An Honourable Defeat (38 page)

[17]
Richard Grunberger:
A
Social
History
of
the
Third
Reich
, Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1979, p. 179.

[18]
The Hitler quotations are from
Mein
Kampf
. The passage is from: Joachim Fest:
Hitler
, translated by Richard and Clara Winston, Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1983, p. 78.

[19]
The full story is told in Fabian von Schlabrendorff, op. cit., pp. 22-24.

[20]
See
Es
gab
nicht
nur
den
20.
Juli
, Pressestelle des WDR, 1979, p. 21.

[21]
Finding the correct ranks in translation is a difficult task. For ‘Generalmajor’, ‘Generalleutnant’ and ‘Generaloberse, I have used Major-General, Lieutenant-General, and Colonel-General. Some (see for example Hoffmann’s translator, op. cit. p. 767) would argue for ‘Brigadier’, ‘Major-General’ and ‘General’ respectively. While this may be more accurate, strictly speaking, there is no consistency in translations and I have opted for a simple direct translation, especially as there are few direct equivalents anyway.

[22]
See Klemens von Klemperer’s contribution to
Widerstand
im
Dritten
Reich
, ed. Hermann Graml, Fischer, Frankfurt/Main, 1984, p. 142.

[23]
Quoted in Michael Balfour:
Withstanding
Hitler
, Routledge Kegan Paul, London, 1988, p. 213. Balfour experienced the Germany of the period at first hand and was a friend and biographer of Moltke.

[24]
Quoted in
The
German
Resistance
to
Hitler
, ed. Walter Schmitthenner and Hans Buchheim, translated by Peter and Betty Ross, Batsford, London, 1970, p. 214.

[25]
‘Bekenntniskirche’ in German: ‘the Church which acknowledges the Confession of Faith’.

[26]
Accounts of what follows vary. I have drawn most upon that of Eberhard Bethge, Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s disciple and biographer, who was present, and on the account given by Mary Bosanquet:
The
Life
and
Death
of
Dietrich
Bonhoeffer
, Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1969.

[27]
Readers wishing for more information on Bonhoeffer than this sketch provides should consult Eberhard Bethge’s 1200-page biography (see Bibliography for details). I am also indebted to Mary Bosanquet’s clear and much shorter work.

[28]
See Mary Bosanquet, op. cit., pp. 196-7.

[29]
Quoted in ibid. pp. 211 ff.

[30]
For a good account of the war from the German angle, which provides very useful background to the Resistance, see Matthew Cooper, op. cit.

[31]
There was a great clan of von Kleists. To differentiate between the branches they added the names of their estates or home districts. Hence Schmenzin. The same applied to the von Hammersteins; hence: Hammerstein-Equord.

[32]
See Hoffmann, op. cit., pp. 19-21.

[33]
The whole structure of the police/SS/SD/Gestapo was highly complicated. Those interested in finding out more should see Reinhard Rürup, op. cit.

[34]
Gerhard Ritter:
The
German
Resistance
:
Carl
Goerdeler’s
Struggle
Against
Tyranny
, translated by R. T. Clark, Allen and Unwin, London, 1958, p. 21. An abridged English version of the long German original. Subsequent quotations in the early part of this chapter are from this book.

[35]
Not to be confused with Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat and saviour of Jews.

[36]
One source states — I am sure erroneously — that the statue was of the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn, grandfather of the composer.

[37]
According to the account by Goerdeler’s daughter Marianne Meyer-Krahmer:
Carl
Goerdeler
und
Sein
Weg
in
den
Widerstand
, Herder, Freiburg i. Br., 1989, pp. 96 ff. Ritter, op. cit., p. 80, mentions the patriarchal Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach.

[38]
Ritter, op. cit., p. 83.

[39]
Gisevius, op. cit., pp. 439-42.

[40]
Karl Heinz Absagen:
Canaris
, translated by Alan Houghton Broderick, Hutchinson, London, 1956, p. 101.

[41]
Place and street names underwent rapid changes in the Third Reich.

[42]
Quoted in John Wheeler-Bennett:
The
Nemesis
of
Power
, Macmillan, London, 1954, p. 401.

[43]
The complicated history of resistance missions abroad is dealt with in, inter alia, Hoffmann, op. cit., and Wheeler-Bennett, op. cit. See also Giles MacDonough:
A
Good
German
:
Adam
von
Trott
zu
Solz
, Quartet, London, 1989, and for relations with Britain, Patricia Meehan:
The
Unnecessary
War
:
Whitehall
and
the
German
Resistance
to
Hitler
, Sinclair-Stevenson, London, 1992.

[44]
I am indebted to Clare Colvin’s unpublished
Contacts
of
a Secret
Nature
for much of what follows. Further information came from Ewald Heinrich von Kleist.

[45]
For a sympathetic but unsentimental view, see the work of Chamberlain’s biographer, Professor David Dilks.

[46]
Hans Rothfels:
The
German
Opposition
to
Hitler
, translated by Lawrence Wilson, Oswald Wolff, London, (reprinted) 1978, p. 31.

[47]
Quoted in Meehan, op. cit., p. 46.

[48]
Gisevius, op. cit., pp. 335 ff.

[49]
See Hans Mommsen’s essay in Schmitthenner and Buchheim, op. cit., pp. 95 ff.

[50]
Quoted in Cooper, op. cit., p. 186.

[51]
Wheeler-Bennett, op. cit., p. 445, quoting General Thomas’s memoirs:
Gedenken
und
Ereignisse
(Thoughts and Outcomes).

[52]
See Gisevius, op. cit., p. 361.

[53]
Schlabrendorff, op. cit., p. 46.

[54]
Gisevius, op. cit., pp. 389-90.

[55]
Anton Gill:
The
Journey
Back
From
Hell
, Grafton, London, 1988, p. 24.

[56]
Gisevius held very conservative views and was appalled at Stauffenberg’s left-wing liberalism.

[57]
See biographies mentioned in the Bibliography for the full and rather tragic story of Adam von Trott zu Solz.

[58]
Quoted in Giles MacDonough, op. cit., p. 45.

[59]
Margaret Boveri, quoted in ibid., p. 53.

[60]
Balfour, op. cit., p. 183.

[61]
Romedio Galeazzo Graf von Thun-Hohenstein:
Der
Verschwörer
, Severin und Siedler, Berlin, 1982, pp. 192-3.

[62]
For a full list, which includes many which did not get past the ‘planning’ stage, see Peter Hoffmann:
Die
Sicherheit
des
Diktators
, Piper, Munich, 1975.

[63]
See Saul Friedländer:
Counterfeit
Nazi
, translated by Charles Fullman, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1969.

[64]
DEGESCH: DEutsche GEsellschaft fur SCHädlingsbekämpfung. Managing Director: Gerhard Peters.

[65]
A memorial museum is in the process of being constructed there by Walter Lorang of Frankfurt/Main.

[66]
For more on the political ideas and plans of the Resistance, see Hoffmann:
The
German
Resistance
to
Hitler
, and also the work of Ger van Roon and Hans Mommsen.

[67]
The only letters Countess von Moltke has held back are the personal ones he wrote to her during his long imprisonment between January 1944 and his execution a year later.

[68]
Balfour, op. cit., p. 202.

[69]
Letter to Freya, 12. I2. 40.

[70]
At the time of writing, Roeder was still alive in Germany, a father figure of the neo-Nazi movement there.

[71]
Much has been written about the Scholls. They have been the subject of feature films and novels. Not everything written about them is accurate. I am grateful to Inge Aicher-Scholl for much of my material. See also her book,
Die
Weisse
Rose
, Fischer, Frankfurt/Main, 1953 and 1986. At the time of writing a new edition is in preparation to mark the 50th anniversary of Hans’s and Sophie’s death, in February 1943.

[72]
See Hermann Vinke:
Das
Kurze
Leben
der
Sophie
Scholl
,
Otto
Maier, Ravensburg, 1986-1987, pp. 77-8.

[73]
In the language of flowers, the white rose full of buds symbolises secrecy.
Brewer’s
Dictionary
of
Phrase
and
Fable
.

[74]
Fritz Theilen,
Edelweisspiraten
, Fischer-Boot, Frankfurt/Main, 1986, pp. 17-18.

[75]
Ibid. p. 28.

[76]
There seems to be no conclusive evidence yet that he wore body armour and a lead-lined cap, as has been suggested, and as many members of the Resistance believed.

[77]
Hoffmann, op. cit., pp. 263 ff.

[78]
Klug
means ‘clever’ in German.

[79]
The full complicated story is in Thun-Hohenstein, op. cit., pp. 236 ff.

[80]
Kai P. Schoenhals:
The
Free
Germany
Movement
—
A
Case
of
Patriotism
or
Treason
? Greenwood, Westport, Connecticut, 1989, p. 10.

[81]
Listening to such broadcasts was a capital offence. Signed letters could and did lead to the arrest and execution of the sender.

[82]
Apart from personal reminiscences of the man from family and friends, I am indebted for much of what follows to the two best existing Stauffenberg biographies, by Joachim Kramarz (English Translation, 1970, see bibliography) and Wolfgang Venohr (op. cit.). A new biography has long been in preparation by Peter Hoffmann and at the time of writing was due to be published.

[83]
Of 2000 German generals, only twenty-two were involved in the Resistance, and many of these were already retired.

[84]
For full details of the acquisition of explosives and the problems of cutting off Hitler’s telecommunications, see Hoffmann, op. cit.

[85]
V stands for
Vergeltung
— retaliation. The V1 and V2 were developed using concentration camp labour by Wernher von Braun, who was comfortably set up in rocket research in the USA by September 1945. The German for ‘wonder-weapon’ is
Wunderwaffe
. They were promptly nicknamed ‘WuWas’ by the cynical Berliners.

[86]
There is no standard account of these events. What follows is taken from the most recent research and from accounts given me by officers present at the time. For reasons of space, the story here is told in broad detail. See Hoffmann, Venohr, and the books by Kunrat von Hammerstein (see Bibliography) for more.

[87]
Quoted in Gisevius, op. cit., pp. 574-5.

[88]
Schlabrendorff, op. cit., pp. 154 ff.

[89]
Balfour, from whom some of this account is taken, suggests that it was Field Marshal Walter Model who awarded the Knight’s Cross (op. cit. p. 74).

[90]
Gisevius, op. cit., p. 572.

[91]
Some sources give 10 April.

[92]
This story is in Kunrat von Hammerstein’s memoir,
Flucht
, Walter, Olten, 1966.