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Once the coup collapsed, the Nazis outdid themselves in their fury. It remained to be seen who would be caught in their net.

Some conspirators committed suicide. Some managed to escape.

Thousands were rounded up. The Gestapo tortured their victims, placed them on show trials, and hanged them.

At their trials before the Nazi ‘People’s Court’, with nothing left to lose, the July plotters proved remarkably difficult to cow.

Relatives of conspirators were also arrested and imprisoned.

Nina von Stauffenberg was held separately from her children who were placed in an orphanage.

In January 1945, in solitary confinement, she gave birth to her fifth child.

As Germany unravelled, the mechanism of revenge took over.

Finally, his ambitions in ruins and having caused the deaths of millions, Hitler committed suicide, and the Reich surrendered.

The war over, Nina was reunited with her children.

The July plotters’ attempts to replace Hitler and end the war failed, but their example of moral courage leaves a legacy for future generations.

Written and narrated by Brian Walters

Original music, editing and sound design by the amazing Sam Loy

Artwork by Mike Vernon.

Episode Transcript

A full transcript of the episode is available here.

Read the book TREASON

You can read more about Claus von Stauffenberg and the German resistance to Hitler, in the book Treason by Brian Walters.

For those with iPads, Treason is available as an interactive Apple Book here.

The hard copy can be bought here.

If you live out of Australia, the hard copy is best purchased from Blurb.

There is also a Kindle version.

Resources

For a list of the creative commons music and sound effects used in this episode, head here.

Finally …

If you liked the episode, please share it: the episode link is here.

And you can help us by writing a brief review and giving us a (five star!) rating.

By all means contact me, Brian Walters, by email on walters@vicbar.com.au

TREASON: Claus von Stauffenberg and the plot to kill Hitler

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Once the coup collapsed, Fromm hesitated, then returned to his office, where Stauffenberg, Beck, Olbricht, Mertz and Hoepner were held under guard.

Beck tried to shoot himself. He only succeeded in badly wounding himself, and was later finished off.

Hoepner asked to be sent for a trial, and Fromm agreed.

By now the forces suppressing the coup were approaching. Knowing of the coup preparations, Fromm had done nothing to suppress it. These prisoners might implicate him in treason.

He ordered them shot by firing squad.

After midnight, a squad assembled. The officers were led out to the courtyard. Before he died, Claus von Stauffenberg called out ‘Long live sacred Germany!’. His aide, Werner von Haeften leaped in front of the volley intended for him, and Claus was shot on the second attempt.

Several other conspirators were held in the Bendlerblock. The leaders of the SS and Gestapo arrived soon after the executions, outraged that key witnesses had been disposed of.

In the small hours, they forced the remaining prisoners to listen to the broadcast Hitler now made.

Across the German Reich, surviving conspirators knew that the Gestapo would come. Some fled, some went into hiding, some gave themselves up, some committed suicide.

Nina von Stauffenberg broke the news to her children. Then the Nazis arrived and she and the children were separated and hustled away.

Written and narrated by Brian Walters

Original music, editing and sound design by the amazing Sam Loy

Artwork by Mike Vernon.

Episode Transcript

A full transcript of the episode is available here.

Read the book TREASON

You can read more about Claus von Stauffenberg and the German resistance to Hitler, in the book Treason by Brian Walters.

For those with iPads, Treason is available as an interactive Apple Book here.

The hard copy can be bought here.

If you live out of Australia, the hard copy is best purchased from Blurb.

There is also a Kindle version.

Resources

For a list of the creative commons music and sound effects used in this episode, head here.

Finally …

If you liked the episode, please share it: the episode link is here.

And you can help us by writing a brief review and giving us a (five star!) rating.

By all means contact me, Brian Walters, by email on walters@vicbar.com.au

TREASON: Claus von Stauffenberg and the plot to kill Hitler

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At about 4 in the afternoon of 20 July 1944, Claus von Stauffenberg arrived back in Berlin. He expected the insurrection to be in full swing, and was shocked to learn nothing had been done.

He swung into action, and the first Valkyrie orders went out.

Colonel General Fromm was unwilling to commit himself to the coup while Hitler’s survival remained uncertain. Incensed when he learned Valkyrie orders had been issued without his knowledge, he ordered the arrest of the officer responsible. Instead, the conspirators arrested him.

Now the Valkyrie orders went out across the Reich, and troops moved into position to take control.

In Paris, all the key Nazis were arrested, and the capital was in the conspirators’ hands. In Vienna, Nazi leaders were confined in separate rooms in a hotel. The conspirators had control there.

In Berlin, Major Remer was ordered to secure the administrative district with a guard regiment, and had done this by early evening.

The Nazi hierarchy was hours away in East Prussia, and still did not appreciate their danger.

Remer entered the Propaganda Ministry, with orders to arrest Goebbels – the most senior Nazi in Berlin.

Goebbels picked up the telephone and connected Remer to Hitler. Remer was a committed Nazi, and shocked to learn that the Führer was alive. Hitler now gave him full authority to put down the coup.

From this point, the tide began to recede for the conspirators.

Written and narrated by Brian Walters

Original music, editing and sound design by the amazing Sam Loy

Artwork by Mike Vernon.

Episode Transcript

A full transcript of the episode is available here.

Read the book TREASON

You can read more about Claus von Stauffenberg and the German resistance to Hitler, in the book Treason by Brian Walters.

For those with iPads, Treason is available as an interactive Apple Book here.

The hard copy can be bought here.

If you live out of Australia, the hard copy is best purchased from Blurb.

There is also a Kindle version.

Resources

For a list of the creative commons music and sound effects used in this episode, head here.

Finally …

If you liked the episode, please share it: the episode link is here.

And you can help us by writing a brief review and giving us a (five star!) rating.

By all means contact me, Brian Walters, by email on walters@vicbar.com.au

TREASON: Claus von Stauffenberg and the plot to kill Hitler

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Claus von Stauffenberg took his briefcase bomb to three conferences with Hitler.

On 11 July 1944 he attended a conference in the Berghof, in the Bavarian alps, but generals in the conspiracy ordered him not to go ahead if Himmler was not present. On 15 July he took the bomb to the Wolf’s Lair in East Prussia (see episode cover photograph). In a long telephone call the generals were again reluctant to have the bomb detonated with Himmler absent. Claus decided to go ahead anyway – but the telephone call with the generals had taken so long that the conference was over.

On 20 July 1944 Stauffenberg flew to the Wolf’s Lair again.

Shown to a sitting room to change his shirt, Claus set about arming the bomb – a delicate task. When he had set fuses in the first lump of plastic explosive, he was interrupted by a badly timed telephone call. He was unable to arm the second lump of explosive.

He took the briefcase into the conference. He placed the bomb close to Hitler, and quietly asked to make a call outside. He strode from the briefing hut.

At 12.41 an explosion sent a sheet of flame into the air. Several people were killed. Claus saw a body carried out covered in Hitler’s personal cloak.

He was able to bluff his way out of the Wolf’s Lair and fly back to Berlin.

In Berlin, information was confused. Unsure whether Hitler was dead, the officers dithered.

Meanwhile, after initial confusion, the Nazis’ suspicion hardened around Stauffenberg. They ordered his plane shot down.

Written and narrated by Brian Walters

Original music, editing and sound design by the amazing Sam Loy

Artwork by Mike Vernon.

Episode Transcript

A full transcript of the episode is available here.

Read the book TREASON

You can read more about Claus von Stauffenberg and the German resistance to Hitler, in the book Treasonby Brian Walters.

For those with iPads, Treason is available as an interactive Apple Book here.

The hard copy can be bought here.

If you live out of Australia, the hard copy is best purchased from Blurb.

There is also a Kindle version.

Resources

For a list of the creative commons music and sound effects used in this episode, head here.

Finally …

If you liked the episode, please share it: the episode link is here.

And you can help us by writing a brief review and giving us a (five star!) rating.

By all means contact me, Brian Walters, by email on walters@vicbar.com.au

TREASON: Claus von Stauffenberg and the plot to kill Hitler

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With over a million slave workers in Germany, the Nazis feared an uprising. They prepared a plan for the Army to handle any such revolt. Echoing Wagner’s Ring, they called it ‘Operation Valkyrie’. The orders provided an ideal framework for a coup.

In 1943, Claus von Stauffenberg was initiated into this plan. He modified the orders to facilitate a takeover.

He was married, with four children. He felt he could not be a father while turning his back on the moral destruction of his country.

He made contact with all the different groups – police, politicians of all stripes, diplomats, intellectuals, officers, clergymen and more – welding them into a formidable force.

When Hitler agreed to inspect new army uniforms, Stauffenberg searched for an officer prepared to blow himself up with the Führer during the inspection.

Major Axel von dem Bussche agreed to do it. But when Allied bombs destroyed the uniforms to be modelled, Bussche was transferred back to the front.

The inspection was rescheduled, and Lieutenant Ewald-Heinrich von Kleist-Schmenzin agreed to make the attempt. Hitler repeatedly postponed the inspection.

In March 1944, Captain Eberhard von Breitenbuch accompanied Field Marshal Busch to the Berghof for a conference with Hitler. Breitenbuch secreted a pistol in his uniform, intending to shoot Hitler. Inexplicably, he was denied entry.

In June 1944, Stauffenberg was appointed chief of staff of the Home Army – comprising all the troops in Germany. His commander, Colonel General Friedrich Fromm, had responsibility for issuing the Valkyrie orders, but as chief of staff, Stauffenberg could issue the orders in his name.

On 7 June 1944, the day after D Day, Stauffenberg went to the Berghof to meet Hitler for the first time.

On 9 July, Hitler inspected the new uniforms. General Stieff agreed to blow up Hitler – but nothing happened.

Stauffenberg realised he was best placed to kill Hitler himself.

Written and narrated by Brian Walters

Original music, editing and sound design by the amazing Sam Loy

Episode Transcript

A full transcript of the episode is available here.

Read the book TREASON

You can read more about Claus von Stauffenberg and the German resistance to Hitler, in the book Treason by Brian Walters.

For those with iPads, Treason is available as an interactive Apple Book here.

The hard copy can be bought here.

If you live out of Australia, the hard copy is best purchased from Blurb.

There is also a Kindle version.

Resources

For a list of the creative commons music and sound effects in this episode, head here.

Finally …

If you liked the episode, please share it: the link is here.

You can help us by writing a brief review and giving us a (five star!) rating.

By all means contact me, Brian Walters, by email on walters@vicbar.com.au

TREASON: Claus von Stauffenberg and the plot to kill Hitler

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In February 1943, Hans and Sophie Scholl, students calling themselves ‘The White Rose’, were arrested for distributing leaflets calling for peace. The Nazis tried them for treason – and they were executed.

In March 1943, in ‘Operation Flash’, conspirators made several attempts to assassinate Hitler. This culminated when they secreted an armed bomb onto his plane when he took off from Smolensk, in Russia. The failure of the bomb to explode remains a mystery. The following week they tried a suicide bombing in Berlin. It all came to nothing.

In April, the Gestapo raided the headquarters of the Abwehr, German military intelligence, and arrested several key leaders of the German resistance, leaving the opposition to Hitler leaderless.

Claus von Stauffenberg – having lost his right hand, his left eye, and two fingers of his left hand, recovered in hospital, and was eventually able to move home to recuperate, spending time with his family.

Many senior commanders sought him out to serve as their chief of staff, but Claus turned them down, until he eventually agreed to a position as chief of staff to General Friedrich Olbricht, a leading conspirator and head of the General Army Office.

Claus hoped the new position would give him ‘opportunities for decisive intervention’.

Written and narrated by Brian Walters

Original music, editing and sound design by the amazing Sam Loy

Episode Transcript

A full transcript of the episode is available here

Resources and Links

You can read more about Claus von Stauffenberg and the German resistance to Hitler, in the book Treasonby Brian Walters.

For those with iPads, Treason is available as an interactive Apple Book here

The hard copy can be bought here

If you live out of Australia, the hard copy is best purchased from Blurb -

There is also a Kindle version.

For a list of the music and sound effects used in this episode, head here.

Finally …

If you liked the episode, please share it: the episode link is here.

And you can help us by writing a brief review and giving us a (five star!) rating.

By all means contact me, Brian Walters, by email on walters@vicbar.com.au

TREASON: Claus von Stauffenberg and the plot to kill Hitler

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In November 1939, Georg Elser, acting alone, planted an immense bomb in the Beer Hall cellar in Munich. Using two high-precision clocks, he timed it to explode at the midpoint of Hitler’s annual speech commemorating the Beer Hall Putsch.

Hitler attended as planned, and spoke from the podium just in front of the bomb – but then left early to oversee his planned attack on France.

In April 1940, Hitler rapidly seized Denmark and Norway.

Then, on 10 May 1940, like a thunderbolt, the German Wehrmacht struck in the west, simultaneously attacking the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and France. That same day, Churchill became Prime Minister of Britain.

The Allies did not suspect that the main route of attack would be through the Ardennes, leaving their forces trapped north of the German armoured columns. At Dunkirk, far more troops were extricated than had been expected, but it was still a disaster and France capitulated soon after. In this campaign Claus von Stauffenberg served as quartermaster for the Sixth German armoured division.

The subsequent Battle of Britain was a failure for the German Luftwaffe, and plans to invade were quietly shelved in favour of a far more ambitious project – the invasion of the Soviet Union, launched on 22 June 1941.

By October that year, with German troops at the gates of Moscow, Goebbels announced to assembled foreign correspondents in Berlin that the German advance had ‘brought the war to a close’.

During the campaign in Russia, Claus von Stauffenberg came to know two of the key conspirators against Hitler – Henning von Tresckow and Fabian von Schlabrendorff. They would work towards the elimination of Hitler and the Nazis.

Confronted by Nazi atrocities, Stauffenberg began to compile a dossier of war crimes committed by the SS. Then he approached senior generals, one after another, urging them to act against Hitler.

Having made life very uncomfortable for himself by stirring up opposition to the Nazis, Claus von Stauffenberg sought a posting to Africa, where once again he was engaged in active combat.

Written and narrated by Brian Walters

Original music, editing and sound design by the amazing Sam Loy

Episode Transcript

A full transcript of the episode is available here

Read the book TREASON

You can read more about Claus von Stauffenberg and the German resistance to Hitler, in the book Treason by Brian Walters.

For those with iPads, Treason is available as an interactive Apple Book here.

The hard copy can be bought here.

If you live out of Australia, the hard copy is best purchased from Blurb.

There is also a Kindle version.

Resources

For a list of the creative commons music and sound effects used in this episode, head here.

Finally …

If you liked the episode, please share it: the episode link is here.

And you can help us by writing a brief review and giving us a (five star!) rating.

By all means contact

TREASON: Claus von Stauffenberg and the plot to kill Hitler

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1938 was the year when the tide of Hitler’s ambition should have broken against widespread international and internal opposition.

Instead, it was the year when his tsunami was unleashed.

By deft manoeuvres, he isolated Austria, and in March incorporated it into the German Reich.

He then turned his attention to Czechoslovakia. The Nazis fomented unrest in the Sudetenland, and Hitler demanded its return to the German Reich. He ordered his generals to prepare for invasion.

But the leaders of the German Army were not prepared to accept this, and began preparing a coup. They repeatedly told the British government of their plans, and urged Chamberlain to stand firm against Hitler’s demands. Instead, in a series of trips to Germany, Chamberlain capitulated to Hitler’s demands, ceding the Sudetenland, with Czechoslovakia’s best defences and industrial wealth, to the German Reich.

Chamberlain boasted that he had brought ‘peace for our time’.

In March 1939, Hitler swallowed up the rest of Czechoslovakia, and Chamberlain was exposed as having drastically misread the German Führer.

When the British and French guaranteed Poland’s borders, Hitler did not believe them.

Once again the German resistance sought assurances from the British that they would stand firm – but they could no longer promise a coup.

On 1 September 1939 Nazi Germany invaded Poland, and the Second World War began.

It took two days for Britain and France to act in accordance with their guarantee and declare war – but then they did nothing to support Poland.

What now for France? For Britain? And what hope remained for Germans who opposed the Nazi regime?

Written and narrated by Brian Walters

Original music, editing and sound design by the amazing Sam Loy

Episode Transcript

A full transcript of the episode is available here

Read the book TREASON

You can read more about Claus von Stauffenberg and the German resistance to Hitler, in the book Treason by Brian Walters.

For those with iPads, Treason is available as an interactive Apple Book here.

The hard copy can be bought here.

If you live out of Australia, the hard copy is best purchased from Blurb.

There is also a Kindle version.

Resources
For a list of the creative commons music and sound effects used in this episode, head here.

Finally …

If you liked the episode, please share it: the episode link is here.

And you can help us by writing a brief review and giving us a (five star!) rating.

By all means contact me, Brian Walters, by email on walters@vicbar.com.au

TREASON: Claus von Stauffenberg and the plot to kill Hitler