Plotting Hitler's Death

40. For Manstein and Guderian, see Fabian von Schlabrendorff, Offiziere gegen Hitler (Frankfurt and Hamburg, 1959), 99-100. Reichenau’s earlier disparagement of Beck is another example. Similarly, General Fritz Fromm, who played an inglorious role on July 20, 1944, recorded in his army diary Halder’s thoughts about a coup in the fall of 1939 (Harold C. Deutsch, Verschworung gegen den Krieg: Der Widerstand in den Jahren 1939-1940 [Munich, 1969], 226-27).

4. Helmut Krausnick, “Vorgeschichte und Beginn des militarischen Widerstandes gegen Hitler,” Die Vollmacht des Gewissens, vol. 1 (Berlin and Frankfurt, 1960), 373.

5. Krausnick, “Vorgeschichte,” 373; see also Erich Raeder, Mein Leben (Tubingen, 1956-57), vol. 2, 133ff

6. Christian Muller, Oberst i.G. Stauffenberg: Eine Biographie (Dusseldorf, 1970), 148; see also K.-J. Muller, Heer, 387.

7. Galeazzo Ciano, Tagebucher, 1939-1943 (Bern, 1946), 225. For the confused feelings of the opposition, see the comments of Eduard Wagner in Muller, Heer, 389.

8. This to the former Austrian minister Claise von Horstenau, qtd. in Ulrich von Hassell, Die Hassell-Tagebucher, 1938-1944: Aufzeichnung vom anderen Deutschland, ed. Friedrich Hiller von Gaertingen, rev. and exp. ed. (Berlin, 1988), 59 (entry of Oct. 15, 1938).

9. A total of six versions of this address have been preserved. Although differing in emphasis, they convey the same basic message. The version quoted here can be found in Prozess gegen die Hauptkriegsverbrecher vor dem Internationalen Militargerichishof Nurnberg, 14 November 1945-1. Oktober 1946 (Nuremberg, 1949), vol. 26, PS-798 (part 1) and PS-1014 (part 2) For the atmosphere of the meeting, see Halder’s remarks in Krausnick, “Vorgeschichte,” 381.

10. Franz Halder, Kriegstagebuch: Tagliche Aufzeichnungen des Chefs des Generalstabs des Heeres, 1939-1942, 3 vols. (Stuttgart, 1962-64), vol. 1, 34. For Halder’s comments to Henderson, see Krausnick, “Vorgeschichte,” 377.

11. Gisevius, Ende, 401ff. For Oster’s directions to the members of Heinz’s task force, see Peter Hoffmann, Widerstand, Staatsstreich, Attentat: Der Kampf der Op­position gegen Hitler, 3rd ed. (Munich, 1979), 142.

12. Nikolaus von Vormann, Hitler’s OKH liaison officer, qtd. in Muller, Heer, 120.

13. Qtd. in Muller, Heer, 419. I am also grateful to Muller for pointing out that this was just the situation the conspirators had been waiting for.

14. Gisevius, Ende, 408.

15. Muller, Heer, 425.

16. Helmuth Groscurth, Tagebucher eines Abwehroffiziers, 1938-1940 (Stuttgart, 1070), 201 (entry of Sept. 8, 1939); see also Martin Broszat, Nationalsozialistische Polenpolitik, 1939 -1945 (Stuttgart, 1961), 28.

17. Note on the documents by Canaris on Sept. 14, 1939; qtd. in Muller, Heer, 128.

18. See Hans-Adolf Jacobsen, 1939-1945: Der zweite Weltkrieg in Chronik und Dokumenten (Darmstadt, 1961), 607. See also Count Romedio Galeazzo von Thun-Hohenstein, Der Verschworer: General Oster und die Militaropposition (Berlin, 1982), 143.

19. See Hitler’s Secret Book (New York, 1962), with its continual criticism of the Prussian and bourgeois-nationalist policy toward Poland under the kaisers. The so-called Table Talk (London, 1953) also contains voluminous material on this topic.

20. Manfred Messerschmidt, “Militarische Motive zur Durchfuhrung des Umsturzes,” Der Widerstand gegen den Nationalsozialismus: Die deutsche Gesellschaft und der Widerstand gegen Hitler, ed. Jurgen Schmadecke and Peter Steinbach (Mu­nich, 1986), 1023.

21. Prozess, vol. 26, PS-864, 381-82.

22. Hildegard von Kotze, ed., Heeresadjutant bei Hitler, 1938-1943: Aufzeichnungen des Majors Engel (Stuttgart, 1974), 68 (entry of Nov. 18, 1939).

23. This according to Colonel (later General) Eduard Wagner, who was already beginning to draft plans for martial law, and Quartermaster General Tippelskirch; see Groscurth, Tagebucher, 231 (entry of Nov. 14, 1939). For Blaskowitz’s report to Brauchitsch, see Groscurth, Tagebucher, 426.

24. Jacobsen, 1939-1945, 606-07; also see Groscurth, Tagebucher, 426, n. 230.

25. Halder, Kriegstagebuch, 160ff. (entry of Jan. 18, 1940).

26. See Hassell, Hassell-Tagebucher, 152 (entry of Dec. 25, 1939). For Tresckow’s comment, see Bodo Scheurig, Henning von Tresckow: Eine Biographie (Frankfurt and Berlin, 1980), 76.

27. Jodl reported Hitler’s reaction to Halder: “Distrust. Better that the soldiers don’t follow him.” See Halder, Kriegstagebuch, 97-98 (entry of Oct. 4, 1939).

28. Halder, Kriegstagebuch 105 (entry of Oct. 14, 1939).

29. Quoted in Thun-Hohenstein Verschworer, 158.

30. Groscurth, Tagebucher, 218 (entry of Oct. 16, 1939): “Admiral visited Halder. Came back deeply shaken. Total nervous collapse. Brauchitsch also at wit’s end. Fuhrer demands invasion. Closed to any factual objections. Just bloodthirsty.”

31. Hassell, Hassell-Tagebucher, 133 (entry of Oct. 19, 1939).

32. A thought of the former German ambassador in Paris, Count Johannes von Welczeck; see Hassell, Hassell-Tagebucher, 131 (entry of Oct. 16, 1939).

33. Groscurth, Tagebucher, 498ff.

34. Groscurth, Tagebucher, 223 (entry of Nov. 1, 1939). The description of the various, generally separate “centers of gravity” that came together only after Halder’s decision to take action is based on the presentation in Muller, Heer, 494ff.

35. Hoffmann, Widerstand, 320-21.

36. Gisevius, Ende, 418.

37. Keitel’s account; see Muller, Heer, 521.

38. See the statement that Army Adjutant and later General Gerhard Engel pro­vided to the Institut fur Zeitgeschichte, qtd. in Groscurth, Tagebucher, 225, n. 589.

39. This is the version provided by Halder after the war to Gerhard Ritter, Carl Goerdeler und die deutsche Widerstandsbewegung (Stuttgart, 1984), 504-05. For the rest, see Groscurth, Tagebucher, 225 (entry of Nov. 5, 1939), 246 (entry of Feb. 14, 1940). For Brauchitsch’s comment, see Gisevius, Ende, 420.

40. See Deutsch, Verschworung, 259; for V. Muller, see Muller, Heer, 534. The description in Gisevius, Ende, 423ff, is quite different.

41. Leeb said this after the war in his statement for the Military History Research Bureau; see Muller, Heer, 543. For Halder’s comments, see Groscurth, Tagebucher, 236 (entry of Dec. 10, 1939), 233 (entry of Nov. 17, 1939).

42. Together with Popitz and possibly also with Oster, Beck, and Schacht, Goerdeler had developed the plan of dropping off a few divisions in Berlin during their transfer and then having Witzleben appear and use them to disarm the SS. At the same time, Beck would drive to Zossen to “assume supreme command from the weak hands of Brauchitsch.” Hitler, according to the plan, would be “certified unfit to govern by a medical statement and kept in a safe place. Then an appeal to the people… .” Qtd. in Hassell, Hassell-Tagebucher, 153 (entry of Dec. 30, 1939).

43. Groscurth, Tagebucher, 232 (entry of Nov. 16, 1939) and 233, nn.

44. Erich Kordt, Nicht aus den Akten… Die Wilhelmstrasse in Frieden und Krieg: Erlebnisse, Begegnungen, und Eindrucke, 1928-1945 (Munich, 1949), 377. Hitler’s speech of November 23, 1939,