July 20th- Another Anniversary

Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg


Today, we commemorate the 40th anniversary of the day Americans landed on the moon. July 20th is also marked as an important anniversary in another country-Germany. Today, July 20th, is the 65th anniversary of the attempt on the life of Adolf Hitler.

It was July 20, 1944 when Colonel Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg set off a bomb concealed in his briefcase during a military briefing in which Hitler was present at the so-called "Wolf's Lair" in East Prussia. By chance, Hitler survived the explosion. By that evening, Stauffenberg, who had escaped back to Berlin to coordinate a supposed coup, was arrested with several co-conspirators and shot at the Bendlerstrasse military hqs. A wave of arrests of co-conspirators, real and suspected, followed. Show trials were held in Berlin, officiated by the notorious Nazi judge Roland Freisler, the same judge who had earlier presided over a quick kangaroo-style trial of the White Rose student resistance leaders in Munich.

Death sentences were handed out, and the defendants were hanged with piano wire in Berlin's Ploetzensee Prison, the events filmed for Hitler's viewing pleasure.

Though the assassination attempt failed, it did succeed in leaving post-war Germany with some aspect of the 12-year-Reich they could point to with pride. It showed at least that there were decent Germans who were willing to lay down their lives for a noble cause-even knowing that they would be labeled as traitors.

Today, of course, Stauffenberg and the other co-conspirators are remembered as heroes in Germany, and numerous streets, plazas and other landmarks are named in their honor.

The plot to kill Hitler was the subject of a recent motion picture filmed in Germany and starring Tom Cruise as Stauffenberg. Incidentally, Stauffenberg's widow, Nina, who resided in the Franconian town of Bamberg (her last residence when her husband was alive), passed away just a few years ago after writing her memoirs.