tiny group, and that there was to be no criticism levelled at the Wehrmacht and its officers as a whole (Steinert, 473–4).
16. Bormann Letters, 62–3.
17. Speer, 397–8.
18. Kroener, 183–4. Fromm’s execution appears specifically to have been ordered by Hitler, probably at Goebbels’s prompting, after the Propaganda Minister had brought up the case again on 5 March 1945, pointing out that Fromm deserved to die ‘because he had behaved in such cowardly fashion in face of the enemy, namely the putschists of 20 July’, and that no death penalty could be expected under the current leadership of the People’s Court (TBJG, II/15, 425 (5 March 1945); Speer, 450; Linge, Bis zum Untergang, 232).
19. See Otto Skorzeny, Skorzeny’s Special Missions, London (1957), 1997, 113– 19.
20. Bormann Letters, 65.
21. Bormann Letters, 64–5.
22. Spiegelbild, 23; Hoffmann, Widerstand, 625–6. Gerstenmaier was later sentenced to seven years in a penitentiary; the others were executed.
23. Spiegelbild, 16; Hoffmann, Widerstand, 629– 30.
24. Hoffmann, Widerstand, 630–4; Below, 384.
25. See especially Schlabrendorff, 132–40; also Hoffmann, Widerstand, 642–3; Fest, Staatsstreich, 296–8.
26. Hoffmann, Widerstand, 628; Ritter, 420; Fest, Staatsstreich, 294.
27. Below, 385.
28. Berlin Diaries 204; Ted Harrison, ‘Der “Alte Kampfer” Graf Helldorf im Widerstand’, VfZ, 45 (1997), 385–423, here 421.
29. Below, 385; Ritter, 411–24; Fest, Staatsstreich, 306–11.
30. Schroeder, 149.
31. TBJG, II/13, 214 (3 August 1944). Robert Ley was firmly told not to repeat the vicious attacks on the aristocracy which he had made in populist speeches.
32. ‘Die Rede Himmlers vor den Gauleitern am 3. August 1944’, ed. Theodor Eschenburg, VfZ, 1 (1953), 357–94, here 385: ‘Die Familie Graf Stauffenberg wird ausgeloscht werden bis ins letzte Glied.’ See also Hoffmann, Widerstand, 639–41; Fest, Staatsstreich, 305–6.
33. Hoffmann, Widerstand, 635.
34. Cit. Dieter Ehlers, Technik und Moral einer Verschworung. Der Aufstand am 20.Juli 1944, Bonn, 1964, 28: ‘“Morde?… Sie sind ja ein schabiger Lump! Zerbrechen Sie unter der Gemeinheit?”’; trans. Germans against Hitler, 198–200. See also Zeller, 461–2, and Germans against Hitler, 211. For a description of the courtroom, see Oven, Mit Goebbels, ii.113, entry for 10 August 1944.
35. Germans against Hitler, 198, 211; Reuth, Goebbels, 599–60.
36. Zeller, 463–4: ‘Dann beeilen Sie sich mit dem Aufhangen, Herr Prasident, sonst hangen Sie eher als wir’ (Fellgiebel). ‘Sie konnen uns dem Henker uberantworten. In drei Monaten zieht das emporte und gequalte Volk Sie zur Rechenschaft und schleift Sie bei lebendigem Leibe durch den Kot der Stra?en’ (Witzleben); trans., Germans against Hitler, 201.
37. Germans against Hitler, 201; TBJG, II/13, 225 (4 August 1944).
38. Germans against Hitler, 210.
39. Beheading by axe had been the traditional practice of execution in much of Germany, including Prussia, and was continued in the early years of Hitler’s rule. In some states (Bavaria, Wurttemberg, Baden, Saxony, Thuringia, Bremen, Oldenburg, and Hesse), however, the guillotine was used. Discussion in legal circles (including letters sent from the general public to the Reich Ministry of Justice recommending variants of gruesomely inhumane capital punishment) eventually culminated in a decision by Hitler in 1936 to standardize execution by the guillotine throughout Germany. The wild escalation in the number of executions during the war led, however, by 1942–3 to the increasing use of hanging as a cheap and simple alternative. Shooting of condemned prisoners now also took place as the search for speedy new methods of execution grew and as the complete collapse of established legal practice gathered pace. (See Richard J. Evans, Rituals of Retribution. Capital Punishment in Germany 1600–198J, Oxford, 1996, ch.15–16, here especially 651–60, 710–20.)
40. Cit. Ehlers, 113: ‘Ich will, daft sie gehangt werden, aufgehangt wie Schlachtvieh.’
41. Based on the eye-witness accounts in Germans against Hitler, 211–12, and the evidence collected by Hoffmann, Widerstand, 649–50, and 971–3, note 111.
42. Speer, 404.
43. According to Speer’s later claim, Hitler watched it over and again (Toland, 818, cit. Speer’s interview for Playboy, June 1971). Luftwaffe adjutant Below remarked, on the other hand, that Hitler showed little interest in the photographs of the executions, which were bandied about Fuhrer Headquarters in repulsive fashion by SS-Gruppenfuhrer Hermann Fegelein, Himmler’s liaison officer at the Wolf’s Lair (Below, 385). Walter Frentz, Hitler’s cameraman, based at Fuhrer Headquarters and frequently a guest at the evening monologues, also claimed, long after the war, that the films had arrived there, but that Fegelein was the only one to have seen them (Hoffmann, Widerstand, 872).
44. Hoffmann, Widerstand, 652, 864–5, note 33, 874, note 123; and see Germans against Hitler, 202–9, 214–19.
45. See Irving, Doctor, 151–2. He told his military entourage at the end of the month that he ought to have spent ten to fourteen days in bed, but had carried on working at least eight hours a day (LB Darmstadt, 271 (31 July 1944)).
46. Irving, Doctor, 154.
47. Irving, Doctor, 150.
48. Redlich, 204–6; Schenck, 302, 318; Irving, Doctor, 152–3; LB Darmstadt, 270 (31 July 1944) (where Hitler ruled out flying for at least a further eight days until his ears were healed); TBJG, II/13, 209 (3 August 1944), 232 (5 August 1944).
49. Bormann Letters, 68.
50. Redlich, 205.
51. Irving, Doctor, 150; TBJG, II/13, 213 (3 August 1944).
52. Irving, Doctor, 149 (Giesing’s impressions), 157 (those of Lieutenant-General Werner Kreipe); TBJG, II/13, 209 (3 August 1944) (Goebbels’s impressions); and see Schenck, 394–5.
53. LB Darmstadt, 270 (31 July 1944).
54. Schenck, 250, cit. Morell’s diary entry of 3 October 1944; Redlich, 205.
55. Irving, Doctor, 153 (Morell diary entry for 29 July 1944); LB Darmstadt, 217 (31 July 1944).
56. Irving, Doctor, 160; Redlich, 205.
57. Hoffmann, Security, 253–4; Zoller, 186.
