Walküre

English: Flossenbürg concentration camp: courtyard of Arrestblock (jail block), site of numerous executions in 1944/45 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

Today 69 years ago a group of very brave ,and unlucky men tried to change the course of history. That is the background of Operation Walküre (Valkyrie). In truth, the plan comes off as having elements of (very black) slapstick comedy about it. That doesn’t change the fact that these men (mostly but a few women as well) gave their lives to try to remove Hitler. You are free to believe they did this in the name of the honor of the German soldier, or to get an easier peace, or to save Germany from the Russians, or a half-dozen other reasons, or all of them, I don’t think it matters.

 

They tried and they failed, and then they died, horribly for the most part.

 

 

Who were they, that were implicated? Most were, and are anonymous, and innocent, most likely since at least 7000 people were arrested and nearly 5000 executed.

 

Here are some you may have heard of:

 

• Field Marshal Erwin von Witzleben (1981-1944); The highest ranking general actively involved; executed 8 August 1944, Plötzensee Prison
• General Field Marshal (Generalfeldmarschall) Erwin Johannes Eugen Rommel (1891-1944), Wermacht’s most celebrated commander, forced by Hitler to commit suicide 14 October 1944.
• Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, Chief of German Military Intelligence (1887–1945); hanged at Flossenburg concentration camp, 9 April 1945
• Major General Count Heinrich Graf zu Dohna-Schlobitten (1882-1944); Chief of the Acting General Command; executed by hanging 14 September 1944
• General Baron Alexander von Falkenhausen, Military Commander of Belgium and Northern France (1878–1966); freed by American troops from Niederhorf on 4 May 1945, before Gestapo could carry out death sentence; imprisoned until 1951 for war crimes
• General Erich Fellgiebel, Chief of the Military Signals (1886–1944); in charge of cutting off communications on 20 July, hanged on 4 September 1944
• General of the Artillery Fritz Lindemann, Commander of 132. Infanterie-Division, went into hiding, wounded during arrest; died in prison 14 November 1944.
• Ferdinand Freiherr von Lüninck, Governor of Westphalia (1988-1944); executed by hanging 13 November 1944
• General Friedrich Olbricht (1880–1944) Executed on orders of Colonel General Fromm, 20 July 1944
• Major General Hans Oster (1888-1945); hanged at Flossenburg with Admiral Canaris, 9 April 1945
• Erwin Planck, Former Undersecretary of State (son of renowned physicist Max Planck) (1893-1945), executed 23 January 1945
• Kurt Freiherr von Plettenberg, Plenipotentiary of the former Royal House of Prussia (1891-1945); committed suicide in Gestapo custody 10 March 1945
• Karl Sack, Judge Advocate General of the Army (1896–1945) executed 9 April, Flossenbürg concentration camp
• Count Berthold Schenk von Stauffenberg (1905–1944), Lawyer and brother of Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, executed by hanging 10 August 1944
• Count Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg (1907–1944), Colonel (General Staff) plot leader and bomber; executed by firing squad at Bendlerblock 20 July 1944 on the order of General Fromm.
• Rev. Dr. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Pastor and Theologian (1906–1945); executed by hanging 9 April 1945.
• Bernhard Letterhaus, Leader of the Catholic worker community (1894–1944); executed 14 November 1944
• Joseph Müller, Catholic Priest, Dissident but not connected to July 1944 Plot. Executed 11 September 1944, Brandenburg-Gőrden prison
• Dr. Otto Müller, Prelate

 

I found this list here, on Wikipedia., and there are many, many, more.

 

But the thing that really struck me in reading over the list is this. Two other things died in the furious aftermath of the plot.

 

This was the end of the old Prussian/German Great General Staff. One can argue about its efficacy as a war fighting construct but one thing is beyond doubt, it carried the institutional honor of the German Army going back to at least the Napoleonic War.

 

The other thing that died was the old Prussian/German aristocracy, just look at the number of names in that list with the aristocratic von in their names. That prefix in most accounts goes back to returning knights of the Order of St. John Hospitaller who conquered a goodly part of Prussia and Poland to find a place to settle down. We’ve talked before about how the Nazis and the Soviets between them wiped out the Polish nobility, so there was little left.

 

It would be a fair assessment, I think, to say that World Wars I and II killed of all of the traditional leadership in Europe, with the sole exception of what was left in Britain. France pretty much killed theirs off in the terror. Maybe that’s part of the reason for Europe’s lack of leadership anymore. They haven’t figured out how yet.

 

It might also be a fair assessment that we Americans are in truth the last representatives of the ‘Old Europe’ because we managed to avoid some of the killing fields that so wounded Europe.

 

Related articles

• Berlin’s Somber 69th Anniversary of Col. Claus Von Stauffenberg’s Execution (crimefilenews.com)
• Dietrich Bonhoeffer: A Man of Courage – Part 2 (probings.wordpress.com)
• First Letter from Prison (pedrokolbe.wordpress.com)
• Interview: Rodney Martin discusses the 1944 conspiracy to overthrow Adolf Hitler (justice4germans.com)