Our guest speaker was Roger Moorhouse, wo is wel knpwn to members having presented many talks at monthly meetings and also the History Group. Roger grew up in Hertfordshire and enjoyed an unspectacular career at Berkhamsted School, before being inspired to return to education by the East European Revolutions of 1989. Thereafter, He enrolled in the School of Slavonic and East European Studies of the University of London in 1990 to study history and politics and graduated with an MA in 1994.
His subject for this meeting was ‘Killing Hitler’.
Most people have heard of the Stauffenberg Plot but it is not widely known that this was only one of a long series of attempts on the life of Adolf Hitler. The Germans, Soviets, Poles and British all made plans to kill the Fuhrer. Lone gunmen, disaffected German officers and the Polish Underground, the Soviet NKVD and the British Special Operations Executive were all involved. Their methods varied from bombing, poisoning or using a sniper, to infiltrating the SS, or even sending Rudolf Hess back to Germany under hypnosis. Many of the plans did not make it beyond the drawing board, some were carried out. All of them failed.
Claus von Stauffenberg was the most famous. He was badly injured while in Africa in 1943 and not expected to live, however he did survive and was given a job in charge of ‘homeland’ Security. This gave him the opportunity to attempt an assassination coup. On July 20 2944 he planted a bomb hidden in a brief case at a venue where Hitler was to hold rally. Although the bomb was detonated the briefcase had been moved, thereby missing Hitler, but killing other officers. Follow the attempt Stauffenberg was shot.
Other less high-profile attempts were;
- In November 1939 German Carpenter Georg Elserplaced a time-bomb at the Bürgerbrädukeller in Munich, where Hitler was due to give his annual speech in commemoration of the Beer Hall Putsch. Hitler leaves earlier than expected and the bomb detonates, killing eight and injuring sixty two others. Following the attempt, Elser was held as a prisoner for over five years until he iwas executed at the Dachau concentration camp less than a month before the surrender of Nazi Germany.
- In late 1942, Tresckow and Olbricht formulated a plan to assassinate Hitlerand stage an overthrow during Hitler’s visit to the headquarters of Army Group Centre at Smolensk in March 1943, by placing a bomb on his plane, but the bomb failed to detonate.
- After becoming close friends with leading Army Group Centre conspirator Colonel (later Major-General) Henning von Tresckow, GeneralmajorGersdorff agreesd to join the conspiracy to kill Hitler in order to save Germany. After Tresckow’s elaborate plan to assassinate Hitler on 13 March 1943 fails, Gersdorff declare himself ready to give his life for Germany’s sake in an assassination attempt that would entail his own death. On 21 March 1943, Hitler visited the Zeughaus Berlin, the old armoury on Unter den Linden, to inspect captured Soviet weapons. A group of top Nazi and leading military officials were present as well. Gersdorff was to guide Hitler on a tour of the exhibition. Moments after Hitler entered the museum, Gersdorff set off two ten-minute delayed fuses on explosive devices hidden in his coat pockets. Contrary to expectations, Hitler raced through the museum in less than ten minutes. After Hitler had left the building, Gersdorff was able to defuse the devices in a public bathroom. After the attempt, he was immediately transferred back to the Eastern Front where he managed to evade suspicion.