berthold and Claus maintained contact with anti-regime figures such as the Kreisau Circle and former commanders such as Hoepner.[24]

Hoffman, in citing Brigadier Oskar Alfred-Berger's letters, noted Stauffenberg had commented openly on the ill-treatment of the Jews when he "expressed outrage and shock on this subject to fellow officers in the General Staff Headquarters in Vinnitsa, Ukraine during the summer of 1942."[25] When Stauffenberg's friend, Major Joachim Kuhn, was captured by the Red Army, during interrogation on 2 September 1944, Kuhn claimed that Stauffenberg had told him in August 1942 that "They are shooting Jews in masses. These crimes must not be allowed to continue."[26]

In November 1942, the Allies landed in French North Africa, and the 10th Panzer Division occupied Vichy France (Case Anton) before being transferred to fight in the Tunisian campaign, as part of the Afrika Korps. In 1943, Stauffenberg was promoted to Oberstleutnant i.G.[27] (lieutenant-colonel of the general staff), and was sent to Africa to join the 10th Panzer Division as its Operations Officer in the General Staff (Ia). On 19 February, Rommel launched his counter-offensive against British, American and French forces in Tunisia. The Axis commanders hoped to break rapidly through either the Sbiba or Kasserine Pass into the rear of the British First Army. The assault at Sbiba was halted, so Rommel concentrated on the Kasserine Pass where primarily the Italian 7th Bersaglieri Regiment and 131st Armoured Division Centauro had defeated the American defenders.[28] During the fighting, Stauffenberg drove up to be with the leading tanks and troops of the 10th Panzer Division.[29] The division, together with the 21st Panzer Division, took up defensive positions near Mezzouna on 8 April.[30]

On 7 April 1943, Stauffenberg was involved in driving from one unit to another, directing their movement.[31] Near Mezzouna, his vehicle was part of a column strafed by P-40 Kittyhawk fighter bombers of the Desert Air Force – most likely from No. 3 Squadron RAAF[32] – and he received multiple severe wounds. Stauffenberg spent three months in a hospital in Munich, where he was treated by Ferdinand Sauerbruch. Stauffenberg lost his left eye, his right hand, and two fingers on his left hand.[33] He jokingly remarked to friends never to have really known what to do with so many fingers when he still had all of them. For his injuries, Stauffenberg was awarded the Wound Badge in Gold on 14 April and for his courage the German Cross in Gold on 8 May.[34]

Stauffenberg (left) and Albrecht Mertz von Quirnheim in 1944

For rehabilitation, Stauffenberg was sent to his home, Schloss Lautlingen (today a museum), then still one of the Stauffenberg castles in southern Germany. The Torfels near Meßstetten Bueloch had been visited many times.[35] Initially, he felt frustrated not to be in a position to stage a coup himself. But by the beginning of September 1943, after a somewhat slow recovery from his wounds, he was propositioned by the conspirators and was introduced to Henning von Tresckow as a staff officer to the headquarters of the Ersatzheer ("Replacement Army" – charged with training soldiers to reinforce first line divisions at the front), located on the Bendlerstrasse (later Stauffenbergstrasse) in Berlin.[36]

There, one of Stauffenberg's superiors was General Friedrich Olbricht, a committed member of the resistance movement. The Ersatzheer had a unique opportunity to launch a coup, as one of its functions was to have Operation Valkyrie in place. This was a contingency measure to let it assume control of the Reich in the event that internal disturbances blocked communications to the military high command. The Valkyrie plan had been agreed to by Hitler but was secretly changed to sweep the rest of his regime from power in the event of his death. In 1943, Henning von Tresckow was deployed on the Eastern Front, giving Stauffenberg control of the resistance. (Tresckow never returned to Germany, as he committed suicide at Królowy Most, Poland, in 1944, after learning of the plot's failure.)[37]

A detailed military plan was developed not only to occupy Berlin, but also to take the different headquarters of the German army and of Hitler in East Prussia by military force after the suicide assassination attempt by Axel von dem Bussche in late November 1943. Stauffenberg had von dem Bussche transmit these written orders personally to Major Kuhn once he had arrived at Wolfsschanze (Wolf's Lair) near Rastenburg, East Prussia. However, von dem Bussche had left the Wolfsschanze for the eastern front, after the meeting with Hitler was cancelled, and the attempt could not be made.[38]

Kuhn became a prisoner of war of the Soviets after the 20 July plot. He led the Soviets to the hiding place of the documents in February 1945. In 1989, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev presented these documents to German chancellor Dr. Helmut Kohl. The conspirators' motivations have been a matter of discussion for years in Germany since the war. Many thought the plotters wanted to kill Hitler in order to end the war and to avoid the loss of their privileges as professional officers and members of the nobility.[39]

On D-Day, 6 June 1944, the Allies had landed in France. Stauffenberg, like most other German professional military officers, had absolutely no doubt that the war was lost. Only an immediate armistice could avoid more unnecessary bloodshed and further damage to Germany, its people, and other European nations. However, in late 1943, he had written out demands with which he felt the Allies had to comply in order for Germany to agree to an immediate peace. These demands included Germany retaining its 1914 eastern borders, including the Polish territories of Wielkopolska and Poznań.[40] Other demands included keeping such territorial gains as Austria and the Sudetenland within the Reich, giving autonomy to Alsace-Lorraine and even expansion of the current wartime borders of Germany in the south by annexing Tyrol as far as Bozen and Meran. Non-territorial demands included such points as refusal of any occupation of Germany by the Allies, as well as refusal to hand over war criminals by demanding the right of "nations to deal with its own criminals." These proposals were directed to only the Western Allies – Stauffenberg wanted Germany to retreat from only the western, southern, and northern positions, while demanding the right to continue military occupation of German territorial gains in the east.[41]

After several unsuccessful attempts by Stauffenberg to encounter Hitler, Göring and Himmler at the same time, he went ahead with the attempt at the Wolfsschanze on 20 July 1944. Stauffenberg entered the briefing room carrying a briefcase containing two small bombs. The location had unexpectedly been changed from the subterranean Führerbunker to Albert Speer's wooden hut due to the heat on this summer's day. He left the room to arm the first bomb with specially adapted pliers. This was a difficult task for him as he had lost his right hand and had only three fingers on his left hand. A guard knocked and opened the door, urging him to hurry as the meeting was about to begin. As a result, Stauffenberg was able to arm only one of the bombs. He left the second bomb with his aide-de-camp, Werner von Haeften, and returned to the briefing room, where he placed the briefcase under the conference table, as close as he could to Hitler. Some minutes later, he received a planned phone call; he then excused himself and left the room. After his exit, the briefcase was moved by Colonel Heinz Brandt.[45]

When the explosion tore through the hut, Stauffenberg was convinced that no one in the room could have survived. Although four people were killed and almost all survivors were injured, Hitler himself was shielded from the blast by the heavy, solid-oak conference table leg, which Colonel Brandt had placed the briefcase bomb behind, and was only slightly wounded.[45]

Stauffenberg and Haeften quickly left and drove to the nearby airfield. After his return to Berlin, Stauffenberg immediately began to motivate his friends to initiate the second phase: the military coup against the Nazi leaders. Joseph Goebbels announced by radio that Hitler had survived and later, after Hitler spoke on the state radio, the conspirators realised that the coup had failed. They were tracked to their Bendlerstrasse offices and overpowered after a brief shoot-out, during which Stauffenberg was wounded in the shoulder.[46]

In an ultimately failed attempt to save his own life, co-conspirator General Friedrich Fromm, Commander-in-Chief of the Replacement Army present in the Bendlerblock (Headquarters of the Army), charged other conspirators in an impromptu court martial and condemned the ringleaders of the conspiracy to death. Stauffenberg, his aide 1st Lieutenant Werner von Haeften, General Friedrich Olbricht and Colonel Albrecht Mertz von Quirnheim were executed before 1:00 in the morning (21 July 1944) by a makeshift firing squad in the courtyard of the Bendlerblock, which was lit by the headlights of a truck.[46]

Plaque in the Bendlerblock "Here died for Germany on 20 July 1944...Colonel Claus Graf Schenk von Stauffenberg..."

Death certificate (issued in 1951)

Remembrance stone in Alter St.-Matthäus-Kirchhof cemetery. "Here the corpses were buried and then moved to an unknown place"

Stauffenberg was third in line to be executed, with Lieutenant von Haeften after. However, when it was Stauffenberg's turn, Lieutenant von Haeften placed himself between the firing squad and Stauffenberg, and received the bullets meant for Stauffenberg. When his turn came, Stauffenberg spoke his last words, "Es lebe das heilige Deutschland!" ("Long live our sacred Germany!"),[47][48] or, possibly, "Es lebe das geheime Deutschland!" ("Long live the secret Germany!"), in reference to Stefan George and the anti-Nazi circle.[48][49] Fromm ordered that the executed officers (his former co-conspirators) receive an immediate burial with military honours in the Alter St.-Matthäus-Kirchhof in Berlin's Schöneberg district. The next day, however, Stauffenberg's body was exhumed by the SS, stripped of his medals and insignia, and cremated.[50]

Another central figure in the plot was Stauffenberg's eldest brother, Berthold Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg. On 10 August 1944, Berthold was tried before Judge-President Roland Freisler in the special "People's Court" (Volksgerichtshof). This court was established by Hitler for political offences. Berthold was one of eight conspirators executed by slow strangulation at Plötzensee Prison, Berlin, later that day. Before he was killed, Berthold was throttled and then revived multiple times.[51] The entire execution and multiple resuscitations were filmed for Hitler to view at his leisure.[51]

More than 200 were condemned in show trials and executed. Hitler used the 20 July Plot as an excuse to destroy anyone he feared would oppose him. The traditional military salute was replaced with the Nazi salute. Eventually, over 20,000 Germans were killed or sent to concentration camps in the purge.[52]