Note: the three little dashes on the puzzle –functions for clearing the puzzle, zooming in and out and printing and down loading the hard copy of the puzzle solution.
| Telex Message by the Conspiratorial Stauffenberg Group to the Holders of Executive Power (July 20, 1944) What is probably the best known and broadest conspiracy against the Nazi regime was headed by Claus Graf Schenk von Stauffenberg (1907-1944), who attempted to assassinate Hitler on July 20, 1944, and then led the subsequent, failed coup. Stauffenberg had initially supported the military goals of the Nazis, but when Hitler’s aggression and his methods of warfare came to light later in the 1930s, he shared in the increasing alienation felt by some other high-ranking Wehrmacht officers. Since the Gestapo and the Security Service (SD) of the SS could only penetrate the Wehrmacht to a limited extent, it was the only organization that had at its disposal the instruments of power for a potentially successful coup. Nonetheless, earlier attempts at assassination and sabotage that had come from various resistance groups within the Wehrmacht had failed. It would appear that it was only Germany’s imminent defeat that prompted many of the co-conspirators, who were also recruited from the ranks of the police and the state administration, to engage in active resistance.On Thursday, July 20, 1944, Stauffenberg, in his capacity as chief of staff to the Commander of the Reserve Army [Befehlshaber des Ersatzheeres, BDE], flew to a briefing at the Führer’s East Prussian headquarters, the Wolf’s Lair [Wolfsschanze]. He set off a bomb there and fled. On his way back to Berlin, Stauffenberg believed that the assassination attempt had been successful, but Hitler, in fact, had only been slightly injured. Thus, Stauffenberg was operating under the assumption that the coup would be completed according to the so-called Valkyrie Plan [Walküreplan], whereby the military would assume executive power and eliminate the party’s most important sources of power – the Gestapo, the SS, and the SD.As the following proclamation by Stauffenberg reveals, the conspirators were hoping to blame Hitler’s assassination on a fictitious clique of party functionaries as a way of justifying the takeover of power by the Reserve Army. In the absence of official word about Hitler’s death, the follow-up actions of the co-conspirators were too slow and uncoordinated, and the attempted coup was quickly quashed by supporters of the regime. Stauffenberg was shot that same night. In the wake of the extensive Gestapo investigation, which lasted until the end of the war, about 1,500 people were imprisoned and 200 killed. | ||
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| page 1 of 1 The Führer Adolf Hitler is dead!I. An unscrupulous clique of party leaders without frontline service have exploited this situation to stab the fighting front in the back and to seize power for their own selfish ends.II. In order to maintain law and order in this situation of acute danger the Reich Government has declared a state of martial law and has transferred the executive power to me together with the supreme command of the Wehrmacht.III. 1. I hereby transfer executive power with the right of delegation to the territorial commanders, in the home territory to the Commander of the Reserve Army, while simultaneously appointing him Supreme Commander in the home territory [ . . . ].2. The following are subordinated to the holders of executive power: a) All Wehrmacht offices and units in their area of command, including the Waffen SS, the RAD, and the OT. b) All public authorities (of the Reich, the states, and local government), in particular the entire order police, security police, and administrative police. c) All officials and formations of the NSDAP and its associated leagues. d) The public transportation services and public utilities.3. The whole of the Waffen SS is to be integrated in the army with immediate effect.4. The holders of executive power are responsible for the maintenance of law and order. They are to ensure in particular: a) The security of the communications networks. b) The neutralization of the SD.Any resistance against the military authorities is to be ruthlessly suppressed. In this hour of the greatest peril for the Fatherland the unity of the Wehrmacht and the maintenance of discipline is the most important requirement. I therefore make it the duty of all army, navy, and air force commanders to support the holders of executive power with all means at their disposal and to ensure that their directives are obeyed by the agencies subordinate to them.The German soldier is faced with an historic task. It will depend on his energy and behavior whether or not Germany will be saved.The same thing [is true?] [sic] for all territorial commanders, the supreme commanders of the sections of the Wehrmacht and the subordinate commanders of the army, navy and air force.The Commander-in-Chief of the Wehrmacht Field Marshal von Witzleben Source of English translation: Jeremy Noakes, ed., Nazism, 1919-1945, Vol. 4: The German Home Front in World War II. Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 1998, p. 621. (With one small addition by GHI staff.)Original German text printed in: Hans-Adolf Jacobsen, Opposition gegen Hitler und der Staatsstreich von 20. Juli 1944. Geheime Dokumente aus dem ehemaligen Reichssicherheitsamt. Stuttgart: Seewald Verlag, 1984, vol. 1, pp. 24-25. |
Adolf Hitler[a] (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until his suicide in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party,[c] becoming the chancellor in 1933 and then taking the title of Führer und Reichskanzler in 1934.[d] His invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939 marked the start of the Second World War. He was closely involved in military operations throughout the war and was central to the perpetration of the Holocaust: the genocide of about six million Jews and millions of other victims.
Hitler was born in Braunau am Inn in Austria-Hungary and moved to Germany in 1913. He was decorated during his service in the German Army in World War I, receiving the Iron Cross. In 1919, he joined the German Workers’ Party (DAP), the precursor of the Nazi Party, and in 1921 was appointed leader of the Nazi Party. In 1923, he attempted to seize power in a failed coup in Munich and was sentenced to five years in prison, serving just over a year. While there, he dictated the first volume of his autobiography and political manifesto Mein Kampf (My Struggle). After his early release in 1924, Hitler gained popular support by attacking the Treaty of Versailles and promoting pan-Germanism, antisemitism, and anti-communism with charismatic oratory and Nazi propaganda. He frequently denounced communism as being part of an international Jewish conspiracy. By November 1932, the Nazi Party held the most seats in the Reichstag, but not a majority. Former chancellor Franz von Papen and other conservative leaders convinced President Paul von Hindenburg to appoint Hitler as chancellor on 30 January 1933. Shortly thereafter, the Reichstag passed the Enabling Act of 1933, which began the process of transforming the Weimar Republic into Nazi Germany, a one-party dictatorship based on the totalitarian and autocratic ideology of Nazism.
Upon Hindenburg’s death on 2 August 1934, Hitler became simultaneously the head of state and government, with absolute power. Domestically, Hitler implemented numerous racist policies and sought to deport or kill German Jews. His first six years in power resulted in rapid economic recovery from the Great Depression, the abrogation of restrictions imposed on Germany after World War I, and the annexation of territories inhabited by millions of ethnic Germans, which initially gave him significant popular support. One of Hitler’s key goals was Lebensraum (lit. ’living space’) for the German people in Eastern Europe, and his aggressive, expansionist foreign policy is considered the primary cause of World War II in Europe. He directed large-scale rearmament and, on 1 September 1939, invaded Poland, causing Britain and France to declare war on Germany. In June 1941, Hitler ordered an invasion of the Soviet Union. In December 1941, he declared war on the United States. By the end of 1941, German forces and the European Axis powers occupied most of Europe and North Africa. These gains were gradually reversed after 1941, and in 1945 the Allied armies defeated the German army. On 29 April 1945, he married his longtime partner, Eva Braun, in the Führerbunker in Berlin. The couple committed suicide the next day to avoid capture.
The historian and biographer Ian Kershaw described Hitler as “the embodiment of modern political evil”.[3] Under Hitler’s leadership and racist ideology, the Nazi regime was responsible for the genocide of an estimated six million Jews and millions of other victims, whom he and his followers deemed Untermenschen (lit. ’subhumans’) or socially undesirable. Hitler and the Nazi regime were also responsible for the deliberate killing of an estimated 19.3 million civilians and prisoners of war. In addition, 28.7 million soldiers and civilians died as a result of military action in the European theatre. The number of civilians killed during World War II was unprecedented in warfare, and the casualties constitute the deadliest conflict in history.