JULY PLOT

also called Rastenburg Assassination Plot abortive attempt on July 20, 1944, by German military leaders to assassinate Adolf Hitler, seize control of the government, and seek more favourable peace terms from the Allies. During 1943 and early 1944, opposition to Hitler in high army circles increased as Germany's military situation deteriorated. Plans for the coup, code-named Walkre (Valkyrie) were set late in 1943; but Hitler, increasingly suspicious, became more difficult of access and often abruptly changed his schedule, thus thwarting a number of earlier attempts on his life. The leaders of the plot included Col. Gen. Ludwig Beck (formerly chief of the General Staff), Major Gen. Henning von Tresckow, Col. Gen. Friedrich Olbricht, and several other top officers. Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, one of Germany's most prestigious commanders, also threw his lot with the conspirators but took no active part after having been seriously wounded on July 17 in an Allied strafing raid. The most stalwart conspirator was Lieut. Col. Claus Philipp Schenk, Graf (Count) von Stauffenberg, who personally carried out the assassination attempt. On July 20 Stauffenberg left a bomb in a briefcase in a conference room at the Wolfsschanze (Wolf's Lair) field headquarters at Rastenburg, East Prussia, where Hitler was meeting with top military aides. Stauffenberg slipped from the room, witnessed the explosion at 12:42 PM, and, convinced that Hitler was killed, flew to Berlin to join with the other plotters, who were to have seized the Supreme Command Headquarters there. Bad luck and indecisiveness thwarted the plans. An attending officer had nudged the briefcase containing the bomb out of his way to the far side of the massive oak support of the conference table, which thus shielded Hitler from the full force of the explosion. A stenographer and three officers died, but Hitler escaped with only minor injury. Meanwhile, the other conspirators, unsure whether or not Hitler was dead, failed to act until Stauffenberg landed near Berlin more than three hours later. By then it was too late. Rumours of Hitler's survival melted the resolve of many of the key officers. In a counter-coup at Berlin headquarters, Gen. Friedrich Fromm, who had known about and condoned the plot, sought to prove his allegiance by arresting a few of the chief conspirators, who were promptly shot (Stauffenberg, Olbricht, and two aides) or forced to commit suicide (Beck). In subsequent days, Hitler's police rounded up the remaining conspirators, many of whom were tortured by the Gestapo to reveal their confederates and hauled before the Volksgericht (People's Court) to be excoriated by the dreaded Nazi judge Roland Freisler. About 180 to 200 plotters were shot or hanged or, in some cases, viciously strangled with piano wire or hung up on great meat hooks. Even Fromm was eventually arrested, tried, and executed. Hitler had some of the gruesome executions filmed and watched the movies.