--- title: "Assassinating Hitler: Nazi Germany's Last Chance at Salvation" description: "In the early years of the Second World War, the German army, under the command of Adolf Hitler and his Nazi party, seemed to be an unstoppable force destined to march across and control large portions of Europe. For a short, bleak time in history, that grim prospect was seen by some as an inevitability, thanks in no small part to Germany's rock-solid and unified leadership. At least, that was the perception at the time, but now, through the lens of history, we understand that those surrounding Hitler were not as loyal as they had once seemed. In total, Hitler survived no fewer than 42 assassination attempts from the time he first began his rise to power in the early 1930s until he eventually took his own life roughly fifteen years later. Some of these plots were no more advanced than a lone gunman looking for the perfect opportunity to strike, while others required the careful planning and coordination of hundreds.\n\n## Key Takeaways\n- Hitler survived no fewer than 42 assassination attempts between the early 1930s and his suicide in 1945.\n- The Night of the Long Knives in June-July 1934 killed an estimated 85 to 1,000 political opponents and directly inspired multiple subsequent assassination plots.\n- Johann Georg Elser spent over 30 nights hollowing out a pillar at the Bürgerbräukeller, but Hitler's speech was shortened by 30 minutes on November 8, 1939, and he left 13 minutes before the bomb exploded.\n- On March 13, 1943, a bomb planted on Hitler's plane by Tresckow's resistance failed because the blast-cap froze at high altitude.\n- Colonel von Gersdorff activated a 10-minute fuse while guiding Hitler through a Soviet weapons exhibit, but Hitler completed the tour in only eight minutes.\n- The July 20 Plot hinged on activating Operation Valkyrie—Germany's Reserve Army contingency plan—under the false pretense that the SS had assassinated Hitler.\n\n## Early Attempts: Lone Wolves and the Gestapo's Grip\n\nIn the early 1930s, during Hitler's gradual rise to power, there were no known concerted efforts made against his life; however, there were several lone-wolf attacks. The first came in 1932 inside the Hotel Kaiserhof in Berlin when, after eating dinner in the hotel's restaurant, several members of Hitler's staff became inexplicably ill. It is suspected, although unconfirmed, that an unknown person intentionally poisoned the group's food. Not one person died during this attempt and Hitler was one of those least affected, as it was the meat which was poisoned and Hitler was known to often forgo meat in favor of vegetarian options. On February 9th of that same year, a letter arrived addressed to Hitler, but it was intercepted before it could reach his hands. The letter had been filled with poison and sent by Ludwig Aßner, a German politician living in France. The following year, Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany following a series of narrow political victories by the Nazi Party. Hitler's constant push for greater and greater power eventually culminated in what is now known as the Night of the Long Knives. The Night of the Long Knives, also known as Operation Hummingbird, was a series of extrajudicial executions ordered by Adolf Hitler as a way to eliminate political opposition, further consolidate power, and firmly establish himself as the undisputed German dictator. The term Night of the Long Knives is a misnomer, as the killings took place over the course of three days from June 30th to July 2nd, 1934. During this time, political opponents, specifically members of the SA and its leader, Ernst Röhm, were given mock trials in which they were only permitted a single minute to defend themselves. Others were not even given that and were instead taken out back and shot outright. Officially, death estimates were reported at 85, although that number is now believed to be in the hundreds, with some estimates reaching as high as one thousand. The Nazi Party's justification for the slaughter was the claim that the SA was planning a coup to overthrow the elected government. This singular event inspired several assassination attempts. Beppo Römer vowed revenge after his brother was killed during that short, bloody affair. Römer, along with his associate Nikolaus von Halem, began planning an assassination, but it was uncovered and halted by the Gestapo. Römer was imprisoned at Dachau concentration camp until 1939. After his release, he immediately began working to overthrow the Nazi regime, but once again the plan was uncovered. Römer was arrested again in 1942 and sentenced to death. He was executed on the 25th of September 1944, less than a year before the end of the war.\n\n## Organized Plots and the Gestapo's Omnipresence\n\nThe same year as Römer's original plot in 1934, what is believed to be the first organized attempt by a large group of people to take down the Nazi Party occurred. It was perpetrated by Helmut Mylius, head of an opposing political party, the Radical Middle-Class Party, who commissioned 160 men to infiltrate the Schutzstaffel—Hitler's private squad of bodyguards, more commonly known as the SS—to monitor and report back Hitler's movements. With this information, Mylius hoped to eventually organize a plan; however, it was not meant to be. The Gestapo seemed to be everywhere, to know everything, and all 160 men were eventually identified and imprisoned. Mylius himself avoided incarceration through his many political connections, but he would never again have the chance to make another move against the Fuhrer. In 1936, Helmut Hirsch, a member of the Combat League of Revolutionary National Socialists, more commonly known as the Black Front, planned two bombings: the first at the Nazi Headquarters in Nuremberg, and the second inside the building where the antisemitic newsletter Der Stürmer was printed. Once again, the Gestapo knew everything. On December 20th, 1936, Hirsch traveled to Nuremberg by train but was arrested inside his hotel room. Hirsch was charged with treason, and at 6 AM on June 4th, 1937, he was executed by decapitation. These early failures illustrate the near-total surveillance state the Gestapo had constructed. Political rivals, vengeful relatives, and foreign agitators all had their reasons to want Hitler dead, but the secret police force's penetration of virtually every layer of German society made organized resistance extraordinarily dangerous.\n\n## The Beer Hall Bomb: Johann Georg Elser's Solo Operation\n\nWhat if you were just a regular person startled to the core by Hitler's ruthlessness? What if you had lived through the Great War and wanted Germany to stay as far away from conflict as possible? A man named Johann Georg Elser acted on exactly those convictions, and he did it entirely on his own. While working as a laborer in Germany, Elser had grown disillusioned by the Nazi methods and become convinced that the party's leadership—Hitler, Hermann Göring, and Joseph Goebbels—all needed to be eliminated immediately to avoid catastrophe. In November of 1938, Elser traveled to Munich to Bürgerbräukeller Hall where Hitler was scheduled to give his annual speech on the anniversary of the Beer Hall Putsch. This was where, in 1923, Hitler had launched the coup that would see him imprisoned for eight months and fined 500 Reichsmark—a very lenient sentence for an attempted government takeover where 20 people were killed. Although Elser was unable to enter the room during Hitler's speech, he moved inside once the crowd had dispersed. As he approached the podium, he noticed a large pillar situated directly behind where Hitler had just been standing. At that moment, Elser committed himself to planting a bomb inside the pillar that would be detonated during Hitler's speech the following year. In April of 1939, he started a job at the Vollmer quarry in Königsbronn and began learning about explosives, gradually stealing small amounts of blasting cartridges and detonators to build his own bomb. For months after, he used these stolen supplies to test prototypes at his parent's secluded orchard, alleviating their worries by telling them he was just \"testing out new inventions.\" In August, he left for Munich with the explosives tucked away in the false bottom of his suitcase. After arriving, he rented a room and began regularly eating inside the Bürgerbräukeller restaurant. Once his meal was complete, Elser would sneak into the adjoining hall and hide until the doors were locked at around 10:30 PM. After all employees had left, he spent four to five hours working by flashlight to hollow out the backside of the pillar. He estimated that he did this approximately 30 to 35 times before the pillar had been sufficiently hollowed out and the bomb placed. On the night of November 7th, 1939, Elser set the timers on his bomb, exited the hall one final time, and boarded a train to Switzerland. That evening, Hitler arrived on time; however, due to forecasted fog the following morning, he decided to return to Berlin directly after his speech. To accommodate this last-minute change, his speech was moved up by 30 minutes and cut from the planned two hours down to one. Hitler ended his speech at 9:07 PM and exited the hall. Elser's bomb exploded thirteen minutes later at 9:20, killing seven people and injuring over sixty-three. The roof collapsed directly over the speaker's podium. Had Hitler delivered his speech as scheduled, he would have certainly been killed. The following day, after learning of the attempt, Hitler is reported to have said, \"A man has to be lucky.\" Elser was arrested at the border and sent to the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp. He was executed in 1945, two weeks before the end of the war.\n\n## Tresckow's Resistance and the Three Attempts of March 1943\n\nBy the beginning of 1943, the war was in full swing and Germany had suffered multiple crushing defeats at the hands of the Allies. Many high-ranking officials became increasingly convinced that victory was impossible. This belief was further supported by the devastating losses at Stalingrad, during which the Axis powers suffered upwards of 860,000 casualties. The effects of the war were not lost on the German people as they grieved for their fallen sons, brothers, and fathers, but most never publicly questioned Hitler's leadership. The Gestapo were still there, still waiting around every corner to strike at the first sign of dissent, and it was only those individuals with access to privileged information who truly understood just how desperate the situation was becoming. For this reason, Major-General Henning von Tresckow, a veteran of the First World War and early supporter of the Nazi party who was also revolted by the Night of the Long Knives, began to build an organized resistance. It was not the first resistance, but it would eventually grow to be the largest. For years, Tresckow worked in the shadows, gathering intel and organizing teams that infiltrated the SS, the Gestapo, and nearly every military office in Germany. On the 13th of March 1943, he decided to make his move. Hitler was scheduled to visit the eastern troops, a visit long overdue as it had already been delayed several times. Because of Tresckow's military rank, he was in the unique position to arrange an honor guard to accompany Hitler. The first plan was to fill this honor guard with resistance fighters who could overwhelm and arrest Hitler along a remote stretch of road; however, Tresckow knew that wherever Hitler went, his SS bodyguards followed. The plan was scrapped as it was thought the SS would not surrender willingly, and Tresckow did not like the idea of German soldiers fighting other German soldiers. The second plan was to assassinate Hitler during his midday meal, with several resistance members seated nearby with instructions to stand and unload their pistols at a predetermined signal. It was a suicide mission, but there were many officers willing to give their lives to end the war. Unfortunately, as lunchtime came and went, it became clear that Hitler did not plan to make an appearance. With their window closing, Tresckow made one final attempt by arranging to have a bomb planted on Hitler's departing plane. The bomb, a plastic explosive disguised as a gift box containing two liquor bottles, was gifted to an officer traveling on the same flight. The timers were set to allow plenty of time for takeoff, and the bomb was loaded into the cargo hold. Hours later, the plane landed as scheduled with no signs of damage. The bomb had failed to ignite. When inspected, it was revealed that the blast-cap had frozen over while the plane was flying at high altitudes. Hitler had survived three assassination attempts in a single day and was not even slightly aware of it. The following week, on March 21st, Hitler was scheduled to tour a display of captured Soviet weaponry. Colonel Freiherr von Gersdorff, another member of Tresckow's resistance, was assigned to guide Hitler through the exhibit. When he realized he would have direct access to the Fuhrer, Gersdorff offered himself as a suicide bomber. That day, he loaded his pockets with the explosives from the failed plane bomb, and when Hitler arrived, activated the 10-minute delayed fuse. For the next several minutes, he guided Hitler around the exhibit, never once leaving his side, trying to stall at every chance. However, the constantly time-constrained dictator rushed through the entire presentation in only eight minutes. After embracing Hitler in a long hug, Gersdorff excused himself to the restroom and managed to defuse the bomb with only seconds to spare.\n\n## Claus von Stauffenberg and the Birth of the July 20 Plot\n\nThe July 20 Plot centers around Claus von Stauffenberg. Stauffenberg was born in 1907 to German nobility and spent his formative years in Germany during the First World War. After the war ended, he, like so many other Germans, felt that the Treaty of Versailles was unfair and placed undue blame on Germany. In 1926, Stauffenberg joined his family's traditional regiment, the 17th Cavalry, and was later made a second-lieutenant and sent to the Prussian Staff College. Although Stauffenberg had originally voiced support for Hitler shortly before his election to chancellor, he never officially joined the Nazi party, and after the Night of the Long Knives, he became vocally critical of the party's methods. After participating in the Battle of France, Stauffenberg was appointed to the organizational department of the Army High Command, which oversaw the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. It was at this time, while witnessing firsthand the treatment of Jews in the summer of 1942, that Stauffenberg reportedly said, \"They are shooting Jews in masses. These crimes must not be allowed to continue.\" That year, he was promoted to lieutenant-colonel and sent to Northern Africa to join the 10th Panzer Division as its operations officer. During this time, Stauffenberg was seriously wounded in a bombing raid that cost him his left eye, his right hand, and two fingers on his left hand. He spent three months in a hospital in Munich and was awarded the Wound Badge and the German Cross in Gold for his repeated acts of bravery. While recovering in Southern Germany, Stauffenberg was approached by Henning von Tresckow, and it was at this time that he became fully associated with the German resistance movement. To say that Stauffenberg simply became associated with the movement is not entirely accurate, as he quickly became one of its main driving forces. He provided organization to the scattered and irresolute resistance members, who, up until this point, had been unable to formulate a concrete plan of action. It was during this time that the July 20 Plot was born. To understand the plot, it is essential to understand Operation Valkyrie. In short, Operation Valkyrie was a contingency plan that allowed for the activation and mobilization of the German Reserve Army to eliminate any domestic threats caused by a labor uprising, mass protest, foreign invasion, or any other destabilizing event during the war. Stauffenberg's plan was to activate Operation Valkyrie and use the German Reserve Army to arrest and imprison the highest-ranking members of the Nazi Party and replace them with resistance members. Then, with the new chain of command established, they hoped to negotiate an immediate ceasefire and bring a swift end to the war.\n\n## Operation Valkyrie: The Plan and Its Obstacles\n\nThe plan was decent; however, there were several major things that stood in the way. First, the only person capable of ordering Operation Valkyrie, besides Hitler himself, was Colonel-General Friedrich Fromm. Fromm was somewhat sympathetic and aware of the resistance, but he was not at all associated and certainly would not participate in the coup if asked. That meant he would need to be tricked into ordering it. Second, Stauffenberg did not believe that the German Reserve Army would willingly turn against the Nazi party so long as it was still led by Hitler himself, as they had all taken the Führereid—the Fuhrer Oath or Hitler Oath—a mandatory oath pledging personal loyalty to Adolf Hitler. That meant that if Operation Valkyrie was going to work, Hitler needed to be dead. The final plan took shape as follows: Stauffenberg and Tresckow would organize the assassination of Adolf Hitler. As soon as Hitler was verifiably dead, they would convince Friedrich Fromm to activate Operation Valkyrie under the false pretense that the SS had assassinated Hitler and was, at that very moment, committing a coup to overthrow the current leadership. It was a bluff, but they hoped that given the urgency, Fromm could be convinced to unwillingly participate before realizing that he was actually assisting in a coup instead of preventing one. Once Valkyrie was officially in effect, they believed the soldiers in the Reserve Army would be highly motivated to remove the SS under the assumption that they had betrayed Hitler and their own country. They hoped to use the Reserve Army to round up and imprison the SS, quickly install themselves as the new leaders of the party, and end the war. On the 1st of July 1944, Stauffenberg was appointed Chief of Staff to General Fromm. As Chief of Staff, one of his new duties was to report on the combat readiness of the German Reserve Army directly to Hitler himself. That meant regularly-scheduled, face-to-face meetings with the Fuhrer on a weekly basis. It was decided that, if no other option presented itself, he would both carry out the assassination and manage the coup. On July 18th, Stauffenberg and Tresckow began hearing rumors that the Gestapo had been made aware of their plan and were making arrangements to have the entire group arrested. This turned out to be bad intel, but a fire had already been lit, the walls were closing in, and the timeline needed to be accelerated dramatically.\n\n## July 20, 1944: The Bomb at the Wolf's Lair and Its Aftermath\n\nTwo days later, with a renewed sense of urgency, Stauffenberg boarded a plane carrying a briefcase that contained two 1-kilogram blocks of plastic explosives. Upon arrival at the Wolf's Lair, Hitler's eastern-front military headquarters, Stauffenberg requested that he be allowed to change his shirt before meeting with the Fuhrer. It was a hot day, with visible sweat lines under his arms and around his neck. Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel agreed and allowed him to use the washroom. At half-past noon, Stauffenberg entered the bathroom and began arming the bomb; however, due to the injuries on his hands, this was a tedious process. Using his good hand, Stauffenberg inserted and armed the pencil detonator into the first bomb, but was interrupted by a guard knocking on the door before he was able to arm the second one. He quickly placed the single armed bomb into his briefcase and exited. With this briefcase in hand, Stauffenberg entered the meeting room where Hitler and roughly twenty-five other high-ranking Nazi officials surrounded a large, wooden conference table. Hitler stood at the center, and Stauffenberg placed the bomb underneath, just a couple meters from Hitler's legs. After several tense minutes, Stauffenberg was notified of a pre-arranged telephone call. He exited the room, pretended to take the call, and immediately left the building. At 12:42, the bomb detonated. The entire building shook violently and a cloud of black smoke billowed into the air. Seeing this, Stauffenberg assumed Hitler had been killed and boarded a plane back to Berlin. Unfortunately, he was three hours away, and by the time he reached Berlin, word had arrived that Hitler had survived the blast. Conflicting reports surfaced, and the conspirators were not sure who to believe. Eventually, at 4 PM, a decision was made, and Operation Valkyrie was activated. For the next several hours, Germany was plunged into chaos. The German Reserve Army was mobilized as planned, and believing that Hitler had been assassinated by the SS, military leaders in Vienna, Prague, France, and all across Germany began disarming and arresting prominent Nazi leaders. Hundreds died fighting one another in the streets, each believing the other side was complicit in a coup. Finally, at around 7 PM, after learning of his supposed death, Hitler made his reappearance. Word quickly spread that the Fuhrer was alive and well, and the entire plot came to a crashing halt. The fallout was massive. The homes of suspected conspirators were raided, letters and correspondence were seized, and in the end, more than 7,000 people were arrested and nearly 5,000 of them executed. In order to cover up his knowledge of the resistance, Friedrich Fromm ordered that Stauffenberg be killed immediately. Stauffenberg's last words were, \"Long live our sacred Germany.\" That same day, Henning von Tresckow committed suicide by grenade. Before his death, he is reported to have said: \"The whole world will vilify us now, but I am still totally convinced that we did the right thing. Hitler is the archenemy not only of Germany but of the world. When, in a few hours' time, I go before God to account for what I have done and left undone, I know I will be able to justify what I did in the struggle against Hitler.\"\n\n## Frequently Asked Questions\n\n### Why did so many assassination attempts against Hitler fail?\n\nThe Gestapo's near-total surveillance of German society made organized resistance extraordinarily dangerous — all 160 of Helmut Mylius's infiltrators were identified and imprisoned, and multiple plots were uncovered before they could be executed. Even well-planned attempts like Georg Elser's beer hall bomb were undone by last-minute changes to Hitler's schedule, and technical failures like a frozen blast-cap thwarted Tresckow's plane bomb. Hitler also rarely exposed himself to risk without extensive security.\n\n### How did Johann Georg Elser nearly succeed in killing Hitler?\n\nElser spent roughly 30 to 35 nights hollowing out a pillar at the Bürgerbräukeller, working alone by flashlight after the restaurant closed, and installed a bomb timed to detonate during Hitler's annual speech on November 8, 1939. Hitler cut his speech short by 30 minutes due to forecasted fog and left at 9:07 PM; the bomb exploded at 9:20, killing seven and injuring over sixty-three. Had Hitler delivered his speech as originally planned, he would have been standing at the podium when it detonated.\n\n### What was Operation Valkyrie and how did the conspirators plan to use it?\n\nOperation Valkyrie was Germany's official contingency plan to mobilize the Reserve Army against domestic threats such as a labor uprising or foreign invasion. Stauffenberg and Tresckow planned to activate it under the false pretense that the SS had assassinated Hitler, banking on the fact that Reserve Army soldiers — bound by their Führereid oath of personal loyalty to Hitler — would only turn against the Nazi leadership if they believed Hitler was already dead. The plan was to use those troops to arrest SS and Nazi Party leaders and install resistance members in their place.\n\n### What happened in the immediate aftermath of the July 20, 1944 bombing?\n\nAfter Stauffenberg boarded a plane back to Berlin assuming Hitler was dead, Operation Valkyrie was activated at 4 PM and the Reserve Army was mobilized across Germany, Austria, France, and elsewhere, with military leaders arresting Nazi officials on the assumption the SS had committed a coup. Hitler made a radio reappearance at around 7 PM, and the plot collapsed instantly. Over 7,000 people were subsequently arrested and nearly 5,000 executed; Stauffenberg was shot on the night of July 20, and Tresckow committed suicide by grenade the same day.\n\n### Why did the bomb at the Wolf's Lair fail to kill Hitler?\n\nStauffenberg had two 1-kilogram blocks of plastic explosive but was interrupted by a guard before he could arm the second one, so only half the intended charge was placed under the conference table. The large, heavy oak table absorbed much of the blast, and the meeting was held in a surface building rather than an underground bunker, allowing the explosion to dissipate outward. Hitler survived with ruptured eardrums, burns, and other injuries but was shielded from the full force by the table and the partial charge.\n\n## Related Coverage\n- [Why Does Israel Keep Attacking Syria? And More.](https://warfronts.pub/conflicts/why-does-israel-keep-attacking-syria-and-more)\n- [This Is Ukraine’s Moment of Truth.](https://warfronts.pub/conflicts/this-is-ukraines-moment-of-truth-1bmuupct)\n- [This Is Ukraine’s Moment of Truth.](https://warfronts.pub/conflicts/this-is-ukraines-moment-of-truth)\n- [When the Red Button Falls: The Unraveling After a Global Nuclear War](https://warfronts-prod.fulcrum-labs.workers.dev/conflicts/when-red-button-falls-unraveling-global-nuclear-war)\n- [Did Rich Foreigners Pay to Shoot Civilians in Bosnia?](https://warfronts.pub/conflicts/did-rich-foreigners-pay-to-shoot-civilians-in-bosnia)\n\n" url: https://warfronts.pub/article/assassinating-hitler-nazi-germanys-last-chance-at-salvation.md canonical: https://warfronts.pub/article/assassinating-hitler-nazi-germanys-last-chance-at-salvation datePublished: 2026-03-04 dateModified: 2026-03-04 author: - name: Simon Whistler url: https://warfronts.pub/author/simon-whistler publisher: Warfronts image: "https://media.warfronts.pub/cdn-cgi/image/width=1600,height=900,fit=cover,quality=80,format=auto/articles/1pMgu8efzDY/hero.jpg" type: NewsArticle contentHash: da67afcd45937887769d074531209d8bfed10bf64d09af95524456f4c86877de tokens: 6512 summaryUrl: https://warfronts.pub/article/assassinating-hitler-nazi-germanys-last-chance-at-salvation.md.summary.md --- In the early years of the Second World War, the German army, under the command of Adolf Hitler and his Nazi party, seemed to be an unstoppable force destined to march across and control large portions of Europe. For a short, bleak time in history, that grim prospect was seen by some as an inevitability, thanks in no small part to Germany's rock-solid and unified leadership. At least, that was the perception at the time, but now, through the lens of history, we understand that those surrounding Hitler were not as loyal as they had once seemed. In total, Hitler survived no fewer than 42 assassination attempts from the time he first began his rise to power in the early 1930s until he eventually took his own life roughly fifteen years later. Some of these plots were no more advanced than a lone gunman looking for the perfect opportunity to strike, while others required the careful planning and coordination of hundreds. ## Key Takeaways - Hitler survived no fewer than 42 assassination attempts between the early 1930s and his suicide in 1945. - The Night of the Long Knives in June-July 1934 killed an estimated 85 to 1,000 political opponents and directly inspired multiple subsequent assassination plots. - Johann Georg Elser spent over 30 nights hollowing out a pillar at the Bürgerbräukeller, but Hitler's speech was shortened by 30 minutes on November 8, 1939, and he left 13 minutes before the bomb exploded. - On March 13, 1943, a bomb planted on Hitler's plane by Tresckow's resistance failed because the blast-cap froze at high altitude. - Colonel von Gersdorff activated a 10-minute fuse while guiding Hitler through a Soviet weapons exhibit, but Hitler completed the tour in only eight minutes. - The July 20 Plot hinged on activating Operation Valkyrie—Germany's Reserve Army contingency plan—under the false pretense that the SS had assassinated Hitler. ## Early Attempts: Lone Wolves and the Gestapo's Grip In the early 1930s, during Hitler's gradual rise to power, there were no known concerted efforts made against his life; however, there were several lone-wolf attacks. The first came in 1932 inside the Hotel Kaiserhof in Berlin when, after eating dinner in the hotel's restaurant, several members of Hitler's staff became inexplicably ill. It is suspected, although unconfirmed, that an unknown person intentionally poisoned the group's food. Not one person died during this attempt and Hitler was one of those least affected, as it was the meat which was poisoned and Hitler was known to often forgo meat in favor of vegetarian options. On February 9th of that same year, a letter arrived addressed to Hitler, but it was intercepted before it could reach his hands. The letter had been filled with poison and sent by Ludwig Aßner, a German politician living in France. The following year, Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany following a series of narrow political victories by the Nazi Party. Hitler's constant push for greater and greater power eventually culminated in what is now known as the Night of the Long Knives. The Night of the Long Knives, also known as Operation Hummingbird, was a series of extrajudicial executions ordered by Adolf Hitler as a way to eliminate political opposition, further consolidate power, and firmly establish himself as the undisputed German dictator. The term Night of the Long Knives is a misnomer, as the killings took place over the course of three days from June 30th to July 2nd, 1934. During this time, political opponents, specifically members of the SA and its leader, Ernst Röhm, were given mock trials in which they were only permitted a single minute to defend themselves. Others were not even given that and were instead taken out back and shot outright. Officially, death estimates were reported at 85, although that number is now believed to be in the hundreds, with some estimates reaching as high as one thousand. The Nazi Party's justification for the slaughter was the claim that the SA was planning a coup to overthrow the elected government. This singular event inspired several assassination attempts. Beppo Römer vowed revenge after his brother was killed during that short, bloody affair. Römer, along with his associate Nikolaus von Halem, began planning an assassination, but it was uncovered and halted by the Gestapo. Römer was imprisoned at Dachau concentration camp until 1939. After his release, he immediately began working to overthrow the Nazi regime, but once again the plan was uncovered. Römer was arrested again in 1942 and sentenced to death. He was executed on the 25th of September 1944, less than a year before the end of the war. ## Organized Plots and the Gestapo's Omnipresence The same year as Römer's original plot in 1934, what is believed to be the first organized attempt by a large group of people to take down the Nazi Party occurred. It was perpetrated by Helmut Mylius, head of an opposing political party, the Radical Middle-Class Party, who commissioned 160 men to infiltrate the Schutzstaffel—Hitler's private squad of bodyguards, more commonly known as the SS—to monitor and report back Hitler's movements. With this information, Mylius hoped to eventually organize a plan; however, it was not meant to be. The Gestapo seemed to be everywhere, to know everything, and all 160 men were eventually identified and imprisoned. Mylius himself avoided incarceration through his many political connections, but he would never again have the chance to make another move against the Fuhrer. In 1936, Helmut Hirsch, a member of the Combat League of Revolutionary National Socialists, more commonly known as the Black Front, planned two bombings: the first at the Nazi Headquarters in Nuremberg, and the second inside the building where the antisemitic newsletter Der Stürmer was printed. Once again, the Gestapo knew everything. On December 20th, 1936, Hirsch traveled to Nuremberg by train but was arrested inside his hotel room. Hirsch was charged with treason, and at 6 AM on June 4th, 1937, he was executed by decapitation. These early failures illustrate the near-total surveillance state the Gestapo had constructed. Political rivals, vengeful relatives, and foreign agitators all had their reasons to want Hitler dead, but the secret police force's penetration of virtually every layer of German society made organized resistance extraordinarily dangerous. ## The Beer Hall Bomb: Johann Georg Elser's Solo Operation What if you were just a regular person startled to the core by Hitler's ruthlessness? What if you had lived through the Great War and wanted Germany to stay as far away from conflict as possible? A man named Johann Georg Elser acted on exactly those convictions, and he did it entirely on his own. While working as a laborer in Germany, Elser had grown disillusioned by the Nazi methods and become convinced that the party's leadership—Hitler, Hermann Göring, and Joseph Goebbels—all needed to be eliminated immediately to avoid catastrophe. In November of 1938, Elser traveled to Munich to Bürgerbräukeller Hall where Hitler was scheduled to give his annual speech on the anniversary of the Beer Hall Putsch. This was where, in 1923, Hitler had launched the coup that would see him imprisoned for eight months and fined 500 Reichsmark—a very lenient sentence for an attempted government takeover where 20 people were killed. Although Elser was unable to enter the room during Hitler's speech, he moved inside once the crowd had dispersed. As he approached the podium, he noticed a large pillar situated directly behind where Hitler had just been standing. At that moment, Elser committed himself to planting a bomb inside the pillar that would be detonated during Hitler's speech the following year. In April of 1939, he started a job at the Vollmer quarry in Königsbronn and began learning about explosives, gradually stealing small amounts of blasting cartridges and detonators to build his own bomb. For months after, he used these stolen supplies to test prototypes at his parent's secluded orchard, alleviating their worries by telling them he was just "testing out new inventions." In August, he left for Munich with the explosives tucked away in the false bottom of his suitcase. After arriving, he rented a room and began regularly eating inside the Bürgerbräukeller restaurant. Once his meal was complete, Elser would sneak into the adjoining hall and hide until the doors were locked at around 10:30 PM. After all employees had left, he spent four to five hours working by flashlight to hollow out the backside of the pillar. He estimated that he did this approximately 30 to 35 times before the pillar had been sufficiently hollowed out and the bomb placed. On the night of November 7th, 1939, Elser set the timers on his bomb, exited the hall one final time, and boarded a train to Switzerland. That evening, Hitler arrived on time; however, due to forecasted fog the following morning, he decided to return to Berlin directly after his speech. To accommodate this last-minute change, his speech was moved up by 30 minutes and cut from the planned two hours down to one. Hitler ended his speech at 9:07 PM and exited the hall. Elser's bomb exploded thirteen minutes later at 9:20, killing seven people and injuring over sixty-three. The roof collapsed directly over the speaker's podium. Had Hitler delivered his speech as scheduled, he would have certainly been killed. The following day, after learning of the attempt, Hitler is reported to have said, "A man has to be lucky." Elser was arrested at the border and sent to the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp. He was executed in 1945, two weeks before the end of the war. ## Tresckow's Resistance and the Three Attempts of March 1943 By the beginning of 1943, the war was in full swing and Germany had suffered multiple crushing defeats at the hands of the Allies. Many high-ranking officials became increasingly convinced that victory was impossible. This belief was further supported by the devastating losses at Stalingrad, during which the Axis powers suffered upwards of 860,000 casualties. The effects of the war were not lost on the German people as they grieved for their fallen sons, brothers, and fathers, but most never publicly questioned Hitler's leadership. The Gestapo were still there, still waiting around every corner to strike at the first sign of dissent, and it was only those individuals with access to privileged information who truly understood just how desperate the situation was becoming. For this reason, Major-General Henning von Tresckow, a veteran of the First World War and early supporter of the Nazi party who was also revolted by the Night of the Long Knives, began to build an organized resistance. It was not the first resistance, but it would eventually grow to be the largest. For years, Tresckow worked in the shadows, gathering intel and organizing teams that infiltrated the SS, the Gestapo, and nearly every military office in Germany. On the 13th of March 1943, he decided to make his move. Hitler was scheduled to visit the eastern troops, a visit long overdue as it had already been delayed several times. Because of Tresckow's military rank, he was in the unique position to arrange an honor guard to accompany Hitler. The first plan was to fill this honor guard with resistance fighters who could overwhelm and arrest Hitler along a remote stretch of road; however, Tresckow knew that wherever Hitler went, his SS bodyguards followed. The plan was scrapped as it was thought the SS would not surrender willingly, and Tresckow did not like the idea of German soldiers fighting other German soldiers. The second plan was to assassinate Hitler during his midday meal, with several resistance members seated nearby with instructions to stand and unload their pistols at a predetermined signal. It was a suicide mission, but there were many officers willing to give their lives to end the war. Unfortunately, as lunchtime came and went, it became clear that Hitler did not plan to make an appearance. With their window closing, Tresckow made one final attempt by arranging to have a bomb planted on Hitler's departing plane. The bomb, a plastic explosive disguised as a gift box containing two liquor bottles, was gifted to an officer traveling on the same flight. The timers were set to allow plenty of time for takeoff, and the bomb was loaded into the cargo hold. Hours later, the plane landed as scheduled with no signs of damage. The bomb had failed to ignite. When inspected, it was revealed that the blast-cap had frozen over while the plane was flying at high altitudes. Hitler had survived three assassination attempts in a single day and was not even slightly aware of it. The following week, on March 21st, Hitler was scheduled to tour a display of captured Soviet weaponry. Colonel Freiherr von Gersdorff, another member of Tresckow's resistance, was assigned to guide Hitler through the exhibit. When he realized he would have direct access to the Fuhrer, Gersdorff offered himself as a suicide bomber. That day, he loaded his pockets with the explosives from the failed plane bomb, and when Hitler arrived, activated the 10-minute delayed fuse. For the next several minutes, he guided Hitler around the exhibit, never once leaving his side, trying to stall at every chance. However, the constantly time-constrained dictator rushed through the entire presentation in only eight minutes. After embracing Hitler in a long hug, Gersdorff excused himself to the restroom and managed to defuse the bomb with only seconds to spare. ## Claus von Stauffenberg and the Birth of the July 20 Plot The July 20 Plot centers around Claus von Stauffenberg. Stauffenberg was born in 1907 to German nobility and spent his formative years in Germany during the First World War. After the war ended, he, like so many other Germans, felt that the Treaty of Versailles was unfair and placed undue blame on Germany. In 1926, Stauffenberg joined his family's traditional regiment, the 17th Cavalry, and was later made a second-lieutenant and sent to the Prussian Staff College. Although Stauffenberg had originally voiced support for Hitler shortly before his election to chancellor, he never officially joined the Nazi party, and after the Night of the Long Knives, he became vocally critical of the party's methods. After participating in the Battle of France, Stauffenberg was appointed to the organizational department of the Army High Command, which oversaw the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. It was at this time, while witnessing firsthand the treatment of Jews in the summer of 1942, that Stauffenberg reportedly said, "They are shooting Jews in masses. These crimes must not be allowed to continue." That year, he was promoted to lieutenant-colonel and sent to Northern Africa to join the 10th Panzer Division as its operations officer. During this time, Stauffenberg was seriously wounded in a bombing raid that cost him his left eye, his right hand, and two fingers on his left hand. He spent three months in a hospital in Munich and was awarded the Wound Badge and the German Cross in Gold for his repeated acts of bravery. While recovering in Southern Germany, Stauffenberg was approached by Henning von Tresckow, and it was at this time that he became fully associated with the German resistance movement. To say that Stauffenberg simply became associated with the movement is not entirely accurate, as he quickly became one of its main driving forces. He provided organization to the scattered and irresolute resistance members, who, up until this point, had been unable to formulate a concrete plan of action. It was during this time that the July 20 Plot was born. To understand the plot, it is essential to understand Operation Valkyrie. In short, Operation Valkyrie was a contingency plan that allowed for the activation and mobilization of the German Reserve Army to eliminate any domestic threats caused by a labor uprising, mass protest, foreign invasion, or any other destabilizing event during the war. Stauffenberg's plan was to activate Operation Valkyrie and use the German Reserve Army to arrest and imprison the highest-ranking members of the Nazi Party and replace them with resistance members. Then, with the new chain of command established, they hoped to negotiate an immediate ceasefire and bring a swift end to the war. ## Operation Valkyrie: The Plan and Its Obstacles The plan was decent; however, there were several major things that stood in the way. First, the only person capable of ordering Operation Valkyrie, besides Hitler himself, was Colonel-General Friedrich Fromm. Fromm was somewhat sympathetic and aware of the resistance, but he was not at all associated and certainly would not participate in the coup if asked. That meant he would need to be tricked into ordering it. Second, Stauffenberg did not believe that the German Reserve Army would willingly turn against the Nazi party so long as it was still led by Hitler himself, as they had all taken the Führereid—the Fuhrer Oath or Hitler Oath—a mandatory oath pledging personal loyalty to Adolf Hitler. That meant that if Operation Valkyrie was going to work, Hitler needed to be dead. The final plan took shape as follows: Stauffenberg and Tresckow would organize the assassination of Adolf Hitler. As soon as Hitler was verifiably dead, they would convince Friedrich Fromm to activate Operation Valkyrie under the false pretense that the SS had assassinated Hitler and was, at that very moment, committing a coup to overthrow the current leadership. It was a bluff, but they hoped that given the urgency, Fromm could be convinced to unwillingly participate before realizing that he was actually assisting in a coup instead of preventing one. Once Valkyrie was officially in effect, they believed the soldiers in the Reserve Army would be highly motivated to remove the SS under the assumption that they had betrayed Hitler and their own country. They hoped to use the Reserve Army to round up and imprison the SS, quickly install themselves as the new leaders of the party, and end the war. On the 1st of July 1944, Stauffenberg was appointed Chief of Staff to General Fromm. As Chief of Staff, one of his new duties was to report on the combat readiness of the German Reserve Army directly to Hitler himself. That meant regularly-scheduled, face-to-face meetings with the Fuhrer on a weekly basis. It was decided that, if no other option presented itself, he would both carry out the assassination and manage the coup. On July 18th, Stauffenberg and Tresckow began hearing rumors that the Gestapo had been made aware of their plan and were making arrangements to have the entire group arrested. This turned out to be bad intel, but a fire had already been lit, the walls were closing in, and the timeline needed to be accelerated dramatically. ## July 20, 1944: The Bomb at the Wolf's Lair and Its Aftermath Two days later, with a renewed sense of urgency, Stauffenberg boarded a plane carrying a briefcase that contained two 1-kilogram blocks of plastic explosives. Upon arrival at the Wolf's Lair, Hitler's eastern-front military headquarters, Stauffenberg requested that he be allowed to change his shirt before meeting with the Fuhrer. It was a hot day, with visible sweat lines under his arms and around his neck. Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel agreed and allowed him to use the washroom. At half-past noon, Stauffenberg entered the bathroom and began arming the bomb; however, due to the injuries on his hands, this was a tedious process. Using his good hand, Stauffenberg inserted and armed the pencil detonator into the first bomb, but was interrupted by a guard knocking on the door before he was able to arm the second one. He quickly placed the single armed bomb into his briefcase and exited. With this briefcase in hand, Stauffenberg entered the meeting room where Hitler and roughly twenty-five other high-ranking Nazi officials surrounded a large, wooden conference table. Hitler stood at the center, and Stauffenberg placed the bomb underneath, just a couple meters from Hitler's legs. After several tense minutes, Stauffenberg was notified of a pre-arranged telephone call. He exited the room, pretended to take the call, and immediately left the building. At 12:42, the bomb detonated. The entire building shook violently and a cloud of black smoke billowed into the air. Seeing this, Stauffenberg assumed Hitler had been killed and boarded a plane back to Berlin. Unfortunately, he was three hours away, and by the time he reached Berlin, word had arrived that Hitler had survived the blast. Conflicting reports surfaced, and the conspirators were not sure who to believe. Eventually, at 4 PM, a decision was made, and Operation Valkyrie was activated. For the next several hours, Germany was plunged into chaos. The German Reserve Army was mobilized as planned, and believing that Hitler had been assassinated by the SS, military leaders in Vienna, Prague, France, and all across Germany began disarming and arresting prominent Nazi leaders. Hundreds died fighting one another in the streets, each believing the other side was complicit in a coup. Finally, at around 7 PM, after learning of his supposed death, Hitler made his reappearance. Word quickly spread that the Fuhrer was alive and well, and the entire plot came to a crashing halt. The fallout was massive. The homes of suspected conspirators were raided, letters and correspondence were seized, and in the end, more than 7,000 people were arrested and nearly 5,000 of them executed. In order to cover up his knowledge of the resistance, Friedrich Fromm ordered that Stauffenberg be killed immediately. Stauffenberg's last words were, "Long live our sacred Germany." That same day, Henning von Tresckow committed suicide by grenade. Before his death, he is reported to have said: "The whole world will vilify us now, but I am still totally convinced that we did the right thing. Hitler is the archenemy not only of Germany but of the world. When, in a few hours' time, I go before God to account for what I have done and left undone, I know I will be able to justify what I did in the struggle against Hitler." ## Frequently Asked Questions ### Why did so many assassination attempts against Hitler fail? The Gestapo's near-total surveillance of German society made organized resistance extraordinarily dangerous — all 160 of Helmut Mylius's infiltrators were identified and imprisoned, and multiple plots were uncovered before they could be executed. Even well-planned attempts like Georg Elser's beer hall bomb were undone by last-minute changes to Hitler's schedule, and technical failures like a frozen blast-cap thwarted Tresckow's plane bomb. Hitler also rarely exposed himself to risk without extensive security. ### How did Johann Georg Elser nearly succeed in killing Hitler? Elser spent roughly 30 to 35 nights hollowing out a pillar at the Bürgerbräukeller, working alone by flashlight after the restaurant closed, and installed a bomb timed to detonate during Hitler's annual speech on November 8, 1939. Hitler cut his speech short by 30 minutes due to forecasted fog and left at 9:07 PM; the bomb exploded at 9:20, killing seven and injuring over sixty-three. Had Hitler delivered his speech as originally planned, he would have been standing at the podium when it detonated. ### What was Operation Valkyrie and how did the conspirators plan to use it? Operation Valkyrie was Germany's official contingency plan to mobilize the Reserve Army against domestic threats such as a labor uprising or foreign invasion. Stauffenberg and Tresckow planned to activate it under the false pretense that the SS had assassinated Hitler, banking on the fact that Reserve Army soldiers — bound by their Führereid oath of personal loyalty to Hitler — would only turn against the Nazi leadership if they believed Hitler was already dead. The plan was to use those troops to arrest SS and Nazi Party leaders and install resistance members in their place. ### What happened in the immediate aftermath of the July 20, 1944 bombing? After Stauffenberg boarded a plane back to Berlin assuming Hitler was dead, Operation Valkyrie was activated at 4 PM and the Reserve Army was mobilized across Germany, Austria, France, and elsewhere, with military leaders arresting Nazi officials on the assumption the SS had committed a coup. Hitler made a radio reappearance at around 7 PM, and the plot collapsed instantly. Over 7,000 people were subsequently arrested and nearly 5,000 executed; Stauffenberg was shot on the night of July 20, and Tresckow committed suicide by grenade the same day. ### Why did the bomb at the Wolf's Lair fail to kill Hitler? Stauffenberg had two 1-kilogram blocks of plastic explosive but was interrupted by a guard before he could arm the second one, so only half the intended charge was placed under the conference table. The large, heavy oak table absorbed much of the blast, and the meeting was held in a surface building rather than an underground bunker, allowing the explosion to dissipate outward. Hitler survived with ruptured eardrums, burns, and other injuries but was shielded from the full force by the table and the partial charge. ## Related Coverage - [Why Does Israel Keep Attacking Syria? And More.](https://warfronts.pub/conflicts/why-does-israel-keep-attacking-syria-and-more) - [This Is Ukraine’s Moment of Truth.](https://warfronts.pub/conflicts/this-is-ukraines-moment-of-truth-1bmuupct) - [This Is Ukraine’s Moment of Truth.](https://warfronts.pub/conflicts/this-is-ukraines-moment-of-truth) - [When the Red Button Falls: The Unraveling After a Global Nuclear War](https://warfronts-prod.fulcrum-labs.workers.dev/conflicts/when-red-button-falls-unraveling-global-nuclear-war) - [Did Rich Foreigners Pay to Shoot Civilians in Bosnia?](https://warfronts.pub/conflicts/did-rich-foreigners-pay-to-shoot-civilians-in-bosnia) <!-- youtube:1pMgu8efzDY -->