Henning von Tresckow
Encyclopedia
Generalmajor Herrmann Karl Robert "Henning" von Tresckow (January 10, 1901 – July 21, 1944) was a Major General
in the German
Wehrmacht
who organized German resistance
against Adolf Hitler
. He attempted to assassinate Hitler in March 1943 and drafted the Valkyrie plan
for a coup against the German government. He was described by the Gestapo
as the "prime mover" and the "evil spirit" behind the July 20 plot
to assassinate Hitler. He committed suicide
on the Eastern Front
upon the plot's failure.
into a Pomerania
n noble family with 300 years of military tradition that provided the Prussian Army
with 21 generals. His father, later a cavalry general, had been present at Kaiser Wilhelm I's coronation as the emperor of new German Empire
at Versailles
in 1871. His mother was the daughter of Count Robert Zedlitz-Truetzschler, a Prussian Minister of Education.
He received most of his early education from tutors on his family's remote rural estate; from 1913 to 1917, he was a student at the Gymnasium in the town of Goslar
. He joined the 1st Regiment of Foot Guards
as an officer cadet at age of 16 and became the youngest lieutenant in the Army in June 1918. In the Second Battle of the Marne
, he earned the Iron Cross
1st class for outstanding courage and independent action against the enemy. At that time Count Siegfried von Eulenberg, the commander of the 1st Regiment of Foot Guards, predicted that "You, Tresckow, will either become chief of the General Staff or die on the scaffold as a rebel."
and took part in the suppression of the Spartacist
movement in January 1919, but resigned from the Weimar Republic
Reichswehr
Army in 1920 in order to study law and economics. He worked in a banking house and embarked on a world journey visiting Britain, France
, Brazil
and the eastern United States
in 1924 before he had to abandon it to take care of family possessions back home. Like members of many prominent Prussian families, Tresckow married into another family with long-standing military traditions. In 1926, he married Erika von Falkenhayn, only daughter of Erich von Falkenhayn
, the chief of the General Staff from 1914 to 1916, and returned to military service, being sponsored by Field Marshal
Paul von Hindenburg
. Nevertheless, he was not a typical Prussian officer. He wore his uniform only when it was absolutely required and disliked the regimentation of army life. He was lyrical, recited Rainer Maria Rilke
, and spoke several languages.
In 1934, Tresckow began General Staff
training at the War Academy and graduated as the best of the class of 1936. He was assigned to the General Staff's 1st Department (Operations), where he worked in close contact with Generals Ludwig Beck
, Werner von Fritsch
, Adolf Heusinger
and Erich von Manstein
. Studying the possible scenarios of war, he recognized the risks and weaknesses in Hitler's desire to prepare for war in 1938.
Although he supported the revision of the Polish Corridor
, he opposed many of Hitler's military and foreign policies including the Anschluss
and the invasion of Czechoslovakia
. Nonetheless, Tresckow did spadework for the invasion plan of Czechoslovakia and after the outbreak of World War II
served as chief of staff of the 228th Infantry Division during the invasion of Poland
, earning the Iron Cross
first class. He was shocked that Colonel-General Johannes Blaskowitz
had been the only general to protest to Hitler about the atrocities committed by the SS in Poland and that his protests were dismissed as 'childish'.
Later in 1939 and into 1940, he served as the second general staff officer of Army Group A
under Gerd von Rundstedt
and Erich von Manstein
, culminating in the invasion of France
in the spring of 1940. Ironically, Tresckow played a role in the adoption of the Manstein Plan
, which proved to be so successful in the French campaign. Tresckow's former regimental comrade Rudolf Schmundt
was Hitler's chief military aide, and it was through the Tresckow-Schmundt channel that Manstein's plan, after being rejected by Army High Command, was brought to Hitler's attention. He is also said to have worked on developing the Manstein Plan itself as Günther Blumentritt
's deputy.
After the fall of France, he did not share the euphoria that swept Germany and brought Hitler to the peak of his popularity. In October, he said in Paris
to a secretary (the future wife of Alfred Jodl
), "If Churchill
can induce America
to join in the war, we shall slowly but surely be crushed by material superiority. The most that will be left to us then will be the Electorate of Brandenburg."
From 1941 to 1943, he served under Field Marshal
Fedor von Bock
, his uncle, and later Field Marshal Günther von Kluge
as chief operations officer of the German Army Group Centre
in Operation Barbarossa
, the invasion of Soviet Union
. Subsequently in October 1943, he served in combat as the commanding officer of Grenadier Regiment 442, defending the western bank of the Dnieper River
in Ukraine
. From December 1943 until his death in 1944, he served as Chief of Staff of the 2nd Army
, in areas which are now Belarus
and eastern Poland. During his World War II service, he was awarded the German Cross
in Gold and other decorations. Tresckow was thus very well connected with the Prussian aristocracy
and high-ranking generals, highly accomplished and independent-minded, and as such well-positioned for his effort to overthrow the German government.
The kidnapped children were used as forced workers in the Todt organisation, Junker factories and in German handicrafts as part of operation to "lower biological strength" of enemies of Nazi Germany. After the war the Nuremberg Trials
classified the kidnapping of children as part of Nazi "systematic program of genocide
" .
due to its opposition to the Treaty of Versailles
, he was quickly disillusioned by 1934 when Schutzstaffel
(SS) extrajudicially murdered many SA leaders and political opponents including two generals in the Night of the Long Knives
. The events of the 1930s, such as the 1938 Blomberg–Fritsch Affair, further strengthened his antipathy against the Nazis. He regarded the Kristallnacht
(state-sanctioned, nationwide pogrom
of Jews) as personal humiliation and degradation of civilization.
He thus sought out civilians and officers who opposed Hitler, such as Erwin von Witzleben
. Witzleben dissuaded Tresckow from resigning from the Army arguing that they would be needed when the day of reckoning came. By the summer of 1939, he told Fabian von Schlabrendorff
, his cousin by marriage, that "both duty and honor demand from us that we should do our best to bring about the downfall of Hitler and National-Socialism in order to save Germany and Europe from barbarism."
In the campaign against the Soviet Union, Tresckow started to resume his resistance activities with urgency. He was appalled by the Commissar Order
, the treatment of Russian prisoners of war, and in particular the mass shootings of Jewish women and children by the Einsatzgruppen
behind the lines. When he learned about the massacre of thousands of Jews at Borisov, Tresckow appealed passionately to Field Marshal Fedor von Bock
: "Never may such a thing happen again! Therefore we must act now. We have the power in Russia!" (Although Bock personally detested Nazism, he remained loyal to Hitler.) As the chief operations officer of Army Group Center, he systematically placed officers who shared his views in key positions. They included Lieutenant Colonel Georg Schulze-Büttger, Colonel Rudolf Christoph Freiherr von Gersdorff
, Major Carl-Hans Graf von Hardenberg
, Lieutenant Heinrich Graf von Lehndorff-Steinort
, Lieutenant Fabian von Schlabrendorff
, Lieutenant Philipp von Boeselager
and his brother Georg von Boeselager
, Lieutenant Colonel Hans-Alexander von Voss, and Lieutenant Colonel Berndt von Kleist, among others, many of them from Tresckow's old Infantry Regiment 9. The headquarters of Army Group Center thus emerged as the new nerve center of Army resistance. At the end of September 1941, Tresckow sent his special operations officer Schlabrendorff to Berlin to contact opposition groups and declare that the staff of Army Group Center was "prepared to do anything." This approach, made at the height of German expansion and nadir of anti-Hitler opposition, represented the first initiative to come from the front and from the Army, as Ulrich von Hassell
noted in his diary. Schlabrendorff continued to serve as liaison between Army Group Center and opposition circle around General Ludwig Beck
, Carl Friedrich Goerdeler
and Colonel Hans Oster
, the deputy head of Abwehr
(German military intelligence) who was involved in 1938 coup attempt against Hitler (Oster Conspiracy
). Oster's recruitment of General Friedrich Olbricht
, head of the General Army Office headquarters, in 1942 linked this asset to Tresckow's resistance group in Army Group Centre, creating a viable coup apparatus.
It came on 13 March 1943 when Hitler finally visited troops on the Eastern Front
at Smolensk
, after a few cancellations and postponements. Under the initial plan, a group of officers were to shoot Hitler collectively at a signal in the officers' mess during lunch but Kluge
, Commander of Army Group Center who was informed about the plot, urged Tresckow not to carry it out saying, "For heaven's sake, don't do anything today! It's still too soon for that!" He argued that the German army and people were not ready to accept the coup and would not understand such an act. He also feared a civil war between the Army and SS since Heinrich Himmler
canceled his visit and could not be killed at the same time.
Tresckow however had a backup plan. During the said lunch, he asked Lieutenant Colonel Heinz Brandt
who was traveling with Hitler if he would oblige to take a bottle of Cointreau
to Colonel Helmuth Stieff
(who was then not yet a conspirator) at Hitler's headquarters in East Prussia as a payment for a lost bet. Brandt readily agreed. The "Cointreau" was actually a bomb constructed of a British plastic explosive
"Plastic C" placed into the casing of a British magnetic mine, with a timer consisting of a spring which would be gradually dissolved by acid. Before Hitler's Condor
plane was to take off, Schlabrendorff
activated the 30-minute fuse and handed the package to Brandt, who boarded Hitler's plane. After takeoff, a message was sent to the other Berlin conspirators by code that Operation Flash
was underway, which they expected to take place around Minsk
. Yet when Hitler landed safely at his East Prussian headquarters, it became obvious that the bomb had failed to detonate (probably due to the extremely low temperature in the unheated luggage compartment thereby preventing the fuse from working). The message of failure was quickly sent out and Schlabrendorff retrieved the package to prevent discovery of the plot.
A week later, on 21 March, Army Group Center organized a display of Russian Army flags and weapons seized at the Eastern Front. It was exhibited at Zeughaus
, military museum in Berlin, which Hitler was to visit on the Heroes' Memorial Day with Himmler and Hermann Göring
. Colonel Gersdorff volunteered to be the suicide bomber, intending to explode a bomb on his person near Hitler while serving as a tour guide. He had with him bombs with ten-minute fuses, knowing that Hitler was scheduled to be in the museum for 30 minutes. However, at the last minute just before Hitler was to appear, the duration of his stay was reduced to just eight minutes as a security precaution. Hitler breezed through in two minutes. As a result Gersdorff could not accomplish his mission, and the assassination plan failed again, but he barely managed to get out and defuse the bombs.
Other plots
similarly failed because of Hitler's irregular habits and pure ill luck. Most importantly, they had no access to Hitler since he no longer visited the front. The elimination of Oster's group in April 1943 (his deputy Hans von Dohnanyi
and Lutheran theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer
were arrested, and Oster was placed under house arrest) was a further setback that demoralized the conspirators and disrupted their efforts.
Meanwhile, Tresckow also worked tirelessly to persuade army commanders such as Field Marshals Fedor von Bock
, Günther von Kluge
, and Erich von Manstein
to join in the conspiracy without much success. With unwitting help from Schmundt, he placed like-minded officers as their adjutants and staff officers to bring them closer to conspiracy. Kluge sympathized with the conspirators and at times seemed ready to act only to become indecisive at critical moments. Others outright refused, Manstein declaring "Prussian field marshals do not mutiny." Nevertheless, no-one reported their treasonable activities to the German government.
However, when Tresckow was assigned to command of a battalion at the Eastern Front in October 1943, he was no longer in position to actively plan or effect the coup. Colonel Count Claus von Stauffenberg, who met Tresckow in August 1943 and worked together on revising Valkyrie plan, took the responsibility for planning and executing Hitler's assassination. Even his promotion a month later to Chief of Staff of the Second Army did not bring him much closer. To gain access to Hitler, Tresckow proposed to his old comrade General Rudolf Schmundt
, Hitler's Chief Adjutant and Chief of Army Personnel, to create a new department of psychological and political warfare to evaluate data and make reports directly to the Führer. Schmundt, who was still well-disposed to his old friend but had the impression that Tresckow disapproved of Führer, quietly let the matter drop. Tresckow also applied to become General Adolf Heusinger
's delegate in the Army High Command (OKH) during the latter's two-month leave, which would also give him access to Hitler's meetings, but Heusinger, who was earlier approached by conspirators, rejected it apparently for the same reason.
By the time Stauffenberg was appointed Chief of Staff of the Reserve Army and was ready to carry out the assassination attempt, the Allies had already landed in Normandy. When Stauffenberg sent a message to Tresckow through Lehndorff to ask whether there was any point in making the attempt since there was no practical purpose to be served, Tresckow urged him not only to attempt the assassination but to go ahead with the coup in Berlin even if the assassination were to fail. He argued that there must be an overt act of German opposition to Hitler regardless of the consequences. He also told Philipp von Boeselager and Margarite von Oven that 16,000 people were being killed daily not as casualties of war but as result of murders perpetrated by the Germans. Hitler had to be killed to put an end to it. A few days before the coup attempt, Tresckow confided to a friend that "in all likelihood everything will go wrong"; asked if the action was necessary nevertheless, he replied, "Yes, even so."
(July 20 Plot
) had failed, Tresckow decided to commit suicide
at the front in Królowy Most
near Białystok on July 21. His parting words to Schlabrendorff were:
To protect other conspirators, he staged an appearance of partisan attack by firing his pistols and then dispatched himself by holding a hand grenade below his chin. He was buried in the family home in Wartenberg. When the Nazis learned about his connections in late August, his body was exhumed and taken to the crematorium of Sachsenhausen concentration camp
. His wife was arrested on August 15 and her children were taken away under Nazi policy of Sippenhaft
, meaning shared family guilt, but early in October she was released again and survived the war.
Major General
Major general or major-general is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. A major general is a high-ranking officer, normally subordinate to the rank of lieutenant general and senior to the ranks of brigadier and brigadier general...
in the German
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
Wehrmacht
Wehrmacht
The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...
who organized German resistance
German Resistance
The German resistance was the opposition by individuals and groups in Germany to Adolf Hitler or the National Socialist regime between 1933 and 1945. Some of these engaged in active plans to remove Adolf Hitler from power and overthrow his regime...
against Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
. He attempted to assassinate Hitler in March 1943 and drafted the Valkyrie plan
Operation Valkyrie
Operation Valkyrie was an emergency continuity of government operations plan developed in Nazi Germany for the Territorial Reserve Army of Germany to execute and implement in case of a general breakdown in civil order of the nation...
for a coup against the German government. He was described by the Gestapo
Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
as the "prime mover" and the "evil spirit" behind the July 20 plot
July 20 Plot
On 20 July 1944, an attempt was made to assassinate Adolf Hitler, Führer of the Third Reich, inside his Wolf's Lair field headquarters near Rastenburg, East Prussia. The plot was the culmination of the efforts of several groups in the German Resistance to overthrow the Nazi-led German government...
to assassinate Hitler. He committed suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
on the Eastern Front
Eastern Front (World War II)
The Eastern Front of World War II was a theatre of World War II between the European Axis powers and co-belligerent Finland against the Soviet Union, Poland, and some other Allies which encompassed Northern, Southern and Eastern Europe from 22 June 1941 to 9 May 1945...
upon the plot's failure.
Early life
Tresckow was born in MagdeburgMagdeburg
Magdeburg , is the largest city and the capital city of the Bundesland of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Magdeburg is situated on the Elbe River and was one of the most important medieval cities of Europe....
into a Pomerania
Pomerania
Pomerania is a historical region on the south shore of the Baltic Sea. Divided between Germany and Poland, it stretches roughly from the Recknitz River near Stralsund in the West, via the Oder River delta near Szczecin, to the mouth of the Vistula River near Gdańsk in the East...
n noble family with 300 years of military tradition that provided the Prussian Army
Prussian Army
The Royal Prussian Army was the army of the Kingdom of Prussia. It was vital to the development of Brandenburg-Prussia as a European power.The Prussian Army had its roots in the meager mercenary forces of Brandenburg during the Thirty Years' War...
with 21 generals. His father, later a cavalry general, had been present at Kaiser Wilhelm I's coronation as the emperor of new German Empire
German Empire
The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...
at Versailles
Palace of Versailles
The Palace of Versailles , or simply Versailles, is a royal château in Versailles in the Île-de-France region of France. In French it is the Château de Versailles....
in 1871. His mother was the daughter of Count Robert Zedlitz-Truetzschler, a Prussian Minister of Education.
He received most of his early education from tutors on his family's remote rural estate; from 1913 to 1917, he was a student at the Gymnasium in the town of Goslar
Goslar
Goslar is a historic town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the administrative centre of the district of Goslar and located on the northwestern slopes of the Harz mountain range. The Old Town of Goslar and the Mines of Rammelsberg are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.-Geography:Goslar is situated at the...
. He joined the 1st Regiment of Foot Guards
Infantry Regiment 9 Potsdam
Infantry Regiment 9 of Potsdam was an infantry regiment in Weimar Republic's Reichswehr and Nazi Germany's Wehrmacht, descended from famed 1st Prussian Regiment of Foot Guards in German Empire's Deutsches Reichsheer....
as an officer cadet at age of 16 and became the youngest lieutenant in the Army in June 1918. In the Second Battle of the Marne
Second Battle of the Marne
The Second Battle of the Marne , or Battle of Reims was the last major German Spring Offensive on the Western Front during the First World War. The German attack failed when an Allied counterattack led by France overwhelmed the Germans, inflicting severe casualties...
, he earned the Iron Cross
Iron Cross
The Iron Cross is a cross symbol typically in black with a white or silver outline that originated after 1219 when the Kingdom of Jerusalem granted the Teutonic Order the right to combine the Teutonic Black Cross placed above a silver Cross of Jerusalem....
1st class for outstanding courage and independent action against the enemy. At that time Count Siegfried von Eulenberg, the commander of the 1st Regiment of Foot Guards, predicted that "You, Tresckow, will either become chief of the General Staff or die on the scaffold as a rebel."
Career
After World War I, Tresckow stayed with the famed Infantry Regiment 9 PotsdamInfantry Regiment 9 Potsdam
Infantry Regiment 9 of Potsdam was an infantry regiment in Weimar Republic's Reichswehr and Nazi Germany's Wehrmacht, descended from famed 1st Prussian Regiment of Foot Guards in German Empire's Deutsches Reichsheer....
and took part in the suppression of the Spartacist
Spartacist League
The Spartacus League was a left-wing Marxist revolutionary movement organized in Germany during World War I. The League was named after Spartacus, leader of the largest slave rebellion of the Roman Republic...
movement in January 1919, but resigned from the Weimar Republic
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic is the name given by historians to the parliamentary republic established in 1919 in Germany to replace the imperial form of government...
Reichswehr
Reichswehr
The Reichswehr formed the military organisation of Germany from 1919 until 1935, when it was renamed the Wehrmacht ....
Army in 1920 in order to study law and economics. He worked in a banking house and embarked on a world journey visiting Britain, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
and the eastern United States
Eastern United States
The Eastern United States, the American East, or simply the East is traditionally defined as the states east of the Mississippi River. The first two tiers of states west of the Mississippi have traditionally been considered part of the West, but can be included in the East today; usually in...
in 1924 before he had to abandon it to take care of family possessions back home. Like members of many prominent Prussian families, Tresckow married into another family with long-standing military traditions. In 1926, he married Erika von Falkenhayn, only daughter of Erich von Falkenhayn
Erich von Falkenhayn
Erich von Falkenhayn was a German soldier and Chief of the General Staff during World War I. He became a military writer after World War I.-Early life:...
, the chief of the General Staff from 1914 to 1916, and returned to military service, being sponsored by Field Marshal
Field Marshal
Field Marshal is a military rank. Traditionally, it is the highest military rank in an army.-Etymology:The origin of the rank of field marshal dates to the early Middle Ages, originally meaning the keeper of the king's horses , from the time of the early Frankish kings.-Usage and hierarchical...
Paul von Hindenburg
Paul von Hindenburg
Paul Ludwig Hans Anton von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg , known universally as Paul von Hindenburg was a Prussian-German field marshal, statesman, and politician, and served as the second President of Germany from 1925 to 1934....
. Nevertheless, he was not a typical Prussian officer. He wore his uniform only when it was absolutely required and disliked the regimentation of army life. He was lyrical, recited Rainer Maria Rilke
Rainer Maria Rilke
René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke , better known as Rainer Maria Rilke, was a Bohemian–Austrian poet. He is considered one of the most significant poets in the German language...
, and spoke several languages.
In 1934, Tresckow began General Staff
German General Staff
The German General Staff was an institution whose rise and development gave the German armed forces a decided advantage over its adversaries. The Staff amounted to its best "weapon" for nearly a century and a half....
training at the War Academy and graduated as the best of the class of 1936. He was assigned to the General Staff's 1st Department (Operations), where he worked in close contact with Generals Ludwig Beck
Ludwig Beck
Generaloberst Ludwig August Theodor Beck was a German general and Chief of the German General Staff during the early years of the Nazi regime in Germany before World War II....
, Werner von Fritsch
Werner von Fritsch
Werner Thomas Ludwig Freiherr von Fritsch was a prominent Wehrmacht officer, member of the German High Command, and the second German general to be killed during World War II.-Early life:...
, Adolf Heusinger
Adolf Heusinger
Adolf Heusinger was a German General. He briefly served as Chief of the General Staff of the Army during World War II and served as the first Inspector General of the Bundeswehr, the West German armed forces, from 1957 to 1961...
and Erich von Manstein
Erich von Manstein
Erich von Manstein was a field marshal in World War II. He became one of the most prominent commanders of Germany's World War II armed forces...
. Studying the possible scenarios of war, he recognized the risks and weaknesses in Hitler's desire to prepare for war in 1938.
Although he supported the revision of the Polish Corridor
Polish Corridor
The Polish Corridor , also known as Danzig Corridor, Corridor to the Sea or Gdańsk Corridor, was a territory located in the region of Pomerelia , which provided the Second Republic of Poland with access to the Baltic Sea, thus dividing the bulk of Germany from the province of East...
, he opposed many of Hitler's military and foreign policies including the Anschluss
Anschluss
The Anschluss , also known as the ', was the occupation and annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany in 1938....
and the invasion of Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
. Nonetheless, Tresckow did spadework for the invasion plan of Czechoslovakia and after the outbreak of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
served as chief of staff of the 228th Infantry Division during the invasion of Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, earning the Iron Cross
Iron Cross
The Iron Cross is a cross symbol typically in black with a white or silver outline that originated after 1219 when the Kingdom of Jerusalem granted the Teutonic Order the right to combine the Teutonic Black Cross placed above a silver Cross of Jerusalem....
first class. He was shocked that Colonel-General Johannes Blaskowitz
Johannes Blaskowitz
Johannes Albrecht Blaskowitz was a German general during World War II. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords...
had been the only general to protest to Hitler about the atrocities committed by the SS in Poland and that his protests were dismissed as 'childish'.
Later in 1939 and into 1940, he served as the second general staff officer of Army Group A
Army Group A
Army Group A was the name of a number of German Army Groups during World War II.-Western Front, 1940:During the German invasion of the Low Countries and France Army Group A was under the command of General Gerd von Rundstedt, and was responsible for the break-out through the Ardennes...
under Gerd von Rundstedt
Gerd von Rundstedt
Karl Rudolf Gerd von Rundstedt was a Generalfeldmarschall of the German Army during World War II. He held some of the highest field commands in all phases of the war....
and Erich von Manstein
Erich von Manstein
Erich von Manstein was a field marshal in World War II. He became one of the most prominent commanders of Germany's World War II armed forces...
, culminating in the invasion of France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
in the spring of 1940. Ironically, Tresckow played a role in the adoption of the Manstein Plan
Manstein Plan
The Manstein Plan was the primary war plan of the German Army during the Battle of France in 1940.-Overview of the Plan:Developed by German Generalleutnant Erich von Manstein, the plan greatly modified the original 1939 versions by Franz Halder of the invasion plan known as Fall Gelb...
, which proved to be so successful in the French campaign. Tresckow's former regimental comrade Rudolf Schmundt
Rudolf Schmundt
Rudolf Schmundt was an officer in the German Army during World War II.-Biography:Schmundt was born in Metz and served as a Lieutenant during the World War I...
was Hitler's chief military aide, and it was through the Tresckow-Schmundt channel that Manstein's plan, after being rejected by Army High Command, was brought to Hitler's attention. He is also said to have worked on developing the Manstein Plan itself as Günther Blumentritt
Günther Blumentritt
Günther Blumentritt was a German officer in World War I, who became a Staff Officer under the Weimar Republic and went on to serve as a general for Nazi Germany during World War II...
's deputy.
After the fall of France, he did not share the euphoria that swept Germany and brought Hitler to the peak of his popularity. In October, he said in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
to a secretary (the future wife of Alfred Jodl
Alfred Jodl
Alfred Josef Ferdinand Jodl was a German military commander, attaining the position of Chief of the Operations Staff of the Armed Forces High Command during World War II, acting as deputy to Wilhelm Keitel...
), "If Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
can induce America
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
to join in the war, we shall slowly but surely be crushed by material superiority. The most that will be left to us then will be the Electorate of Brandenburg."
From 1941 to 1943, he served under Field Marshal
Field Marshal
Field Marshal is a military rank. Traditionally, it is the highest military rank in an army.-Etymology:The origin of the rank of field marshal dates to the early Middle Ages, originally meaning the keeper of the king's horses , from the time of the early Frankish kings.-Usage and hierarchical...
Fedor von Bock
Fedor von Bock
Fedor von Bock was a German Generalfeldmarshall who served in the Wehrmacht during the Second World War. As a leader who lectured his soldiers about the honor of dying for the German Fatherland, he was nicknamed "Der Sterber"...
, his uncle, and later Field Marshal Günther von Kluge
Günther von Kluge
Günther Adolf Ferdinand “Hans” von Kluge was a German military leader. He was born in Posen into a Prussian military family. Kluge rose to the rank of Field Marshal in the Wehrmacht. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords...
as chief operations officer of the German Army Group Centre
Army Group Centre
Army Group Centre was the name of two distinct German strategic army groups that fought on the Eastern Front in World War II. The first Army Group Centre was created on 22 June 1941, as one of three German Army formations assigned to the invasion of the Soviet Union...
in Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a front., the largest invasion in the history of warfare...
, the invasion of Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. Subsequently in October 1943, he served in combat as the commanding officer of Grenadier Regiment 442, defending the western bank of the Dnieper River
Dnieper River
The Dnieper River is one of the major rivers of Europe that flows from Russia, through Belarus and Ukraine, to the Black Sea.The total length is and has a drainage basin of .The river is noted for its dams and hydroelectric stations...
in Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
. From December 1943 until his death in 1944, he served as Chief of Staff of the 2nd Army
German Second Army
The 2nd Army was a World War I and World War II field army.-First World War:The 2nd Army during World War I, fought on the Western Front and took part in the Schlieffen Plan offensive against France and Belgium in August 1914...
, in areas which are now Belarus
Belarus
Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...
and eastern Poland. During his World War II service, he was awarded the German Cross
German Cross
The German Cross was instituted by Adolf Hitler on 17 November 1941 as an award ranking higher than the Iron Cross First Class but below the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross respectively ranking higher than the War Merit Cross First Class with Swords but below the Knight's Cross of the War Merit...
in Gold and other decorations. Tresckow was thus very well connected with the Prussian aristocracy
Junker
A Junker was a member of the landed nobility of Prussia and eastern Germany. These families were mostly part of the German Uradel and carried on the colonization and Christianization of the northeastern European territories during the medieval Ostsiedlung. The abbreviation of Junker is Jkr...
and high-ranking generals, highly accomplished and independent-minded, and as such well-positioned for his effort to overthrow the German government.
Heu Aktion
As Chief of Staff of the 2nd Army Tresckow signed an order on 28th of June 1944 to abduct Polish and Ukrainian children in the so called Heu Aktion. Between 40.000 to 50.000 Polish and Ukrainian children aged 10 to 14 were kidnapped for Nazi Germany forced labour program; . The order read in part "In operations against gangs, any boys and girls taken between ages 10 an 13 who are physically healthy,and whose parents either cannot be located or who, as persons unable to work, are to be sent to the area earmarked for remaining families (the dregs) are to be sent to the Reich)"The kidnapped children were used as forced workers in the Todt organisation, Junker factories and in German handicrafts as part of operation to "lower biological strength" of enemies of Nazi Germany. After the war the Nuremberg Trials
Nuremberg Trials
The Nuremberg Trials were a series of military tribunals, held by the victorious Allied forces of World War II, most notable for the prosecution of prominent members of the political, military, and economic leadership of the defeated Nazi Germany....
classified the kidnapping of children as part of Nazi "systematic program of genocide
Genocide
Genocide is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group", though what constitutes enough of a "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars...
" .
Opposition to Hitler
Although he was initially an enthusiastic supporter of NazismNazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
due to its opposition to the Treaty of Versailles
Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The other Central Powers on the German side of...
, he was quickly disillusioned by 1934 when Schutzstaffel
Schutzstaffel
The Schutzstaffel |Sig runes]]) was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Built upon the Nazi ideology, the SS under Heinrich Himmler's command was responsible for many of the crimes against humanity during World War II...
(SS) extrajudicially murdered many SA leaders and political opponents including two generals in the Night of the Long Knives
Night of the Long Knives
The Night of the Long Knives , sometimes called "Operation Hummingbird " or in Germany the "Röhm-Putsch," was a purge that took place in Nazi Germany between June 30 and July 2, 1934, when the Nazi regime carried out a series of political murders...
. The events of the 1930s, such as the 1938 Blomberg–Fritsch Affair, further strengthened his antipathy against the Nazis. He regarded the Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht, also referred to as the Night of Broken Glass, and also Reichskristallnacht, Pogromnacht, and Novemberpogrome, was a pogrom or series of attacks against Jews throughout Nazi Germany and parts of Austria on 9–10 November 1938.Jewish homes were ransacked, as were shops, towns and...
(state-sanctioned, nationwide pogrom
Pogrom
A pogrom is a form of violent riot, a mob attack directed against a minority group, and characterized by killings and destruction of their homes and properties, businesses, and religious centres...
of Jews) as personal humiliation and degradation of civilization.
He thus sought out civilians and officers who opposed Hitler, such as Erwin von Witzleben
Erwin von Witzleben
Job-Wilhelm Georg Erdmann Erwin von Witzleben was a German army officer and in the Second World War an Army commander and a conspirator in the July 20 Plot.-Early years:...
. Witzleben dissuaded Tresckow from resigning from the Army arguing that they would be needed when the day of reckoning came. By the summer of 1939, he told Fabian von Schlabrendorff
Fabian von Schlabrendorff
Fabian Ludwig Georg Adolf Kurt von Schlabrendorff , was a German jurist, soldier and member of the resistance against Adolf Hitler....
, his cousin by marriage, that "both duty and honor demand from us that we should do our best to bring about the downfall of Hitler and National-Socialism in order to save Germany and Europe from barbarism."
In the campaign against the Soviet Union, Tresckow started to resume his resistance activities with urgency. He was appalled by the Commissar Order
Commissar Order
The Commissar Order was a written order given by Adolf Hitler on 6 June 1941, prior to Operation Barbarossa. Its official name was Guidelines for the Treatment of Political Commissars...
, the treatment of Russian prisoners of war, and in particular the mass shootings of Jewish women and children by the Einsatzgruppen
Einsatzgruppen
Einsatzgruppen were SS paramilitary death squads that were responsible for mass killings, typically by shooting, of Jews in particular, but also significant numbers of other population groups and political categories...
behind the lines. When he learned about the massacre of thousands of Jews at Borisov, Tresckow appealed passionately to Field Marshal Fedor von Bock
Fedor von Bock
Fedor von Bock was a German Generalfeldmarshall who served in the Wehrmacht during the Second World War. As a leader who lectured his soldiers about the honor of dying for the German Fatherland, he was nicknamed "Der Sterber"...
: "Never may such a thing happen again! Therefore we must act now. We have the power in Russia!" (Although Bock personally detested Nazism, he remained loyal to Hitler.) As the chief operations officer of Army Group Center, he systematically placed officers who shared his views in key positions. They included Lieutenant Colonel Georg Schulze-Büttger, Colonel Rudolf Christoph Freiherr von Gersdorff
Rudolf Christoph Freiherr von Gersdorff
Rudolf Christoph Freiherr von Gersdorff was a military officer in Germany’s Weimar-period Reichswehr and Nazi-period Wehrmacht. He attempted to assassinate Adolf Hitler by suicide bombing in March 1943; the plan failed but he was undetected. In April 1943 he discovered the mass graves of the...
, Major Carl-Hans Graf von Hardenberg
Carl-Hans Graf von Hardenberg
Carl-Hans Graf von Hardenberg was a German politician and landowner.Carl-Hans Graf von Hardenberg was born in Glogau Silesia, Germany . He was part of the nobility of Lower Saxony and entered the German army. In 1914 he married Renate von der Schulenburg. He was wounded several times during...
, Lieutenant Heinrich Graf von Lehndorff-Steinort
Heinrich Graf von Lehndorff-Steinort
Heinrich Ahasverus Graf von Lehndorff-Steinort was a member of the July 20 Plot against Adolf Hitler.- Biography :...
, Lieutenant Fabian von Schlabrendorff
Fabian von Schlabrendorff
Fabian Ludwig Georg Adolf Kurt von Schlabrendorff , was a German jurist, soldier and member of the resistance against Adolf Hitler....
, Lieutenant Philipp von Boeselager
Philipp von Boeselager
Oberstleutnant Philipp Freiherr von Boeselager was the second-to-last surviving member of the July 20 Plot, a conspiracy among high-ranking Wehrmacht officers to assassinate German dictator Adolf Hitler in 1944....
and his brother Georg von Boeselager
Georg von Boeselager
Georg Freiherr von Boeselager was a German nobleman and an officer of the Wehrmacht, who ultimately reached the rank of Colonel of Cavalry....
, Lieutenant Colonel Hans-Alexander von Voss, and Lieutenant Colonel Berndt von Kleist, among others, many of them from Tresckow's old Infantry Regiment 9. The headquarters of Army Group Center thus emerged as the new nerve center of Army resistance. At the end of September 1941, Tresckow sent his special operations officer Schlabrendorff to Berlin to contact opposition groups and declare that the staff of Army Group Center was "prepared to do anything." This approach, made at the height of German expansion and nadir of anti-Hitler opposition, represented the first initiative to come from the front and from the Army, as Ulrich von Hassell
Ulrich von Hassell
Ulrich von Hassell was a German diplomat during World War II. A member of the German Resistance against German dictator Adolf Hitler, Hassell was executed in the aftermath of the failed July 20 plot.- Family :...
noted in his diary. Schlabrendorff continued to serve as liaison between Army Group Center and opposition circle around General Ludwig Beck
Ludwig Beck
Generaloberst Ludwig August Theodor Beck was a German general and Chief of the German General Staff during the early years of the Nazi regime in Germany before World War II....
, Carl Friedrich Goerdeler
Carl Friedrich Goerdeler
Carl Friedrich Goerdeler was a monarchist conservative German politician, executive, economist, civil servant and opponent of the Nazi regime...
and Colonel Hans Oster
Hans Oster
Hans Oster was a German Army general, deputy head of the Abwehr under Wilhelm Canaris, and an opponent of Adolf Hitler and Nazism. He was a leading figure of the German resistance from 1938 to 1943.-Early career:...
, the deputy head of Abwehr
Abwehr
The Abwehr was a German military intelligence organisation from 1921 to 1944. The term Abwehr was used as a concession to Allied demands that Germany's post-World War I intelligence activities be for "defensive" purposes only...
(German military intelligence) who was involved in 1938 coup attempt against Hitler (Oster Conspiracy
Oster Conspiracy
The Oster Conspiracy of 1938 was a proposed plan to assassinate German dictator Adolf Hitler, the leader of Nazi Germany, if Germany went to war with Czechoslovakia over the Sudetenland.-Background:...
). Oster's recruitment of General Friedrich Olbricht
Friedrich Olbricht
General Friedrich Olbricht was a German general and one of the plotters involved in the attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler at the Wolfsschanze in East Prussia on 20 July 1944.-Early life:...
, head of the General Army Office headquarters, in 1942 linked this asset to Tresckow's resistance group in Army Group Centre, creating a viable coup apparatus.
Plots against Hitler
It was decided that Tresckow's group would assassinate Hitler and thereby provide the 'spark' for the coup, which Olbricht would direct from Berlin. In late 1942, Olbricht indicated that he still needed about eight weeks to complete preparations for the coup. Shortly thereafter Tresckow traveled to Berlin to discuss the few remaining questions and to emphasize that time was running short. In the winter of 1942, Olbricht declared: "We are ready. The spark can now be set off." Tresckow assured the conspirators that he would act on the first available opportunity.It came on 13 March 1943 when Hitler finally visited troops on the Eastern Front
Eastern Front (World War II)
The Eastern Front of World War II was a theatre of World War II between the European Axis powers and co-belligerent Finland against the Soviet Union, Poland, and some other Allies which encompassed Northern, Southern and Eastern Europe from 22 June 1941 to 9 May 1945...
at Smolensk
Smolensk
Smolensk is a city and the administrative center of Smolensk Oblast, Russia, located on the Dnieper River. Situated west-southwest of Moscow, this walled city was destroyed several times throughout its long history since it was on the invasion routes of both Napoleon and Hitler. Today, Smolensk...
, after a few cancellations and postponements. Under the initial plan, a group of officers were to shoot Hitler collectively at a signal in the officers' mess during lunch but Kluge
Günther von Kluge
Günther Adolf Ferdinand “Hans” von Kluge was a German military leader. He was born in Posen into a Prussian military family. Kluge rose to the rank of Field Marshal in the Wehrmacht. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords...
, Commander of Army Group Center who was informed about the plot, urged Tresckow not to carry it out saying, "For heaven's sake, don't do anything today! It's still too soon for that!" He argued that the German army and people were not ready to accept the coup and would not understand such an act. He also feared a civil war between the Army and SS since Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was Reichsführer of the SS, a military commander, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. As Chief of the German Police and the Minister of the Interior from 1943, Himmler oversaw all internal and external police and security forces, including the Gestapo...
canceled his visit and could not be killed at the same time.
Tresckow however had a backup plan. During the said lunch, he asked Lieutenant Colonel Heinz Brandt
Heinz Brandt
Generalmajor Heinz Brandt was a German Wehrmacht staff officer who served during World War II as an aide to Generalleutnant Adolf Heusinger, who was the head of the operations unit of the General Staff...
who was traveling with Hitler if he would oblige to take a bottle of Cointreau
Cointreau
Cointreau is a brand of triple sec produced in Saint-Barthélemy-d'Anjou, France. It is drunk as an apéritif and digestif, and is a component of several well-known cocktails. It was originally called "Curaçao Blanco Triple Sec".-Production:...
to Colonel Helmuth Stieff
Helmuth Stieff
Helmuth Stieff was a German general and a member of the OKH during World War II. He took part in attempts by the German resistance to assassinate Hitler, on July 7 and on July 20, 1944....
(who was then not yet a conspirator) at Hitler's headquarters in East Prussia as a payment for a lost bet. Brandt readily agreed. The "Cointreau" was actually a bomb constructed of a British plastic explosive
Plastic explosive
Plastic explosive is a specialised form of explosive material. It is a soft and hand moldable solid material. Plastic explosives are properly known as putty explosives within the field of explosives engineering....
"Plastic C" placed into the casing of a British magnetic mine, with a timer consisting of a spring which would be gradually dissolved by acid. Before Hitler's Condor
Focke-Wulf Fw 200
The Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor, also known as Kurier to the Allies was a German all-metal four-engine monoplane originally developed by Focke-Wulf as a long-range airliner...
plane was to take off, Schlabrendorff
Fabian von Schlabrendorff
Fabian Ludwig Georg Adolf Kurt von Schlabrendorff , was a German jurist, soldier and member of the resistance against Adolf Hitler....
activated the 30-minute fuse and handed the package to Brandt, who boarded Hitler's plane. After takeoff, a message was sent to the other Berlin conspirators by code that Operation Flash
Operation Spark (1940)
Operation Spark was a plan generated in the early 1940s by German anti-Nazis to assassinate Adolf Hitler. Another Operation Spark was conducted by the Red Army during the siege of Leningrad in 1943....
was underway, which they expected to take place around Minsk
Minsk
- Ecological situation :The ecological situation is monitored by Republican Center of Radioactive and Environmental Control .During 2003–2008 the overall weight of contaminants increased from 186,000 to 247,400 tons. The change of gas as industrial fuel to mazut for financial reasons has worsened...
. Yet when Hitler landed safely at his East Prussian headquarters, it became obvious that the bomb had failed to detonate (probably due to the extremely low temperature in the unheated luggage compartment thereby preventing the fuse from working). The message of failure was quickly sent out and Schlabrendorff retrieved the package to prevent discovery of the plot.
A week later, on 21 March, Army Group Center organized a display of Russian Army flags and weapons seized at the Eastern Front. It was exhibited at Zeughaus
Zeughaus
The Zeughaus of Berlin is the oldest structure on the Unter den Linden. It was built by the Brandenburg Elector Frederick III between 1695 and 1730 in the baroque style, to be used as an artillery arsenal...
, military museum in Berlin, which Hitler was to visit on the Heroes' Memorial Day with Himmler and Hermann Göring
Hermann Göring
Hermann Wilhelm Göring, was a German politician, military leader, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. He was a veteran of World War I as an ace fighter pilot, and a recipient of the coveted Pour le Mérite, also known as "The Blue Max"...
. Colonel Gersdorff volunteered to be the suicide bomber, intending to explode a bomb on his person near Hitler while serving as a tour guide. He had with him bombs with ten-minute fuses, knowing that Hitler was scheduled to be in the museum for 30 minutes. However, at the last minute just before Hitler was to appear, the duration of his stay was reduced to just eight minutes as a security precaution. Hitler breezed through in two minutes. As a result Gersdorff could not accomplish his mission, and the assassination plan failed again, but he barely managed to get out and defuse the bombs.
Other plots
Operation Spark (1940)
Operation Spark was a plan generated in the early 1940s by German anti-Nazis to assassinate Adolf Hitler. Another Operation Spark was conducted by the Red Army during the siege of Leningrad in 1943....
similarly failed because of Hitler's irregular habits and pure ill luck. Most importantly, they had no access to Hitler since he no longer visited the front. The elimination of Oster's group in April 1943 (his deputy Hans von Dohnanyi
Hans von Dohnanyi
Hans von Dohnanyi was a German jurist, rescuer of Jews, and German resistance fighter against the Nazi régime.-Early life:...
and Lutheran theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German Lutheran pastor, theologian and martyr. He was a participant in the German resistance movement against Nazism and a founding member of the Confessing Church. He was involved in plans by members of the Abwehr to assassinate Adolf Hitler...
were arrested, and Oster was placed under house arrest) was a further setback that demoralized the conspirators and disrupted their efforts.
Meanwhile, Tresckow also worked tirelessly to persuade army commanders such as Field Marshals Fedor von Bock
Fedor von Bock
Fedor von Bock was a German Generalfeldmarshall who served in the Wehrmacht during the Second World War. As a leader who lectured his soldiers about the honor of dying for the German Fatherland, he was nicknamed "Der Sterber"...
, Günther von Kluge
Günther von Kluge
Günther Adolf Ferdinand “Hans” von Kluge was a German military leader. He was born in Posen into a Prussian military family. Kluge rose to the rank of Field Marshal in the Wehrmacht. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords...
, and Erich von Manstein
Erich von Manstein
Erich von Manstein was a field marshal in World War II. He became one of the most prominent commanders of Germany's World War II armed forces...
to join in the conspiracy without much success. With unwitting help from Schmundt, he placed like-minded officers as their adjutants and staff officers to bring them closer to conspiracy. Kluge sympathized with the conspirators and at times seemed ready to act only to become indecisive at critical moments. Others outright refused, Manstein declaring "Prussian field marshals do not mutiny." Nevertheless, no-one reported their treasonable activities to the German government.
Operation Valkyrie
Eventually, the conspirators came to rely more on the Reserve Army in Berlin and other districts to stage a coup against the German government. Olbricht now put forward a new strategy for staging a coup against Hitler. The Reserve Army had an operational plan called Operation Walküre (Valkyrie), which was to be used in the event that the disruption caused by the Allied bombing of German cities caused a breakdown in law and order, or a rising by the millions of slave laborers from occupied countries now being used in German factories. Olbricht suggested that this plan could be used to mobilize the Reserve Army to take control of German cities, disarm the SS and arrest the Nazi leadership, once Hitler had been assassinated. During August and September 1943, Tresckow took long sick leave in Berlin to draft the "revised" Valkyrie plan with fine details and precise timetables. Revised orders and additional proclamations that would pin blame for the uprising on the Nazi party were typed by Tresckow's wife, Erika, and his secretary, Countess Margarete von Oven, who wore gloves so as not to leave fingerprints. These 1943 papers were recovered by the Soviets after the war and were finally published in 2007, which showed Tresckow's central role in the conspiracy and idealistic motivations of the resistance group at that time. Knowledge of the Jewish Holocaust was a major impetus for many officers involved.However, when Tresckow was assigned to command of a battalion at the Eastern Front in October 1943, he was no longer in position to actively plan or effect the coup. Colonel Count Claus von Stauffenberg, who met Tresckow in August 1943 and worked together on revising Valkyrie plan, took the responsibility for planning and executing Hitler's assassination. Even his promotion a month later to Chief of Staff of the Second Army did not bring him much closer. To gain access to Hitler, Tresckow proposed to his old comrade General Rudolf Schmundt
Rudolf Schmundt
Rudolf Schmundt was an officer in the German Army during World War II.-Biography:Schmundt was born in Metz and served as a Lieutenant during the World War I...
, Hitler's Chief Adjutant and Chief of Army Personnel, to create a new department of psychological and political warfare to evaluate data and make reports directly to the Führer. Schmundt, who was still well-disposed to his old friend but had the impression that Tresckow disapproved of Führer, quietly let the matter drop. Tresckow also applied to become General Adolf Heusinger
Adolf Heusinger
Adolf Heusinger was a German General. He briefly served as Chief of the General Staff of the Army during World War II and served as the first Inspector General of the Bundeswehr, the West German armed forces, from 1957 to 1961...
's delegate in the Army High Command (OKH) during the latter's two-month leave, which would also give him access to Hitler's meetings, but Heusinger, who was earlier approached by conspirators, rejected it apparently for the same reason.
By the time Stauffenberg was appointed Chief of Staff of the Reserve Army and was ready to carry out the assassination attempt, the Allies had already landed in Normandy. When Stauffenberg sent a message to Tresckow through Lehndorff to ask whether there was any point in making the attempt since there was no practical purpose to be served, Tresckow urged him not only to attempt the assassination but to go ahead with the coup in Berlin even if the assassination were to fail. He argued that there must be an overt act of German opposition to Hitler regardless of the consequences. He also told Philipp von Boeselager and Margarite von Oven that 16,000 people were being killed daily not as casualties of war but as result of murders perpetrated by the Germans. Hitler had to be killed to put an end to it. A few days before the coup attempt, Tresckow confided to a friend that "in all likelihood everything will go wrong"; asked if the action was necessary nevertheless, he replied, "Yes, even so."
Death
When the assassination attempt on Hitler and the following coup in BerlinBerlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
(July 20 Plot
July 20 Plot
On 20 July 1944, an attempt was made to assassinate Adolf Hitler, Führer of the Third Reich, inside his Wolf's Lair field headquarters near Rastenburg, East Prussia. The plot was the culmination of the efforts of several groups in the German Resistance to overthrow the Nazi-led German government...
) had failed, Tresckow decided to commit suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
at the front in Królowy Most
Królowy Most
Królowy Most is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Gródek, within Białystok County, Podlaskie Voivodeship, in north-eastern Poland, close to the border with Belarus...
near Białystok on July 21. His parting words to Schlabrendorff were:
"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 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. God promised Abraham that He would not destroy Sodom if just ten righteous men could be found in the city, and so I hope that for our sake God will not destroy Germany. No-one among us can complain about his death, for whoever joined our ranks put on the shirt of Nessus. A man's moral worth is established only at the point where he is ready to give up his life in defense of his convictions."
To protect other conspirators, he staged an appearance of partisan attack by firing his pistols and then dispatched himself by holding a hand grenade below his chin. He was buried in the family home in Wartenberg. When the Nazis learned about his connections in late August, his body was exhumed and taken to the crematorium of Sachsenhausen concentration camp
Sachsenhausen concentration camp
Sachsenhausen or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used primarily for political prisoners from 1936 to the end of the Third Reich in May, 1945. After World War II, when Oranienburg was in the Soviet Occupation Zone, the structure was used as an NKVD...
. His wife was arrested on August 15 and her children were taken away under Nazi policy of Sippenhaft
Sippenhaft
Sippenhaft or Sippenhaftung was a form of collective punishment practised in Nazi Germany towards the end of the Second World War. It was a legalized practice in which relatives of persons accused of crimes against the state were held to share the responsibility for those crimes and subject to...
, meaning shared family guilt, but early in October she was released again and survived the war.
Quotes
- "The assassination must be attempted at all costs. Even if it should not succeed, an attempt to seize power in BerlinBerlinBerlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
must be made. What matters now is no longer the practical purpose of the coup, but to prove to the world and for the records of history that the men of the resistance dared to take the decisive step. Compared to this objective, nothing else is of consequence." (1944) - "Remember this moment. If we don't convince the field marshal (Fedor von BockFedor von BockFedor von Bock was a German Generalfeldmarshall who served in the Wehrmacht during the Second World War. As a leader who lectured his soldiers about the honor of dying for the German Fatherland, he was nicknamed "Der Sterber"...
) to fly to Hitler at once and have these orders (Commissar OrderCommissar OrderThe Commissar Order was a written order given by Adolf Hitler on 6 June 1941, prior to Operation Barbarossa. Its official name was Guidelines for the Treatment of Political Commissars...
) canceled, the German people will be burdened with a guilt the world will not forget in a hundred years. This guilt will fall not only on Hitler, Himmler, Göring, and their comrades but on you and me, your wife and mine, your children and mine, that woman crossing the street, and those children over there playing ball." (1941) - "Isn't it dreadful? Here we are, two officers of the German General Staff, discussing how best to murder our commander in chief. It must be done. This is our only chance... Hitler must be cut down like a rabid dog." (1943)
- "I cannot understand how people can still call themselves Christians and not be furious adversaries of Hitler's regime." (April 1943)
- "It is almost certain that we will fail. But how will future history judge the German people, if not even a handful of men had the courage to put an end to that criminal?" (June 1944)
- "The idea of freedom can never be disassociated from real Prussia. The real Prussian spirit means a synthesis between restraint and freedom, between voluntary subordination and conscientious leadership, between pride in oneself and consideration for others, between rigor and compassion. Unless a balance is kept between these qualities, the Prussian spirit is in danger of degenerating into soulless routine and narrow-minded dogmatism." (1943, at his sons' confirmation at Potsdam Garrison ChurchGarrison Church (Potsdam)The Garrison Church was a Baroque church in Potsdam, eastern Germany. It was built under the second Prussian king Friedrich Wilhelm I. between 1730 and 1735. During World War II, the church burned down on 14 April 1945. The ruin was demolished on 23 June 1968 by the SED leadership under Walter...
) - "I would like to show the German people a film with the title 'Germany at the end of the war.' Then perhaps people would be alarmed and would realize where we are heading. People would agree with me that the superior warlord (Hitler) must disappear. But since we cannot show this movie people will create the legend of the 'stab in the back' whenever we will act against Hitler." (December 1941)
- "Every day, we are assassinating nearly 16,000 additional victims."
- "Hitler is a dancing dervishDervishA Dervish or Darvesh is someone treading a Sufi Muslim ascetic path or "Tariqah", known for their extreme poverty and austerity, similar to mendicant friars in Christianity or Hindu/Buddhist/Jain sadhus.-Etymology:The Persian word darvīsh is of ancient origin and descends from a Proto-Iranian...
. He must be shot down." (1938) - "Bans are laws for the stupid." (1942)
- "The Allies must be stupid, if they don't see that the German military is stronger without Hitler than with him."
Portrayal in the media
Henning von Tresckow has been portrayed by the following actors in film:- Kenneth BranaghKenneth BranaghKenneth Charles Branagh is an actor and film director from Northern Ireland. He is best known for directing and starring in several film adaptations of William Shakespeare's plays including Henry V , Much Ado About Nothing , Hamlet Kenneth Charles Branagh is an actor and film director from...
in the 2008 United StatesUnited StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
film ValkyrieValkyrie (film)Valkyrie is a 2008 American historical thriller film set in Nazi Germany during World War II. The film depicts the 20 July plot in 1944 by German army officers to assassinate Adolf Hitler and to use the Operation Valkyrie national emergency plan to take control of the country...
. - Ulrich TukurUlrich TukurUlrich Tukur is a German actor and musician.-Biography:Tukur spent his youth near Hanover where he finished his final secondary-school examinations in 1977. He also achieved a high school degree in Boston during an exchange of students where he met his first wife, Amber Wood. With her, he had two...
in the 2004 German film StauffenbergStauffenberg (Film)Stauffenberg is a German-Austrian TV movie released in 2004 by Das Erste , about Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg and the 20 July 1944 plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler....
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External links
- Short biography with photograph at the DHMDeutsches Historisches MuseumThe German Historical Museum , DHM for short, is a museum in Berlin devoted to German history and defines itself as a place of enlightenment and understanding of the shared history of Germans and Europeans....
- The Restless Conscience: Resistance to Hitler Insider Nazi Germany 1933–1945 (Film, USA, 1991)