Cold Open

It’s the afternoon of March 21st, 1943, in Nazi Germany, almost four years into World War II.

A group of uniformed officers stand outside the exhibit hall of a military museum in central Berlin. Among them is Colonel Rudolf Christoph von Gersdorff, a heavyset, balding man in his late thirties. Gersdorff’s eyes wander to his wristwatch and he uneasily shifts his weight from one foot to the other.

As he wonders when today’s special guest will finally arrive, an entourage of high-ranking officials strides across the corridor leading to the exhibit hall. Walking briskly at the front is the feared German dictator Adolf Hitler.

The officers hastily fall into line, raising their arms in the familiar Nazi salute, and staring stonily ahead as their leader approaches.

The Führer nods curtly at them, the ends of his mouth twisted into a frown.

The Nazi leader is visiting this museum as part of a ceremony honoring German soldiers killed in battle. Colonel Gersdorff is responsible for giving Hitler and his entourage a guided tour of the exhibit. But the Colonel has another, top-secret reason for being present today — he is going to kill Adolf Hitler.

Colonel Gersdorff slips a hand inside the left pocket of his overcoat, his fingers grasping for the explosive inside. It has a fuse time for minutes. And as Hitler and his cronies prepare to head into the exhibit hall, Colonel Gersdorff draws a sharp breath and activates the explosive.

With the clock now ticking, the Colonel hurries ahead to usher the Führer into the exhibit. He is determined to stay as close to Hitler as possible for the next ten minutes, so he can throw himself at the dictator just before the bomb explodes.

But as Colonel Gersdorff gestures toward the first display, Hitler begins to walk more quickly. The Colonel struggles to keep up with him, and his feeble attempts at slowing down the dictator fail.

In less than two minutes, Hitler swiftly exits the building, his entourage trailing behind him. And in their wake, Colonel Gersdorff is forced to hurry to the nearest bathroom where he defuses the bomb, dismayed by the day’s turn of events.

Colonel Gersdorff is just one of the many military officers that has grown disillusioned with Hitler’s vision. As Germany’s position has weakened in the Second World War, a loosely organized military resistance has taken root. Its members believe that Germany’s only hope is to rid the country of its faltering leader. They’ve made several attempts to assassinate Hitler, the last one failing scarcely a week ago. But the resistance remains undeterred. Even after Colonel Gersdorff’s failed suicide mission, military officials will orchestrate several more plots to take the dictator’s life, before coming agonizingly close to their goal in a final daring attempt on July 20th, 1944.

Introduction

From Noiser and Airship, I’m Lindsay Graham and this is History Daily.

History is made every day. On this podcast—every day—we tell the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world.

Today is July 20th, 1944: The German Military Tries to Assassinate Hitler.

Act One

It’s 7 AM on July 20th, 1944, in Berlin; over a year after Colonel Gersdorff’s failed attempt to kill Adolf Hitler.

A plane hurtles down a runway of an airfield just south of Berlin, before lifting off the ground and into the pale dawn sky.

Among the passengers aboard the craft is Claus von Stauffenberg, a thirty-eight-year-old senior Nazi officer. As the plane gains altitude, Claus settles into his seat for the three-hour flight to the East Prussian town of Rastenburg. He stares broodingly out the plane’s window with his single remaining eye, a black patch concealing the other.

After nearly two decades of active service in the German army, Claus was injured in an explosion which robbed him of his eye, a hand, and two fingers. As he recovered from his wounds, Claus grew cynical of the Nazi regime he used to support. Horrified by the atrocities being inflicted on the Jewish community, and disillusioned by Hitler’s floundering leadership, Claus became an active member of the covert German resistance. This group has already made several failed efforts to assassinate Hitler. But, today, Claus hopes to succeed where his comrades have failed.

A lot is riding on Claus’s performance. The Gestapo, Germany’s ruthless secret police, recently caught wind of some of the movement’s conspiracies against the Führer. With these officers hot on their trail, there has been mounting pressure on resistance leaders to take swift action. On top of this, the Allies’ successful invasion of Normandy last month has further convinced military officers that Germany’s defeat in the Second World War is inevitable and that removing Hitler and ending the war is crucial for preventing unnecessary bloodshed. But this is all easier said than done.

The resistance has been finding it increasingly difficult to orchestrate an assassination, because as Germany's position in the war has worsened, Hitler has withdrawn from public life. Now, he only interacts with an inner circle of high-ranking officials and is prone to erratically changing his schedule with little notice. But, fortunately for the resistance, Claus has managed to become a trusted member of the Führer's inner circle.

After being recently promoted to the Chief of Staff to the Commander of Germany’s reserve army, Claus was granted access to exclusive military briefings with Hitler. And following this promotion, Claus assumed responsibility for taking the Führer’s life. It was decided that he will carry a bomb hidden in his briefcase to a meeting with Hitler. After the bomb explodes, the resistance will set into motion an elaborate sequence of events to take control of the government.

The genius of the plot is that it uses the Nazi Party’s own administrative machinery against itself. The German government has an emergency protocol called “Operation Valkyrie” which empowers the reserve army to take control in the event of civil disorder. The resistance’s plan is to manipulate the reserve army into believing that the Nazis’ paramilitary organization, known as the SS, assassinated Hitler. By painting it as a coup by the Nazi Party, the military can start taking control themselves, arresting any leaders loyal to Hitler, disarming the SS, and wresting control over key German cities.

But their success is entirely dependent on Claus’s actions today. After weeks of careful planning, Claus has been ordered to attend a conference with the Führer at the Wolf’s Lair, a key Nazi military headquarters in Prussia.

Now Claus glances at the briefcase at his feet. Contained within it are explosives that he hopes will finally kill Germany’s dictator. Imagining the task ahead of him sets Claus’s heart racing. He knows the stakes are impossibly high. If he’s caught, he and his fellow conspirators will be sentenced to high treason. And it’s not just their fates that Claus worries about.

As the plane touches down at an airfield in East Prussia, the words of a senior resistance member echo in Claus’ mind: “We must prove to the world and to future generations that the men of the German resistance movement dared to take the decisive step and to hazard their lives upon it. Compared with this, nothing else matters.”

A car waiting at the airfield will drive Claus to the military headquarters deep inside a Prussian forest. There at the Wolf’s Lair, Claus will pass through two checkpoints manned by armed SS guards without a problem, his briefcase going unchecked. But Claus’s mission will remain fraught with tension as a number of unexpected challenges threaten to throw the precisely laid out plan dangerously off course.

Act Two

It’s 12:32 PM on July 20th, 1944, inside a private chamber deep inside the Wolf’s Lair complex.

Claus von Stauffenberg is hunched over his briefcase, gripping a small pair of pliers in his hands. A look of frustration crosses his face as he angles the blade of the instrument to break the small acid capsule nestled inside the bomb. After a few more moments of fumbling, he is finally successful. The acid seeps out of the capsule and starts eating the thin wire of the bomb, giving Claus exactly ten minutes before it explodes.

Not wanting to leave anything to chance, Claus reaches for a second bomb inside his briefcase. But just as he grabs it, he’s interrupted by a voice behind him. Claus’s face flushes red as he hurriedly places the explosives and pliers back inside his bag. He turns around to see an orderly waiting at the door with an urgent message — the conference with Hitler is about to start and Claus is instructed to join immediately. After delivering the message, the orderly stands resolutely at the door, waiting for Claus. Realizing that he’s lost the window of opportunity to arm the second bomb, Claus closes his briefcase and begrudgingly follows the orderly out of the room, joining the other officers in the three-minute walk to the conference building.

As the group nears the venue, thin lines of worry stretch across Claus’s forehead. The meeting was supposed to take place in the underground bunker, but at the last moment, he learns it’s been shifted to a conference room. Claus tries to hide his dismay. The concrete confines to the bunker would have ensured that the impact of the bomb would have certainly killed Hitler, but the conference room is larger and fitted with several windows. Claus worries that the energy of a single bomb he activated will be dissipated across the room, through the windows, and generate an explosion too weak to cause serious harm.

Before entering the conference room, Claus requests to be seated as near as possible to the Führer. The other officers know that Claus’s war injuries include partial hearing loss, so they readily agree. As they enter, Hitler is seated on a stool, poring over one of the maps strewn across a wide oak table. Claus takes a seat next to the Nazi leader and places his briefcase under the table, shifting it as close to Hitler as possible.

As the briefing commences, Claus nervously glances at his watch. When there are only five minutes left before the bomb’s detonation, he stands up and discreetly informs one of the officials that he needs to make an important phone call before his presentation. Then, he strides across the room, leaving his briefcase under the table. Without stopping to collect his belt and cap, Claus hurries out of the conference building to a nearby bunker where he’ll wait out the few tense minutes left until the bomb explodes.

Inside the conference room, the briefing continues as usual, the Nazi officials oblivious to the ticking time bomb at their feet. But then, one of the officials shuffles nearer to the table to examine the map more closely. In the process, he unknowingly kicks Claus’s briefcase six feet away from Hitler, behind one of the table’s heavy wooden legs.

Then at 12:42 PM, precisely ten minutes after Claus armed the bomb, Hitler is leaning on his elbow staring at a map when a thunderous explosion rips through the room. The men around the table are violently flung to the floor, showered with splintering wood, chunks of metal, and debris. Even 200 yards away, Claus is startled by the force of the explosion. He is immediately certain that no one could have survived that blast. And satisfied with success, Claus rushes to a car waiting in the adjacent parking area and speeds out of the Wolf’s Lair.

Less than half an hour later, Claus will board a three-hour-long flight to Berlin, confident that the orders for Operation Valkyrie will soon be issued and the resistance’s coup will progress according to plan. But just as Claus’ flight takes off, the Führer will emerge from his bunker, alive and well. It will later be discovered that Hitler was shielded from the explosion by the table’s leg, escaping with just a perforated eardrum and a few minor injuries.

Hitler will be in exceptionally high spirits after the incident, proudly proclaiming to those around him that he is immortal and invulnerable. But the dictator’s elation will quickly turn to rage as he grows frantic to exact revenge on the people scheming against him.

Act Three

It’s the early hours of July 21st, 1944, in the courtyard of the army headquarters in Berlin, just twelve hours after Claus von Stauffenberg planted a bomb to assassinate Adolf Hilter.

The 36-year-old military officer now stands in front of a firing squad, harshly illuminated by the headlights of army trucks.

After Claus boarded his flight to Berlin, conflicting reports of Hitler’s fate at the Wolf’s Lair spread across the country like wildfire. In the ensuing confusion, the resistance leaders responsible for executing Operation Valkyrie were crippled into a dangerous state of inaction. Their delay in mobilizing the reserve army proved to be fatal, and when the Nazi government broadcast a radio announcement clarifying that the Führer was indeed alive and well, the resistance’s coup was over before it even began.

When it became clear that Hitler survived the explosion, a high-ranking commander who was complicit in the assassination attempt, betrayed his co-conspirators. Eager to eliminate anyone who can testify that he was involved in the plot, this general convened an impromptu court martial and sentenced five resistance leaders, including Claus, to death.

Now, a hastily assembled firing squad is ready to carry out the executions.

Claus shivers as the sound of rifle fire pierces the air, and one of his co-conspirators falls to the ground next to him. Then, Claus himself boldly steps into the crosshairs of the gunmen, grimly looking into the barrels pointed at him. As the men pull their triggers, Claus loudly exclaims “Long live our sacred Germany,” before collapsing to the ground, riddled with holes.

In the aftermath of the resistance’s failed assassination attempt, Hitler will order every member of the German armed forces to reaffirm their allegiance to the Nazi state. Kangaroo courts will convict several thousand people across the country for their involvement in the unsuccessful coup, many of whom will be condemned to death. But less than a year later, it will be Hitler himself who finishes the job, committing suicide just days ahead of Germany’s defeat and the end of the Second World War. As the atrocities of the Nazi regime are uncovered, the members of the resistance will be lauded as heroes for their many efforts to end Hitler’s reign, including their final assassination attempt on July 20th, 1944.

Outro

Next on History Daily. July 21st, 1925. American high school teacher John T. Scopes is convicted and fined for teaching evolution in a legal case representing the clash between the nation’s traditional and modern values.

From Noiser and Airship, this is History Daily, hosted, edited, and executive produced by me, Lindsay Graham.

Audio editing by Muhammad Shahzaib.

Sound design by Mollie Baack.

Music by Lindsay Graham.

This episode is written and researched by Rhea Purohit.

Executive Producers are Alexandra Currie-Buckner for Airship, and Pascal Hughes for Noiser.