July 20, 1944, 12:42 PM: A bomb explodes in the “Wolf’s Lair” (“Wolfsschanze”), Hitler’s hideout in East Prussia. The bomb had been planted by Klaus von Stauffenberg, head of the Wehrmacht’s Home Forces General Staff, with the aim of killing Hitler. Stauffenberg, who had been an ardent National Socialist, now saw no other solution than to assassinate the dictator. “There is nothing left but to kill him,” he had said a few days before the assassination attempt to one of his closest associates.

Stauffenberg was not the only one to undertake the assassination of Hitlerbut he had also organized an entire coup attempt in collaboration with various prominent figures in conservative circles, such as high-ranking army officers, diplomats and government officials.

Just before the bomb went off the colonel left Hitler’s bunker and traveled to Berlin, believing that the Führer was now dead. There he puts it into operation “Operation Valkyrie”, a Wehrmacht plan originally intended to be put in place to quell a potential uprising. The conspirators, who had occupied important positions in the National Socialist state apparatus, intended to implement “Valkyria” in order to overthrow Hitler themselves.

Rommel’s denial

But Hitler escapes with minor injuries – the shock wave of the explosion is limited by the heavy oak table and the shelter’s windows, which were wide open due to the unbearable heat. The overthrow of the regime, however, was still possible – as long as all those involved had gone ahead with it “Valkyria” to the end.

During the implementation of the plan, however, there were mistakes, delays and misgivings. Moreover, some of the conspirators buckled under the pressure of being noticed and eventually either remained inactive or even decided to change sides.

By nightfall the plan to overthrow the Hitler regime has collapsed. In his radio address, Hitler addresses the people saying that it was “destined” to be saved. Both o Stauffenberg as well as other conspirators are arrested and executed a few hours later. In total, around 200 resistance fighters are killed.

Historian Wolfgang Bentz attributes the plan’s failure mainly to the fact that “none of the leading heads of the armed forces ultimately participated”, such as Field Marshal Erwin Rommel. “At least one of them should have led the plan, so that the people would say: ‘Ah, so Rommel also thinks that Hitler is a criminal.'”

A powerful symbol

Despite his failure, the plan of 20 July 1944 became a powerful symbol of resistance against Hitler.

In fact, a few days before, Henning von Treschoff, one of the conspirators, had found that the issue is no longer necessarily the successful overthrow of the regime, “but for the German resistance movement to take a decisive action before the world and history , at the risk of the lives of the participants”.

In the past there had been other resistance actions, such as the attempt by the carpenter Georg Ezler to assassinate Hitler with a homemade bomb or the anti-Nazi proclamations of the White Rose group. Actions which were later overshadowed by “the belated, if not too belated, resistance of the conservative elite”, as Wolfgang Bentz reports.

“None of them were interested in the Holocaust”

For some time after the end of the war those who organized the plan were considered traitors. Only much later were they recognized as heroes, and now streets, schools and barracks are named after them, and various events are held in their honor – public buildings are decorated with flags and the German army commemorates Stauffenberg and his associates.

But there are also many who criticize the conspirators. Thomas Karlauf, author of Stauffenberg’s biography, states that the plan to overthrow the Hitler regime did not emerge until the summer of 1944, shortly after the Allied landings in Normandy. In 1940 Stauffenberg expressed his enthusiasm for the victories of the German army in Poland and France. Furthermore, according to Bentz, “the Holocaust didn’t even interest them.” The overthrow of the regime was planned when Germany’s defeat in the war seemed imminent and the conspirators’ aim was to “salvage what they could”.

According to the historian Johannes Hirter, Stauffenberg was not a democrat. In the event that the coup was successful, he intended to follow an authoritarian style of government: “Germany would once again return to the rule of law – but the protagonists of July 20 did not plan a democracy based on the Constitution, as we know it today.

The heroes of the resistance against Nazism

When Germans today think of resistance against National Socialism, the events of July 20, 1944 are the first to come to mind. Klaus von Stauffenberg thus became the face of the resistance.

Apart from that, however, there were many other heroes and heroines who stood up against the terror of the Nazi regime – Jews, communists, clergy, artists, rebels. And certainly also people who resisted silently and whose actions, in contrast to the July 20 attempt, have today been forgotten.

Edited by: Giorgos Passas