Repeated Attempts to Assassinate Hitler

Did you know that Hitler could have been prevented from wiping out two thirds of the Jewish population? The difference was just a matter of minutes, seconds, and just bad luck. This was the results of many assassination attempts on Hitler. Hitler as a young boy seemed innocent and just like a normal child. He had interest in art growing up even though his dad derailed him from doing so. Hitler had a Father, Mother, and five other siblings. Then a sudden turn in Hitler’s life happened, Hitler’s father had a sudden death in 1903. According to Biography.com, he dropped out of school two years later. Hitler’s mother died four years after in December 1907.

After her death he decided to move to Vienna and work as a casual laborer and pursue his interest in art. Hitler was rejected twice by the Academy of Fine arts, (Adolf Hitler Biography). Many people think this could have caused Hitler to turn evil. Hitler, a very bad man, had many assassination attempts against him. He tried to exterminate the Jews. In return German people or British agents tried to plot ways to kill Hitler for the better of their country, while many others thought that it was better to follow Hitler. When Hitler rose to power he began to make laws to purposely exclude the Jews. A big indicator of Hitler’s plans was his book. He foreshadowed the laws against the Jews. According to Biography.com, while Hitler was in prison for nine months he worked on his auto-biography and political manifesto.

The first version of his book came out in 1925, while the second one came out in 1927. Hitler sold more than five million copies by 1939. The book showed his plans into turning German society into one perfect race, (Adolf Hitler Biography). Hitler saw his chance to run for power when the Great Depression hit Germany. Hitler ran against an eighty-four year old for the presidency. According to Biograhpy.com Hitler had twenty-six percent of the vote in the final count proving he is a strong force in politics. Hindenburg reluctantly agreed to appoint Hitler as chancellor so he could help politics, (Adolf Hitler Biography). Once Hitler gained his power that is when he started to make moves. On April 1, 1933, Hitler made a law saying to not buy from Jewish businesses. Obviously his goal was to put them out of business and make them poor.

Then, came the “Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service’ of April 7, 1933 which didn’t allow Jews to use state service . Then soon they excluded all non-Aryan, or perfect people per say, from their lives. In the next couple years a group of anti-semitic people started a riot. This lead to the group smashing and destroying Jewish homes, schools, and their business buildings. Biography.com says, close to 100 Jews were murdered. There was a lot of broken glass on the ground from the violence. About 30,000 men were sent to concentration camps (Adolf Hitler Biography). Many consider this the first attack of the Nazi’s. Hitler’s SecuritySince Hitler was targeted by many people he had loads of Security around him. First,the Gestapo protected him against basically everything they could. The Gestapo were secret Nazi police who watched the Jews and protected Hitler. Next, Hitler had the SS to protect them. The SS is an elite corps of highly trained combat groups.

The Abwehr was also security for Hitler. According to Roger Moorhouse, “the Abwehr was a military intelligence department of the ministry of defense, whose purpose was to collect, evaluate, and present military strategy information” (Moorhouse 80). It was the defense for Hitler. Little did Hitler know, the Abwehr started to turn on Hitler. In the Novel Killing Hitler by Roger Moorhouse he says, Wilhelm Canaris took over the organization and started the revolt against Hitler (Moorhouse 82). In the end the Revolution did not work and they arrested and killed some of the people who were involved,The Less Important PlotsIn Hitler’s time as leader many people just think that there was two or three main plots that failed. In reality there was less important plots that never got put into action. Everyday people tried to think up a way to get to Hitler. A lot of these smaller plots, secret British Agents made. They had multiple plans that possibly would have worked. These well thought out plans looked very elaborate. The only reason they were less important is because they never got put into effect.

First, the secret British agents had about ten different plans. They then narrowed it down to three that they thought had the best chance of working. The first plan to mention would be blowing up Hitler’s personal train. The agents knew Hitler had his own personal train and that the prime time to attack him would be while he was underground in the middle of the tunnel. The reason it would be underground in the middle of the tunnel is that it was cause the least amount of harm to people of the outside world. Next, the tea assassination plan was a top runner for them. According to Warren Hoge of New York Times, ”Hitler, according to reliable information, is a tea addict,” it said. ”But he always drinks it with milk. Since the milk is poured first into the cup, it is unlikely that its opalescence would be noticed as it came from the teapot” (Hoge). Their plan was to put the opalescence or poison in the tea and murder Hitler that way. Finally there last front runner was to snipe Hitler on his morning walk. Warren Hoge says, it is pretty surprising of the lack of security on his morning stroll,(Hoge).

All of the plans probably had a high chance of working. The reason the agents did not put these smaller plans into play will surprise you. According to Warren Hoge, the plans were never enacted because Hitler was becoming an unreliable leader. The high-ranking officers though he was better off alive right now than dead because of all his blunders, (Hoge). Their planned worked allowing the USA to storm in causing Hitler to commit suicide.The Parade Plot Maurice Bavaud was one of many ordinary German citizens to try to assassinate Adolf Hitler. According to Roger Moorhouse, Maurice was raised in a catholic family, went to a four year college in France and wanted to become a missionary. Maurice Bavaud was considered a bit off. He was normal until he met his partner Marcel Gerbohay. (Moorhouse).

Once he met his partner, Maurice started to plan to assassinate Hitler. His plan was to go to Hitler’s parade and wait until he got up on the podium to start his speech. Maurice spent months training for this plot. He practiced his aim on trees’ in the woods. Maurice even stalked Hitler for months throughout Germany! The day of the parade, Maurice was there and he was sticking close to the front. He tried multiple times to get the right angle for the shot. Roger Moorhouse says, Bavaud attended the parade but unfortunately his shot was blocked by hundreds of civilians waving flags and celebrating, (Moorhouse).Maurice tried to get out of there before he was caught with a pistol. He went straight towards the train station. He was arrested but not for possession of a gun, it was because he did not have a ticket. It was not until later that they found the weapon. He was sentenced to death. According to Roger Moorhouse, ‘…I embrace you all… for the last time. I want to cry, but I can’t. I feel my heart explode… Thank you for everything you have done for me… I entrust my soul into the hands of God,’ (Moorhouse). This is the note Maurice wrote to his family before being sentenced to death. Rudolf Gertsdorff Rudolf Gertsdorff was an officer for Hitler. He was in a group who wanted to kill Hitler by bombing him.

Rudolf volunteered to be the bomber. According to Evan Andrews, “…he came to a grim realization: security was too tight to plant explosives in the room. ‘At this point it became clear to me that an attack was only possible if I were to carry the explosives about my person,’ he later wrote, ‘and blow myself up as close to Hitler as possible.’” (Andrews). Rudolf willingly risked his life to try to save his country as he says. When the day finally came Rudolf stayed as close to Hitler as possible. According to Evan Andrews, The bomb had a short 10-minute fuse but despite Gerstdorff’s attempts to prolong the tour, Hitler slipped out a side door after only a few minutes. The would-be suicide bomber was forced to make a mad dash for the bathroom, where he defused the explosives with only seconds to spare, (Andrews). This saved a few lives including himself by defusing the bomb with just seconds to spare. Beer Hall Bomb George Elseman, just another German common folk who disagreed with Hitler and his doings. According to Evan Andrews, he was just an average struggling German who saw and believed Hitler had bad intentions. He felt as if he needed to react and the he could do something about it and try to stop him, (Andrews). George growing up as the oldest child in the family felt he should support them.

According to Evan Andrews, due to the depression George Elseman was unable to make enough money. He blamed the depression on Hitler, (Andrews). This sparked the attack on Hitler. George Elseman’s plan was to blow Hitler up at his annual speech at the Beer Hall Putsch Before Elseman started to start enacting his plan he became a regular at the beer hall. According to Chris Bowlby, For more than 30 nights he arrived late in the hall for a meal, then hid himself as it closed, (Bowlby). This means he ate dinner and drank beer each night for more than a month! Roger Moorhouse says, for eight months, he worked on constructing his bomb and testing them in his yard at home until satisfied with the results. Every night, he would sneak in the beer hall and began carving out a cavity in the pillar, (Moorhouse). When George carving out the pillar in the middle of the night he had to muffle out the sounds. For example, he would time his sounds so that nobody could hear them because all they could hear was the car. Next, Elseman very carefully cleaned up every speck of evidence so that suspicion levels stayed low. According to Roger Moorhouse, He then had to create a mortar out of brick and stone it took him about a month, because of all the sounds he attempted to muffle, (Moorhouse).

Finally for George Elseman to finish up the planning stage of his plot he put a one hundred forty-four hour timer on the bomb to explode in the middle of Hitler’s speech. George surrounded the bomb with cork so nobody would be able to hear the ticking. The day of the plan, Hitler’s speech moved up one hour because he wanted to return to Berlin earlier than planned. There was not one flaw in George Elseman’s plan, until Hitler moved his speech up to eight o’clock P.M.. Hitler’s speech lasted until 9:07 P.M. and then they left the building five minutes later. Unfortunately, without a way to stop the bomb it went off eight minutes after they left. According to Evan Andrews, Elser’s bomb killed eight people and injured twelve. Unfortunately, one of those people were not Hitler. He was later found and arrested by the SS, (Andrews). Yet again another unlucky attack failing to kill Hitler.The July 20th Plot After D-Day took place planning to kill Hitler started to take place. According to Evan Andrews, a bunch of German Officers launched a campaign to assassinate Hitler at his ‘Wolf’s Lair’ in Prussia.

The main guy was Claus Von Stauffenberg. a German Colonel. He lost his hand and eye during the war, (Andrews). “Encyclopedia Britannica says that, Fabian von Schlabrendorff, (born July 1, 1907,Halle, Germany—died September 3, 1980,Wiesbaden, West Germany[now in Germany]), West German lawyer, best known for his participation in two attempts to assassinate Adolf Hitler” (Encyclopedia Britannica). This German Lawyer served for HItler in war. After he was injured he thought he could assassinate Hitler because he knows more about Hitler than others. These German officers created an unique plan to try to assassinate Hitler. According to Evan Andrews, They planned to kill Hitler and Fuhrer with a bomb in a briefcase. Then, they would use the German Reserve Army to topple the Nazi high command. If all went well they would seek for peace with the allies, (Andrews). To succeed at this plan they needed to prepare. They needed to make sure they had a strong enough bomb to destroy Hitler and then they had to make sure it worked. The day the plot came everything worked to perfection. Evan Andrews says, On July 20, 1944, Stauffenberg put the plan into effect. He went into Hitler’s ‘Wolf Lair’ and placed a brief case with explosives right under the table, (Andrews). The table that Hitler had in his “Wolf Lair” was a heavy and very sturdy wooden table.

After the placement of the explosives Stauffenberg made an excuse to leave the room. He left the room to make a fake phone call. According to Evan Andrews, Claus waited for the explosion. the wooden table was in rubble and so was much of the conference room, (Andrews). There was rubble everywhere and Hitler was sure to be dead this time. Well, somehow, someway, the evil man survived yet another assassination attempt. After the explosion it was found that Hitler was injured and not killed. Accoriding to Evan Andrews, four men died and Hitler only left injured. The reason the plot did not work out is because an officer moved it behind a heavy wooden leg of the table that somewhat defended the explosion from Hitler, (Andrews). After Hitler left he surprisingly boasting that he survived this attack. He said that he is immortal and cannot die.

The United States Holocaust museum said, at first, the plan seemed to go smoothly as the Reserve Army began taking action, but delays, confusion, and poor communication robbed the coup of its initiative. Eventually, the fact of Hitler’s survival was broadcast, and the plot rapidly unraveled, (Plot to Assassinate Hitler). Once the army realized the plan did not succeed they quickly fell apart and failed as well. Hitler ended up arresting over seven thousand people and executing over four thousand eight hundred and fifty. Hitler’s Suicide Hitler finally realized that all of his plans were falling apart and he had to react quickly. Hitler married his wife and then later they committed suicide together. According to Biography.com, Berlin fell five days after Hitler’s death. Hitler’s actions caused a World War, leaving Europe devastated. After Hitler’s death the end of Germany’s dominance came falling down, (Adolf Hitler Biography). After Hitler’s reign there was no more dominance of Germany over the other countries.

Throughout history Hitler degraded from a normal kid to one of the worst people ever to live. Many people throughout Germany did not agree with what he planned to do. Some of those people including, George Elesman, Maurice Bavaud, and Claus Stauffenberg decided to do something about it. They all attempted to assassinate Hitler and made their mark in history. There is some irony in all this tragedy. After all the attempts to kill Hitler from around the country the one to end Hitler’s life was himself. After Hitler’s rule Germany was put back into good hands and the Jews kept their religion but after a devastating loss.